Coming clean on July 6, 1998...

Dear Breakup Girl,

I have a boyfriend in Japan, and I live in Seattle. We have decided to stay together for the summer and we aren’t supposed to be seeing other people. I, however, have met someone and I don’t know if I should tell my boyfriend or not. It’s just a summer thing and I still love my boyfriend very much. It’s just hard to go from being with someone everyday and then not seeing them for three months. If I told him, I know he would be very upset and would most likely break up with me. What should I do?

— Bridgett

Dear Bridgett,

If you break up with Summer Thing now, like before you even finish reading this letter, then you don’t have to tell your boyfriend. If you let it go until just before Japan Air flight #123 hits the ground, you do have to tell him.

Okay, now that you’re back, let me elaborate. (more…)

Stuck in the middle on June 29, 1998…

Dear Breakup Girl,

Here’s the scenario. “Harry” and “Sally” are longtime friends in uncannily similar lines of work. Harry, who’s oozing unrequited smooches for Sally from every pore, finally busts a move just as Sally leaves for a job abroad for several months. She decides this is plausible, goes along, and they long distance it quite happily for awhile. Then they spend the summer working together, are actually in the same place, and Sally gets the wiggins. They travel through Europe together, on a Eurailpass to emotional hell, and eventually Sally pulls the plug. This being the real world, Harry’s seriously bruised–not the Billy Crystal kind of cutesy angst that ends in a charming speech that woos her back. Rather, they avoid each other for the better part of the year, then slowly start becoming friends again. But Harry, underneath the bruises, still oozes. (Vile, I know, but you know what I mean.) He’s a man of infinite braveness, so he starts blurring the ol’ friendship lines. Sally’s not sure what to do: she’s spooked about ending up alone, Harry is indisputably a great guy, and on paper it should be perfect. Yet: wiggins, which sometimes lift when she just enjoys hanging out with Harry, or sometimes return when she gets critical for him or starry-eyed for some perfect Mr. Right who’ll make her melt. Sally’s now out of town for the summer, there’s still no resolution, and Harry’s still twisting in the wind. AND…I’m the one whom Sally calls for a shoulder to be confused on. What do you think she should do, and how, as a friend, might I effectively help guide her in that direction?

— ABC

BG gives advice to the advice-giver after the jump!

Home and away on June 15, 1998…

Dear Breakup Girl,

I am in a confusing and slightly depressing situation. Two weeks ago I went to Mexico with part of my Spanish class. We were paired up with a group of kids from Nebraska (we’re from Oklahoma). So I started talking to and became friends with this guy from the Nebraska group. One night when we were on this island off of Cancun the group went to a discotheque by our hotel. The guy (we’ll call him George) and I got bored so we left (a lot of people had already left) We walked around the beach for about half and hour and then sat down on this ledge overlooking the ocean and held hands with his arm around me talking for an hour. Then we had to go back to our respective rooms (12 p.m. curfew). The next day everyone was sure that we would formally hook up and I was sure that he would kiss me. But then he got in a motorcycle accident and had to be flown to Cancun and I never got to see him again or say goodbye or anything. So I went home and discovered that the guy who I have had a crush on for like nine months is still just as attractive and interesting and amazing as he was when I left. I see him almost every day because we are both in karate and are training for nationals together. I’m had over heels for this guy but I feel guilty for flirting with him because I’m not sure where George and I stand. I haven’t been able to get in touch with him. I don’t even know how the other guy feels about me but I’m too afraid of losing his friendship to tell him how I feel about him. My general motto is Carpe Diem but somehow in this situation I just can’t seem to follow my own advice. Why can’t my life be as simple as Sandy and Danny make life seem?

— Confused Over Summer Lovin’

BG sorts it out after the jump!

These days, the stories we hear about kidz and the technology are often cautionary tales: strangers! sexting! TEXT NECK! But Nancy Schwartzman — producer and director of the in-the-works film xoxosms — wants to tell a different, more salutary tale:  about  (young) people forging relationships that may start as virtual, but are very, very real.

“xoxosms is about first love, long distance and Skype. It looks closely at one young couple who — like many — met online and fell in love before ever meeting each other,” says Schwartzman. “There’s a tension between their ‘digital intimacy’ and real life, and the film explores the way the digital world, full of intimacy, bonding, sweetness, is a way to mitigate the hard stuff of growing up and having sex. A way to be close without things getting too confusing.”

The documentary tells the true love story of Gus and Jiyun — a home schooled 19-year-old from a religious family in small-town Illinois and a 19-year-old Korea-born New York City art student — who met nearly a year ago in possibly the only place two people so different might ever find each other: The Internet. Over the past 18 months, they have built an intensely intimate world via Skype, AIM and iChat. They are each other’s very first loves, and through the Internet, they have established a connection that feels as real as if they were right there beside each other.

Help xoxosms have a happy ending! You can kick in a few bucks here to help Schwartzman & co. complete their project. (They’re already over halfway there, with 19 days to go!) You can share your story at their Tumblr, “Without the Internet We Never Would Have Met.” And you can watch the trailer, oh, right now!

Dear Breakup Girl,

Thanks for telling it like it is! You have a lot of heart too.

My question is simple but not easy. My boyfriend and I have been dating for the past few months and we are already talking about moving so we can live in the same city. Unfortunately, he is in Chicago for the next two years because he just started his own business and I am living in L.A. right now.

We met in a museum in San Diego while he was on a business trip and I was out having a good time by myself after getting hurt by a dumbass ex-boyfriend. I have no money and he is offering to help me move sooner by helping me financially. I have always been a “pay my own way” kind of girl and want to work the money up myself over the next year.

However, it is excruciating (!) to consider being apart for another year. We are very in love already, he is 26 and I am 27 and we are thinking of marriage in the next few years. I intend to have my own place when I move to Chicago since I also believe in not living together until you are at least engaged (!). I love him to pieces and vice versa! We just want to be together, but I feel there is a principle here that I don’t want to break. He doesn’t see any problem with helping me move sooner. What do you think, Breakup Girl?

— Languishing in LA

(more…)

Still stings on March 16, 1998…

Dear Breakup Girl,

My fella, who I adored, was transferred to another city. We agreed to try a long distance relationship. All I ever asked was that he tell me if he found someone else. Within a few weeks there, he was sleeping with a much younger woman who he had HIRED for his department. I found out after about a month and threw the book at him. I don’t want him back, but I so want to stop thinking about him and stop feeling so hurt. I’ve filled my life with a lot of new things…going to college, golf, country dancing, etc. I’ve met a few men, but the thought of being hurt like that again is too much…it makes my stomach turn over. It’s been almost a year and I am still feeling the sting. Any ideas?

— Linda

(more…)

MSN.com, Match.com, HappenMagazine.com: they’re in a healthy and satisfying 3-way relationship. Meaning that you can find MSN/Match.com’s “Ask Lynn” columns –penned by BG’s alter ego — over at Happen now as well.

This week Lynn counsels Brokenhearted Bob, who romanced a fellow Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, and now has a long distance relationship to deal with/over analyze. Now half-way around the world, Bob is having a hard time getting a read:

I said I’d come visit. She said “Really? Well isn’t that kind of rushing things?” Rushing? She’s the one who had brought up monogamy and had made the trek across part of Africa to visit me.

Should Bob push things or slow down? Read the full letter at Happen Magazine, then come back here to comment!

MSN.com, Match.com, HappenMagazine.com: they’re in a healthy and satisfying 3-way relationship. Meaning that you’ll find MSN/Match.com’s “Ask Lynn” columns –penned by BG’s alter ego — over at Happen now as well.

In this week’s column, Paranoid is worried that there is more than friendship between her boyfriend and his best gal pal. This is only compounded by the fact that they’re dating long-distance. You can read the column at Happen, check out the comments from the original MSN posting, and comment below!

Globetrotting on January 26, 1998…

Dear Breakup Girl,

I have been with my boyfriend or more than four years. He is from Boston and I am from Malaysia. We met in Hong Kong four years ago. Four months ago, he got transferred to Singapore. Though we see each other a lot, I feel frustrated because I have to fly down three to four times a month. I am a flight attendant, so it’s pretty cheap for me to travel, and he makes the effort to see me as well. But recently we’ve fought a lot. We fight over the issue of who’s not doing their share of the relationship. Whenever a problem arises, he pushes me away. He said he cannot deal with this, especially when he’s so stressed at work. I love this guy with all my heart. Please help.

— JT

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A sweet story-slam love story, with (a) a great what-you-gotta-do-when-crazy-love-happens message (see subject line) and (b) a shoutout to Park Slope, locus of the Studio Apartment of Justice!