Dear Snarky, I’m devastated by a friend’s behavior. I was recently asked by a sorority sister to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. I very politely declined because I’m working on my Ph.D., and I […]
I’m All Ears
I’m worried that we as a civilization are losing a very profound skill. This talent, dare I say art, is flagrant eavesdropping. To back up my claim I have three main reasons why this expertise is facing […]

Dear Snarky – My Parents Have Backed Out of Paying for My Wedding
Dear Snarky, I’m freaking out that my wedding is going to bankrupt me. I’m getting married in December and everything has been picked out from the location to the caterer and flowers. My parents have […]

Advice & the Tow Truck Driver
I like to think that I give good advice. In fact, I believe most people feel that they’re very adept at dispensing wisdom. Weirdly, I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone tell me that they […]

Empty Thoughts Laced With Cat Hair
I’m approaching my first full year as an official empty nester and by official, I mean no children coming home for school breaks or summers. My kids are gone, well they’re both still on my […]

Dear Snarky – Should I Go “No Contact” With My Mother-In-Law
Dear Snarky, I’m furious at my mother-in-law! My husband and I have a five-year-old daughter who’s starting kindergarten in the fall. We have enrolled her in kindergarten at the public school close to our home. […]

When Your Daughter is Your Truth Bomb
Having a daughter, especially if that daughter is the Gen Z demographic, is not for the faint of heart. This is because I have experienced that these young women have no problem with expressing their […]

Dear Snarky – My Mom Wants Me to Rearrange My Life Around Her Cosmetic Surgeries
Dear Snarky, I need your help standing up to my 59-year-old mother. She’s going in for her third cosmetic procedure in the past six months. This one is a deep plane facelift and as she […]

Emotional Turbulence is Making Flying Even Worse
What’s going on with people on airplanes? I ask this after reading about a man who decided to act like a baby because a baby was crying on the Southwest flight he was on. (Three […]

Dear Snarky – My Brother’s Fiancee Wants Me to Go on Ozempic Before I’m a Bridesmaid In the Wedding
Dear Snarky, I need your help with my future sister-in-law who I now hate with all my heart. The reason is because she told me and her cousin – both bridesmaids in her wedding – […]

Mirrors, Mirrors Everywhere (and Louis Vuitton stores)
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and thank goodness for that. I say this because paying $13.75 for a can of Diet Coke doesn’t need to become a trend that infiltrates the rest of […]

Clothing Optional
I hate thinking about fashion probably because I’m not exactly a fashionista. My style is more about wanting to look nice but also refusing to suffer for the sake of a current trend. Long gone […]

Dear Snarky – My Mother Got On My Computer and Into My Medical Files
Dear Snarky, I’m so angry at my mother I’ve had to stay at a friend’s house for the last two days. I’m 24 years old and I moved back home after I graduated. I’m employed, […]

Gardening Can be Murder
Over the almost forty years I’ve been married my husband and I have engaged in a divide and conquer theme. This means each of us became CEO in areas of our life that we have […]

This Cookie Monster Isn’t Happy
Umm, how did I not know about the Raspberry Rally? It’s the newest Girl Scout cookie flavor that’s so amazing boxes are selling on sites like Ebay for $40 per box. Apparently, it’s a Girl […]

Back on the Toilet
Emails. So many emails about the column I wrote regarding my feelings about the bathrooms at the old KCI versus the new KCI. I now think I could do a Ted Talk about it and […]

Bad Airport Memories are Flushed Away
I had one of the last flights out of the old Kansas City airport and as I waited to board I used that time to bid adieu to my nemesis – the egregious bathrooms in the […]

Am I Suffering From Arrested Development?
I think I’m having a Benjamin Button moment. Do you remember the movie? It starred Brad Pitt as a man who was aging backwards. Except in my case, I’m not turning back the hands of […]

Dear Snarky – My Mother is Dating My Boss
Dear Snarky, I’m about to tell my mother to F off. For years I have put up with her dating men that are in my life. Not guys in friend group but men I interact with. […]

My New Boss Scares Me
I have a new boss and she’s really demanding and I hate to be this blunt, but she can be mean and has zero boundaries. She’s also all up in my personal business like you wouldn’t […]

Dear Snarky – My Mom Thinks I Shouldn’t Trust My Stepmom
Dear Snarky, I need your help with my mother who is being very irrational and it’s hurting me financially. I was forced to move back in with my mother and my two young daughters after […]

Older and Not Seeking Your Approval
Why are people disliking my aging face? I’ve just had another slap upside the head (metaphorically speaking) about having a countenance that is not exactly youthful and it’s really starting to tick me off. Truth […]

I’ve Got Tip Fatigue
One of my husband’s favorite sayings during any vacation excursion is that he’s “being bankrupted $10.00 at a time.” Most especially if we were at a Disney park where I can count on this phrase […]

Bin There Done That
Clear acrylic bins are having a moment. And by moment, I mean they’re now ubiquitous in the home organization arena specifically in regard to corralling clutter in your refrigerator. This annoys me for a variety of […]

Dear Snarky – My Ass of an Uncle Ruined My Engagement Party
Dear Snarky, I need your input on a recent situation I’ve had with my mother. I’m newly engaged and my fiancé and I held a small engagement party (20 people) at one of our favorite […]

Super Bowl Rituals of the Nervous Fan 🏈
(Image courtesy of http://www.anniesbarn.com) As you’re celebrating on Sunday with over-the-top Super Bowl parties I’ll be doing something a little bit different. Don’t worry I’ll still be watching the game but it’s going to be […]

Dear Snarky – I Exposed My Sister’s Boyfriend’s Scam and Now I’m the Bad Guy
Dear Snarky, My sister is threatening to never speak to me again because I “ruined” her relationship with her boyfriend by outing the scam he was perpetrating on shelter dogs. Her (ex) boyfriend has (had) […]

Goodbye to the Ickiest of Bathrooms
I’m starting the new year off with some exciting news. I have a new bathroom. Yes, I know that doesn’t sound exactly off the charts thrilling but to me it’s huge. This is because for […]

Dear Snarky- My Fiancé Is Demanding I Undergo Medical and Genetic Testing
Dear Snarky, I have recently become engaged to a wonderful man 26 years my senior. This should be one of the happiest times in my life, but I’m worried about something my fiancé has asked […]

Does Being Epically Embarrassed Count as a Workout?
January is the month where millions of us make the vow to work out more, prioritize our health, and embrace an active lifestyle. I’m all in on this. Selfishly though this means that for the […]

Dear Snarky – I Had a Gaslighting Christmas
Dear Snarky, My sister and I have a problem with our mother who ruined Christmas – again. Last Christmas (2021) she told my sister and I that she didn’t want a present and instead we […]

Befuddled by Winging It
We’re barely into the new year and I’m already befuddled. I realize this isn’t exactly breaking news since I find being befuddled a part of the human condition. And really if you’re not experiencing bouts […]

New Year’s Eve Loser
I’m at an age where I’m finally comfortable admitting I’ve never had an exciting New Year’s Eve. Even in my younger days I was a in my pajamas and usually asleep right after midnight kind […]

Giving Fruitcake Another Chance
There is one holiday tradition from my childhood that I’ve been loath to revisit. For years I was subjected to the truly heinous task of eating fruitcake. (Including fruitcake turkey stuffing.) Just thinking about it […]

My Life Has Gone to the Dogs
I’m an empty nester trope. I recently had to admit to myself that I now embody every single empty nester characteristic. The most profound one is that I have taken my pets and turned them […]

Yep, It’s an Author Newsletter
Dear Wonderful Humans Who Tolerate Me, Good lord this is awkward. Here I am doing something that I probably should have been doing oh, I don’t know, a decade ago. But 2022 brought a lot […]

Would You Medal in a Holiday Olympics?
I think the Olympics could use an upgrade/refresh in the events category. It’s not like the winter and summer Olympics are lacking events. There’s almost 450. But when you can make room for solo synchronized […]

Dear Snarky – My Crazy Mom is Trying to Mess with Christmas
Dear Snarky, My POS mother is at it again. I’m one of three kids (we are all adults in our mid to late 20s) and our parents got divorced 17 years ago. We were raised […]

Not Faking It This Christmas
There’s a lot of things over the years that have plummeted in quality. Exhibit A would be appliances. My parent’s Kenmore harvest gold washer and dryer outlived them. Meanwhile it’s a miraculous event worthy of […]

Dear Snarky – How Do You Keep a Family Member from Attending a Funeral?
Dear Snarky, I need your help. My father has been very sick for a long time and is now in hospice care. We have been told his death will be very soon. We have all […]

Thanksgiving for the Win!
I have long been a champion of Thanksgiving. And yes, Thanksgiving needs a champion. Sure, back in the day Thanksgiving had its moment of glory but in the last decade or two it’s been gobbled […]

Turkey Trouble
We all have milestones that signify we’ve crossed the road from child to adult. There’s the entry level ones like getting off your parent’s cell phone bill plan and using those twenty percent off Bed, […]

Dear Snarky – Manipulation is on the Thanksgiving Menu 🦃
Dear Snarky, I don’t think I’ve been this disappointed or mad in my entire life. I’m 29 years old, have worked my ass off to get where I am professionally, and I just got taken […]

I’m Happy Being Boring
Covid has been a part of our lives for almost three years now. It doesn’t scare me as much as it did in 2020 but I feel like I’m always on high alert for impending […]

Super Fanatic
It’s become a fall ritual for me to share the level of football agony my husband is experiencing. Now when I say agony, I don’t mean that he’s suffering from any physical pain from playing […]

Dear Snarky – I’m Feel Like I’m Being Harassed By My Church
Dear Snarky, I feel betrayed by one of my best friends, my boyfriend of three months, and my church. My BF, BFF and I are all members of our church’s young adult group. This group […]

Leaf Love 🍁
Why all the leaf hate? The leaves changing colors is my second favorite part of fall right behind waving buh-bye to the temperatures in the 90s. Coming in third on the list is walking through […]

Dear Snarky – Where There’s a Will There’s a Way to Drama
Dear Snarky, My husband and I have two daughters (grown women now) and we have always tried to be fair in our dealings with them. Recently we updated our will (We’re both 72.) and the […]

Facing the Facts
Ready for a spooky story just in time for Halloween? Well, then gather around because here’s a tale of a spine-tingling vanity that induced screams of terror from me. You know in the scary movies […]

Dear Snarky – My Sister Confessed to Ruining Thanksgiving on Purpose
Dear Snarky, I think my youngest sister is c-r-a-z-y. I have four sisters and every year we rotate who is hosting Thanksgiving. This means once every five years you have to host which is no […]