Vocabulary gymnastics: What do I call my boyfriend’s girlfriend?
I’m polyamorous. So is my boyfriend. And so is his girlfriend. And while polyamory seems to be a frequent topic of discussion right now, society as a whole lacks the vocabulary and the social scripts to navigate poly relationships. This is all a long way of saying I still have no idea how to describe my relationship with my boyfriend’s girlfriend.
Start an in-absence game of chess with your partner or roommate
My friends, Megan and Trevor, have wildly different schedules. So Trevor came up with this great idea to keep things fun and playful, even when they’re apart.
Stacey and Joel: six years, three international moves and a baby
We took a month off for a honeymoon trip across Europe and sailed back on an ocean liner. A week after arriving home we moved from Vancouver, BC to Marin County just north of San Francisco, CA. We had two and a half years in that area just soaking up the organic good life. Joel got into competitive cycling and I went to art school in San Francisco and just immersed myself in art.
Why we’re not giving in to wedding peer pressure
It’s been an busy year for weddings. My partner and I are at that mid-late-twenties age when every couple around us seems to be rushing to the altar and starting families by their thirties. But my partner and I aren’t among them. That decision is a comfortable one for us. It feels right. Despite our best efforts, however, that conviction does little to dispel the outside pressure that has been building around us.
Kaci and Roy: from a vintage junkyard wedding to producing cheerleading plays
We’ve continued to travel the world teaching and performing together. We’ve gone to countless new cities in the past four years, including Toronto, Seattle, Portland, Montreal, Orlando, Atlanta, Brighton, London, and Edinburgh. In Edinburgh we were on the High Street flyering for our show in make-up and costumes when we were recognized from our wedding video (posted on our Offbeat Bride profile), and that was pretty damn awesome. Roy had since quit his job at IBM and works part-time doing programming work and part-time working on the theater. He is much, much happier since he took the plunge to leave his 9-to-5.
Sara and Nick: from a majestic movie wedding to adopting fur babies and parenting real babies
Since the wedding, we have purchased a house and adopted a couple of cats. My son is going into second grade. I’m currently pursuing Redken color certification and a cosmetology instructor’s license. Nick left the university he used to work for and is currently working for a marketing firm. We are going into our third year as Old Marrieds, but we’ve been together for seven years total.
6 tricks to finding fellowship for non-traditional spirituality
As a non-theist pagan, I felt like I was seriously missing out on that fellowship and community that my dad has found at his church. It’s hard to find that when you don’t belong to a mainstream religion. Or if the local branch of the mainstream religion you belong to is full of assholes, because who needs that? But here are the options that may prove helpful if you feel like this is missing from your life.
Relationship hack: I got rid of my one-sided birth control angst when my partner volunteered to handle the pills
I had vented my annoyance with those birth control pill blister packs to my husband multiple times. These damned packs… just one more frustrating element that the person with the baby-growing parts has to deal with that the partner doesn’t. Resentment breeding ground, is what I’m saying here. Until my husband volunteered to handle those damn things himself.