I've bitten my tongue at least a dozen times in the past few days,wanting to go off about a few things, but first of all, it's Mercury Retrograde, so we'll all at communications cross purposes, and second, if I take a breath and step away, I bet it won't seem so bad!

Sometimes, I think our subconscious urges us to go up in flames because we've kept silent too long instead of effectively communicating early enough and in a way that could have alleviated the problem. It's sort of like the explosion is a relief in the short term, when in the long term, it's usually not the best choice.

One of my oldest friends is an endless bragger. While it works in the short term by garnering the attention she craves, it always backfires when people realize it's a smokescreen. Her pretensions and desperate need to be the center of attention is one-sided and exhausting for others to endure. I keep telling her she's much more likable as her real, fallible self, but she keeps building this artifice she thinks will impress people who don't know her. That same desperation comes through in business.

The one good thing about that friend is knowing I never want to behave like that. Life would be more interesting as a wallflower – at least they're mysterious.