My stepdad is very kind, very compassionate, and very deliberate with his speech (if not so deliberate with other things haha) — he’s a music teacher at a grade school in a poor district, and works with a lot of kids with problems, so it serves him well to speak this way.

This was an incredibly touching read. There’s something so pure about dreams — I don’t mean pure in a sense of goodness or light or anything like that, but that the emotions are pure, distilled versions of themselves. I was struck by your description of the wasteland, and it reminded me of a couple of intense dreams…

My mom, a 68 year old woman, recently embraced the separate bedroom. She’s always been a light sleeper, bad at sharing a bed. I think she slept badly for most of her adult life, whenever she had a partner.

That was my thought, too! I’ve even hit the wrong pedal before (in my defense, I was a teenager learning to drive, and I didn’t hit anything), but even with a bad reaction time, I’d expect a fender bender and some minor property damage, not crashing through the storefront!! Was he planning to gun it out of the parking…

My dog once lost her mind when my then-partner came home after a haircut. She thought he was a stranger (and I find this to be a hilarious reference for how shaggy and disheveled he’d let himself get before getting a haircut). Never mind the time I let her outside before getting ready for a Halloween party. I put on a…

Depends on the place. I’ve had a drive thru order recently with “green car” printed at the top of the receipt, so I know they could see me. I know the newer two order lane ones do so they can match up the order to the right car. But older ones generally don’t. Sounds like your starbucks probably has a camera, but it’s…

My stepdad’s son killed himself many years ago. He was 12. In his case, they associated it with antidepressants, which to my knowledge can make people more impulsive before they feel better, and so especially in young people can increase suicide risk.

I always have to cross and uncross my eyes until I hit the sweet spot and kind of “catch” it, and then I can relax my eyes and stay focused at the same point. It is harder to do it on a screen, though, and I’m not sure why.

The biggest reasons, to my knowledge, that butter is fine for a long time at room temperature, is that it’s almost entirely fat (no water), and it’s salted. Unsalted butter doesn’t keep as well at room temp, or at least not as long. I always have a stick of salted butter on my counter in a butter dish, and I’ve never…

I’d be worried about the fumes. Buying 3D printer filament, you generally know exactly what type of plastic it is — usually PLA. It’s a lot harder to know what kind of plastic you’re working with when it’s a pile of coffee cup lids from your starbucks habit. Clearly you can find that out from recycling numbers and…

Limes aren’t ok? Shoot, any citrus I’m cooking with generally gets its peels and whatever other bits stuffed down the disposal. It never seems to have any more issue with limes than with lemons.

Claire, you’re my favorite.

Yes. Yes, he is. xD

Just finished it last night, totally loved it :D

Sometimes cooking is a lot of work hahaha

My ex also hated the smell of salmon, and I’m not ashamed to admit that since we broke up, I have gleefully eaten many meals that he would have hated, almost out of spite (but mostly out of the joy of having nobody to wrinkle their nose at me). A lot of large portions of salmon, very rare.

Oof, this might be making it onto my bachelorette-chow rotation.

For some reason, the idea of getting some kind of case or pouch for my period supplies didn’t even occur to me until I was well into college. Now, if and when I have a kid of period-having age, I’ll be taking her to pick out a cute little makeup pouch. Fun little zipper bags are perfect. Nobody thinks twice about a…

Nobody deserves the unexpected rampage of the Garfield alarm clock (lol)

When I was in high school, I was very bad at mornings and always sleepy. I had a tendency (as teenagers are programmed to do) to stay up late screwing around, and then I had to get up early. I refer to my sleep deprived self as “caveman brain,” and it’s very good at flailing around, not understanding why there are…