Dear Rita,

I am away at school and live in a co-ed dorm. My boyfriend who lives across the hall and I usually hang out in my room and one of our other neighbors, my friend "Barbara" sometimes hangs out with us too. The thing is that while I really like Barbara when we hang out one on one together, (we talk about and have mutual agreement on moral issues etc.) when my bf is around she seems like a different person. She will come over in a tank top with no bra on, change into next to nothing and while I wouldn't say she is flirting per se, is definitly striking an available pose. It's not just me noticing, my bf and I have laughed about her together, like she'll wear a revealing dress and bend over so if he wanted to he could look down her shirt or see her thong...like, just weird. The thing is we're friends and I know my bf isn't her type...so I just don't get it. What gives?

Baffled by the Broad

Dear Baffled,

Broad is right. The nerve. I wouldn't think this is tricky except that I know someone just like this. Normally I would say, this girl is not your friend. Obviously she is not your best friend but there is nothing wrong with enjoying her company for what it is and spending limited time together- without your boyfriend. "Barbara" is blatantly insecure and needs to be oggled at all times, this is the way she feels validated, by men and even though she may really like you, nothing can stop her from getting that attention, not the humiliation, your friendship, nothing. Maybe she has father issues, who knows. The point is, she's sick in this way. So, I'm going to go with what I do in my situation and what my mother always says, "To make a friend shut one eye, to keep one, shut both" and in your case, shut your bedroom door too.

Rita

Dear Rita:

We have a house rule (request) that everyone take their shoes off when
entering our house. None of our friends mind (several of them have the
same custom), even our children and their friends happily oblige before
entering the house. The only person who won't follow this request is my
mother. She claims "it's too cold." Never mind that she is always
inappropriately dressed, which is the cause of her "coldness." I have
reminded her several times and so have our children; I even bought her
a pair of slippers, but she says, "they're too big." Please tell me how
to handle my very difficult mother.

Daughter of Cold Feet

Dear Cold Feet,

As a mother who also appreciates that the outdoors stay out of our doors, I get chill bumps just thinking about this one! Sounds like mother likes to be the head of every henhouse and your polite tactics aren't paying off. Next time she plans to come over tell her the house request has changed to a house rule and since she has always set such a fine example to you and yours growing up you are happy to have her set the bar once more, no shoes or she'll be out in the cold!

Good Cluck!

Rita

Dear Rita,

I was out this weekend when daylight savings time ended. I was really looking forward to partying an extra hour this weekend because of the time change, but the bar cut us of at 2:00am even though it was really 1:00am. . What gives? Can they do that? Please let me know if I’m just being a baby, or if I have a reason to complain!

Thanks,
No Time to Drink


Dear No Time,

Geez! What a jip, daylight 'savings' -ripped you off! As long as you're living you have reason to complain, but this goes beyond the pale. Now, my 'partying' days are sadly behind me but I don't have to be a Kennedy to know that anybody who is staying until last call enjoys a bar that won't quit ESPECIALLY when they have an easy loophole to negotiate like daylight savings. It's bad for drinkers, bad for business and bad for America, whats next Prohibition? Not on my watch.

Thanks for writing in.

Rita.