I had a pretty severe eating disorder for 12 years, and it got especially bad in my early-mid 20s. At one point I was on a psych ward (because my brain is fucking AWESOME), and they ran a bunch of labs on me that showed my electrolytes and shit were completely out of whack. (Not surprising, since I was making myself…

Excellent. Because, as we all know, addiction is a logical process that is simple to stop for any reason, including pregnancy. Plus, it’s easy to quit drugs and there are never any painful or frightening side effects!

Yup. I’m in the sort of in-between land. I was born in the early 80s and my boyfriend was born in the late 70s. I vividly remember learning about HIV/AIDS in 8th grade health class. I remember when Freddie Mercury died. I learned about Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Ryan White. So when my boyfriend was diagnosed, we both…

He didn’t get out of bed much for a couple of weeks. Between the depression/denial and starting the meds (they’re pretty harsh and he puked a lot at first), it was a really rough time. I don’t mean to imply that it’s no longer a big deal, but it’s not a constant...thing...anymore, either.

Thanks! The worst thing was having to watch him try to figure out how he got it. Of course, it does no good, it’s not like you can go back in time and undo things, but he drove himself NUTS trying to figure out what happened. He’s never done the high-risk activities like sharing needles or anything like that, and he…

It was emotionally pretty devastating at first, but he’s doing really well now. He takes meds every day, he’s undetectable and they’re actually using his blood/tissue in research because he’s responded so well to the medication. I’m still negative (I get tested regularly especially now that I’m pregnant), his ex is…

Yes.

That menu makes me want to die.

My boyfriend does this with certain words and names. He’s dyslexic, so I think it happens with words he’s mostly *read* (as opposed to heard spoken aloud), but I cannot deal with it when he starts talking about “chipol-tay” seasoning. I love him, but NO. That is not a word.

Yeah, I make $14 an hour in a medium sized city in Minnesota. I work for a nonprofit that does housing for homeless families, so at least I feel good about my work, but...I have a BA and I’m not seeing a whole lot of better-paying jobs, period.

They can’t (I mean, not physically), but they can make it a firing offense for the waitstaff to keep the money.

It’s a logical question. Additionally, I’m willing to bet that people with certain types of convictions don’t qualify. My organization generally won’t accept anyone with a sex offense (because we have families with kids *everywhere*), or certain types of violent crimes (homicide, some assaults). I’m not sure that…

Inability or unwillingness to comply with rules or conditions for the housing. I work for an organization that does subsidized housing for homeless families, and we operate on a harm reduction model...but some places don’t. If they operate on a zero tolerance model or require drug testing or AA attendance or whatever,…

My friends’ daughter calls one “Mommy” and the other “Mama”. This is by no means universal, though.

I used to get gender policed ALL THE TIME as a masculine presenting high school girl. Always some mean old lady demanding to know what I thought I was doing in the bathroom. It got so I would loudly announce, “I JUST HAVE TO PEE!”

I saw Jurassic Park in the theater when it came out, so I would have been...ten? Eleven? It was a formative experience for me. I have never been the same.

I actually lived in Potomac from 2008-2010. My partner and I rented a house there, and the only reason we could afford it was because we rented directly from a good friend of my partner’s. It was a surreal place to live.

I was teaching when Sandy Hook happened, and I very nearly broke down bawling in the middle of a class imagining what I’d do if I had to protect all those little people from someone trying to kill them. Now, I was teaching in Korea, so the likelihood was even smaller, but still.

I’m pregnant now, and I only found out early on because I went to the doctor for a Pap smear. I’ve had very irregular periods for years (I had an eating disorder for 12 years and was underweight and very malnourished for an extended period of time.) For the past 3-4 years, I’ve gotten my period for about ten minutes,…

The list of activities Girl Scouts are outright prohibited from doing (as part of official Girl Scout programming, I mean) is pretty small. Paintball, bungee jumping, and possibly trampolining (because it’s actually pretty risky for spinal injuries) are the three that come to mind. Also hunting- but target shooting is…