This! My feet disappear under wider leg trousers, and skinny jeans make me look like a triangle balancing on its point from the hips down. Wedges, stacked heels and lug soles are my friends.

Hmm, the Washington DC area isn't much better despite a sizable black professional population. Anecdotally among my (very attractive, professional late 20s-30s) friends, it seems like being dark skinned gets even fewer responses, sigh. One tip: have good photos with good lighting. And try multiple sites? I've liked…

You have a good doctor and a good attitude.

Absolutely.

A degree is just a piece of paper without experience, but experience opens doors you didn't even know were there. Get out there and take some crappy entry level job, intern (and work retail at night to pay the bills) and/or contribute to a professional blog. Is there a professional certification you need, or a shorter…

Wow. I just read that divorce has been legal in Ireland only since 1997.

In Maryland, it's a year of separation before you can file.

OMG, me too! I was convinced I would never be able to function normally. Even now (many) years later, it still hurts if it's been a while, which has caused problems with long distance relationships. In this day of porn and clinical information overload, there's still a remarkable lack of practical information about…

When I was married, I imagined myself dying to escape the control, the constant belittlement, the degradation. When I realized how close I was to making that happen, I finally left.

Oh god, I've totally had smart chick guilt, magnified when I legitimately think they're putting me on by "pretending" to not know something, laughing about it and then realizing they're not pretending. For pretty, dull guys, I prefer a "catch and release" strategy :)

God, I wish mine had. My first time was a painful bloody mess that took several times to succeed. Luckily I was in a great relationship with a very patient guy or I think I would have been traumatized.

Hahaha, I will definitely do that the next time I hear that tired excuse. Though I've been living like an agnostic nun lately, so I'll probably just do it for my personal amusement with some of the expired condoms in my nightstand drawer.

Define what you mean by relying solely on dating sites - I'm no shut in, nor am I a weirdo or ugly, but I'm fairly new to my area, travel often, and everyone I know is married, much older divorced dads or youngsters just out of college. Like OP, I'm not really into the bar scene, and the meetup and activity groups…

My sister has Down syndrome, and I love her and will care for her the rest of her life. But like many siblings of DS people, if I were to find out that I was expecting a DS baby, I'd terminate. The reasons are complicated but compelling.

As an American Southerner, I approve.

How do you know most strains don't do anything? Last time I checked (recently), they're still learning what the strains do. It's only relatively recently that researchers identified any link between HPV and cancer (1984 for HPV16/cervical and 2000 for oropharyngeal), so it's still an evolving field. Researchers KNOW…

Maybe he's one of the lucky ones who can keep clearing it? Or, he just doesn't get the symptoms. Wish we had the testing to know for sure. They don't really know too much about HPV in men except in anal and oral cancers (typically recipient sex).

Yeah, you can tell I was frustrated with the willful ignorance, too. People should make decisions based on real information, both the health status of their partner AND what that means to them. Sex, even sex with condoms, is basically a calculated risk - some will be very cautious, others foolhardy (and most somewhere…

What clrbkh said (fistbump fellow scientist). Don't get me wrong - clean living is good for many reasons, but it didn't cure your viral infection, nor will it prevent it. Also, who are your former partners? Men? There's no test for men so you don't know if you gave it to them. Women? It has a pretty low transmission…

I'm really so very sorry for your loss.