I have a lot of thoughts. Most of them are offensive. This is the end of the warning.

I notice a lot of small things that I often don't mention, but they stay with me. The first mindset I'm attacking today is people who don't think their SO is allowed to talk to people of the opposite sex.

Because talking leads directly to cheating I'm sure. /sarcasm.
But no, really, what's the go with that? Why do you care so much? And how does that work for gay people? Do lesbians say "You may have no other female friends but me"? I doubt it, women (generally speaking) are very social creatures, they need other women around them. Because face it, our guy friends don't want to talk about periods, mood swings, when we're getting clucky, or a bunch of other girly topics like make-up. What about gay blokes? "I'm your man, you may only talk to women from now on!"? I doubt that too... what happens if you get an insecure gay who worries his man will randomly turn straight?
And where do Bi people fit in? "Honey, you can't have any friends of either gender, just in case you like someone better than me." Yeah, that's going to lead into a healthy relationship, for sure. >.>
I mean, come on people!!! I'm not attracted to every man who speaks to me, nor am I aroused by every pretty lady who leans over too far and lets me see the top of her bra. Yes, the friendly union guy speaking to me in the hall at work today had nice hands and was easy to talk to, but that doesn't mean I want to jump in the sack with him. I have a male friend back home whom I'm close to, who for a while did flirt heavily with me. Obi watched me dance with him at my graduation. No harm done. Obi has female friends from school. I can see they call his cell phone on occasion, and they email, they go for dinner. I assume they talk mostly about work, but either way I'm not threatened. He chose me for a reason. *Shrug*

This is all a very long way of saying if your SO is going to cheat on you, they will. Stopping them having friends of the desirable gender will only lead to them hiding said friendships, or lead to resentment and more trust issues. It's a good way to mess up a perfectly healthy relationship. If you're not looking at relationship potential/ bed potential of every person you come in contact with every day, your SO probably isn't either. And if you are - you need help. Stop passing your own infidelity struggle off on to your SO who hasn't done anything, and deal with your issues.
Some people cheat, and that's all there is to it. If your SO is going to cheat no amount of rules are going to stop them doing so, it'll just delay the eventuality. And more importantly, is it right to punish someone for a crime they have not and may never commit?

Ok, next rant. Unconditional love. I see a lot of people saying "I love him/her unconditionally, that's what true love is, blah blah." Sorry mate, no, you don't. You don't love them unconditionally. Do you even know what that means? Unconditionally - without condition. You're saying that if they murder your grandmother, beat your child, gamble away your rent payments, sell your car without your knowledge for drug money or any other number of horrible things, you're still going to love them... and you imply you'll still stand by them after all of that? Uhm no. I doubt you would. Even on a much smaller scale, so many people say cheating is the unforgivable relationship sin. If their SO cheats, that's it, the end. Sorry, that's not unconditional love.

Do I love Obi unconditionally? No. Do I think love between romantic partners should be unconditional? No.

I was thinking that maybe this is where marriage comes into the picture, because to me, unconditional love is family love. And when you marry someone, they become family. But even then.... I'd like to believe that if Obi starts beating me, harming our children or something equally horrid then I would be strong enough to run away, rather than standing by him. Would I still love him, even after I ran away? I can't know for sure, but I think if it were something really bad, that would kill the love we have... so nope, still not unconditional.

I know, just a small irritation, I just had to let it out.

Next up to bat: People who are sensitive about what other people think of their relationship, LDR or not. Sometimes I see people taking offense at remarks that are not even truly offensive. Sometimes people are not bagging on your LDR, they are just stating their opinion. When I first started working in Canada, one of the hotel guests told me I was making a very big foolish mistake for moving so far just for a man. I said "Maybe, I guess I'll find out." I could have been upset, but what would be the point? She was just giving her honest opinion, and honesty is a rare thing these days. And, she very well could have been right. I was/am taking a pretty big risk. Is it so hard to be objective about ourselves and our relationships? Sometimes they do seem downright impossible or crazy. There's no use getting offended by that.
Most of the time other people's opinions don't matter, I don't get why we all care so much about what others think. (Even I do it on occasion, and I still don't understand)

You know who else are annoying? The More-distanced-than-thou crowd. People, this is not a competition. There will always be someone out there who has it easier than you do, and someone who has it harder. If you don't want the person who has it harder than you belittling your problems, don't belittle those people who you think have it easy. We're all in this together. Even those of us who aren't as "in it" as they once were. I'm not saying you can't remind people that there are others struggling with worse. I'm just saying don't be an arsehat about it.

And finally: People who punish their current love for sins of an ex.
They are not your ex. Stop treating them like they have already made the mistakes you're terrified of living through twice. If you're not ready to give your relationship 100%, if you're too haunted by your past to see the real person standing before you, perhaps you need to wait a bit longer before getting back on the field.
I know it's hard not to be damaged by previous relationships, and I too have hang-ups I bring into this relationship that Obi doesn't deserve to deal with. This is as much for me as for you. But we have to let go! And if we can't let it go, we need to at least not bombard our partners with it. "I know you're cheating on me because Bob cheated on me" isn't very good logic, you see?
I know we all worry that we are inherently flawed and that's the real reason the ex treated us however they did. If it really bothers you, try and work on whatever flaw you think you have, but in the meantime, it does no good to punish someone just for loving us exactly how we are, or for being who they are. (Gee I hope that made sense)

I just want to say to whoever is reading this:
Have confidence in yourself. Your SO loves you.
Be reasonable. Try to think about how you'd feel if roles were reversed.
Stand up for yourself and your love.
Don't take offense to an insult that is not really there simply because you're emotional.
Worry less about what other people think.
Hell, just worry less in general. Really it's ok.

Thanks for your time.
*Gets off the soap box*