Happy birthday!! I probably wouldn’t survive most of my days without being able to come here to catch up on the latest Fairy Tale Makeup Bracket (still team siren), vent about our collapsing society, and just generally internet hang out with some of the best commenters on the internet. So thanks for being awesome.

Congrats! I’m jealous. I’m currently in the financial bs paperwork portion of mine and there’s nothing like listing all (i.e. none) of your assets as well as all your debts to make you wanna chug a bottle of wine.

No, I get that, but that’s my ocean fear. Shit is creepy and I’m not about it.

For me, it’s not the drowning. For me, it’s the creepy fucking creatures that live on the ocean floor that we know nothing about.

It’s something they tell on the tour. When she died, they found a massive room just FILLED with unused fabric because of the habit.

To be fair, I usually end up doing both, because I always lie and say “it’s a nice day out, I’ll just walk around Santana Row.” $300 later...

Eww I can imagine. It’s not playful, it’s not cute, it’s not romantic, it’s just gross. And having to weigh 1 kiss vs a possible escalation of the situation is a terrible spot and I’m sorry you had to be there.

Spiderwebs and the number 13 EVERYWHERE...what’s not to love?

I’m sure. I was already petrified when one guy lunged at me, but he’s friend got to him before he got me. I can’t imagine if he’d actually put his hands on me.

I always take my friends/family when they come to the bay area to visit. It’s just such a weird little gem. I think my favorite story about her is that because she was insanely rich, every time she went into town and found a fabric for a dress she wanted to make, she would buy ALL of the fabric so that no one else in…

Ugh, I am unsurprised, and deeply sorry.

I don’t see this as “a prank,” so it’s not about my sense of humor. I see this as an easier solution to getting out of a possibly dangerous situation. I can now appease a guy, have enough time to physically remove myself from the immediate situation, and continue on with my life.

Of course, and more power to you. I’m just trying to let people know that there’s no correct response to turning a guy down that won’t “endanger oneself.”

I took the article as saying to give this after saying no, and if/when they persist, handing it to them. You can generally give off one no, feel the vibe, and then know when to pull this trick out.

I will say, there’s this terrifying bond of sisterhood now, because I’ve been on the opposite side of that where I saw a girl waiting for her friends and a dude wouldn’t leave her alone, so I sat next to her and pretended to know her until her people came. I feel like there’s a lot of us that would just do it because…

Yes, frankly, I AM too afraid to tell some guys they aren’t my type. I have been yelled at, spit on, and watched a guy hold his friend back as he yelled at me I was a cunt. All because I either politely declined, sternly declined, or said I was married (which was true at the time). So forgive me for thinking a fake…

And get back the response: “I’m different” “You can make an exception” “What? You too good or something.”

Right? What even is this song without the rap verse?

I’ve tried everything from the straight up “leave me alone,” to ignoring, to pointing out that I have a bf/husband/whatever. All have had scary consequences. It is now, unfortunately, much safer to just give a fake number and be done with it.

Before a bunch of dudes jump on here and say, “BUT YOU SHOULD JUST BE HONEST WITH THE GUY!” A lot of the times we can’t, because every single one of us has some story of rejecting a guy and getting yelled at or worse.