Strawberry Letter

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’ve been with my girlfriend for 10 years and we’re having our first major issue. When I met my girlfriend, she was new in town, so I introduced her to my group of friends and their wives. There are 4 couples that hang out and we’ve all known each other since college. The wives were all nice enough to my girlfriend but they’ve never included her in “girls night out” or invited her to brunch with them...................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I am a 43-year-old woman and I have a small group of friends who have all known each other since high school. We’ve all been strict about quarantining, so we agreed to meet once a week for drinks and dinner. It’s really helped us feel better and maintain a sense of normalcy with the craziness going on in the world. About a month ago another girl we went to high school with moved back into town...............See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 42 year old woman and I’ve been in a relationship with a 45 year old man for 3 years. For the past two years, he’s been living with me because he needed some house repairs done. Around Christmas time last year, I caught him at his own house one Saturday when he was supposed to be visiting his parents in South Carolina. I pulled up in his driveway and he met me at the door and told me that it was a dusty mess inside like a construction site and I didn’t need to come in......................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 48 year old single woman and I’ve raised a handsome and productive young man with the help of my ex-husband. My ex-husband was a very hands-on dad, but we did not see eye-to-eye in our marriage. His father always spoiled him, but lately his dad has been busy with a new woman and now he’s become distant from our son. If I call his dad, it takes him days to call me back....................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I am a 42 year old single mother and I have two teenage children that live with me. At my age, I wanted to become a homeowner and stop renting, so I started looking for an affordable place to buy. My mom recently received a financial blessing, so she offered to buy me a house. Hesitantly, I agreed. I found a small, affordable home and my mother bought it. I pay the mortgage, but the house is in my mom’s name, which is why I was hesitant to go through with the deal...........See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I am a 39 year old married woman and I have been friends with a nutcase for over 20 years. We fall out all of the time because she’s a drama queen and she creates conflict where there should be none. I’m a professor and she’s in financial aid at the college we attended. I got a job there first and she came later. She is in a management role, but she has not gotten a raise or a promotion in 5 years....................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’ve been dating a great man for almost 6 months. It was a long-distance relationship at first, but I moved to his city three weeks ago. I have an aunt that lives in this same city and I’m living with her temporarily. My boyfriend gave me a key to his apartment and told me to make myself at home, so I stay with him most of the time. His mother has a key to his apartment, too, and she comes and goes as she pleases.......................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, my husband and I have been together for 5 years and married for 3 years. I have a son by my ex-husband and my husband has a son by an ex-girlfriend. Our blended family works perfectly because the boys are very close in age, so they’re best friends. My stepson’s mom is cool but I’ve made it a point to keep her at a distance because my mother-in-law told me she can be very messy at times.............................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, my husband and I have been together 14 years. He’s 60 and I’m 57 years old. We don’t have any children so we do a lot of activities together and we travel a lot. We’re in a vacation club and there’s one other couple that we enjoy meeting up with at different destinations. Mother’s Day weekend, we met the couple in Barcelona and we stayed in a vacation rental. When we got there, we went straight to the beach to relax.............................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, my boyfriend and I are 44 years old and we have been together for years. I lost count on how long we’ve actually been a couple because we were roommates first, then we started fooling around, then we stopped seeing other people since we were living together. We became a couple after our family and friends considered us a couple.......................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m 32 years old and I’ve been dating this guy for almost 8 months and we’ve had fun getting to know each other. He was honest in the beginning and told me he had some loose ends to tie up before we got serious and I appreciated that honesty. The fact that he didn’t hide his phone or turn his ringer off made me feel that he was ready to be in a relationship with me so I didn’t trip. We went out all over town and I stayed at his home all of the time...........................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, my husband and I are both in the military and he’s still active duty and I’m retired. I’m raising our two sons and I do personal training for 3 clients to earn extra money. I’m in shape and I want my husband to stay in shape too. He works out but he doesn’t take care of his body internally. His diet has made him pre-diabetic and he’s on medication. The medication affects both of us because his soldier is never at attention anymore.............................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I was living with my brother and his wife for a while after they had a baby and it was time for her to return to work. They didn’t want the baby going to a babysitter yet, so I agreed to move in and help out. I’m retired and my daughter is in college so I have a lot of time on my hands. This is not what I signed up for though.........................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’ve been married for 12 years and I have had a lot of ups and downs with my husband. He loves the ladies and I had to crack down on the time he spent in the streets so he wouldn’t slip up and cheat on me again. He’s cheated before and he swore that was behind him. We went to counseling and he told the therapist that I would never catch him cheating again. I didn’t realize what he had said until recently. He said that I would never catch him.......................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, my uncle is 64 years old and he’s still got a lot of life in him. He recently got engaged and the family didn’t know he was that serious about this woman. She’s cute but she’s clueless. She’s 57 years old and she got divorced about 4 years ago and doesn’t know how to do anything for herself. She’s never paid bills, bought groceries or put gas in her car. My uncle thinks it's cute, but as he gets older, it won’t be practical..................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I have been dating a man for almost two years and he has a lot of female friends.  I hung out with all of them and at first I tried to act like a team player, but, I see has no respect for boundaries in this relationship.  He has a lot of house parties or his friends will come over and do impromptu cookouts no matter what we have planned.  He drops everything to entertain them........................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, my husband and I are 34 and we’ve been together for 9 years and married for 3 years. The only reason we are married is because I gave him an ultimatum. After six years of dating, we needed to move this thing forward or I was gone. He’s always been very full of himself and the women in his family made him think he was God’s gift to the earth because he has eyes that change color and he’s tall and very handsome..............................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly Frey, host of Stuff You Missed in History Cass, sits down with Dana Territo, one of the ten winners of Seneca Women to Hear: Search for the Next Great Female Podcasters  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 59 year old mother of 2 grown sons and I pride myself on how well I raised them by myself. They both are educated with great jobs. My oldest son is married and he has a baby on the way with his wife. My youngest son is 29 and he is trying to send me to an early grave. When I was raising my boys, I had a village of strong women to help me..........................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I am a 27 year old woman and I just moved in with my boyfriend. We’ve been dating for one year and we have a great relationship, but of course there’s an issue, or I wouldn’t be writing you. Our love making is very good, but we are never alone when we are intimate. There’s always four extra eyes very close by, staring at us. It’s his dogs. He has a Doberman and a German Shepherd and these dogs are very spoiled and run the house. When my boyfriend and I get in the bed, they jump in too! Since I moved in, my boyfriend has forced them to sleep on the floor next to our bed, since I didn’t want them in our bed..............See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I am a divorced, 44 year old single mom.  As an attractive, curvy, and educated woman, I have no problems meeting men, it’s keeping them that’s the issue. The last man that I dated, we were together for almost 3 months before we had sex. I made him wait for a reason, and here’s why… When we had sex for the first time, he passed out afterwards. He was only out for a short time and when he came to, he said his blood sugar was low, but I think he was lying, because this has happened to me before, with another man. The next time we made love, I toned down the intensity and I cut out the extra stuff that I normally do...........See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I am in desperate need of advice. I was engaged to be married, but my fiancé and I recently split up after my ex-wife caused a whole lot of problems in our relationship. When my ex heard I was engaged, she called me. I told her that I was extremely happy and excited to get remarried. My ex said that she was happy for me and wished me well, which was a big lie. A few days after we talked, my ex created a new Facebook page, named it “The Thompsons” and posted a bunch of old pics from our wedding and family vacations..........See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, my husband and I are 27 years old and newly married. We’ve been together for a total of seven years and we waited until we got married to have sex. I should’ve seen that as a red flag, but I didn’t. We are die-hard Christians, so I thought he was just being obedient. He never pressured me for sex and there were nights I thought I was going to lose my mind, because I wanted him so badly.......................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 47 year old man and I’m married to a 42 year old woman that I’ve known for 12 years. We got married after we’d been apart for about 5 years. I didn’t want to let her go again, so I rushed in. Before we got back together, I dated a great businesswoman that was the total package. She was a great cook and she held it down as a small business owner...............................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 37 year old divorced woman and I met a man online that I really got a good feeling about. We talked on the phone for a week and then we started doing video calls so we could see each other. I’m very shy so this was an ideal way for me to meet someone and get to know them. My ex-husband was emotionally abusive and he cheated on me twice.........................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 38 year old married woman and my husband is 34. We’ve been married for 4 years and we’re getting our first house built, so I’ve had to put my husband on a budget to make sure we can afford to furnish our new house. He is the one that is always shopping and buying gadgets for the house.................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m close friends with a co-worker that is being mislead by religion. She’s 32 years old and single, but she acts like a 16 year old ditzy girl all of a sudden. She has to check in with one of her 3 spiritual advisors when she gets to the office and when she’s heading home. She usually talks to one of them on the phone while she’s eating her lunch too. In the past seven months, she’s lost weight, let her hair grow out and she stopped polishing her fingernails.........................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, you might call me a bitter baby mama or a scorned ex-girlfriend, but that’s fine by me, as long as you give me some advice on what to do. I have some information about my ex-boyfriend’s new fiancé. My ex and I dated for 7 years and have a daughter together. We met in law school, after he was assigned to my study group. He was a scrawny nerd with no swagger, but I liked him because he was very smart and well-spoken............................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m not sure if I have a man or not, after I disappointed him recently. When I first met him, he pursued me for months. I was going through a crazy divorce and I didn’t need to complicate my life any further, but I enjoyed his friendship. We had long phone conversations or we would sit in his car and talk for hours. He was patient and understanding and for the first two months, we only kissed and caressed...............................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a life coach and motivational speaker so I travel a lot and my husband keeps our 2 year old twins. I was gone for a conference last week and I was unable to speak with my husband while I was gone. He said one of the twins threw his cell phone in the pool and he didn’t have a babysitter to keep the boys while he spent the day in the Apple Store..........................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’ve been married for 27 years to a man that made a beautiful life for me and our 4 children. He’s been to every school program, graduation, medical appointment and each child’s extra-curricular activities. He’s showered me with gifts on special occasions and on ordinary days of the week. This is why I can’t believe what I have found out recently.................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m married to mister-fix-it-all, the friendly handyman that runs to help single women when something goes wrong in their home. I hope he can fix this marriage because I’m at the end of my rope with him. He runs a landscaping business and he has awesome employees that work for him and execute his vision..........................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m married to a man that is always about to explode about something. He’s easily irritated and likes to gripe about things instead of finding solutions to his issues. I will admit that most of the time, he’s right and others are wrong, but the way he handles things drives me cray cray. He’s been on the same job for 14 years and he gets great bonuses because he doesn’t make a lot of money...........................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 44 year single woman and I’m in a long-distance relationship with a man that lives with two females. They have all been friends for years so he’s allowed them to stay with him after they got divorced. The first woman moved in about 4 months ago and she’s not even working and claims she’s very depressed, so she lies around the house all day in a robe and a bonnet...................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 30 year old engaged woman. I met my fiancé while in the miliary and we hung out for 2 years before I had sex with him. He had a girlfriend at the time and I was having fun being open, sexually. I shared my sex stories with my fiancé, who was my good friend at the time. He’d been begging to sleep with me, so I finally did it and I allowed him to record it too..........................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 51 year old married woman and my husband and I have 1 child. We’re separated for a while because he admitted that he had an emotional affair with a woman he met in the airport. I saw text messages between my husband and the woman. She was saved in his phone as “Counselor” because he told me that he confided in her and she was easy to talk to................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a single mother of an honor student that got a full ride scholarship to a predominantly white college in the northeast. We’re southerners and he was raised with southern manners. He moved into the dorms and found out he had a black roommate and he was excited. His roommate is a northeasterner and he is a bit rough around the edges...........................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’ve been dating a man for 4 years and I asked him to marry me recently because time is of the essence and I want to have a baby. When we met, he told me that I would be his wife. I took it to heart and I overlooked a lot of stuff to make our relationship work. I usually wouldn’t date an overweight man. I definitely wouldn’t date a man with halitosis...........................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a wife, mother and businesswoman. I have known my husband for 13 years and we’ve been married for 10 years. In the beginning, he was the popular one and I was the wallflower. He would walk into a room and everyone was dying to talk to him. Now that the tables have turned, he’s become messy and he starts mess in our family and amongst his friends..............See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley,  I'm a 44 year old man and my wife and I are legally separated and I am facing legal charges because of her.  We were married for three years and we have a new born son that I am not sure is my son but he definitely could have my blood line.  My brother could be the father of my son.  A year after we got married he came home from the military and he stayed between my house and my mother's house................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’ve been married for almost two months and a few days after we said ‘I do,’ my life changed. We met at church and we were friends first and then we started dating. One thing we said we’d never do, was talk about our past relationships in detail and we never have, until after our wedding. Early on the morning of our wedding, my ex-girl from 12 years ago sent a text to tell me that she was in town and would love to visit my mom.....................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m too old to be playing games with my husband. He’s 60 and I’m 58 years old. He’s a coach and loves to line dance so he’s usually at a game or down at the lounge for a dance. I used to dance with him but I injured my knee, so I get to enjoy my quiet time when he’s gone because he’s a hand full. He just started being a jokester lately and he acts like he was raised by wolves now....................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 29 year old woman and my fiancé is 30. We met at a house party four years ago and we got engaged a few weeks ago. We started out as friends for a while because of his height… He is shorter than the men I used to date. I loved his personality and that’s what got me hooked on him. Whenever we are together, everyone always says we’re such a cute couple. It’s because we’re short..................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I am a 47 year old married woman and we have a four bedroom house.  I have a two children from a previous relationship and my husband has a grown son by his ex-wife.  His parents are living with us temporarily because his son has a baby and they want to be here for their great-grand child.  My mom lives with us too...,.................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I have been married for nine years and I have been tapping my husband's phone and I’ve found out about his three-year international love affair. He is from Zambia and he came to Texas eleven years ago. One night we were tipsy and we opened up about a lot of stuff from our past. He told me about the one that got away................................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I recently married the man of my dreams and I love everything about him, except his female friends and his ex-girlfriends. This man is friends with everyone from his past and before we got married, his house was party central. He slowed it down when we got serious and he changed his phone number to show me that he was serious about being a one-woman-man......................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’ve been married for 11 years and I have one daughter that’s 15 and my husband and I have an 8 year old. My husband is a great man and he stepped up to be a father to my daughter, whose biological father passed away. My husband is a tutor at my daughter’s school and he volunteers at events as a makeshift security guard at the school.......................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’ve been married for 2 years and I’m 25 years old. My husband is 26 and he pursued me heavily until I let him take me out. We had a great first date and he told me that he loved me. I fell for him really quick and we got married in no time. He lived out in the suburbs and I had an apartment downtown so he stayed with me mostly before we got married...........................See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.