Dear Annie: I am a 31-year-old woman, and I’ve been with my boyfriend for five years. We’ve been talking about marriage for the past two — talking about it and talking about it. Every time it comes up, it’s positive. He tells me he can’t wait to marry me. But Annie, the proposal still has not come. I even asked him directly when he would be ready to take that step. His response? “Soon.” No timeline, no actual commitment. I don’t want to keep waiting around, especially because I want to start having children soon, but I’m not sure what else to do. — Tired of Waiting

Dear Tired of Waiting: Five years in, two years of “soon” — at some point, that word stops meaning anything.