I understand where you’re coming from, completely. It definitely feels like being silenced (again, because let’s face it, this shit is mentally throwing us right back into childhood when our needs and feelings were ignored). I understand that desperate feeling of needing to be heard. But we’re adults now, and the people at work aren’t your parents. There’s nothing obligating them to listen. Even my spouse needs time where I’m not ranting about politics. An hour a day is all he can do right now, and this is someone who cares about how I feel. But this isn’t a rejection of my feelings.

One thing I’ve personally had to realize is that the stuff about politics isn’t actually you. You have to find a way to have a degree of separation between the political and your actual core. I know it looks like they’re the same thing right now. But think about what you really want to accomplish, think about what kind of culture you want to create at work. Do you want everyone to be as upset as you are? Would that make a good working environment? If you want others to be more compassionate, I think coming from a place of compassion yourself might work better. Right now it sounds like you’re treating people in ways you probably wouldn’t want others treating you. You can still be true to yourself, your ideals, and values without being quite so forceful. For some reason beyond my immediate comprehension, demonstrating the intensity of your feelings doesn’t translate into people caring - it’s rather the opposite.

This was a really hard lesson for me and took a few weeks to fully understand and think through. I hope you have someone likeminded in your life you can talk to outside of work. If you don’t, please consider trying to find a new friend. You need someone who already understands, who you don’t need to convince, to blow off steam with. Good luck.

No, those are different things. Intrusive thoughts are your brain telling you terrible things like you suck at your work or your hobbies, you’re worthless, your friends don’t actually like you, and hey remember that time you did a cringey thing in front of people? They’re not true, and you’re not intentionally having these thoughts, but your brain can’t easily rationalize them away. It’s usually something that builds up over a lifetime so that you don’t even realize it’s happening. Thats how so many people get stuck believing the intrusive thoughts.

Don’t go to Facebook first! We need to start normalizing ways to organize outside of those giant corpo-fascist sites.

Especially at work, where you can’t leave and should probably be focusing on the work.

I keep getting told that no one will want to see my travel photos. Maybe it’s because I’d rather show them in person instead of posting on social media?

One time it snowed a foot or two in Seattle. I had a set of studded tires on a little Toyota Tercel and I swear I was the only fucker driving around. Uphill, downhill, cruising down the lumpy hard-packed freeway, didn’t have any problems. Besides, if you get stuck in a Tercel you can just lift the whole rear of the car out of the snow with a second person. I really miss that car.

Before you give up entirely, check out some of the areas surrounding Seattle. The capital is a bit more affordable and there are a lot of state jobs.

They are and they do, but this example is extreme. Having been on both sides of this, I’d say no one should have to live their life in fear of every little interaction. It’s exhausting, and you will never succeed in getting every person to leave you alone anyway. But this doesn’t have to be “the way it is.” You can actually change and make your life easier. Sometimes it takes help and a long time, but I believe most people can do it if they really want to.

Exactly. I don’t think you meant to, but you just described the majority of billionaires.

I guess not everybody is as smart as you. Congratulations or something.

You win, lol. That’s terrible.

My mom used to be a great cook but now she just makes everything in the microwave, often in plastic containers. This year she seemed to forget half the things she was going to cook. We had plans to make beignets and homemade eggnog (we didn’t). For Christmas dinner she made this elaborate meal plan and then changed everything at the last minute. She somehow didn’t think about starting the rice until the chicken was done cooking… then suggested we have nasty precooked pouch rice. For Christmas dinner. It would be different if she didn’t cook much or know how, but cooking is her whole thing! I’m honestly baffled. I’ve decided I’m just going to volunteer to cook the entire dinner next time. I’ve been a professional cook before. I can make something fancy, even if I’m the only one who will appreciate it.

If it chipped, then it is likely some kind of vinyl or composite made to look like wood. Nowadays the fake wood looks realistic enough to fool people! But real wood doesn’t chip like that.

If you already have a maxed out sharps drawer, then you probably don’t actually need any of the knives in this drawer. Like how often do you actually use the pizza cutter? I just cut pizza with a chef knife. Or the egg cutter? How often is that used? Sometimes the answer is to go through all your drawers and see what can be tossed to make space for the things you actually do use.

I’m surrounded by pine trees, blackberry bushes, and ivy. Christmas looks pretty green to me!

Actually, whether or not you want or need a trust will depend on what state you live in. Some states may try to force probate if you don’t have one, but in other states it isn’t necessary at all. Just to add more confusion!

I know unfinished business doesn’t necessarily mean business in the economic sense, but it’s still funny we call it that. Like even ghosts can’t escape capitalism.

That’s really not true though. I have met so many people who are married that I would never be attracted to! And there are probably loads of people out there who would never be attracted to me or my spouse. The only thing that matters is that we’re attracted to each other.

But the fact that you use the phrase “dating successfully” like there’s a right way to do it… there isn’t. Relationships are messy, and attraction is really only a small part of the whole thing. Stop reading game theory or whatever, that’s the real reason you’re having a hard time.

Mostly spatial. I can often find a passage in a book by where it was located on the page (I hate audiobooks and ebooks for this reason). I can’t remember a lot of my experiences later, unless someone can tell me where I was or what I might have been looking at. I’ll probably remember exactly where everyone was standing, but not what any of us said. Sometimes I wonder if I lost my eyesight if I would still be able to make memories at all.

Not to mention that some days I want an app or process to function one way, but on other days I might want it to function the opposite way, depending on my needs. There is no mechanism for the app to guess which way I want it to function, if such a change is even possible without reconfiguring all the settings.

I mean, sure, you could argue we’re already there.