I’ve been separated from my husband for two years. (Our divorce isn’t yet final.) A terrific man sought me out when he was breaking up with his girlfriend, but then he got back together with her and said we could only be friends. We still get together at times, and he told me, “I’m just […]
California
Posted inArts & Culture
When hurry met Sally
I planned a cross-country trip to introduce my girlfriend of five months to my family. She just sprang on me that she wants my family to meet “all of” her, which includes her 9-year-old daughter. My family knows she has a child, and I really enjoy her daughter, but I’m really not ready to introduce […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Barn yesterday
For two summers, I’ve traveled to work on a small organic farm. There, this woman and I had this amazing romance, including lovemaking during summer thunderstorms and dancing naked in the fields! It was all very romantic, and this spring, I moved across the country to live with her. I soon discovered that she was […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Wuss it good for her?
I’ve been on three dates with a gorgeous, funny, kind and successful woman. Two weeks ago, we met for drinks with a group of my friends, and a guy in our crowd who’s in the habit of saying crass things showed up. He ended up insulting her by making a rude, totally vulgar sexual remark […]
Posted inArts & Culture
It’s scold in here
Online dating isn’t going so well. I’m a 34-year-old professor seeking a relationship. I listed an age range of 18 to 35 on my profile, not because I particularly like 18-year-olds but simply to avoid limiting my options. I messaged a 24-year-old woman, noting that I loved that she “enjoys supporting people who have a […]
Posted inOpinion
The new border-industrial complex
“Good fences make good neighbors,” goes the old adage. But the neighborly adage definitely did not contemplate the 700-mile, 20-foot-high, drone-patrolled, electronically monitored fence of steel and razor wire that our government has erected across our nation’s border with Mexico, from the tip of Texas to California’s Pacific Coast. This thing is not a fence, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Mystery meet
A man my friend was crazy for just broke up with her. I kind of saw the breakup coming, as I thought they were too different, but she thinks he just falsely advertised who he really is. They met online, and he made himself out to be this guy who loves art and culture, which […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Most excellent adventure
Meet Ben Viele and Alexander Rodriguez. They are co-hosts of Los Angeles’s Universal Broadcasting Network Internet radio show “Happy Hour with Ben and Alexander.” So what are they doing in central Illinois and why are they putting on a show at the Hoogland Center for the Arts? Well, Viele’s hometown is in central Illinois and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Cleanup in aisle home
I’ve been seeing my boyfriend for 10 months and living with him and his 12-year-old daughter for half that time. He broke up with his daughter’s mother after she became addicted to coke and then meth. She has been in and out of jail and has a massive number of possessions, loads of which are […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Not a mourning person
My girlfriend died in a car accident four months ago, and I fear I’m not grieving the way I should. I was really broken up at first, crying hysterically, and I miss her terribly. I often think of things I wish I could tell her or we could do together, but I’m comforted by remembering […]
Posted inNews
Supreme Court decisions bolster same-sex marriage fight in Illinois
Two decisions handed down last week from the U.S. Supreme Court gave momentum to advocates of same-sex marriage in Illinois. But the broadness of the rulings means same-sex couples in Illinois won’t actually get any new rights immediately. And while an Illinois court considers a class-action lawsuit suing for same-sex marriage rights, proponents are pushing […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The upgradest love of all
I’m a single dad of three children, and it was a battle to get custody of them. For three years, I’ve dated a woman with grown children, and on our shared birthday, I proposed and she accepted. Two days later, she ended everything via text and hasn’t spoken to me since. She claimed she wants […]
