A girlfriend insisted I meet her friend, a guy who had seen me on MySpace and thought I was cute. I’d just had a bad break up a few months earlier, and wasn’t really into the whole dating thing at the time, but I decided to give it a shot. We hung out a couple of times with friends, and then decided to go on a date of our own.

However, on the day in question, I had the world’s most horrendous cold. Like, hacking coughs, sneezing my brains out – that type of cold. Despite knowing that I should just stay in and rest, I really liked him, and I wanted to see him anyway. I called him, and told him that I really wasn’t up to going out, but he was welcome to come over to my place if he didn’t mind my germs. The date was amazing. Everything you want in a first date.

We were having a great time, watching a movie and laughing, when I started to feel really weird and fuzzy. Thinking I was going to throw up, I stood up to go to the restroom. That was when I fainted, right there on the floor in front of him. The next thing I know, I’m in the ER. Saying that I was “mortified” is completely an understatement. Apparently, I’d been completely dehydrated. No surprise since I’d not been eating while sucking down over-the-counter cold medicine all day.

The worst part? He contacted my sister about it, who had called my mother and father. So after knowing this person for exactly two weeks and three days, he was confronted with my entire Italian family, hovering around me and being completely unbearable. The last straw was when the nurse came in, asking me to give her a urine sample, and for whatever reason, handed him the cup instead of me. That was when I knew I’d never see him again.

Yet, I’d apparently made an impression on him. He stayed with me in the emergency room all night, and kept calling after that too. The happy ending to this is that we’re still together to this day, which means that we always have a great story to tell at parties.

The night of my fourth date with a guy I really liked came after a bad snowstorm. He pulled up in front of my dorm room to pick me up, and as I was walking out to his car, I slipped on the ice and fell down. It appeared I’d merely fallen on my butt and so he didn’t get out to help me up, but rather stayed in the car laughing. I was too embarrassed to admit that I’d actually hit my head really hard on the curb. I went through the rest of the date – which included dinner at a nice restaurant and seeing a play – feeling dizzy with a throbbing head. When the night was over, he dropped me back off at my dorm, and as I got out of the car, I slipped again, and cut my ankle on the ice. This time he did get out of the car and helped me get inside, and in spite of my clumsiness, we continued to date for over a year. He did have to drive me the emergency room a few days later, however, because of the concussion I received on that date.

Last month, Orange County, California residents Chloe and Matthew were supposed to walk down the aisle. Instead, the wedding was postponed because they are engaged in the battle of a lifetime. Matthew was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in 2007, endured 16 months of chemotherapy, overcoming one complication after another and ultimately reached remission. But six months later, Matthew relapsed and he is now in desperate need of a bone marrow or stem cell transplant to save his life.

But by his side, always, is Chloe. Whether talking about the Jon and Kate drama, who gets traded from the Lakers next season or sharing their love of food, these two overachievers (he’s a UCLA grad and distance cyclist who was attending pharmacy school at the time of diagnosis; she’s a talented lawyer) simply love being together. “I love his tenacious spirit, his unrelentless kindness and ability to make me laugh until I cry, the way he loves his family — and me — unconditionally, the way he plays and connects with every kid as if they were his own, his sharp wit and intelligence and much more,” says Chloe. “He is the best thing that has happened to me and I am forever lucky to have met him, to love him and to be his wife in sickness and in health.” 

From now through June 22, you can join the Be the Match Registry for free, and possibly save a life.  The effort hopes to bring 46,000 people to the registry in just two weeks. One of them could be the person who will save Matthew’s life.

Remember the date night the Obamas had a few weeks back in Manhattan? Well, according to the New York Times, the First Couple has caused a stir with women who wish their husbands would would be romantic like our President. Even with the economic crisis, dealing with two ongoing wars and raising two girls, Barack always puts daily “Michelle time” on his schedule.

“I’m jealous,” said Emily Giffin, the Atlanta-based writer of Love the One You’re With and other chick-lit novels. Home stats: married seven years to a corporate executive, three children under six.

Last date with husband? She’s thinking, she mutters. “We don’t have a date night, I have to say,” Ms. Giffin said. A lame excuse? Her husband’s beloved Pittsburgh Penguins are in the Stanley Cup finals. “But I flew to New York alone and went out with my friends while he stayed home with the kids,” she said. “Does that count?” 

Most of us don’t have private planes to whisk our sweethearts away for a Friday night date, but we think making a fuss over your partner (male or female) once in awhile can only do good. And why not take a cue from the President and First Lady? They genuinely seem to adore each other and that’s what counts.

Full disclosure upfront: I was the cause of this Very Worst Date.

The subject was a charming guy who I liked tremendously. On a warm summer evening, he picked me up wearing a nice silk tropical shirt. We went to an Irish pub, settled into a high-backed boot and ordered our dinner. I opted for a beer and bangers and mash. Then we began chatting and continued to natter on even after the food arrived.

He happened to say something hilarious while I was in midst of chewing of a large helping of mash potatoes and gravy. I wanted to laugh but instead did a hybrid laugh-cough thing that resulted in me spraying gravy and potatoes on his face and shirt. How embarrassing! I took a sip of beer to calm my cough but to no avail. The bubbles in the brew actually triggered another coughing fit. And then there was a repeat incident: I spat beer at him.

The sight of him starting at me in horror with food and beer on his face and shirt was so awful and so utterly comical that I could not help but laugh hysterically. Until I cried. This continued even as he cleaned up and said quietly that it was not funny.

“How could you do that twice?” he asked.

That set me off in hysterics again. He was stonily silent as he took me home. Fortunately, he forgave me and we are now married. He sometimes mentions how much he loved that shirt, which was stained beyond repair after that fateful night. He still maintains it was NOT funny every time the tale is told. Every time, I laugh and laugh.

With that out of the way, we can proceed. Smith met his pint-sized princess (and former Miss Maryland) on ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ when she auditioned to be his onscreen girlfriend. She didn’t get the role but got her prince. Twelve years on, the two have a couple of kids, genre-jumping careers and a marriage that’s apparently as rock solid as Pinkett Smith’s biceps.

Their secret? She has said utter commitment to the union. Smith’s mentioned that they’ve studied why Hollywood couples break up and have learnt from that. He also told a U.K. tabloid magazine that he’d tell the wife if he wanted to sleep with another woman last year. No word though if he has – or if she’s done the same.

Perhaps it’s not the swinging open marriage that gossip purveyors have in mind but the two might just have the kind of crystalline communication that most of us crave. They even tell each other who they have celeb crushes on (him: Beyonce, Salma Hayek; her: The Rock). But we can only imagine that their “I like her/him..” conversations end with “…but I love you.”

They met on “Family Ties” and have been married for more than 20 years. She’s a little taller, but he ice skates faster. Michael J. Fox’s latest book, Always Looking Up, reveals candid details of his Hollywood love story with Tracy Pollan, which has survived and thrived since his Parkinson’s diagnosis. He describes Tracy as his rock, but then says: “I think what she is is much more special than being a rock. Rocks are rigid and nonyielding and she’s very fluid.” Tracy says the diagnosis has helped their marriage. “When we were first married, he was so busy working all the time,” she explains. “So, in some ways, it’s made him a lot more available.”