You don't build deep connections with people by lying to them. Your past, including your exes, is part of what made you who you are today.

The difference between you and the person you responded to is that you're happily married.

No, all women don't do that. People DO ask questions like that in order to get to know someone better... and sometimes they don't like the person once they get to know them. If I asked a man about his past and he refused to discuss it, I would assume that he wasn't really interested in bonding or getting serious…

And this is what happens when you (I) am too eager to write something tangential. In all seriousness, the only thing I didn't like about that particular billboard was the implication that men call the contractors, but it was very effective at getting my attention. WHY WOULD A BILLBOARD SAY YOUR WIFE IS HOT??? …

That is fifteen kinds of weird. What is up with your sister?

There are billboards on the highway into Chicago that I confess made me laugh.

Is it just me, or has she become less facially expressive? She has that same (lack of) expression in every single photo now, whereas before she used to flirt with the camera. Staring off into the middle distance like mannequin. Meanwhile, Kanye is always expressing something negative — usually contempt, annoyance,…

Everyone I know who did the destination thing was specifically because they wanted a small wedding but didn't want to insult large families by not inviting them.

Hand in glove

I suppose, I just haven't really experienced that, and it's not something that I've seen modeled in my own family. My stepfather retired when I was still young, so there was a bit of role reversal there, my grandmother always had a career, and my poor uncle quietly deals with the fallout of my aunt's ...eccentricities…

I'm seriously trying to imagine how that would go at a work meeting. "I'M NOT FINISHED, MR. CLIENT, I'M STILL SPEAKING."

I get that. I'm a little wary, though, of making certain kinds of assumptions about that, because I bet if you polled men in committed heterosexual relationships, they would come up with some quiet lifting of their own. Maybe not in the same numbers. My husband could, at any rate, and probably an ex or two. But…

No worries. I came out swinging and got defensive because I don't like people talking (what I perceive to be) shit about my husband.

They're doing it from inside these comments. (That was meant to be a "the call is coming from inside the house" riff, but it occurs to me it may not have worked. (And now I have to explain a joke that doesn't work, because I'm that kind of a person.))

Um, my husband isn't A Sexist, although he does have a few hangups. Frankly, it's insulting to me that you interpreted my statement about one aspect of our lives as meaning that I am a ward and not a fully functioning partner in my relationship.

That's great.

I take your point, generally, but don't feel like it's an issue in my marriage — at least related to money. We continue to talk and we have mutual goals. It is a sticky area, though.

I would totally read that. Some people are just bad with financial or budget concepts (or keeping track of numbers and spending), but generally men have a much deeper ego tie to finances, that when we're talking about money we're talking about THEM.

Sounds like you both have it worked out!

Having a knack for finances definitely isn't gendered. It's just that sometimes women in couples are blown off and the man assumes he's totally GOT IT and she doesn't, when it's the other way around. One rarely sees that in reverse.