I’ve read all the wonderful replies to your trip, which sounds amazeballs, and I have had similar wonderful trips in my life, and my question is: is there a chance the Wonderful Fellow can visit YOU? You mentioned he’s quite busy, but an entire year sounds like an awfully long time to forgo such amazing chemistry.

I’ve watched this happen to a couple of friends. One has achieved astronomical success, and even though this person is truly a good-hearted person (very philanthropic, extremely willing to be a voice for those without one), I have definitely noticed that they’ve been affected by being around lots of people telling…

Also not a fan of men using “kink shaming” to try and excuse very flagrant abuse in a relationship. It’s used so often for that purpose that anytime someone starts with “kink sh....” I start to cringe.

This literally made me laugh out loud. Thanks for that.

Forgive me for not wanting to watch the full 13 minutes - where can I find the Roman Polanski comment?

Hey now, we can’t dis the patchouli (if only because for me, the smell is attached to sooo many awesome memories from my youth. I never wore it, but I had some fun friends who did. I just started a new job that is all fragrance free - it’s in the employee handbook and part of the speech you get when you start - and…

The new rules for healing skin (from my dermatologist) is to keep cuts and scrapes covered the entire time until they heal. Even if it takes weeks. Apparently keeping the moisture locked in prevents scabbing (which apparently you don’t really want), and helps that injury heal more quickly. Again, info. came directly…

As a person who has fractured my foot/feet multiple times, it’s alarmingly easy. As burnitalldownnow said, if you turn your foot the wrong way it’s remarkably easy to break it. Yes, you can break it just tripping over one step, you can break it by catching yourself and landing on it hard after tripping, you can break…

I am loving this season because of the LADIES. I enjoy how they all called out JD for all his horrible-husband shit at the barbecue. The best thing about it this year is that the men have always been horrible, but this year, the women aren’t having any of that. Cameron has an entertaining personality, yet.....she has…

Agree on all counts. I went to my senior prom with my boyfriend and it was a pretty miserable time (he was a jerk that night). Also, the actual dance was boring. (Largely because it was filled with guys who never danced or refused to dance, so the girls had to stand around too. When I went to regular school dances -…

YESSS. I knew a guy in college who tried to talk about how some women LIKED being branded with hot pokers (because this happened in these GOR books, which he loved, and obviously, he failed to realize these weren’t autobiographies he was reading - these were fictitious women written by a man who wanted women to enjoy t…

And don’t forget - by slowly removing other choices. Like in the workplace example, often times you will be threatened with no references if you try to leave. Or you will be compared to other employees in a less favorable light. Or “if you’re thinking of leaving at all you’d better tell me so I can replace you right…

God, this is terrifying. I read the entire linked thread - more and more rights are being taken from employees. I recently left a job and had to sign away all kinds of rights before they let me have my final paychecks and severance. I actually hired a lawyer to look it over, because it was so disturbing. I can’t get…

I’m not a boomer, but I really dislike any generation painting any other generation with one, broad, brushstroke. Millennials aren’t horrible, lazy people. Boomers are not old, misguided, Fox news robots. There are horrible and great people in every generation. Example: boomers fought for the end of segregation. The…

I’m sorry you had to live through that. But this is disturbing exactly because it’s part of the incremental, step-by-step process of getting from where we are now, to an actual dictatorship. Dictatorships don’t happen overnight (even when there are coups, there are many, many, incremental events that lead up to that…

Thank you!

Thank you so much! Now that it’s been a couple weeks, I have a clearer, less depressed take on it, and I have composed something for the agency (as a start). Where I go from there will depend on their reaction. But you’re right - the impact it will have on my self-esteem is worth it!

Thank you - I’ve contemplated reaching out to the predecessor whose work was so great and organized. It’s something I’m thinking about. It depends on where things go from here.

Thank you for commiserating. That always helps! I don’t understand people who do this to others, I would never do anything like this, and I would never make up total lies about another person at work. I mean, it’s crazy. I’m sorry you’ve dealt with a backstabbing co-worker also. That really blows.

The ice cream truck example was a stand-in for a very real, equally ridiculous example. It was something similar to this, and as concretely disprovable, but I’m not printing it here because it is so unique and stand out and ridiculous that it would be recognized, should anyone ever stumble on this thread.