It’s so backwards too, since the ultra wealthy are the ones who most dodge paying their fair share of taxes.

Oh snap, you’re me! I just wrote about having the same routine!

As to “sleep hygiene” stuff, I find that a lot of well-intentioned tools and advice simply don’t work for me. That’s why I value hearing what creative solutions the fellow members of my neurotribe come up with. It’s also validating to find that others ended up organically following the same routines as I do.

I switch to one of the numerous Wikipedia pages I seem to perpetually have open. I put the browser on a dark “reader” mode and read until I find myself unable to follow along, which is a signal that my brain’s ready to sleep. If I end up staying awake for a while, it’s not because of the phone keeping me up - it’s because my brain simply isn’t ready to sleep yet.

In fact, if I don’t have quiet time to read alone on my phone just before I fall asleep, it can make falling asleep even harder. The topic of the page gives me something to think about and redirect myself toward if my brain tries to wander. It’s not a perfect solution, but it helps often enough. This is especially true if I’m traveling. My brain’s more alert in unfamiliar places, and the farther I deviate from my typical routine, the harder it is to fall asleep. Sometimes those few minutes of reading are the only consistent thing day-to-day, and it’s a time I look forward to. It wouldn’t help me to take that away.

You got it. Sometimes the safest thing to do when somebody’s having hallucinations is to play along, and that means telling lots of lies. Sometimes people think their kids (who are well into their 60s) are still newborns, and they will have a panic attack because they don’t know where their “baby” is. I’ve reassured people that I “just set the baby down to nap” numerous times.

I’ve seen people treat dolls like real babies, too, and one time a lady rolled up to me in her wheelchair, asking to see a doctor because her baby (a doll with food smeared over its mouth) wasn’t eating. I even went so far as to get those “magic” doll bottle things that appear to “empty” when you tip them.

Point is, you’re right. But I don’t feel as conflicted about all the other lies I told, I guess the religion thing is just too … I dunno, “icky” for me? I’m an out atheist with pretty much everyone else. I don’t like having to go back into a closet.

When I worked in a nursing home, I was Christian.

I mean, I wasn’t. At all. But the dying little old ladies who sundowned so bad that they sometimes thought I was their grandchild? When they asked if I believed in Jesus, I’d bite my tongue and tell them yes. I hated having to lie to their faces, I hate even thinking about it all these years later, but some of them had nothing to look forward to except “going to heaven” by that point. Lying seemed the most ethical choice.

I don’t follow either. It sounds like they’re talking about couples making joint Facebook accounts, which is a complete non-sequitur from all the comments before it.

But I might be wrong, as it seems a lot of people understand something that we’re missing. Would anyone that understands this better mind giving some clarification?

You tease

If Futurama is to be trusted, one of the upcoming technologies in biometric data will be “colonic maps.” No doubt, Facebook would anally probe us all if they could.

I don’t know about that, I’ll be fine until someone with no comprehension of “right of way” nearly kills me. Those moments usually create a string of angry swears that would make a sailor proud.

I feel you. I have to keep reminding myself that a lot of my anxiety isn’t mine - it’s my mom’s. I just inherited the behaviors that she picked up, that in turn were created in reaction to my (long-gone) toxic grandfather’s abuse.

Generational trauma probably lurks behind all of us, deeprooted and insidious, propping up maladaptive behaviors that go unexamined simply because they are considered “normal” in our families.

My sapphic brain wasn’t tuned to understand that quote properly at first. Instead of seeing an insult, I thought, “Wow, that sounds like a busy, but amazing, morning.”

You just dug up an old memory. When I was in high school, there was a girl who came from a hunting family. I remember one day she came up to me and started telling me the same things you said about “loving nature,” along with rambling about how her dad makes her kill just “one deer” each year, like it’s a token goal she’s obligated to fulfill. She kept apologizing to me for it. Okay, random, right?

Nah, not random at all. I’ve been vegan since I was 14. I never said anything about her hobbies - sure, I don’t agree with hunting for sport, but I would’ve preferred to avoid the topic entirely than to hear anything about it. She felt compelled, of her own accord, to not only initiate the conversation, but to make it basically a confessional - like she felt guilty and was looking toward me for some kind of forgiveness.

It’s an aspect of veganism that doesn’t get talked about in public much - not only are we made the target of tons of random hate, but we’re also made into a sounding board for meat-eaters, hunters, etc. who are experiencing cognitive dissonance. Like we’re some kind of liason between humans and other animals, or like winning our approval will make a guilty meat-eater feel better. I don’t know.

When you say “a lab,” what are you referring to? Do you mean shops that provide photo printing, or somewhere more dedicated to photography specifically?

I like to scrapbook, but I don’t know anywhere that only prints photos. The photo lab at CVS can suffice for a lot of things, but if there is a better option, I’d value advice about it!

This, 100%. Their lack of shame is almost envious to those of us with anxiety. Some anxious people would avoid a place for months after an ok-conversation with an employee, because they overthink the interaction and become convinced that they fucked up royally. Meanwhile, the employee never thought anything was offensive at all, and in fact forgot the entire interaction by the time they rang up the next customer.

Then there’s people like in the OP who throw a dramatic fit about how much they hate a place, sometimes even screaming at managers, then they show up the very next day pretending nothing ever happened. The audacity is mind-blowing.

I’ve been doing this for over a decade now. I don’t use a thumbdrive though, I just email myself the thing I need to print. Go to library computer, log in to email, print right from there. Each page is 10 cents at my local branch.

Also, a lot of libraries will provide you with a “guest pass” so you can use the computers even if you don’t have a library card. 10/10 highly recommended.

Oh god, it looks like it’s about to sing.

Women almost always date men who man more.

Well, yeah. It’s easier for a man to man, than for a woman to man. That tracks.

Did you date my former coworker? I used to use a chartreuse coathanger because it was the only one of that color, which made it easy for me to spot. One day, as I was putting my coat away, this coworker started talking as if we were already mid-way through an argument. “It’s so green. I don’t know why you said it’s yellow.” Huh? I had no idea what he was talking about at first. I asked if he meant my coathanger, and I responded that I didn’t know what color it was. (I didn’t know what “chartreuse” meant yet.) He ranted on, claiming we fought about it once before, even though this was the first time he’d even talked about my coathanger. It was bizarre.

I think that guy had something psychologically troubling going on. I’d also seen him: ask a question, make up an answer for that question, then immediately proceed to believe the answer he made up with 100% certainty. The question? “How do those Magic Eraser cleaning sponges work?” His answer? “They use paint.” I asked how it could possibly match the color of every surface it’s used on, but he insisted his answer must be right. Truly magical thinking.

I also saw him watch an ad for a random product, then promptly declare that he needed that product. I had always thought of ads as something to tune out, but he legit followed them as if they were friends giving advice. I had never seen anything like that.

Bob’s Burgers has the famous Little King Trashmouth and his husband Gary.

Damn. Well, if I’ll never get to see it, I suppose I can still imagine it as some far away, legendary place where horror dreams come true.