Category Archive

Relationships

Let’s talk about our partners, and how we negotiate sharing our homes and lives with them.

Dopamine Molecule Ring

I’m not attracted to my husband: Marriage without chemistry?

I find myself more and more disconnected and not attracted to my husband. And now I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t stand his smell, can’t stand kissing him, all his little mannerisms annoy the hell out of me, I can’t stand him touching me in bed, I put a pillow between us so I can’t smell him… The list goes on. And he is NOT getting what he deserves out of a wife.

However, I have not been true to my feelings or honest with him that being with him has always felt wrong. Until recently…

Lets Hang This Weekend card by gozapy

I want a permanent “weekend relationship.” Is that possible?

Recently, I found a great guy who is just like me and we clicked immediately. He lives some 200 miles away and we basically have a weekend relationship. I really love it that way and so does he. We don’t take it as a “phase,” though. We’re looking at it more like a perfect relationship pattern.

I do hear warning voices, though, telling me that this isn’t a “real” relationship. So I wonder… are there other people out there living in a similar weekend relationship pattern?

I hate my nickname and just can't shake it

I hate my nickname and just can’t shake it

My name is Catherine. I was named after my maternal grandmother who went by “Kitty.” When my mother was looking to nickname me as a baby (since I guess that’s what you do with more formal names?), she settled on “Cathy” since she felt that something like “Cate” was too weird. And Cathy stuck. Forever. Despite my first attempt to change it back at the age of eight and the many (many) attempts after. I just can’t shake this name that I don’t like and with which I don’t identify…

I Need More Space Sticker by Mighty Donut

My husband wants space and I don’t. Are we doomed?

My husband and I have been together for three years and always struggled with the balance of personal space. I don’t need to be alone at all — in fact I hate it. He is the opposite and thinks we should live apart, feels smothered…

How can our relationship survive if he doesn’t want to be around me 90% of the time? Isn’t him wanting to live separately just the first step in ending the relationship? Or is it already over, and I’m refusing to acknowledge it?

skeleton key necklace by KimFong

Shit. I think I may be non-monogamous. Now what?

I can’t deny it. I feel strong pulls to be emotionally, and perhaps down the road, physically involved with other men with whom I’ve developed emotional connections.

I recently told all of this to my husband. He met me with open arms and respects my feelings. But I don’t know how to sort through these feelings I’m having towards a new lifestyle…

Quality over Quantity Europeans in open relationships are less sexually satisfied Dalia Research

Let’s talk about polyamory research: QUALITY OVER QUANTITY?

An article was recently published about how polyamorous people are supposedly less sexually satisfied than monogamous people. Who did we ask to weigh in on this? Why, our favorite philosopher of love, of course: Carrie Jenkins, author of What Love Is

Learning from Jerry Seinfeld and Kesha: How to politely decline a hug

Learning from Jerry Seinfeld and Kesha: How to politely decline a hug

I recently watched a video of Jerry Seinfeld rebuffing a potential hug from Kesha with some serious awkwardness. The question is: how does someone who doesn’t want a hug (a totally okay thing for lots of legit health/social/psychological/whatever reasons!) go about politely decline a hug without seeming like a dick who doesn’t know who Kesha is?

what love is and what it could be on offbeat home e1497305849202

What Love Is: My review of Carrie Jenkins’ book (+bonus story about mutual fangirling!)

I’ve mentioned it several times here, but I finally need to write my official review of Carrie Jenkins’ What Is Love: And What Could It Be. I started reading the book in March and immediately adored it… not because I agreed with everything, but because it’s so interesting to watch someone apply their super analytic, logic-based brain skills (the author’s background is in the philosophy of MATH, for fuck’s sake) to something as squishy like love and relationship structures.