We are overdue for the blog feature where I answer the search strings people typed in to find this place as if they are questions. Let's do it! First, as is traditional, a song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2ccC4aULow RIP to one of the coolest, realest artists I was lucky enough to share the space-time continuum with. :cries … Continue reading It Came From The Search Terms: Spring 2020
Category: Overthinking It
#1263: “I apologized and it made everything weirder. What’s really going on?”
Dear Captain, I've looked in the archives for something like this, but I couldn't find anything. What do you do when you apologize and it seems to upset someone even more? I (she/her) have an ex (he/him), and we have recently reconnected after a breakup and period of no contact and are trying to be … Continue reading #1263: “I apologized and it made everything weirder. What’s really going on?”
Two Answers to Many Questions: COVID-19, Crushes, and Closure
Answer 1: On Crushes So, you have a crush on a friend.* But everything is terrible/uncertain/stressful. Send the love poem. Say the thing that's in your heart. If not now, when? What's the worst that can happen? They don't love you back, i.e. the status quo? What's the best thing that happens? They do! The … Continue reading Two Answers to Many Questions: COVID-19, Crushes, and Closure
#1257:”How do I navigate the transition between romantic relationship and friendship with someone who’s really (platonically) important to me?”
Dear Captain, I had a friend I first met about 15 years ago. We got on amazingly well: mutual friends called us “one mind in two bodies” because our personalities were so similar. We understood each other almost perfectly and could talk and laugh for hours about things nobody else quite got. We then had … Continue reading #1257:”How do I navigate the transition between romantic relationship and friendship with someone who’s really (platonically) important to me?”
#1255: “I’ve been conscripted! As an unwilling beta reader of somebody’s very personal fan fiction!”
Dear Captain Awkward: Well, not exactly. First, some background: I (she/her) am a member of a Face Book group for fan-fiction readers and writers. I’m a longtime writer of both original work and fan works, so I like to leave comments when people post questions about plotting, characterization, etc. Trouble is, I commented on one … Continue reading #1255: “I’ve been conscripted! As an unwilling beta reader of somebody’s very personal fan fiction!”
#1252: Small Talk Strategies When You’re Depressed And Forgetful
Hi there, I'm hoping to find some scripts/strategies to employ when I run into someone I'm happy to chat with, like a friend or one of the super friendly baristas at a coffee shop I'm always in, and they ask "so what's new with you?" or "what have you been up to this week?" when … Continue reading #1252: Small Talk Strategies When You’re Depressed And Forgetful
Ask A Manager & Captain Awkward Answer Questions: Part 2 of 2
Here is the second post in this week’s collaboration between Jennifer P. from CaptainAwkward.com and Alison Green from Ask A Manager. Previously On: "Is it disloyal to leave a company who cut my pay and postponed my promotion?" (Nope! Cutting everyone's pay is like the part in the horror movie where the house says "get … Continue reading Ask A Manager & Captain Awkward Answer Questions: Part 2 of 2
#1247 “I went no-contact with my mother and it’s turned her into a bogeyman”: Anxiety, Anticlimax, and the Aftermath of Estrangement.
I've gotten a bunch of letters about family weirdness and estrangement and boundaries (weird, almost like there was a series of events in the last month that forced a lot of family togetherness, can't think would have caused all these old wounds to re-open at the same time? 😉 ) and I'm going to put … Continue reading #1247 “I went no-contact with my mother and it’s turned her into a bogeyman”: Anxiety, Anticlimax, and the Aftermath of Estrangement.
#1245: “My Brand New Stepfather Thinks We Are On The ‘LW’S Mom Is Terrible Train’ Together. Help?”
Dear Captain, I (34/she/her pronouns) have a new stepfather as of this summer. He has been with my mom off and on for the last 10+ years, and they finally married in July 2019. I think this man is a Garbage Human, but we have to let our parents make their own adult decisions. A … Continue reading #1245: “My Brand New Stepfather Thinks We Are On The ‘LW’S Mom Is Terrible Train’ Together. Help?”
#1244: What to do when your art is too big for you.
I'm writing this from an inexpensive AirBnB not far from Awkward Apartment, where I took a few days to be in a blank slate, away from cats and laundry piles and human conversation, so I could sit in quiet and solitude and think about how to get my ambitious projects off the ground this year. … Continue reading #1244: What to do when your art is too big for you.
