My husband’s first choice for our first dance was “Freebird.” I laughed imagining the looks on my conservative family’s faces (who were already aghast we weren’t getting married in a church, WHERE IT COUNTS) if the first words we danced to as a married couple were “If I leave here tomorrow/Would you still remember…

Our bass clarinet player was put on bass drum for marching band :)

Marching with a bass clarinet is VERY impressive!

Mellophone! And I had a solo in our show three of my four years in high school. I only flubbed it once.

16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom OG/Teen Mom 2. I watch every episode and then discuss it to death with a friend who’s just as obsessed as I am. So excited for the next season of Teen Mom OG premiering Aug. 22!

Of all my FB friends shilling stuff, the one with Plexus is by far the worst. So many videos of herself, sitting in the driver’s seat of her car, opining about... whatever the fuck Plexus is. I always scroll right on by.

Fucking thank you. He even repeated it!

Never been pregnant, but I was the same way when I got engaged. I was really, truly excited about marrying my husband, but other than a few close friends, I could not bring myself to even mention it to other people. One day, one of my coworkers noticed the ring on my finger and I had to admit yeah, we’re engaged.…

Aw, don’t be so hard on yourself. I think your city is incredibly beautiful, with a lot of great food and beer. Very interesting history too. I mean, yeah, a lot of it is sorta ugly, but it’s part of this country’s history, so it’s important to remember it and learn from it.

I like being 30. Well, 33 now. Two days after my 30th birthday, I got an inappropriate email from someone I only had a professional relationship with. A few years earlier, I’d have ignored it and just hoped he never said anything that made my skin crawl like that again. But I was 30, goddammit, and I wasn’t going to…

I’m a newspaper reporter, not a TV reporter, but I’ve gotten my fair share of abuse from people pissed that we ran a story about them or a friend or family member getting in trouble. I mean, all the info we print comes straight from police reports, which are public record, and an online judiciary case search, which…

Yes, this is good. I once volunteered to DD for my CPA friend and her coworkers, who were all going to a big end-of-tax-season party hosted by their employer. The only vehicle owned by anyone in the group that could fit everyone was a Honda Ridgeline, so that’s what I drove. The whole way to the party, the owner — a…

I WISH competitive bikes were so inexpensive... I have an entry level hybrid bike that cost $400, which I thought was pricey. This year, my husband got into triathlons. He bought a “cheap” road bike for $1150. Then he saw the much nicer bikes most of his competitors had at his first race a couple weeks ago. He’s…

Just means you buy the car only because you’re hoping the badge on it — in this case, the Lexus logo — will impress other people. Not that you’re trying to impress another person who has a badge, as that sorta confusingly-worded sentence makes it sound.

I do not remember the particulars of this story whatsoever, but a friend of mine who drives a Prius took her car to a Jiffy Lube and they did something to her car’s headlights that wound up costing her $1500 to correct. There was nothing she could do to recoup the money from them either, even though they were…

I went to college for journalism and remember one of my professors telling us that! When interviewing someone, they’ll almost always feel obligated to fill silences, sometimes with info they might not have offered otherwise. It works!

In regards to the last point, about not letting other people’s stress seep into your life, there’s a website I read often, etiquettehell.com. The admin there calls it “growing a polite spine,” and her go-to response is “A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.” Now I’ve never said…

WTF. I can’t believe (well, I can, unfortunately) that asshat was granted bail after attacking someone he thinks “ruined his life” just by breaking up with him! That’s terrible your mom had to leave the country just to feel safe, but I’m glad she did.

Oh my god, I’m so sorry your mother went through that! I am so glad she’s OK now.

Right? It’s highly unlikely this was the first time he was violent with her.