Love makes the world go round. I’m not sure if I first heard these words in Madonna’s ’80s ode to do-gooding, or if it simply one of those saccharine clichés that is culturally ingrained in our brains, but I never gave said phrase much thought. Then I got older and life got messier, and suddenly clichés became the ultimate crutch for rose-tinted philosophical rhetoric. No matter where we hail from or how much of a cluster*ck this world becomes, I prefer to believe that we are all bound by something larger than us, something that gives us purpose and drives us to tap into our better selves, something that ultimately keeps the orbit spinning: love.

While I can clearly write like a Hallmark copywriter, my own relationship with the High Holiday that is Valentine’s Day is about as complex as the US-Russia conflict – cold, impassive, potentially unresolvable. And yet, this year I decided to take the high road and use this day to celebrate the idea of love as a universal phenomenon. How? By cajoling every international couple I know into fessing up to their innermost secrets, of course.

Couples are filtered in ascending order according to years spent in each others’ vicinity. Questions vary mildly, double as an excellent Valentine’s Day torture test / drinking game. Enjoy!

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Ajiri  and Thomas at their Nigerian wedding ceremony, October 2011

As most of you know, Dbag Dating is far from a Mommy Blog. While I’m sure the occasional mother lands on this URL in pursuit of some fun-tertainment á la “This is what I don’t miss”, the majority of us here are still figuring life out. That said, ever so often, I will meet a woman who appears to have attained that covetable personal and professional tandem, evoking a spark of curiosity within me: How does she do it? Was it always this way? What can I – and you guys, consecutively – learn from her? One such woman happens to be my dear friend Ajiri Aki, a Parisian expat who’s list of accomplishments is endless: Wife, mother, author of bestselling coffee table book “Where’s Karl”, and creator of the Parisian expat’s guide to mommyhood, Manna Paris, just to name a few! Annoyed with her mere existence? I would be too, if it wasn’t for the fact that she is also an exceptionally cool human being. During my last trip to Paris, Ajiri took a few hours out of her crazy schedule to sit down over a bottle of wine and share her personal trajectory, touching on everything, from former Dbag flames, to the experience of  meeting her husband, Thomas, to the challenges of expat motherhood, for our latest all-girl edition of Sunday Kind of Love!

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Photo by Kat Irlin (@kat_in_nyc)

When a partner in relationship inadequacy falls romantically, irreproachably in love, your initial reaction is to feel slightly betrayed. But then, sometimes, all it takes is to meet the object of their affection to get over it. My friend Isaac Hindin Miller, blogger behind Isaac Likes, recently found the perfect yin to his dysfunctional yang in longtime friend, model Jenny Albright. These kids are young, smart, mildly photogenic, and currently killing it as part of DJ duo Isaac Likes Jenny. Intrigued, I strapped them down at La Colombe and demanded some insight on what goes on behind those annoyingly perfect Instagram photos!

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Jeremy and Rachel Schinazi

It was August 2008 and I was away in Russia, when I received a phone call from my best friend, Rachel. “I met a guy. He’s French, and he’s crazy”, she informed me, sending me a link to his Facebook page. Skimming through the profile of a cute Frenchie named Jeremy Schinazi, we giggled at his jewfro and blue plastic sunglasses he was so fond of at the time. Little did we know that this goofy French boy would soon go on to play a pivotal role in her life, becoming her best friend, closest confidant, and later on, her husband and the father of their beautiful baby girl, Leni Natalie. Seven years later, I am honored to call him one of my dearest friends, as well as his own special title of Husband-in-Law. They both live in Paris, where Jeremy runs marketing agency Twin Panda Group and Rachel raises Leni, documenting said métier via a mommy blog La Yummy Mummy. The other day, we sat down to discuss their fateful meeting in NYC’s Meatpacking District, the formative first years of their relationship, new parenthood, and my hopeless love life. Read on!

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