Dear Queenie,
Sometimes when I’m using a public restroom the person in the next stall will be talking on their cell phone all the time they are “going.” I think that’s disgusting!
Queenie, what do you think?—Offended

Dear Offended,
I agree with you.
I would be willing to bet the person using their cell phone while on the toilet would not hold a conversation with someone standing outside the door of their bathroom at home while they were on the toilet, and I certainly would not want to be the person on the other end of that conversation.
If nothing else, think of the “sound effects”! I guess you would call the cell phone user a real “party pooper.”

Dear Queenie,

I’m an honest person who works hard, pays their bills and love my family and friends. I’m not stupid and I have an advanced university degree to prove it, but sometimes I make bad choices and it’s so embarrassing that I just want to curl up and die as they say.

Queenie, how can I learn to do better?—Dumbbell

Dear Dumbbell,

Making mistakes does not make you a dumbbell, it just means you are a normal (imperfect) human being. Everyone, even geniuses, makes a mistake now and then.

The trick to doing better is not dying of embarrassment, but looking straight at a mistake or poor choice, figuring out where you went wrong, and remembering it (without embarrassment!!) so that next time in similar circumstances you can – and will – do better.

Dear Queenie,
I’m in high school and volunteer with a local service group. I always call my supervisors “Mr.” or “Mrs.” but some of them sign their e-mails to me with their first name.
Queenie, does this mean I should call them by their first name when I talk to them or e-mail them?—Respectful teenager

Dear Teenager,
It is more polite to use the respectful title in addressing an adult. However, if you would like to be less formal, you could ask the ones who sign their first name for permission to use it rather than the formal title.

Dear Queenie,
My husband works all the time and when he gets a day off it is a day I still have to work, so we don’t have much time together. And even with both of us working we can’t catch up with all our bills.
What’s worse is we can’t have a normal conversation. Everything has to be some kind of joke and if I disagree with him about something he gets mad at me.
I don’t think he cheats on me, but I just can’t take much more of this.
Queenie, what do you recommend?—Frustrated wife

Dear Wife,
To start with, you need some kind of financial counselling to help the two of you work out a budget so that you are living within your combined income and paying off your accumulated bills.
Then (as usual) I recommend professional marriage counselling to help you understand and work out your other problems. If your husband will not go with you, go without him to learn how to cope – and whether you really want to continue to do so.