Topic: breakups

Jack White and Karen Elson’s Divorce Party: Healthy Breakup Or Just Weird?

Jack White and Karen Elson's Divorce Party: Healthy Breakup Or Just Weird?

Jack White and Karen Elson’s sixth anniversary is coming up, and they’re celebrating with a ho-down in Nashville. You know, like a celebrity couple would. Except that they’re also getting a divorce. And apparently, they’re mature enough to end things peacefully, in the company of friends. (But not without a healthy supply of alcohol.) On the one hand, I suppose we should all admire the singer and model/singer’s ability to let their hair down and celebrate their divorce; on the other hand, I’m not sure I’m ready to accept that divorce parties are part of a healthy breakup. More »

Relationship Advice: How to Deal With Your Partner’s Crazy Ex

Relationship Advice: How to Deal With Your Partner's Crazy Ex

Victor the Cat, Blisstree’s resident relationship columnist is back to help you with your relationship dramas and dilemmas in 2011, starting with this one about a crazy ex who can’t seem to let go of her ex-boyfriend, even when he’s your current beau.

Hello Victor the Cat:

I’ve got a frustrating dilemma. My boyfriend and I have been together for one blissful year. I have — literally — no complaints and plenty of compliments about our relationship.

He and his previous girlfriend broke up about 1 1/2 years before we met. Theirs was a complicated relationship for about four years. In hindsight, my boyfriend feels that they were never really that well matched, and is very glad they broke up, although it was very painful for him when it happened.

About a month after he and I started dating, his ex started calling him and telling him she wanted him back, that she never imagined they wouldn’t end up being together forever. He was upfront with me about it, and at the time I told him if he needed a break from us to wrap up loose ends with his ex that I would understand. He said “No, it’s definitely over with her, I love you, etc etc.” And that was that.

But that wasn’t that. More »

Counterpoint: A Different Approach to Getting Over a Broken Heart

Counterpoint: A Different Approach to Getting Over a Broken Heart

Judging from the almost 2,000 comments our readers have made on Sara Ost’s 2007 post How to Get Over a Broken Heart, we gather that this subject is pretty important to you. But, while I appreciate much of what Sara wrote in her post, I have a slightly different take on the whole “how to get over a broken heart” thing.

Personally, I don’t believe that exercise, ice cream, breakup music, hanging out with friends, or avocados will help end your heartache. They may, however, make you feel physically or mentally better as a person (albeit temporarily), but they won’t lessen your emotional pain or help you get over the actual person. Unfortunately, nothing will. Except, perhaps, the one intangible thing that you wish you could speed up, just this once: Time. (a.k.a. The answer no one wants to hear.) More »

We laid out pee pads and cleaned up poo. We cuddled, and were nibbled and nipped. We documented exhaustively. We Facebook-ed and Flickr-ed our new bundle of joy. We threw a puppy shower in retaliation for any and all baby showers we’d ever attended, and ever would attend. We went to the park. We potty trained. We befriended strangers who took no interest in us, only in what was at the end of our leash. We “oooohed” and “ahhhhhed” at our adorable new arrival, but less at each other. We awakened in the middle of the night to clean up accidents, but not to have sex.

We laid out pee pads and cleaned up poo. We cuddled, and were nibbled and nipped. We documented exhaustively. We Facebook-ed and Flickr-ed our new bundle of joy. We threw a puppy shower in retaliation for any and all baby showers weâd ever attended, and ever would attend. We went to the park. We potty trained. We befriended strangers who took no interest in us, only in what was at the end of our leash. We "oooohed" and "ahhhhhed" at our adorable new arrival, but less at each other. We awakened in the middle of the night to clean up accidents, but not to have sex.

– Blisstree contributor Hailey Eber on the harsh realities of bringing a new little one home, and the serious strain that can create for you and your partner, from her post: Puppy Love: How My Beloved Pooch Almost Ruined My Long-Term Relationship

Prince William? I Call Bulls#*! on Marriage Proposals That Are a “Total Shock” to Brides-to-Be (This Means You, Kate Middleton!)

Prince William? I Call Bulls#*! on Marriage Proposals That Are a "Total Shock" to Brides-to-Be (This Means You, Kate Middleton!)

Bollocks, Kate Middleton. It was a “total shock” when Prince William proposed to you three weeks ago while you were “on holiday” at a quiet safari lodge in Africa? But you’ve been together (on and off) for almost nine years! Are you telling me that in all that time the subject of marriage never came up? (We know it must have, because in your recent ITV News interview with Tom Bradby, Prince William mentioned that lately you and he had been discussing your future and the possibility of marriage.) So why did Prince William alone get to decide when to take one of the biggest steps of your lives? Because he’s royalty and you’re a commoner – albeit a rich one?

Last time I checked, the Queen’s name was Elizabeth, not Victoria. So what’s with the outdated 19th-century traditions? You and Prince William are in your 20s. You already live together. (Sinners!) You say you’re down-to-earth and have good senses of humor, respectively. And yet Prince William orchestrates your marriage proposal as though it’s a scene out of a Jane Austen novel? At least Jane Austen was a mistress of satire. And she never married. So there. More »

Personally, I think your girlfriend owes you an explanation (however brief) about why she uses the secret cell phone in the first place; and why she went “ballistic” and threw you out of the house. However, in a romantic relationship, we rarely get the responses, reactions, and results that we want. (Which is why I’m glad I’m a cat whose balls have been cut off. I don’t require or crave romance, only platonic cuddling.) Unfortunately, you may just have to accept that you and she aren’t together anymore, and that the relationship is over. You may want to start by referring to her as your ex-girlfriend.

Personally, I think your girlfriend owes you an explanation (however brief) about why she uses the secret cell phone in the first place; and why she went âballisticâ and threw you out of the house. However, in a romantic relationship, we rarely get the responses, reactions, and results that we want. (Which is why Iâm glad Iâm a cat whose balls have been cut off. I donât require or crave romance, only platonic cuddling.) Unfortunately, you may just have to accept that you and she arenât together anymore, and that the relationship is over. You may want to start by referring to her as your ex-girlfriend.

– Blisstree relationship columnist Victor the Cat with pragmatic advice for yet another reader with a complicated love-life issue, from his post: Relationships on the Rocks: Sex, Lies, and Victor the Cat (Ask Him for Advice)

Off I went, and no matter how many souvenirs I brought back with me, I couldn’t quite make up for my extended absence. Partly in retaliation, the boyfriend booked a nearly two-week trip abroad of his own home to see his family. He was angry, and I was angry at him for being angry, and that, it seems, is how we went from puppy dreams to a near break-up in approximately the time it took our little miracle to grow a full set of adult teeth and learn how to defecate outside.

Off I went, and no matter how many souvenirs I brought back with me, I couldnât quite make up for my extended absence. Partly in retaliation, the boyfriend booked a nearly two-week trip abroad of his own home to see his family. He was angry, and I was angry at him for being angry, and that, it seems, is how we went from puppy dreams to a near break-up in approximately the time it took our little miracle to grow a full set of adult teeth and learn how to defecate outside.

– Blisstree contributor Hailey Eber on how one very small adopted dog triggered very big problems in her home and love life, from her post: Puppy Love: How My Beloved Pooch Almost Ruined My Long-Term Relationship

Divorced? Maybe This Condescending Infographic Will Make You Feel Better

Divorced? Maybe This Condescending Infographic Will Make You Feel Better

When we first spotted the infographic, Budgeting Your Newly Divorced Lifestyle, we were expecting a cool, fresh take on financial advice for the newly single (after all, it came from Visual Economics, the site that brought us yesterday’s interesting graph of what Americans eat). Instead, we found a condescending poster that assumes you’ve never seen a checkbook, handled your own expenses, or even held a job before.

The chart features a blonde woman contemplating living on her own dime. The advice is basic — not a bad thing, necessarily — but in between subtitles like “Compare your income to your expenses,” the actual suggestions are barely helpful at best, and pretty insulting at worst: More »

Click for more posts