I love you all. I’m going to read these multiple times.

This is fucking beautiful. I love doing this here where I live (Connecticut is not as urban as you may think.)

Right?? I don’t know what we put in the water in this state. Maybe it’s all the chemicals leeching out of Lake Erie, but these sort of people are unfortunately not rare.

Of course it’s in Sandusky, too.

Wait you’re describing like half of North Carolina too....

That’s Missouri, too! And I wish I could say “rural” but: oh no, straight up white St. Louis right there.

I have an outline of Ohio on my shoulder. And I’m feeling a lot of feelings about that right now.

Yeesh! And I thought my drive thru stores were/are crazy! I’m sorry you had to deal with those twats.

What @goddessoftransitory said - you do turn a phrase :-)

If it makes you feel better, I would 100% read your memoir/novel.

One of my friends and former labmates married an adorkable Indian engineering student and they love each other to bits. She’s a tall German valkrie type with an accent, tattoos, and as many degrees as he has. His mom went on a hunger strike when they announced their intention to marry. Really put my mother in laws…

The opera company I work for did Fledermaus in our 2014-2015 season, and it’s definitely one of my favorites. It’s a beautiful opera music-wise and absolutely hilarious, especially with the right cast.

Between Sir Mix-A-Lot, and the more recent instance of that thing with Taylor swift (no its becky) suggesting that they’re interchangeable, “Becky” is still kind of a perfect “basic white girl” name.

You are closer to it than others. In the sixties, seventies, eighties, every other fucking white chick were given generic names like Becky, Stacey, Nicole, Lisa, and Jennifer. Vanilla and bland and nothing special, but they were treated as if they were the standard in which Black women were supposed to live up to .…

Me too. But along with the other commentators, I have OCD and some anxiety issues. I also pretty much hate all people I don't know and like all people I do know. It's a running joke at my office, actually. I guess I seemed shifty. as. fuck. as Laura put it until working there for about a month. Now, after four months,…

When I suddenly realize that I've been making eye contact with the person I'm talking to and that this person is paying attention to me I get extremely nervous, like I forget how to act like a normal person; I don't know if I should stop saying ok too much, maybe switch it up and add a "yes" or "mhmm", should I look…

Yeah my face starts to feel twitchy. It's mostly just co-workers though. There are too many feelings and anxieties that go along with work I think.

Your trouble with eye contact could have to do with troubles with your limbic system/amygdala.

Try looking at someone's eyebrows or the space between their eyes instead of directly into their eyes. I do a fair bit of public speaking and I find this helps with nerves, but the person you're looking at still thinks you're making eye contact so it's not weird.

I have some social anxiety/phobia and I get anxiety around new people. Eye contact is something I have learned to be aware of. Yours sounds pretty bad. I tried taking drugs for it but they made me apathetic so I stopped.