Here’s a few hints on what you can do to keep your cool when things heat up.

Go ice skating. Since it’s hockey’s off season, most indoor rinks are opened to the public on weekends for public skating. Not only will you get to spend the hot hot day inside an ice box, but you get to share a unique experience with your date.

Get ice cream. Who doesn’t love ice cream! Either get cones and enjoy them in the local ice cream shop, or grab a tub and head down to the park for a dessert-only picnic. Either way, you’ll be satisfying your taste buds and your cold craving.

Hit up the beach. Sure being out in the sun might get a little hot, but what better way to cool down than a dip in the lake?! If you’re lucky enough to be by the ocean, maybe bring along a surf board so you two can learn something new together.

Visit an amusement park. Some roller coasters can reach up to 180KM/H. No matter how hot you are, winds like that will cool you right down. And these days most amusements have full water parks right on their grounds, so you’ll get twice the cooling satisfaction in one place.

See a movie at the drive-in theater. Since drive-in movies only play at night, the air will have already cooled by the time the movie plays. If it’s still a little too hot for you outside, then head over to the vendor and grab a slushie. It’s a great snack for the movies, and is way more tasty than eating ice.

There’s a lot of things you can do on dates to keep cool! If you’re ever short on ideas, just think about things that are too cold to do in the winter. Chances are they’ll still be cool in the summer! Start your dating search for a steamy summer fling, and stay cool while you get hot.

It’s the first month of 2012, and we all know what that means: a resolution to give your love life a face-lift!

Every January singles around the world decide that this is the year they throw their inhibitions to the wind and leave their single life behind them. Whether it’s a weekly fuck buddy or a long-term love, people seem to want to be coupled-up in January more than any other month. But how do you know if you should set your target on lust or love?

The Lovers

There are a lot of good indicators that show you’re ready for a serious relationship, and they all revolve around structure. People who have structured lives, including daily routines and consistent work schedules, are the people who are most likely to succeed in a relationship. Knowing that you have specific times free daily and weekly that you can dedicate to another person and having enough commitment to stick to those schedules can show that you’re ready for something serious.

The Lusters

If you’re more of a free spirit, 2012 might be more of a lust year than a love year for you. If you’ve resolved that you want to spend a lot of time with your friends this year, you’re not going to let some guy (or girl) get in the way of that! You’re going to do as you please. There’s no need to give up the freedom you have just so you can accommodate someones schedule. Having a friend to fulfill your needs is all you’re going to need to get you through 2012!

Whether you’re looking for lust or love, there’s no better time to start looking for it than now! Here’s to a successful year of flirty dates and fun nights!

Timing is everything in life, which is no surprise that when it comes to love, you have to do your best to time it out. Telling someone too soon about your feelings can scare them off, and waiting too long can put you in the friend zone or, worse, it gives the other person a chance to have feelings for someone else.

When you’re already their friend, it’s even trickier to time it out well. Friends dating is a difficult pool to dip your toes into to begin with, so taking the dive proves to be one of the hardest things someone can do.

There are plenty of good times to tell a friend that you’re interested in dating them, but people seem to concentrate on the right times so much that they completely forget about the wrong times.

If you’re going to tell someone you’re interested them, make sure it’s near no holiday or big event in their life!

A lot of people wait to spill the beans until an occasion they think would create a special opportunity, but that could prove to be the biggest flaw a person could commit.

Look at it this way: Let’s say you have a friend you’ve been in love with, and you’re waiting until their birthday to tell them about it. If that person has the same feelings as you, then great, you’re in the clear. But if they don’t, you’re ruining a day they undoubtedly looked forward to for a long time. It takes away from their special day and makes them feel like an ass when they should be feeling on top of the world. Not only that, but if the failed confession leads to the downfall of your friendship, they’ll be sure to think of that every year on their birthday.

If you’re going to make a big move, don’t do it on an already special occasion!

There comes a point where you have to make the decision between living silently in love with a friend, and actually making the move to do something about it. Often both parties are thinking the exact same, but both are too nervous to do anything about it.

Unless you want to live in the land of ‘What if I manned up and actually said something one day?’ for the rest of your life, then you’re going to have to make the move. And you’ll have to be prepared.

Before you tell them, try your best to anticipate their reaction. How do you think they are going to react? Will it be welcomed? Will they be surprised? Have you two had a change in chemistry together that would let them know this was coming? Try to put yourself in their shoes so you have a chance to brace yourself for how they’ll react.

Once you’re ready to tell them, do your best not to just blurt it out. Sometimes nerves get the best of people and you have no control over what you say, but attempt to start your sentence off with something simple like, “I know this is a big change but…” followed by an explanation as to why you think it would work for the two of you. As you’re explaining your position, make sure you say “This might be something you haven’t thought of before.” This makes them have to put thought into if they’ve thought of the pros and cons themselves. If they have, they’ll be reminded of what they thought about and if they haven’t, they’ll be forced to do a self-evaluation as to why not.

Friends dating is a big step, so tell them before they react, you want them to take a few days to consider it. That way whatever they may say will be a genuine response, not just a natural reaction to what you’ve said.

If they think about it and decide that dating isn’t the best option for the two of you, don’t take it personally! They’re not rejecting you, they’re simply passing on the idea of the two of you dating. Sure you may have reasons for being together, but they could have just as many valid reasons to remain friends, and you have to respect that.

If they think it over and decide that you should be more then friends, then make it special! Make sure that no matter how your attraction is, you’re constantly working on your communication. That way if your romantic relationship doesn’t work out, your friendship is still in tact.

If you want to tell someone you’re interested in a romantic relationship, then go for it! There’s nothing wrong with wanting something more than what you have. Be brave, be blunt, and get what you want!

If you’re planning on asking a friend to set you up on a date, the first thing you should do is get rid of the shame! A lot of people get embarrassed when asking friends if they have compatible single friends that you would get along with, but that’s nothing more than your ego getting in the way of your happiness. Friends are there to help you out and most of them would be thrilled to set you up! It’s their chance to get you a boyfriend or girlfriend that they actually like, and will usually be thrilled at the double-dating opportunities that will arise as a result. No one wants to be alone, so although it might feel like you’re asking something that’s potentially embarrassing, you’re doing something that all singles think about doing from time to time.

When you find a friend who wants to help you out with your search, don’t be picky, and don’t put them in awkward situations. If they suggest someone who doesn’t seem like the people you’re used to dating, keep an open mind! Your friends know you and there’s probably a reason they’re setting you up with this particular person. And whatever you do, don’t put them in a situation that makes them uncomfortable. If they have a single friend who used to date a good pal of theirs, don’t ask to be set up with them! It forces them into an uncomfortable situation, which works well for no one.

If you want to ask, ask! There’s no reason not to ask for help when looking for love.

When people have a problem in their relationship, they turn to their friends for advice. Whether it be a small argument or a big fight, people tend to find it therapeutic to talk through their issues with an uninvolved third party like a friend. When you bring those problems to a divorcee, there’s a chance that they’ve been tainted by their failed relationship and their advice could be negative because of it. If they’ve had a similar experience, they may give you advice on how they handled the situation, but taking that advice probably wouldn’t be in your best interest. If they’re divorced, it means that whatever they did to solve their problem failed them, and will most likely fail you too.

On the other hand hearing how they handled the situation may be a way for you to learn from their mistakes without having to make them yourself. Relationships are trial and error. You take what you’ve learned from past relationships and bring that knowledge into your current one– You cut out what you didn’t like and what didn’t work for you, and you amplify what did work and what you enjoyed. Wouldn’t life be easier if you could do all the negative learning via a surrogate? Hearing what happened to your divorced friends can lead you down the opposite path, which may lead you to your own success instead of their failure.

Divorced friends won’t negatively influence your life if you don’t let them. They may still be on a dating search, but if you’re happy in your relationship, you shouldn’t feel pressured to join them.

When couples have to defend their relationship for any reason, it usually brings them closer together. They put up a united fight to show people that age doesn’t mean anything, and in doing so they get a great bonding experience. If you’re dating someone with a wild age gap, you’re in good company! Just look at these other successful age defying couples.

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon: 11 year difference
These two are the perfect example of friends dating each other. Everyone thought it would only last a day, but two matching tattoos and two twin babies later, they’re still going strong.

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher: 15 year difference
When Bruce Willis first heard that Ashton was at Demi’s house, he called him to thank him for taking the time out to go over, assuming that he did it to make his daughters happy. Little did he know how long Ashton would be around for!

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes: 16 year difference
We all know how how excited Tommy was to declare his love on Oprah, but who knew they’d still be going strong as one of the most famous families all these years later?

Barbara Hershey and Naveen Andrews: 21 year difference
If you’re a fan of cinema and good TV, you probably know them best as the mom from Black Swan and the bad ass from Lost who have been together forever, despite an age difference that could be filled by a drinking-aged adult. But if you’re a fan of tabloids and gossip, you may know them as the couple that was together for ever, broke up for a month, had a baby with someone else (Andrews, not Hershey), got back together and lived happily ever after (You know, after Andrews’ baby mama tried to sue Hershey for witchcraft). A little bit of a speed bump, but we all have troubles! Their 21 year gap hasn’t stopped them from being happy together today.

Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart: 22 year difference
Who wasn’t surprised when Indiana Jones started dating Ally McBeal?  And who wasn’t even more surprised when they defied the odds and ended up making their relationship last?

Michael Douglas and Catharine Zeta Jones: 25 year difference
He was already out of university and famous by the time she was born, but that hasn’t stopped these two Oscar winners from procreating and having one of the most successful relationships in Hollywood history.

Last year Life Magazine looked into the every day of different couples who lead different lifestyles. The three main couples were a pair who have been dating for two year but were celibate and waiting for marriage, a couple who has been married for 10 years and are in a monogamist relationship, and a duo who have been together for 25 years and have an open relationship. Out of the three couples, not only was the couple with the open relationship happier, but they were more successful in their jobs and had a better home life as well.

We spend most of our relationships wondering if the other person is going to cheat on us, if they already have, jealous of other people they talk to, and angry that they’re flirting with other people. All the hostility we have against them is all rooted in monogamy. If we just eliminated that issue, would we all be happier in our relationships?

It’s never been easier to find someone to be unfaithful with. There are entire dating websites dedicated towards people who are looking to step out on their spouse. If we all accepted it as a regular part of a relationship, things might be a bit easier on everyone. But a fair warning– If you are planning on having an open relationship, make sure you talk it through first! Having a couple with two different opinions on what an ‘open relationship’ consists of, and that could end up causing more problems than it’s solving.

Monogamy will never fully disappear since you can’t really have a traditional couple without it, but saying goodbye to it for now may be what saves your relationship.

Now as high-profiled as Jesse was during his superstar break-up, it was even more high profile when him and Kat broke off their engagement. I don’t know if it’s because they seemed like a couple that was actually compatible, or because she had just gotten a giant tattoo of his face down the side of her body, but people talked about it. There was a ton of he-said-she-said between the two of them in the press, and every magazine and television outlet in the country had their guess at who cheated first. Even though that whole mess, for some reason they announced this week that not only are they back together, but they’re re-engaged.

When you break up with someone, you do it for a reason. If you have a problem in a relationship, you fix it. If it’s so extreme that it’s unfixable, you break up. With that logic, it’s safe to say that if you’ve broken up with them before, there was a problem big enough to do it over.

If it’s friends dating and you break up out of fear of ‘hurting the friendship’, that’s most likely code for you saying that you’re not as attracted to them as you thought, and now think it’s a better idea to simply cut your losses and go back to the way things were before. Why bother trying again if it didn’t work out for you the first time?

Most make-up-break-up relationships are a result of people not wanting to face their problems. Instead of working to make something better, they break up and wait for the problem to blow over and get back together, only to be stuck right back at square one, waiting for that problem to creep back up.

If you’re thinking about dating your ex, think twice! It rarely ever works out, and you’re usually always stuck with the same problems. Instead of dating the old, go out and find the new!

If you let comparisons like  that add up, then you’ll be quickly walking down the path towards a relationshit.

A relationshit is like a relationship, but instead of the good things, you’re stuck with an abundance of the bad. You find yourself doing the regular things couples do– Going out to dinner, renting movies, hanging out in solitary confinement– but instead of enjoying them, you’re throughly dreading them. When you were friends, you got to do these things on your own time. If you were getting a little sick of them, you could always call it a night and head home. When you’re dating, you have to stick it out until the night runs its course, which can lead to arguments simply because you’re frustrated that you feel like there’s no escape.

The easiest way to stay in a relationship and stay out of a relationshit is to create balance in your personal relationships. For every hour you spend with your match, spend an hour either on your own or with friends. You’ll get time to clear your head, and you won’t be stuck on love-overload. That way when you do go out together, everything feels fresh and you’re ready to endure and enjoy each others company.