ArcaMax

Dear Readers,

Valentine's Day has a funny way of making people take attendance of who remembered the holiday, who didn't, who has plans, who pretends they do, who smiles at the grocery store display of roses and who speeds past it like it might ask a personal question.

If today feels joyful for you, wonderful. Enjoy every bit of it. If today...Read more

Dear Annie: I've been friends with the same group of women since our children were in grade school. We're now in our late 50s and early 60s, and for years this group has been my main social circle. We've shared weddings, divorces, illnesses and losses. I will always value them for that.

Lately, though, I find myself dreading our get-togethers...Read more

Dear Annie: My wife and I have been married for nearly half our lives, and we've always had a strong relationship. The problem we're facing now is her family -- specifically her younger brother and his household.

Her brother has never been particularly motivated, and although we've always been cordial, we've never seen eye to eye. Early in my...Read more

Feminism is changing. The vitality that made sisters of us all, women tethered to one another by indignation and conviction, is becoming more personal. The battle for equal partnership is being waged in corporate offices, day care centers, private homes -- no longer by bra-burning mobs in public squares -- and it will ultimately be won by women ...Read more

Dear Annie: I'm a 75-year-old widow who has lived in the same little Cape for 43 years. I still do my own shopping, I drive myself to church, and I host Sunday supper when my joints cooperate. I'm not fragile, but I am ... older. And lately, I feel like everyone is determined to treat me like a porcelain figurine.

It started after I slipped ...Read more

Dear Annie: I'm a 42-year-old mom of two. I've been remarried for three years, and I'm trying hard to do the blended family thing with grace. My husband has a 16-year-old daughter, "Mia," who lives with us half the time. Most days are fine, but there's one issue that has turned our home into a low-grade reality show.

Mia has started recording...Read more

Dear Annie: I genuinely like my job and most of the people I work with. We are a small office, so we see a lot of each other, share the same kitchen and bump into one another all day long. Normally that is fine, but lately one co-worker has turned cold and flu season into his own personal hobby.

I will call him "Carl." Carl has a special ...Read more

Dear Annie: My husband and I have been married for 21 years, and our intimate life has always been great. Lately, though, over the past couple of months, he's become interested in role-playing. He loves to play the husband with a mistress, saying things like, "Don't let my wife catch us," or "I hope your husband doesn't come home and find us."...Read more

Dear Annie: I'm wrapping up a HORRIBLE, out-of-the-blue abandonment divorce from my soon-to-be ex-husband.

In 2023, I came home from teaching kindergarten to find out my ex took the majority of our furniture and moved out of state. He blocked me and erased me as if I didn't exist. It took several months to locate him with a private detective....Read more

Dear Annie: I've been married for 27 years, and by most measures we have a good, steady life. We're healthy, financially secure and get along well. There's no infidelity or drama.

The problem is there's no romance or passion either. I've started to feel deeply lonely in my marriage.

My husband is kind and dependable but distant. He's gone ...Read more