By BetsyG A few years ago, I was pitching ideas for the Coupling column in the Boston Globe Sunday magazine, and one of them was about what my kids are looking for in a guy for me. That was long enough ago that when I think about what that column was going to look like then and what it would look like now, it gives me a sense of the way my kids have grown up—and how very long it’s been that I’ve been single. It’s closing in on ten years since my marriage broke up. My kids we... Read Full Story

By BetsyG An old boyfriend wanted to friend me on Facebook. I sometimes get invites I don’t want to accept, and I usually do accept them unless I don’t really know the person. I don’t want strangers reading about me, looking at my pictures, reading my friends’ comments, etc. There are ways to deal with that, though, through privacy settings. Or, you can also simply unfriend the person after a decent amount of time passes. Ex-boyfriends, unless you’ve maintained a... Read Full Story

Sorry for not posting in so long. I know some have given up on me, and rightly so. I can’t fully explain why I’ve fallen off. I am busy, but it’s mostly because this isn’t where my head is at. I don’t know where my head is at—all I can say is it’s apparently not in a writing place. Unfortunately, I can’t tell my head what to do most of the time. If only I could. But here’s a little something just to show I’m still alive. By BetsyG One of t... Read Full Story

By BetsyG The other night, I saw the movie (500) Days of Summer, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Apart from feeling a little icky for finding Gordon-Levitt so attractive (child stars do grow up, I guess), I quite liked the film for a variety of reasons. Primarily I enjoyed it based on the appeal of the leads, but I also liked its message, one I am trying hard to heed, without success, as you might expect if you know me at all. I’m afraid there’s a spoiler here, but the spoi... Read Full Story

By BetsyG This weekend, I saw my brother-in-law, a regular reader of The BetsyG-Spot, and he asked why I was slacking and where my posts were. Good question. It was with some trepidation that I finally looked at my stats today and saw the sad result of not having posted anything for a few weeks. Slacking indeed. To tell you the truth, apart from lacking romantic inspiration (see my last several posts), I haven’t had a break from working/writing in a long time. I did have a fabulous vaca... Read Full Story

By BetsyG You’ve come here this week only to find…nothing. Last week’s post. Not even last Friday’s post…last Monday’s post. What up? (Good God, how I hate that expression, yet there I go…) A couple of things are up. Or down, you could say. I took down last Friday’s post, and several others, in a sudden panic that I had written a series of things that would somehow get back to the wrong people, despite the fact that what I wrote was as non-specific as possible, t... Read Full Story

I can’t bring myself to write about a particular topic that I have been known of late to obsess on, or to admit that I am writing about it again. So allow me to be very vague as to subject as I express my extreme disappointment about a situation. It almost doesn’t matter what the topic is. What it concerns is what I view as unfair and, almost worse, illogical behavior. I have always believed that hard work plus good results will be rewarded. I know that life isn’t always fai... Read Full Story

By BetsyG I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve had a crush for a while on someone who clearly has no interest in me. Furthermore, I now believe he has a girlfriend, one who is so 180 degrees different from me in appearance that no guy could be attracted to both of us if looks were a factor. I could deal, except that I see this guy fairly frequently, and I end up either acting like a complete ass in front of him or doing my best to be cool, an attempt I think my kids would say is &#... Read Full Story

By BetsyG One of my personal foibles is that I’m honest to a fault. You could say that I am fundamentally incapable of lying. One common and awkward interaction for me goes like this: She: You didn’t notice my haircut! Me: Yes I did. I can’t even utter the social lie, “I like your haircut.” But writers are liars by nature, and I’m a writer. Most of us don’t lie outright, but rather by omission or by slanting the facts to make them support what we want... Read Full Story

I’m going to start off with a persistent thought I’ve been having regarding Obama and healthcare. Don’t roll your eyes. It sounds like it’s just boring politics, but it has such a human face. I don’t know all the ins and outs as the economics of healthcare on a national level. I know a few things, such as the fact that preventive care saves money down the line, but that fewer and fewer people can afford their preventive care. I know it’s costing the towns i... Read Full Story