With how busy we keep ourselves on a day-to-day basis, it’s no wonder that so many of us suffer from stress. Stress is something that it is almost impossible to avoid, because of the way that we are wired. With that said, though, stress can be easily dealt with in many ways. Exercise - Exercise always pops up in articles like this and that’s because it’s important. Exercise has the ability to relax both your mind and your body. One of the big advantages that exercise has is that it forces you to get out, and to maintain some balance. If you’re working a lot, and are having a hard time getting other things done in life, you can easily make a deal with yourself to get out for a walk everyday at lunch time. This will allow you to clear your head and be more focused in your work, and also it will allow you time to relax, spend some time with nature, and remember that a physical wellness ...

The dating rituals we have today are quite different than those of our ancestors. It may surprise you to learn that courtship, or dating, is a fairly new phenomenon. In fact, before about 1200 courting didn’t exist at all. In ancient times, many women found themselves married to their husbands because they were captured by them. With a scarcity of women, men often raided other villages and scooped up the first women they saw. As time went on, arranged marriages became the norm. These marriages were often deemed business relationships and were based on a desire or need for money, property or political alliances. The parents handled everything and love was not a prerequisite of these marriages. A teen or young adult really had no say about their future spouse and many only met their future spouse on their wedding day...

A glance across a crowded room. A first meeting where sparks fly. Love can begin suddenly when a stranger becomes someone special in a matter of seconds or it can come in the gentle passage of time. Here is a look into the real life romances of six local couples; some of these romances began suddenly, some took time, but all led to marriages that are enduring and filled with love. They’re a special treat in celebration of Valentine’s Day. The first time Susan saw Steve Morris, she felt an instant attraction. She was in the 8th grade and he was in the 9th. Two years later, when they were both in high school, they began dating and seemed to have a lifetime together ahead of them. Then, when she was 18 and he was 19, Steve’s draft number was called for the Vietnam War and he either had to go to Vietnam or go to college. Not confident he could succeed at college and concerned about going to war and the effect that would have on Susan, he broke up with her...

You might say that Heath Claiborne had a Capitol idea.

It all started in 2002, when the East Tennessee artist and former UT athlete purchased a boarded-up old movie theater in downtown Maryville. His first inclination was to resell it for a profit, just as he had done with a similar type of property in Rockwood.

That's when the unexpected happened. The theater began to grow on him, and he started visualizing the space as a potential new art studio. "I tried not to get sentimentally attached to it, but I kept fixing things up," Claiborne says. "Eventually, I got to where I wanted to restore it to the way it used to be."

What the Capitol used to be was no less than a hub of entertainment in the Blount County seat from the 1930s to the ‘70s. In subsequent decades, the theater languished in the doldrums as small-town business districts became commercial ghost towns in the wake of invasions by shiny new retail giants.