That’s not as profoundly bad as I was, nor my nearsighted child, and I had a work colleague with -12 who got her vision corrected with Lasik.

I had the Lasik in my 20s for a -6 prescription and got, not perfect, but good enough vision to only need thin, light glasses.

When I was profoundly nearsighted I got really good correction with contacts, hard contacts gave me supernaturally good vision, but glasses never did. Even now I can’t get perfect vision with glasses, it’s just good enough.

You are farsighted? Two older ladies at my work had to get cataract surgery and in the process, their vision was corrected. Do get a second opinion, but it is true that you may not be able to see perfectly through glasses, I never could. Well enough to work, to read, and to not get headaches from squinting all the time, though, I don’t feel disabled by my sight.

No tengo una plancha.

I have never had an iron, just wear knits mostly, natural fabrics. If absolutely necessary, will steam them, but only a couple times a year.

My mom didn’t iron much but she did have the board and the iron. Some of my coworkers do iron their stuff.

My mom talked about staying up late to hear the black radio station because everything on the radio was so boring. She ran away from home to see Elvis!

You live in a different world, with streaming, you can listen to so much music. I can remember before that - we at least had community radio with volunteer DJs who played different stuff but top 40 radio literally played about 40 songs on repeat.

I suppose your grandkids will also consider whatever you think shocking music to be boring too

Like siempastrophe, I was not blessed with belief. I remember finding out that the adults at the church really believed the stories they were telling were true, when I was 5 or so.

I wouldn’t say I am Atheist, with a capital A, either. No way to disprove, and the simple fact of physical existence is so mind-blowing, the universe existing at all, consciousness, time. But no I can’t believe enough to believe in any particular religion as true.

For a long time, the taxes worked better with one Head of Household filer and one Single, that’s the way you are required to file as unmarried parents, it gave us a bigger standard deduction. Benefits at work could still cover everyone.

I also didn’t want to be required to stay, wanted to stay because I wanted to.

Also wasn’t religious so didn’t have to get married to have sex or kids.

And lastly, I just didn’t really want to be a wife, there’s a lot of baggage and history associated with that. And a wedding was certainly never my dream, either.

I am married now, because my husband really wanted to be married. Like, his preference was much stronger than mine. It’s fine, didn’t really change anything for me, we still want to be together and he & our families really, really, really enjoyed the wedding when we had it, like still talk about how nice it was. So I guess I was wrong in some ways.

I dunno, I can sit by my husband and not get bitten, they don’t like me much so unless there is no other choice they leave me alone. I think they like people who are warmer and emit more carbon. It doesn’t seem like blood type is a strong factor.

If removing profit reduced cost, then most of them I guess. One of my kids works for an enormous employee owned company. So any profit, meaning billing beyond cost, goes to the workers, they are the owners.

Most of our good hospitals here are nonprofit though it doesn’t make them affordable.

I don’t personally care, but my husband wanted to be married and my weak preference not to did not matter as much to me as his strong preference to.

It did help when our kids were younger because “stepmom” and “stepdad” have an easier time doing things like school pick-up than “mom’s boyfriend” or dad’s girlfriend."

I just had what I think is such an American fry up for breakfast:

Tater tots, soft scrambled eggs, refried beans, sliced avocado and onion, sharp cheddar, and chipotle salsa.

Cuban sandwich is American - the bread is Cuban (I asked several people from Cuba) and while we have made some foods worse (fast food Chinese) some are better too - there is great Italian American food, certainly, and fusion stuff that is amazing. And fried chicken can be so good. I think we are aquisitive as fuck, both the language (we will take your word and make it part of English) and with foods. For better and worse.

I have never tried to be feminine, and believe strongly that “womanly” is the sum total of what women are and do, we define it every day by being ourselves. “Feminine” to me is the things people would do to impersonate a woman, if an alien came to earth, for example, and was performing to try to be like a woman - the outward behaviors and paint and hair and all.

So no, and I think it’s nothing to fret over. I want to be myself and help define what womanhood is, not chase after some stereotype. I’ve never felt particularly feminine, but do feel very attached to being female bodied, enjoyed being pregnant, nursing, love having sex as a woman. Just don’t see any point to stereotypical “femininity” or “masculinity” those are unnecessary, and actively harmful in some cases.

Self care for me:

Yoga class with other people.

Going out for a Pokemon go walk

Making healthy food that I enjoy (not trying to be virtuous and not junk either - nourishing and delicious).

Having a drink on the porch - ONE drink - with my husband.

Going to bed when I get sleepy and getting up when I wake up.

Smell, no. Taste, yes. I don’t understand how something that stinks so much while cooking can taste so good but yes, I like fried eggs, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, as long as they aren’t overcooked they are good.

The first time, I was 5’9" and 125lb when I got pregnant, so not like I had anywhere to hide it, but I worked until 6 months without telling anyone and that is when it became impossible to hide.

The subsequent times it happened faster, the belly was noticeable by 4 months or so, I could feel it before anyone else could tell in all cases.

I had a history teacher who was hugely fat - she warned us she would be out on maternity leave, we thought she meant later in the year but she was gone the next week, and when she came back, looked no different at all.

That sentence makes no sense. Figure out the amount you would need to eat and work out to MAINTAIN your desired weight and start doing that. Let it take however long it takes, then keep doing that to maintain, or tweak it to improve.

50lb in 2 months sounds dangerous as fuck. You could stop eating and probably lose that much, fuck up your metabolism, and immediately gain it back without even eating as much as you did before.

Oh my ex wanted me to cut his hair, but just pulled it over one shoulder and said cut it off. He wanted to see it cut, understand? No, neither did i. I said “no, it will be slanty because it’s all pulled to one side, let me cut it into a haircut.” He said no, it will be fine, just cut it. “It will be slanty!” He was getting mad, JUST CUT IT! Finally he just took scissors and cut it how he wanted. “Oh no, it’s all slanty!”

South Canada?

North Mexico?

How old?

I don’t feel like I’ve forgotten more and more. It’s more like I have only ever had a few memories from being a little kid.

Sense of self gets deeper, not lost. All those years of experience add up to more self, not less. I was, though, for sure more self-centered when young, less aware of others, more selfish.

3rd grade teacher killed himself.

6th grade, no teacher for half the year.

I didn’t like any year in school, and honestly wake up every day happy not to have to go to school.

Beep beep boop.

Not only am I not a bot, I’m not a guy.

I think there are some here, but nothing like the more commercial spaces.

Sadly I lost it, could not wear it in public back then, it had the circles of hell on the front and profanity on the back Fudge Packing Crack Smoking Satan Worshipping Mother Fuckers. White with pink print.

And yes if I had ANY idea they would get so big I would have asked them to sign it and kept it, I cut it up a little and wore it to shows and don’t remember what happened to it. Really this was like 35 years ago! Maybe more. The club was the Masquerade in Ybor City in Tampa, back when it wasn’t all bars and was still kinda rough.