DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My wife informed me over dinner tonight she doesn’t want “the last box of chocolates at the drugstore” for her Valentine’s Day gift this year. That’s where we’re at. Pathetic, I’d say.

I used to write her love poems for the special day, but that’s when she was being loving and we were happy. In response to my poems about her, she would always write up a list of my good qualities in a giant card and we’d light candles and make love all night.

But now things have changed. Nothing I do pleases her anymore. I can feel we’re nearing a dangerous crossroads. I’m not sure if I want to keep driving down this road or hit reverse.

I’m in early retirement and tired of being nothing more than her errand boy. What do you suggest? I do know other women, and one of them really thinks I’m great.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: Here comes Valentine’s Day and I’ve been trying to date around since my marriage ended just over a year ago. But I haven’t asked any babes to join me for any Feb. 14 celebrations, not even for drinks.

As a married guy, I hated the Valentine’s Day nonsense when I was expected to ask my wife out and we didn’t even want to touch each other anymore. Now I would love a wild night with a new girlfriend, but no women have asked me out either.

I’m going to feel like a loser if I stay home, hiding out watching sports on TV all weekend.

My married buddies are jealous, thinking I have somebody hot lined up that I won’t tell them about, and they’ll definitely prod and tease me next time we meet.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: On the weekend my girlfriend and I had just finished having sex, when she said bitterly, “I had no climax, again.” She said she wasn’t going to fake it anymore.

Then she went quieter than she usually does after sex, and it got so tense I spitefully asked her what sex was like with her ex-boyfriend. She said quietly, “It was great, even when it wasn’t Earth-shaking.”

Then she got dressed, grabbed her keys and left in the middle of the night, at -25 C. Since then, she’s just replied to my texts with two- or three-word answers, saying things like, “Just relax” or “Get over it.”

She hasn’t actually broken up with me. I can’t work anything out with her if she’s not talking to me. I’m still half in love with her. What can I do?

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: This is an SOS. I just had my heart broken and it feels like my stomach is broken too. I gobble Tums to survive these days. I am a wreck.

What can you recommend for me in order to make it through university exams this spring, with the marks I so desperately need to get into my profession?

— Feeling Broken, Winnipeg

Dear Feeling Broken: Because you need to be able to concentrate while in class, studying and writing papers, you need a fast-acting plan other than good old Tums.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I went out with a very sexy woman on a few great dates — lots of laughs, same senses of humour. But the last time, after I stayed at her place on a weeknight, I zipped home in the morning to get ready for work.

When I got home and put my valuables on my side table, I noticed the cards in my wallet were arranged differently than I normally keep them.

She didn’t take any cash, just seems to have had a look at my bank and credit cards. I knew because she didn’t put them back in alphabetical order and they were not evenly spaced like I arrange them. I have been snooped on before.

Now what? Do I tell her I know what she did and get the satisfaction of outsmarting her, or just leave her mysteriously alone after this?

If I were to ask you the real reason organizations invest in staff development, what would you say? Most answers would be linked to improving the employee skillset and overall culture.

On the surface, this seems like an admirable objective. However, I’d suggest this is not the reality.

In a recent report on U.S. companies that spent US$1 trillion just in leadership development (much more spent on other employee training) over the past 10 years, the number of dissatisfied employees has not changed and remains around 70 per cent. Gallup’s annual measure of employee satisfaction has been between 25 per cent and 33 per cent for decades.

This means despite an enormous investment to improve leadership and culture, the payback and impact on employee satisfaction is not there. The question is why?

In mid-conversation with my father about the history of the area around the Granite Curling Club, his eyes narrow as his thoughts turn inward. “I went there once, you know, the old amphitheatre. I couldn’t have been more than five years old.” I can see him searching behind his eyes to piece the memory together. “We were there to see a figure skater, Barbara Ann Scott. I can’t think why — we were never a family to go out to entertainment — life just wasn’t like that then. It was a really special thing to be able to do.”

I’m suddenly transported to the Ice Capades at the old Winnipeg Arena, the light-up wand topped with a tuft of acrylic strands in my little hand, my blue-and-white Icelandic sweater hand-knit by my aunt, flashing and glowing under the black lights.

There are places from our childhood that seem like magical, impossible dreamscapes, long gone and personal to each one of us. The linen closet I used to crawl into to sleep, the elm tree in the yard where I would sit high up in the branches eating Oreos, fuzzy landscapes of birthday parties at McDonald’s or the eerie-excited feeling aboard the Nonsuch.

Where was it that we all climbed into wheelchairs and zoomed around to learn what it was like? Where was it that was full of telephones in every room, through which was a new friend every time we listened? Was there a little grain elevator somewhere? Did I imagine it?

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I’ve been engaged since Christmas, but now my fiancé does not want to go through with the wedding.

His old girlfriend was so shocked by our engagement, she has come back and wants another chance with him. He said he hoped I would understand because he had loved her since Grade 10. Now he says he realizes she truly is his forever love. I’ve been nauseated since then.

And get this: he says I can keep the diamond from the engagement ring and have it put into something else because he knew I loved it so much.

What an idiot. It wasn’t just a sparkly rock to me — it was a symbol of our forever love. When he tried to hand it back to me, I threw it in his face.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: Last week I ran into the woman who disgusted me most at my last job. I quit because there were too many people in the workplace like her.

She immediately started filling me in on all the gossip and things people have said about me since I quit. I couldn’t take it, and put my hand up like a traffic cop, raised my voice and said, “Stop!” She was so shocked she halted mid-sentence, and then stalked off in a huff.

I still can’t stop hearing her gossipy voice in my brain. How do you erase annoying people and the things they’ve said from your mind?

— Had It, West End