The feeling of counting the days makes me so miserable - I feel like I'm going to look back on this year of my life and not remember it because I'm putting all my energy into just getting it over with. I hate feeling like I'm just marking time, like I spend two weeks looking forward to my next trip to see my husband,…

As a current husband-sponger, I feel you. I can't wait to have income again so I feel like less of a drain on the finances. Maybe look into being a private chef then? Or see if cooking schools like the one I mentioned are hiring instructors? Most of the instructors at the one I worked at were former chefs/pasty chefs…

It's super mellow! And a lot of Korean spas have restaurants inside, so you can hang out all day in a robe and slippers in the hot jade room, go soak in the tubs, go to the nap room, go soak in the tubs, go have a smoothie, soak in the tub, and so on.

I LOVE kimchi fried rice. I bought kimchi today with that exact purpose in mind. And kimchi grilled cheese, and kimchi stew, and kimchi on a fork...

I'm a huge fan of spa days. I have zero percent modesty, so I got my baby sister a day at the Korean spa with me when she started college and she LOVED it. Granted, you will be walking around naked together so you have to be pretty comfortable with each other, but it's way cheaper than going to a luxury day spa…

Are you committed to staying in food? I used to work as an assistant at an informal cooking school that did cooking lessons on various cuisines with the meal and recipes included. Each class was about 12 people so it was a lot of couples on dates, corporate bonding, girl's night out, that kind of thing, and honestly…

I need a bit of a pep talk: does anyone have advice or stories about how to deal with feeling ambivalent about where you are in your life, and the accompanying resentment/frustration?

At first I was all, "Huh, butt lift, sort of weird timing but I guess get it all done at once" and then I realized you probably mean the non-American fanny and it was both more sensical and more upsetting.

Yeah they're both awful. I'm pretty sure I wanted to be badass, but wasn't allowed to use permanent color, so I just picked out the most unnatural semi-permanent rinse at the drugstore...

Same! I figure it'll look dated in ten years no matter what I'm wearing, so I might as well have fun with it. Besides, looking back through old pics is more fun when everyone really ran with the trends. My dad's 1986 mustache was awesome.

My (much older) half sister got married in the early 00s when I was about thirteen, and her two older daughters (maybe 17 and 19?) were bridesmaids and they went full Ever After: body glitter, hair glitter, long flowy dresses, and maybe fairy wings? Or I might just be feeling like they wore fairy wings because it was…

TMI but mines naturally in a heart shape and it's my favorite thing. I shave it to accentuate the heart shape and then stridently insist it's natural.

I've done that. It was a year ago and the scar is still there, and when I got out of the shower My Parade was like WHAT HAVE YOU DONE OH MY GOD PLEASE NEVER SHAVE AGAIN YOU AREN'T COMPETENT AT IT.

I have very few beauty regrets. The bad raccoon eyeliner was a necessary stage in teenage angst, the white girl dreads were glorious and huge and I love that my limp, fine hair got to experience that voluminous glory, and macrame was a reasonably harmless hobby for someone who was smoking that much weed. But the…

I have an ex with alopecia and his hair would fall out in clumps when he got stressed. Normally they weren't really obvious because he had fairly long, thick hair to begin with, but then he lost half his left eyebrow. I thought it was cute, he did not.

I still love Plaid.

Same! Mr Parade is the best. He's going to be a kick ass dad and we'll have fun parenting together, but I really hope he stays my highest priority (and I'm the same for him) because I think seeing that your parents are really, truly in love with each other is really important.

Yeah the childishness is what squicks me out. I don't think I used Mommy and Daddy with my parents past the age of five, except for sarcastic Mommy Dearest references - why would you inflict that on yourself?

Of course! I should have been more clear -it's when it's outside the role of mommy/daddy that it weirds me out. It's like, you just came in, kissed your husband on the cheek, and sweetly said "Hi, Daddy, how was work?" and all my ACK WEIRD alarms are going off like crazy.

I don't think it's that weird when it's to the kids, as in "Where's Daddy?!?" or that kind of thing, it's when it's two adults speaking directly to each other and still keeping up with the mommy & daddy thing. Of course, that might be my fear of being reduced to my child-bearing capabilities talking, but still...