By Amy Alkon I’ve been dating a girl I really like for six weeks. She pays her rent with a 9-to-5 job but studied painting at art school and wants to make it her career. Unfortunately, I don’t like her paintings at all. They are abstract and don’t look like they take much craft, and…
By Amy Alkon For my New Year’s resolution, I committed to not having sex for the first six months of the year and then another six months from whenever I start dating someone. I’ve never been good at waiting. In fact, the longest I have ever waited is a month and the shortest (and perhaps…
By Amy Alkon My boyfriend of nine years is extremely messy, while I prefer things tidy and clean. Cajoling, asking, and flat-out begging him for consideration and help on this hasn’t worked, nor have tactics like establishing certain areas for clutter. He contends I’m too picky about how he cleans. He says this started when…
By Amy Alkon My boyfriend works at a hardware store and can fix things, and in the past six months, his sister and her husband have asked him to install their new kitchen faucet, mend their fence (with the husband’s help), and assemble a lawnmower. They are lawyers and could afford a handyman. Instead, they…
By Amy Alkon On a business trip, I drank WAY too much with some work friends and ended up kissing a random girl I met at a bar, despite my having a girlfriend I love very much. I feel horrible. Until now, I’d never cheated on a woman. Is it crazy to want to tell…
By Amy Alkon My girlfriend of six months just stopped shaving her legs and armpits. I think she is so sexy — except for this. Recently, I asked her whether she’d shave again, and she snapped that shaving is time-consuming and the idea that women should remove their body hair comes from anti-feminist propaganda. I…
By Amy Alkon This great girl I’ve been dating just invited me on a camping trip. Frankly, there is nothing I would like to do less. I hate camping, and I won’t know anyone but her. The trip is three days with 20 of her friends, including her ex-boyfriend, so I worry about asking her…
By Amy Alkon “Just because your boyfriend’s parents give him cash and snow tires (and don’t even make him do tricks like a seal for every penny) doesn’t mean he’s spoiled.” After six years with a lazy and ambitionless boyfriend, I found a funny, loyal, caring boyfriend I love, with a solid career and a…
By Amy Alkon “There are social conventions we all just know to adhere to, like that you don’t get to use other people’s ears as hampers for your relationship’s dirty laundry.” I’m good friends with the woman next door, but she and her husband fight constantly in front of me and others. Recently, we were…
By Amy Alkon I read your recent columns about guys who are too shy to ask women out. You seem to think it’s okay for women to make quick judgments about a shy man’s worth because his shyness is their first impression. Well, a man shouldn’t have to be loud, obnoxious, and “in your face.”…