Lenny

Sometimes just being asked is enough.

Fuck, that sounds like a ridiculous amount of shite. Hopefully life balances out just up ahead.

Put 3 frozen chicken breasts in the instant pot, add 1 cup chicken stock, sachet of taco seasoning, half a cup of salsa, and a tin of kidney beans, pressure cook for 17 mins, break up the chicken and mix back in, serve with sour cream and grated cheese. Amazing.

Cookies! He’s not interested in salmon, ham, cheese, tuna, or any of the usual things. But you have a chocolate chip cookie and he’s in your face until you give him some. He’s not allowed the chocolate, and I don’t think that’s what he wants, he just loves the sweet beige American diet.

Thanks friend, some wise words there.

The main toxic boss got ‘laid off’ shortly after I brought up the issues with management, so things have improved since then. And Zoloft made me realize I had an underlying issue with a lot of things, so I guess it was the push I needed.

I am at one and it’s incredibly toxic. I got diagnosed with generalized anxiety after a year here and I regularly have mood swings. But the money is good and I work from home, so I’ve got that going for me.

When I moved from the UK to the US I left a fairly nice job paying £30k a year (this was back in the 2000s) and had to start again from the bottom. I earned $6 an hour, and my then bf and I sublet an apartment for $600 p/m (he was on a grad school salary that worked out to $9 an hour). We bought discount food items and everything was thrifted, we didn’t save anything, and we went nowhere and did nothing. I have a memory of us buying a sandwich from the gas station as a treat and making it last all weekend (tbf it was like a footlong sub).

Fast forward to now, we have a combined income that puts us in the top 10% of the country. We own a house, luckily got in before prices went insane, so our mortgage is actually less than our sublet was (adjusted for inflation). We still thrift and buy reduced meats from the supermarket, we travel more but because our jobs pay for it, we do eat out a lot more but I still cook most weeknights.

We’re better off now by a long shot, but we’re still careful with our money, and have crafted some neat tricks to make sure we don’t spend beyond our means. If we bought all the new clothes, groceries, cars, and vacations like the movies suggest is normal for a middle class couple, we’d go broke quickly. Also, having zero kids helps massively.

Sometimes I look at what we’ve achieved and what our net income is, and it’s wild to me that people survive on less. Sure, we enjoy things now vs. sticking to essentials at all times, but it’s wild that people are expected to live an entire life just getting by on the basics. What’s the point of having community, taxes, and law if you still live paycheck to paycheck, surviving just to work and sleep?

Yes! A very fun game to play as a couple! I liked how it was more graphically interesting than a lot of other puzzle games, and dialog is fantastic.

Same same. Dental hygiene and face care routine is a must twice a day, but other than that I can go a couple of days without a shower. I’ll be the first to admit I can get a little stanky, but there are no other people around to witness it. I think the issue with these unwashed people OP mentioned is their willingness to enter the public domain at peak stank, and their inability to notice it themselves.

That sounds alluring!

Adding them all to my list!

I just saw that on the menu. Excited to explore it!

Nope.

Previously not much of a gamer, I saw all the Starfield hype around release and decided to get an Xbox to play it. Didn’t like it initially, started to enjoy it around 5 hours in, have come full circle and am getting bored now (level 35) with all the repetitive stuff.

Starfield did show me that maybe i enjoy a wider range of video games, so now I’m starting on Fallout 4, and so far I LOVE it. I’ve pretty much only done one mission and spent a looooooong time building my first base.

I really love open world/exploration games, especially where there is crafting, hoarding, and killing bad guys in comical ways. Just Cause was amazing for that, I liked tethering people to trains because I’m secretly a maniac.

Salsa chicken in the instapot. Frozen chicken, taco seasoning, jar salsa, chicken stock, black beans. Yum.

Chatgpt suggested: “I wanted to share a little something to lift your spirits. Remember, it’s okay to take a moment for yourself – you more than deserve it. Know that you’re appreciated and never alone in this.”

A nice, somewhat mid tier soap or moisturizer gift set. Make sure it’s specific enough like face cream so it’s clearly a self care or treat yo self thing, vs a “you smell thing”, trick is to add a note letting her know she matters and deserves some me time.

My husband is very happy, but he also dies (in his video game)

First aid! I did a four day course many years ago and I still use the training in so many things. The final day we had to navigate a bus crash scenario and the part that stuck with me was the taking ownership and delegating roles when other people might be scared to act. I think it really instilled in me an ability to turn panic into action, and you can use the triage playbook in so many ways.

Dark bedroom, cats are put to bed downstairs (they chew feet so they can’t stay in the room with us), I put on some chill indie coffee house playlist and light some nag champa incense, and then I just lay there, staring at the ceiling. I don’t reflect on the past or ponder on the future, I just listen to the music, the distant trains and traffic, the rain, the wind, the leaves falling on the metal roof.

It’s my perfect beautifully braindead time. I can’t wait for legalization in our state, that’s the only missing component.