That budget prediction is almost an art form in itself (yes I am biased as a LP lol)

It's an art form and it's sexy. That was my favorite thing I learned in film school and I really regret not trying harder to stay in the industry and pursue it.

I unironically love boomers on Reddit when you all do things like this. You are a sweet woman, I hope the goodwill you share comes back to you :).

I mean as far as I can tell it's just your word, but there are plants it's obvious for (like orchids and carnivorous plants).

I wouldn't mind an artistic and tasteful nude from someone I was interested in, especially if it captured most of their body and face. But when it's always shitty top-down dick pics, my first response is always trauma-induced anxiety, followed very quickly by nausea and disgust.

Because they can be invasive in their destination as well? They can escape cultivation and devastate a whole new landscape?

I've flown into CA with plants before. They were originally sourced from CA and had been kept indoors and were soilless and disease and pest free and I nuked the shit out of them before I left just in case. I was still shitting bricks the entire time and only did it because the plants were highly valuable.

But on the topic, it's legal to bring plants in to CA as long as they're not going to be planted in the ground and will be kept indoor cultivated only. Plus a bunch of other rules. If you're only flying domestic, you can get away with it without being interrogated on the landing side, but it's hairy and stressful.

I'm childfree, but i Dreamed a Dream has made me reliably break down in ugly tears for at least the last 8 years, because it's all about realizing your hopes for yourself and your life are dust and ashes, and I really have not had a great last decade. I'm not at Fantine's level (destitute and doing sex work to survive), but it has been a traumatic and emotionally devastating time nonetheless, because i am not an emotionally or mentally strong person. When she goes "I had a dream my life would be / so different from this hell I'm living" and really that whole last verse...yeah. Ugly tears and snot every time.

Have you checked out his video game soundtracks? I agree that BSG is kind of where he was able to flex the most artistry, but I still really enjoy listening to his video game music.

Arguably he's hampered most in RoP because he's Bear McCreary Doing Howard Shore.

My mom had me at 43. Apparently she almost had an abortion (for the reasons you mentioned) but changed her mind literally in the doctor's office. I'm her only child; she spent the previous two decades being told she was infertile by her doctors when apparently it was her husband, because they got divorced and a few years later I happened.

Like, I'm glad to be here, and I hope this means i also have over a decade to figure my shit out still, but christ, what in the name of fuck was she thinking 🤣.

Counterpoint: it's hot in theory, I just really don't like the way I taste. So I try to extend the same grace to my partners, though I also try to suss out if it's for your reasons (red/yellow flag) or mine (fair play). If I found a guy who liked it, though, I'd probably marry him on the spot. And then see how he felt about pegging.

OP, if you're reading this: it was probably a one-two punch. 1) some (many, idk) women don't like dirty talk; personally, nothing turns me off faster than some guy I hardly know treating me like a mindless sex-crazed object (not all women feel that way about it, that's just how it makes me feel), and 2) calling it your "wiener" absolutely waved a flag not just about your inexperience, but about your maturity level. If you can't say "penis", you might not be ready to have sex. Sex can be awkward, and uncomfortably vulnerable, especially for women, but also especially when you're first learning, and you need to be able to laugh and/or shrug it off and not get embarrassed by things like bodies. Which means calling a spade a spade.

Also I think the third and fourth lessons here are 3) don't do anything you're not comfortable with during sex, and 4) consider disclosing your relative inexperience to a woman you're dating. You don't need to admit you're a virgin, but you can hint at it by saying you haven't had "very many" partners. It'll change the mindset of the woman you're with, who might be expecting a competent dicking down if you don't otherwise say anything. She'll at least know to lower her expectations and, if you're lucky, give you some grace.

Either way, I absolutely cannot understand it 😂

Okay, I know you only asked for responses from people who actually have kids, but even though I'm childfree (for many of the reasons you listed in your post plus some others), I grew up at a barn that was pretty intergenerational (meaning some of the women riding there when I grew up had children), and I'm also at an age where my friends (both barn friends and regular friends) have started having children, so I feel pretty solid weighing in.

Generally speaking, only my most delulu friends have actually felt the same giddiness about having kids as they felt about getting and owning horses. They were also the friends who had kids young, in their late teens or early 20s. The rest of my friends have been more level headed and didn't feel giddy in the same way, but the unifying factor was that they all, at some point, wanted to be moms and saw that as part of their life path. They wanted to raise a human for 18+ years. They wanted to parent and teach and love and mold. They wanted to add another human (or more) to their lives with their partner; they wanted the sleepless nights and the first steps and the doctor visits and the snack runs and the shitty teenage years and the driving lessons and the first heartbreaks and the college applications. They, ultimately, wanted their lives to be about someone else, and they felt they had the patience and the love for it.

And yeah, as far as the horse friends and barnmates who have become parents are concerned: some of them have gotten lucky and gotten to share horses with their kids, because the kids were interested and the family managed to swing it financially with help from good jobs or their parents, and they're all really happy (they've all had to make sacrifices, but it was worth it for them). Some of them, however, haven't gotten so lucky, and have had to get out of horses, either because pregnancy wrecked their body and they couldn't ride anymore, or because they had a fall and got frightened of the risk as a parent, or because they had stuff happen financially and they had to choose their kids over their horses. And that's just a risk you have to decide if you're willing to take in order to be a parent.

Now, me personally, I have often thought about what I'd do differently than my mother if i were a parent, but that's as far as it's ever gone, plus I've never been stable enough financially to even start to consider it. Plus I've never been partnered long enough, and I'm sure as shit not doing parenthood by myself in this economy. Plus I fundamentally lack the patience to parent a child, or the desire to do so. And for me, all the possible negatives of parenthood far outweigh the positives.

So basically, my suggestion is this: stop thinking "do I want to have kids?" and start asking yourself "do I want to be a parent?" Reframing the question might give you your answer.

I will be completely honest with you -- I grew up in a conservative synagogue but with a secular home life. When my mom asked me if I wanted to have a bat mitzvah (as in, a whole ceremony where I was trained to read from the Torah, and did so, had to practice for my mitzvot, had my first time up at the bimah, lead the services with the rabbis for my special day, etc), I said "of course, yes!"

But what I really actually wanted was a giant party where all my friends were invited and I got presents and got to dress up super fancy. Which I couldn't have without the religious ceremony parts, because of the way my synagogue and my mom operated.

So what I'm saying is, check in with your daughter, and make it easy for her to be honest with you. She may actually just want the party, not the religious ceremony aspects. Make it easy for her to have that (outright offer the best party you can afford, even without the religious and ceremonial aspects). And then based on her answer, go from there. Because it may actually be the religious parts that she wants! But you'll never really know unless you make it equally possible for her to have each one without the other.

I also found out recently that some heaters have a safety setting on them where you can't turn it too high and burn yourself. But I spend so much time in the shower trying to get my water hot enough I'm not a shaking chihuahua, that my actual amount of hot water runs out before I stop being cold 😭. But my circulation problems are so bad that I can't use my hands bc of pain until they've had enough time to warm up.

It's really interesting to me to note that most of the positive comments here about America are from people in an upper tier of income brackets.

Myself and my friends are mostly all working class poor and hate America, because we see the way we suffer, when we wouldn't have to in some European countries (like the Scandi countries; also Australia, funnily enough). We just want a fair shot, decent wages, worker protections, and healthcare. We're well aware that many/most places are in fact worse off than America, but we look at the shit happening politically and culturally, and with regard to employment and economic disparity, housing and basic rights, and we're sure as shit not proud of our country. It could be worse, but it could be so much better. We're all just so tired of struggling to get nowhere.

Yeah, I've tried, but I honestly don't understand the appeal of skibidi toilet.

If your trainer owns the horse, I think your best option here is to tell her you want to continue riding with her, but you're not comfortable riding that horse (or with her at all) until he's examined by a vet. Withholding your money for her services is pretty much the only power move you've got.

They were talking about the South. Chicago is very significantly, notably, historically not the south.

"If God wanted you to have help changing your tire, he'd send help. Have a blessed day!"

Wouldn't sharing a shower maximize the amount of time you both get to experience hot water for the showers, with a tiny tank? I've had places where we have a small tank, but I've never attempted to share in those. Just wondering about the logistics 😅.

Oh girl same, nothing is as depressing as maxing out the hot water setting and discovering you can't go any further. If I don't emerge pink and steaming, it wasn't a good shower.

Same reason you're always cold when you get out of the jacuzzi, even on a warm day.

Not the person you're responding to, but Singapore is nice, has great food, is beautiful, shopping is fun, but the most common shower situation (shower head & hose in the bathroom next to the toilet with no separate tub or stall) is annoying as hell.

The original Pride was a riot. If you can do so, I'd suggest flying the Pride flag anyway, even if you aren't lgbtq. In your case, it would be allyship and really important for letting any others around know you are a safe person to come to or be around.

You're not having "Pride shoved in your daily life", you're just actually having to see it and acknowledge it for one month a year where you can't pretend it doesn't exist. People used to say the same thing about interracial relationships ("I'm so sick of having to see it/having it in my daily life"), and before that it was women in the public sphere. Maybe you should reconsider why rainbows make you so upset; telling people to go back in the closet/go back to hiding, even implicitly, is not treating someone with respect and kindness, especially when they've never said a single thing to you.