I have a similar situation, but my sister is the toxic one. I have 2 sisters and a brother. For the most part, we have all been pretty close (I speak with someone in my family more days than not). My brother keeps to himself but is one of my closest friends and my non-obnoxious sister texts me every other day or so…

As someone who has been on medications that clearly state they interact with alcohol for 15 years (and drinks regularly), it’s not that simple. At this point, I know how much I can drink while on my meds, and I can recognize the physical signs that I need to slow down. I try to be conscious of not drinking to quickly…

My partner is in Texas for the weekend and I am freaking out. He is very far inland (Austin), but I worry about the impact of rescue efforts, etc. affecting him. I need to stop reading/watching the news.

I like it. It’s catchy and will be stuck in my head regardless, so I’m not going to fight it. There is enough shit going on in the world that is horrible; I’m going to embrace anything that distracts from said shit.

Right there with you. I love vengeful Taylor. So much more entertaining. I want to have drinks with her and listen to her snarky commentary.

I guess I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. I know there were a lot of issues with false memories and a lot of innocent people were hurt, but that seems to be the minority. (And yes, I have lots of personal experience with many therapists and many of my friends were met in therapeutic settings, so I do…

Our poor moms! Honestly, I wish I was better at believing things, because it would make me feel so much better about the idea of death. The concept of traveling with a group of my loved ones as some sort of caravan of souls is beautiful. I would love to believe it was true.

I had a therapist tell me that it didn’t matter if the facts showed I had been raped or not; what mattered was that I felt violated. This seems like a similar thought process: if it makes the person feel better, whether it is “real” is neither here nor there.

I am not someone who believes in...anything, really. But I think everyone has that one thing that makes them wonder. I have two. Both happened when I was a small child (so beginning when I was maybe 3 or 4), and both were ongoing.

My little sister met her now-husband when she was 17 and he was 26. They spent months lying to my parents about his age (they initially said 23), whether or not he had a kid (he did), and anything else they knew would upset Mom and Dad. She moved in with him the day after she turned 18. She is now trapped in a…

Take a hint from Adele. When you have the vocal talent, you don’t need to dance.

Thanks! I hadn’t realized how miserable I was until I got out and realized how stifled I had been. I feel like cheating is something that is so widely accepted as being immoral that people forget that whenever humans are involved, there is lots of room for nuance.

In my mind, there are 2 kinds of cheaters. The first kind does it as a sort of last resort in a bad relationship (not to excuse it). They do it once, feel like shit, and don’t want to be that person ever again. For instance, I have cheated on a partner once. I came clean, he took me back, and when his best friend…

Exactly. I’m not a child, and when you’ve been with someone for 7 years, you know how they work. The good behavior won’t last forever, and it’s just insulting to your intelligence for them to act as if they are a different person.

I totally get that; my partner and I have the inverse of “I love you more” arguments (“I missed you, but not as much as you missed me.”) Neither of us are super-mushy in public, but we are secure enough in ourselves and our relationship to not need constant affirmation. And our lack of mushiness is what makes the…

I can attest this by experience. Once the word “divorce” came up, my ex-husband became super attentive and appreciative seemingly overnight. The morning we went to our marriage counselor to officially call it quits, he even initiated sex (this from a man who had refused to even give me a hug for months). His behavior…

if you live in the Midwest, there’s a horribly-named chain of stores called Dress Barn that actually sells super cute, reasonably priced dresses. When I had to dress up for work, the bulk of my wardrobe came from there. The rest came from JC Penney sales racks, which are a great place to buy cheap blazers.

My niece and nephew were being molested by their cousin while attending their aunt’s daycare. Their bio mom was aware, but didn’t do anything because she didn’t want to have to pay for daycare. When my sister and her husband (the kids are his) found out and cited this as a reason they should have custody, the judge…

Pale Fire is one of my all-time favorite books. My college advisor (English and Theatre, so I was working toward a degree in bartending and serving) always gave me shit for bitching about slow-moving narratives he assigned while reading Pale Fire in my free time.

I am so sorry for your loss. My mom had a miscarriage before I was born, and she has always been very open about it with us kids. The most affecting story, for me, was when an old friend saw her in the grocery store shortly after she lost the baby. No one knew she had been pregnant, and she had been married for…