My mother loves to tell the story of the day she met my father and just "knew." They were in college. He walked in late to a Shakespeare studies class. He was wielding a cane due to some sort of football injury. (Yes, my Dad was a stud.) According to my mother, she turned around to her best friend and whispered, "THAT is the man I'm going to marry." Her friend whispered back, "But Ann, you don't even know his name." My mother, clear eyed and momentarily psychic, replied "No, but I will find it out."

Now according to my father, he avoided sitting near my mother that day since she seemed like a snob. He already had three girlfriends anyway. He was focused on finding a seat, dealing with his cane, and getting out his notebook. Meanwhile, three rows to his left, a snobby southern belle was plotting to change his life forever.

It took six months for my Dad to ask my mother out on a date. Her vision, however, had not faded. They went on a picnic in the mountains. As they were searching for the perfect spot, she asked him to tell her some of the names in his family. He thought this game seemed innocent enough so he played along, reciting his ancestor's names with the cadence of a poet. When what would become my first name rolled off his tongue, my mother had another psychic flash. She turned to him and said, "Coleman...THAT is what we'll name our first child." He swerved off the road. Two years later they eloped. But that's another story.

Growing up hearing Mom's legend of love at first sight, filled me with fairy tale expectations. Though my own love life has been a different journey, I still hold out for that moment of soul mate recognition that my mother experienced. After all, "Honey, you'll just know," is a promise my mother made to me long ago.

What do you do when you're past the "key exchanging" phase of dating and you come home one day to find the   following missing from   your house: car, credit   cards, checkbook, and   your dog?

  Yikes. How awful. Your    dog, too? more

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Resources for Intercultural Couples

Anatomy of Love:
A Natural History of Mating, Marriage and Why We Stray, by Helen Fisher, Ph.D. (Fawcett Columbine)

The Evolution of Desire:
Strategies of Human Mating, by David M. Buss (Basic Books)

Emotional Intelligence:
Why it Can Matter More Than IQ, by Daniel Goleman (Bantam Books)

For Each Other:
Sharing Sexual Intimacy, by Lonnie Barbach, Ph.D. (New American Library)

Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work,
by John Gottman, Ph.D., and Nan Rivers (Three Rivers Press)

Listen to The Sound of Music.

Map out your Austria adventures.

Buy a daypack and hit the trail.

Protect your feet and take care of your tootsies.

Don't get wet--and ruin the fun. Bring your raingear.

Ease tired muscles with love in a bottle.

Light your passion candle.