I really like it when a place has signage that suggests what to do. Lots of places do allow you to seat yourself, especially when it's casual or small, but I've worked in restaurants and know that it can be a huge pain. Each place knows their own rules, and thinks that their way is the most sensible, so I always…

This is me every day, I tell them:

That's a terrible burden to bear. I'm sorry that you feel like you have to keep that to yourself to protect your mother. I hope you have someone, somewhere, that you can talk about something like that with, because you shouldn't have to face it alone.

I'm sorry to hear it either way. Kids/teenagers don't get to pick who they live with, generally, so they sort of just have to do the best they can with what they have., and that shit can last long after you're out of the house (I have topics that I just won't talk about with my mom, because zero good things come from…

I'm pretty impressed with how bold people are of their reading of Fifty Shades of Gray in public! I mean, sure, I also dabbled in some sexy stories in high school and even junior high school, but... I wouldn't have been bold enough to let people see it!

Well, I always knew Mom loved me, so that helped. She's overprotective partially because she'd lost two kids already, and that was an ugly time in all of our lives, but as I've said elsewhere, other people cannot live their lives inside of your comfort zone, unfortunately. She also was pretty anti-LGBTQ for a long…

My mom was also quite overprotective, and while I completely understand why (she's had two children pass away), it made for some difficult discussions and really threw a wrench into our relationship. Overprotection, at some point, can turn to smothering, and be isolating and limiting. I'm sorry that bad things have…

I completely agree. I feel like the sole purpose of these sites is for certain people who know that they're fake to be smug with one another about how much smarter they are than other people.

That sounds so stressful! I think people underestimate how shitty it is to have someone else pretty much controlling your life, micromanaging your interests and how you can spend your time. My mom didn't think it was demonic (despite major arguments over church, she really wasn't too religious), just inappropriate…

That's great! :) That was the kind of relationship I honestly kinda felt that I deserved. I had never done anything actually "bad", and my mom, to this day (I'm just a little shy of 30), will sometimes threaten to ground me when she doesn't like what I'm doing. We've repaired our relationship well enough that we…

My parents had two kids die - their first and their last. I don't really know how they made it past the first death. My mom wasn't even pregnant with her next child at that time, but less than a year later, my older sibling was born. The youngest child's death was the end of their marriage and for a long time, this…

Arbitrary, unfair rules were absolutely why I lied to my mother. I pretty much never lied to my dad, save for gender/sexuality things, because I wasn't risking coming out to anyone. I didn't lie that much in general, and honestly, I was the squarest, most boring teenager. I loved playing D&D with my friends (I was…

I am not a particularly attractive person, so I really struggled to get attention from people I liked, and I wasn't exactly smooth about it, either. I would usually just be like, "So, I like you. What do you think about that?", and it was usually followed up with rejection. It really helped me grow a thicker skin,…

I think this is it, exactly. I'm not much for romance, whether in movie, book, or real-life form, and I don't know very many authors or models when it comes to the fictional genre. But I know Fabio! He's that crossover that many of us still remember. Trashy, Harlequin-like romance novels seemed to be his bread and…

I've had century eggs, and they aren't too bad! I kind of like them. They're a little stinky, but in my opinion, not really that much worse than most preserved foods.

This class anxiety is something that I've noticed among people my age (20-35 or so), in that people do not see themselves as ever above middle class. In people's minds, if you're upper class, you'd have to literally be a celebrity and have millions to spend on a whim. I feel like people above this age range tend to…

It's a little different in a few respects if it's the only gay bar for miles and miles, in that it's both more and less acceptable. It's more acceptable, because you can't go anywhere else, but it's less acceptable because there are no other options for gay folks to go, either. I'd honestly avoid the bachelorette…

Not to be all homo police up in here, but if you're not a straight lady, it might not be as fun. I guess you could sub in vulva-shaped things for dick-shaped things.

I'd say that as a person who wouldn't like attention drawn to myself and also doesn't enjoy dancing, I have a few suggestions.

Well, in my defense, I was 13 or 14, and lived in a town of about 1,000 people in the upper Midwest, where it isn't uncommon to talk with "strangers" (there really aren't very many strangers in a town that small). I'm not saying it was a great thing to do, but I think the context of extremely small town vs. NYC does…