My parents gave me the “please don’t drink, but if you do or your friends do and you don’t feel safe just call us. Never, EVER drive drunk or get in a car with someone who’s been drinking.” I feel like that was the right strategy.

Weddings only cost what you can afford, your parents are willing to pay, and how much debt you are willing to take on. They don’t just “cost what they cost”. They are like goldfish. They grow to the size they are able in the space they’re given. When I got married in 2003, my husband’s parents were in a bad place…

My uncle was raised Episcopalian, but stopped participating in religion a good 50 years ago. My cousin’s wife (uncle’s daughter-in-law) is Catholic. Neither of his sons has any religious inclination, so my cousin just had his wife arrange for an officiant. Since they were coming from out of state, I guess the Catholic…

When my son passed away, he was 14 months old and a friend had brought his young daughter up from KY for the funeral. It was late January and she had never seen snow so she started doing snow angels and playing in the snow at the cemetery. The other kids who were there were looking at their parents for the same…

Many years ago one of my very good friends died suddenly. The circumstances were pretty bad but he had this super cool hippie mom. His mom was the mom who’s house we always wanted to hang out at as teenager. So when he died she decided to bring him home and some friends made him a pine box and she decorated it with…

That really pissed me off. My high school was one of those super underfunded inner city public schools, and a vast majority of the students were on free lunches. I would like whoever wrote that quote to look these teens in the eyes and tell them how “ghetto” they are just because their cucumbers aren’t shaped like…

Answer: Yes. He probably could. After he ran out of clean underpants and had to resort to the emergency “Smiley Face Boxers”, he would probably do a load of laundry..but it would never make it into the dresser. He would probably use the same glass over and over. Grocery shopping would consist of food for our kid,…

And what is that guy cooking? A piece of white bread?

As a person who deals and works within the horse world, your parents are the fucking best.

It was my dad and stepmom (about 25 years ago). I was obsessed with horses growing up but it just never worked out. Parents divorced (you buy her a horse, no you buy her a horse), taking care of my sisters, job, early college. A slew of reasons. So when I finally had the means and the time I started riding, English…

When I was going to be a freshman in college my mom randomly told the Best Buy sales associate (male, naturally) we were buying a computer from that I would be starting college as a virgin. “How often do you see that?” she asked. Probably never mom, or more specifically...no one else in the history of ever has thought…

You guys, I would watch a reality show about ranch horses.

Anyone who has actually spent time around horses knows this. Not trying to diminish Briard’s work, since I’m sure her insights extend beyond this, but it’s painfully obvious that horses are bitchy, clichy creatures if you watch them for about five minutes. My 4H friends always used the term “mare-ish” as a stand-in…

I used to work at a ranch that had ~70 horses, and we spent a weird amount of time gossiping about the horses’ social structure; i.e. “You’ll never guess who I saw Chocolate eating with today.” “WHO??” “NAVAJO.” “No way! Navajo’s such a bitch.”

I forgot Gulaschsuppe and kinja won’t let me edit!

I make them from scratch at home much to the chagrin of my husband who believes “soup is not a full meal.”

Maybe this is where I am too lenient on service workers, but to this day I don’t understand how a single hair can instantly ruin all food within a 3 foot radius. I get that it’s gross at a primal level, but what exactly does a strand of hair do that is so threatening and offensive that it can’t simply be removed and…

This cover of Jolene is pretty spectacular. I only came across it a few months ago, and until then I hadn’t heard her sing (I am also an under-rock-dweller), and I was genuinely shocked at what a powerful instrument she has. Miley seems fairly callow and silly, but her voice is thrilling.

This is a nightmare - the poor woman.

Really? I had the WORST sex ed ever in Catholic school. I will never forget the day a pro-life speaker came to talk to us and told us that the condom industry created holes for “breathability” in their products that were big enough for sperm and STDs to get through.