"If Stanley Tucci Were Your Boyfriend" is perfection, plain and simple.

It's WAY too hard for me to pick a favourite, but I'll always think fondly of this one: http://the-toast.net/2015/06/18/how-to-behave-whe...
I read it to my sister after we'd just finished the first season of Outlander (so, timely) and we legit LOL'd, dudes.

Awesomeness! I can't believe I never stumbled upon the L.M. Montgomery characters IRL pieces before - SO GREAT!

Bobcaygeon is THE BEST

Right?!?! Guys, am I really just a robot???

Oh my gersh, you are SO not a big baby. I'm so sorry for your loss. That's crap.

Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and calm down. I was kidding.

I'm gonna learn how to needlepoint so I can put this on a pillow...

Thanks, all of you, for your words of wisdom! I bit the bullet and suggested a hang-out, and he gave me a bunch of (what I took to be) bullshit reasons why he can't so I told him I wasn't gonna suggest hanging out with him again and leave it up to him, and he gave me more (what I took to be) bullshit reasons why his life is a mess right now and how he's just a disappointment to everyone and he's sorry that it's effecting [sic] me. So I said thanks and good luck. I have my answer. It bums me out a little bit b/c I'm feeling that desperate never-gonna-meet-anyone-decent - but better footloose and fancy-free than shackled to a lukewarm man-child, right?
I really value all your input. You're the best.
xoxoxo

I feel like a jerk, posting on this open thread, when I never really comment on Toast articles (beyond the odd Dad Magazine appreciation comment). I just need to vent. It's about a boy.

This dude was introduced to me through a friend of a friend (which is a new phenomenon for me - I've only ever met dudes online, with fair to middling success). He seemed so promising! We both like comedy podcasts and Van Morrison and re-reading our favourite books! And he's cute and kind-hearted and has a nice deep voice (at odds with his slender frame and soulful eyes) and is creative and a thinker.

BUT (always a but) he's got big-time social anxiety and depression issues which he deals with by self-medicating with weed. He's had some "bad days" and has said that chatting with me makes him feel better.

We've only hung out twice since we started chatting at the beginning of December (our first date was doing an escape room, which was really amazing - I highly recommend them). The holidays put a damper on getting together, but we had plans to go to a friend's low-key New Year's party (just board games and music videos) and he bailed - which I was honestly kinda expecting - but was non-committal about setting up future plans. Maybe he felt kinda sheepish about cancelling at the last minute, but it kinda stung / disappointed me that it seems like he doesn't seem to wanna hang out with me.

We've been chatting (via text and old-school on-the-phone talking) since and it's been fine & fun, but I'm loathe to suggest getting together again because a) I want to gauge his interest, and more importantly b) I'm wondering if I should even get myself into this further. My previous LTR was with a dude who had mad social anxiety and I really let myself get closed off because of it. I don't wanna go down that path again. I'm older and wiser, and I don't think I'd let that happen to the same degree, but I can already feel myself getting more and more emotionally invested in current dude.

ARG. What should I do? My game plan as of now is to keep chatting and operating under the assumption that it's just friendly (although: full disclosure: we totally did the no-pants dance on our second hang-out so there's sex feelings involved too). But that could go on indefinitely with me just getting more attached. Again: ARG.

I had planned to make 2016 The Year of No Boys; maybe I should just stick with that resolution.

I needed ideas of what to get my parents for Christmas, and my dad suggested a vacuum cleaner my mom has had her eye on for awhile. He sent me an email with the deets (it's on sale at Canadian Tire, OBVS) and prefaced it by saying: "here's the info on the gift that sucks"