Here's some context: My bf (28M) and I (28F) have been good friends since we were 14. We always cared for each other but never had a chance to be together until adulthood. We have been together for 3 years after reconnecting. I just gave birth to our first and only baby a month ago and I'm still recovering from a traumatic emergency c-section and grieving the recent and sudden loss of my mother and horrific sudden losses of my two best friends.
In the past I have told him I would be okay with bringing in a second woman for fun (I'm bisexual) as I do miss the intimacy of a woman sometimes, but only if we talked about it beforehand, there is no going behind each other's backs and it couldn't be someone we knew from before. And this should go without saying but nothing can happen until I'm physically and emotionally healed from having our child, as well as having had to come off all my anti depressants and anti psychotic meds cold turkey. I am nursing so I'm choosing to stay off things for now. It's just been really hard. And I'm still in a ton of physical pain and discomfort. My self esteem is the lowest its ever been.
Well, about a week ago he came right out and told me he has been messaging with his ex. The one that really screwed him over some years ago and his last serious relationship before me. She has two children that he had a hand in helping raise…
He said they have put their past behind them and that he's forgiven her and they were just catching up, but that he was curious if I would ever be interested in having her come down for some no strings attached fun. He said he asked because he was familiar with her and somehow he thought that would make it easier for me or something…
He said he's told her about me, our life and that it wouldn't be serious. But obviously I said I didn't think I would be comfortable with that and I thanked him for being honest with me. I also asked if they have flirted and he said no.
Well, I know this is wrong but earlier tonight his phone was open and I had the sudden feeling like I needed to look at their messages.
What I found made me sick to my stomach.
Not only did he initiate the conversation but he's said some pretty intimate things to her, like how he's missed her. They've exchanged at least two nudes (that I know of)
but worst of all he sent her intimate pictures of he and I…
and all of this happened while I was heavily pregnant! They apparently also talked on FB Messenger but I didn't look… I'm afraid to. She asked if I “knew yet”.
He has always treated me with such love and respect. Had my back and taken incredibly good care of me since day 1. He is my best friend… He is an amazing father.
(TW) He saw me come out of a seriously abusive, painful relationship where my ex committed suicide when I left after years of abuse. I only bring that up to convey just how much we've been through in such a short time.
We have always been honest with each other up until this. I don't understand… Why is he lying, especially if he brought it up in the first place? He knows he could have just been honest when I asked. I've never given him a reason to lie or feel like he can't talk to me about anything. I'm heartbroken, and PISSED. he knows me self esteem is in the gutter right now. How could he do this? With HER?
Even if I wanted to get away for a bit I have no family or friends to go to. He's literally all I have and I could never separate him from our daughter. We really love each other…
What do I do? I can't keep this bottled up, but I also don't want to ambush him. Do I ask him straight up if I can see the messages? I feel like asking a vague question may just get another bullshit answer. Please help...

I don’t know what to do
I (39f) am going through a crisis. I don’t know what to do with my career. I started off working as customer support rep and built from there. I have 17 years experience managing teams( e-commerce particularly). Few months ago the company I was working for since 2016 shut down. I have a 3.5 year old and back then I had no child care arrangements. I am not in the US and child are is difficult where I am. February end I found a paid caretaker for my child and started applying for jobs since and haven’t gotten any responses. I guess I am overpaid for them.
I am doing many things to find my footing but somehow feel lost. While also trying to find something online, I thought it would be good to get back to studying French which I had left incomplete in my my early 20s. I have enrolled myself into a refresher course and also started marketing myself as a tutor for young kids. Now I am getting enquiries but two days back my husband suddenly left his job due to conflicts. He is confident of making it as a real estate consultant and doesn’t want to go back to a full time job. I am worried about the expenses. I talked to him about tutoring enquiries I was getting and he asked me to start only from June which may result in me losing out the opportunity. He also feels I should go back to a full time job for a while to be on a safer side. He isn’t forcing it on me but I can feel he isn’t very confident of my French tutoring idea.
I have also enrolled myself into a sleep consultant course. I was planning on training myself as a yoga instructor too but now I am not sure. I keep looking for jobs daily as well but I feel like I have lost myself.
I have absolutely no idea what to do. I need some career option that sustains me for another 20 years atleast.
Please can y’all advise me I am desperate.

I (39f) am going through a crisis. I don’t know what to do with my career. I started off working as customer support rep and built from there. I have 17 years experience managing teams( e-commerce particularly). Few months ago the company I was working for since 2016 shut down. I have a 3.5 year old and back then I had no child care arrangements. I am not in the US and child are is difficult where I am. February end I found a paid caretaker for my child and started applying for jobs since and haven’t gotten any responses. I guess I am overpaid for them.
I am doing many things to find my footing but somehow feel lost. While also trying to find something online, I thought it would be good to get back to studying French which I had left incomplete in my my early 20s. I have enrolled myself into a refresher course and also started marketing myself as a tutor for young kids. Now I am getting enquiries but two days back my husband suddenly left his job due to conflicts. He is confident of making it as a real estate consultant and doesn’t want to go back to a full time job. I am worried about the expenses. I talked to him about tutoring enquiries I was getting and he asked me to start only from June which may result in me losing out the opportunity. He also feels I should go back to a full time job for a while to be on a safer side. He isn’t forcing it on me but I can feel he isn’t very confident of my French tutoring idea.
I have also enrolled myself into a sleep consultant course. I was planning on training myself as a yoga instructor too but now I am not sure. I keep looking for jobs daily as well but I feel like I have lost myself.
I have absolutely no idea what to do. I need some career option that sustains me for another 20 years atleast.
Please can y’all advise me I am desperate.

Here's some context: My bf (28M) and I (28F) have been good friends since we were 14. We always cared for each other but never had a chance to be together until adulthood. We have been together for 3 years after reconnecting. I just gave birth to our first and only baby a month ago and I'm still recovering from a traumatic emergency c-section and grieving the recent and sudden loss of my mother and horrific sudden losses of my two best friends.
In the past I have told him I would be okay with bringing in a second woman for fun (I'm bisexual) as I do miss the intimacy of a woman sometimes, but only if we talked about it beforehand, there is no going behind each other's backs and it couldn't be someone we knew from before. And this should go without saying but nothing can happen until I'm physically and emotionally healed from having our child, as well as having had to come off all my anti depressants and anti psychotic meds cold turkey. I am nursing so I'm choosing to stay off things for now. It's just been really hard. And I'm still in a ton of physical pain and discomfort. My self esteem is the lowest its ever been.
Well, about a week ago he came right out and told me he has been messaging with his ex. The one that really screwed him over some years ago and his last serious relationship before me. She has two children that he had a hand in helping raise…
He said they have put their past behind them and that he's forgiven her and they were just catching up, but that he was curious if I would ever be interested in having her come down for some no strings attached fun. He said he asked because he was familiar with her and somehow he thought that would make it easier for me or something…
He said he's told her about me, our life and that it wouldn't be serious. But obviously I said I didn't think I would be comfortable with that and I thanked him for being honest with me. I also asked if they have flirted and he said no.
Well, I know this is wrong but earlier tonight his phone was open and I had the sudden feeling like I needed to look at their messages.
What I found made me sick to my stomach.
Not only did he initiate the conversation but he's said some pretty intimate things to her, like how he's missed her. They've exchanged at least two nudes (that I know of)
but worst of all he sent her intimate pictures of he and I…
and all of this happened while I was heavily pregnant! They apparently also talked on FB Messenger but I didn't look… I'm afraid to. She asked if I “knew yet”.
He has always treated me with such love and respect. Had my back and taken incredibly good care of me since day 1. He is my best friend… He is an amazing father.
(TW) He saw me come out of a seriously abusive, painful relationship where my ex committed suicide when I left after years of abuse. I only bring that up to convey just how much we've been through in such a short time.
We have always been honest with each other up until this. I don't understand… Why is he lying, especially if he brought it up in the first place? He knows he could have just been honest when I asked. I've never given him a reason to lie or feel like he can't talk to me about anything. I'm heartbroken, and PISSED. he knows me self esteem is in the gutter right now. How could he do this? With HER?
Even if I wanted to get away for a bit I have no family or friends to go to. He's literally all I have and I could never separate him from our daughter. We really love each other…
What do I do? I can't keep this bottled up, but I also don't want to ambush him. Do I ask him straight up if I can see the messages? I feel like asking a vague question may just get another bullshit answer. Please help...

Every time he saw Juniper, someone was trying to kill her.
He opened the second story window and let her in, as his best friend Troy laid down as much cover fire as could be achieved with a Hawken plains rifle. She was light enough to find climbing purchase on the rough-hewn support post.
"I've got six shots in me, and one of them is lead," she told him as she climbed in the window, pulling on a metal flask that singed his nose from four feet away.
It was the little details that stuck out to him in moments like these, and he couldn't help but notice that a single wild curl had escaped the back of her modest black head covering.
"Hello, Juniper. Why are the Sioux after you?"
"Probably because I stole one of their horses to get here," she said as she reloaded her revolver.
A shot burst through the top of the window, shattering both panes. Instinctively, they all dropped to the floor. That seemed to be all. By the time they picked themselves up, the Indians were riding out of town with the stolen horse.
"That was a really expensive window! The nearest glassmaker is in Denver!" Jack's best friend said.
Juniper's voice barely shook as she asked, "How far to the doctor?"
Jack shook his head.
"The doctor has gone to the next town over. Cholera outbreak. I think I can do a better job removing the bullet than last time...but drink the rest of your liquor."
It went better than he thought it would. She screamed a little, he screamed a little, but the bullet came right out.
The recovery was worse. Not because it was more painful, but because Juniper was so restless she kept tearing her stitches.
By day three, she was trying to convince Jack to go to Canada with her to hunt man eating grizzly bears.
"There's a pretty good bounty," she said.
Jack put the last stitch in place on her shoulder.
"Does anyone want to kill you in Canada?"
"What?"
"Just thinking aloud."
A fierce wind whistled past his little wooden cabin, but it was pleasant enough inside. A small pot of coffee simmered on the wood stove.
This time, wherever she went, he was going with her. He'd spent the last year of her absence in regret for watching her ride away.
It was rumors of gold to be found further west that ultimately captured Juniper's interest.
They left on a bright Saturday morning, with two horses and the most noisy and belligerent pack mule to ever live. They had courage and supplies, but nothing could have prepared them for the journey ahead.

Missouri.
I dated a girl in 2010 and 2011. In 2010 she broke into my apartment by climbing thru my bedroom window and destroyed my room. My roommates were home and witnessed it. We called the police. Officer A and other officers arrived. Officer A didn't file a police report. No follow up contact from the police department happened. No charges were filed.
The same girl stalked me to the domestic violence shelter I worked at. Her sorority sister lived in an apartment across the street. She blew up the emergency hotline all day trying to speak to me while I was working. Repeated phone calls that prevented anyone else from calling in. The executive director told me I would have to file a police report, obtain an order of protection or resign. I called dispatch who sent Officer A to the shelter. He called her and asked her to stop. No charges were filed. No police report was done.
The next year I broke up with her again, in 2011. She followed me home from the bars. I went to sleep in my bed. I woke up and she was on top of me with me inside of her. When she realized I was awake she pinned me down and told me to change my Facebook status to "in a relationship." I threw her off of me into a wall. I called the police. They sent Officer A and maybe 5 other officers. They got her out of the apartment. No charges were filed. No police report was done.
I've since contacted the police department to find out why no reports were done. They told me Officer A no longer works for the department and if I want to file charges I need to contact an attorney. They wouldn't give me a reason why.
I called again and told then I was recording the phone call. This time they transferred me to a supervisor who told me I need to call dispatch and report the crimes. So I did. Dispatch told me they were aware of me and would need to contact the police department before assisting me. They ended up transferring me to an officer who took my report. They sent it to detectives. I called but the police department wouldn't let me speak to any detectives.
I called yesterday and explained to the front desk Officer what happened. She told me she doubts that I was instructed to call an attorney. I got her to transfer me to a detective. I left a voicemail.
The detective called me back this morning and apologized. He said they contacted the prosecutors office to see what they could do. Prosecutors office said it's out of the 3 year statute of limitations. He said they did a report for me if I want to pursue civil litigation. He said that Officer A no longer works for the department. He retired so there are no actions the police department can take against him. The detective apologized for it not being handled properly.
What civil actions can I take? My mental health is not great. Relationships are difficult for me to sustain most of the time if they are intimate. I've gone to counseling and the counselors believe this was a catalyst for my mental health decline. That's lead to relationships with women who weren't positive impacts on my life. That's resulted in another sexual assault. Holding down a professional job is difficult for me. I spend a lot of time not in the present. I've been told by a professional that this is CPTSD. My unstable career paths have resulted in medical insurance not being a guarantee so mental health treatment is kind of, "where I can get it when I can get it."
I used to be normal and confident. I want that back. I don't think I am going to get that back. I need to know what civil actions I can take and against who.
Thank you.

I guess I’m not sure where else I can say this and this seems like a safe place. I want to preface this by saying my husband is a great man and great father and great person. We got into a bit of an argument this morning because I feel very leashed. We have two kids (5 and 2) and I am a stay at home mom
I have been having a hard time for a while. A bit of history: we got pregnant unexpectedly when I was 24 and although that doesn’t seem very young I was just starting my career journey and I was very thrown off and so was my husband. I love my kids, I love my husband but I have been feeling so lost. I have always been independent and giving up my job and financial independence was very hard. But when I was young my mom went back to work and kind of left me to my own devices so I was adamant about being with my kids and not putting them in daycare, a decision I am still happy with.
The problem is that I am just constantly being like tethered and leashed to the house, to them, to my husbands work schedule etc. we moved back near family to have some help which has been good but I still feel like I am just constantly trying to have more time to myself and the more I try the less I succeed. Then my husbands friend came to town and he’s like I’m going to the game with him and we’re going to leave at 4 and I just absolutely lost it. I just feel so angry that he can up and go yet I am here like micromanaging every second of every day trying to squeeze in a workout or a cup of coffee and he can just leave. And he really doesn’t do this often but I can never do it and that’s why it bothers me. We went to a concert last week and we didn’t leave until 630 because we were getting the kids down and I didn’t want my mom to have to deal with my 2 year old crying because we haven’t left her often and then we got to the venue late I had to literally eat a salad in five mins. And the week before that I did visit my friends but again I had to wait until 8 o’clock because I needed to get my kids down. Yet he’s just like planning this nice night out with his friend and I am getting rushed through dinner . I just feel like he has all this freedom, all this adult stuff and I am just in the background, on the sidelines. And I’m so sad that I feel this way because I really love them so much and I truly don’t mind being a stay at home mom, I honestly love spending time with my kids and my husband , I just feel like I can’t balance it and I can never make it all work. Then I just feel like a bad wife and a bad mom who’s resentful of everything which is also not who I want to be.
I guess I am just wondering if I’m wrong or if this is normal to feel like this. I get the impression that my husband is simultaneously annoyed and sad by me feeling this way.

I had a huge crush on this guy. I got mixed signals from him so didn't know if he was interested at all. My therapist told me to talk to him and clear things out so i did. At first he asked for a week to think about it but at the end he said no and told me not to ask for the reason and he doesn't want to talk about it and it's a done deal. I tried my best to pretend everything was normal as hard and painful as it is, but today after seeing my friend - who i referred for the job- flirting with him for a couple days - after trying so hard to get over it, i asked her if they were dating. I clarified how it's none of my business and I'm just asking to deal with my own emotions. She ended up telling me he had an interest in her and she had said no because I'm her friend and how she doesn't want to do something like that. But their interactions show something else. Anyways as i said i know i have no rights to claim anything and that they are 2 adult people who have the freedom to make any decisions. But deep down, I'm crushed. I feel so much pain. I really liked him and cared for him and thought about how things could go between us, how much love and caring i could give him, and i feel so betrayed. I mean he could at least wait for a while for me to move on or even just discuss this with me. I'm not entitled to it. I just wish he was more considerate and also I'm so sad thinking I'd never find true mutual love, and how I'll end up dying alone just with my cats. I feel so sad and lonely rn and my heart is broken into a thousand pieces. He used to tell me how smart i am. Or how I'm an independent strong girl who is really rare to find so i thought he liked me and he valued those things in me. He didn't. He didn't like me back. He didn't care about any of the stuff he said and now I'm left with a broken heart and zero concentration to do my work. I don't know what to do. I'm desperate.

Hello lovely people! First I wanna start by saying. I love this group and I don’t know anyone personally who has pots but having this group has made me feel “normal” if that makes any sense. So thank you all for making me feel like I’m apart of a family❤️. Soooooo I am about to be a senior in high school. I grew up doing theater and I still do it, I have done show choir for over 7 years, I have been in a choir or choirs since I was very little starting with my Church choir when I was 4!!!! My sophomore year I was in 1 show choir and the advanced elite concert choir. That same year I had 15 knee dislocations. 14 on my right knee and 1 on my left knee. So I had surgery on my right knee. I am still healing but I am mostly healed. My whole junior year I am doing online school. Because of the surgery but also because this is when I pots got crazy and got really really bad. (My whole life I have had these weird issues that no one could figure it out.) we went to the doctor because we thought bc of the surgery it was making me have all this different thing. I was fainting, I was always so dizzy, the sun makes me pass out if I’m out for to long. I have had a migraine that hasn’t gone away since last October. That’s when we got the pot’s diagnosis! Then he told me I can still do show choir. But! To make sure your teachers are aware and to know you limits.
My question is when should I tell my teachers? I am moving to a new school district for my senior year. I also have a very large IEP (individualized education plan) so I get extra help and more! I feel like I’m asking for to much. But I know I need them to know. Should I email them? Should I tell them on the first day of school? Should I tell them on the like before school you go in and see your classes and teachers?
I wanna hear your opinions. Again thank you so much❤️ singing hugs and kisses to you all!

Dear Slothana community,
3 days ago i posted (on reddit) about my wallet was hacked and all of my slothana coins were drained. Thanks to this community there was alot of respronse. What braught me to other Sloth victims. Together we found the reason of the hack. (Apple link on the bottom)
The hacker (wallet adress on the bottom) had made a app called 'Raydium app'. This app was available in app store. Once downloaded you needed tot fill in your phrase to login. With the know how of this being the raydium app we did. But actually this was a scam. Unfortunately we did find this out after we got drained.
I know this is our own stupid mistake. But for me and me and my other Sloth victims this is our first time in this big crypto world. We saw the advertisements about this promissing project and we invested in it from the beginning. Just like you all other Sloths we were tired of the 9-5. And just like you all other Sloths we holded in the dip. We'd loved to be a part of this community!
But for us our slothana coins are gone and ther is nothing left to hold.
Me (Greeenway) went from 437000 Sloth to zero (Signature on the bottom) My fellow Sloth (Alainbalain) Went from 156000 Sloth to zero (Signature on the bottom)
But as we did from the beginning, we believe in the strenght of this community. And with one of the biggest meme coin comunnity's on the planet i think we can put our hand together. Wouldn't it be beautiful to have a raise fund for the victims being scammend to show the world how strong our SLOTHANA community is!
Me and my fellow sloth have openend a wallet adres for donations in the bottom of the message. I hope that this message will get to the developers. So they can show the world what een powerful Slothana community we have! We've posted this on the X account of Slothana (Link in bottom), sharing would be great! Thank you all for being a Sloth!

Slothana #Communityfirst

New wallet adress (Wgreeenway): 9rmFxcpYGVUfWZF54EcysnKNUhCTmYwh52uaPftKLv1p New wallet adress (Alainbalain): Ac3DLNWDVPfz7u3z4qFYvaUXLvhmTxSqr8ByoDg9VkWW
Apple link about the hack: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255455314?answerId=260179381022&sortBy=best#260179381022 The hackers wallet adress: 4mhbQEd53q97td8jhugTAn2REA9uNG9cMuxU2NzY7RWG Signature of hack (Greeenway): 4sh7pEMC9H2wvzu7ji5fPzCQR9cSwnTGFukwUAxMoRMgebjEKSJ9QKpykVjDfB4NkL4UTNCgTyEbxNAN4c6aaYmc Signature of hack (alainbalain): 4ypxyqzWQGxjnTb27azLCGR5ixdQC8VCZJih77frMGuZDRNddggdbNDveN2fGYfz134iEu6Bg29zTwRizRWqvuX1 X post link: Wesley Groenewegen on X: "@SlothanaCoin Dear developers, 3 days ago i posted about my wallet was hacked and all of my slothana coins were drained. Thanks to this community we found the reason of the hack. Can you please take a little time to read this Reddit post: https://t.co/YKcfmn2T8U" / X (twitter.com)
Pictures of the drain:
https://preview.redd.it/f1rkiehzhe0d1.png?width=1179&format=png&auto=webp&s=5df7b8e0182490c0fac9d62b6ff1045153bc3062
https://preview.redd.it/ie6pluh3ie0d1.png?width=750&format=png&auto=webp&s=2d6edaedaefa9e781bb4b114b2e2448b8242db52

I'm establishing medical care in a new community, which is really annoying and difficult on its own.
I was pretty sure I had a heart attack last fall (looking back, it was stupid to ignore myself). I felt off all day, I kept getting heartburn, and my left jaw was tightening in waves from my chest up, my hands were tingling, and I had the sense of impending doom. I didn't go to the hospital because I didn't want to be "dramatic."
So I go to my new doctor three weeks ago (finally have insurance!) and told her about it. First question she had was "don't take this the wrong way, but do you feel like you have some medical anxiety?"
I told her no, I feel like I'm a type 1 diabetic with a family history of heart attacks. She does an ekg and her demeanor totally changes. Yes, I had a heart attack.
She orders labs. I go back in two weeks and she says the labs are fine, cholesterol is fine, so it was probably just stress and I should see a therapist.
Fucking thanks. I'm sure therapy will fix my heart.
Obviously I'm changing doctors, but of course now she's put in my chart that I have stress and potentially medical anxiety. So that's nice.
Oh and also she's not filling my script for tubing for my insulin pump until I meet a diabetic educator (if you're diabetic I'm sure your eyes just rolled out of your face) and hear all about the pump they usually work with.
Bitch, I do not fucking care which one you work with. I know which one works with me.
Fuck I hate being a woman. I feel like if a man said he'd had a heart attack he would not be asked about anxiety. If a man said he needed more tubing they'd fill the damn script.

You joined a new team with fresh eyes. Excited for a fresh start and the opportunity to work in another field. It seems like everyone is a team player, helping each other. The workload and responsibility is plenty, but still you managed.
Over time you start to see the less pretty side of the job. New management, long term/experienced employees have left, peers look burnt out, bored, stressed and depressed. Resulting in more sick days, including yourself. Less help from the team.
Team members complaining that they have to work. Complaining about other's apparent lack of work ethic, due to work factors outside of one's control. And wasting valuable time looking for equipment that mysteriously goes missing.
Team members doing the bare minimum, and not helping you. You enjoyed breaking a sweat at work, and going out of your way to fill in any spare minute you had to help others. But now you start doing the bare minimum plus a little more, to ensure your part of the job is done well.
Does one keep doing this to prevent everyone expecting you to do their job? To prevent oneself from being burnt out? Despite others noticing, and possibly judging you?
I'm tired. I look tired. I could sleep all day on my days off. I have no energy to put effort into my fitness and putting healthy food into my body. I'm not university educated. Barely college educated. I don't know what else I can do with my life career-wise, or what I'm capable of doing. I never complained about my position before, besides the past few months. I'm grateful to have a job. But I'm tired. Suppose I'll just put my head down and accept it for what it is. And try to focus more on my health.

All tips and tricks welcome. How did you get past your ADHD to pass this class? I simply don't find it interesting and every attempt to start feels like day 1 because I'm not retaining the information. I don't want to change majors for 1 class but I've definitely considered it in the last week as I have 6 weeks left to finish it or fail it and take it later. Thankfully I don't pay out of pocket but I don't want to unnecessarily kill my SAP either.

Apologies if this gets long-winded. Up until last month I was a journalist covering anime and manga, so I think I just have to get some words out of my system. Also, and obviously: Spoilers for Dress Up Darling to its current chapters, as well as the manga/anime One Week Friends.
I really enjoyed reading the recent posts from everyone on the analysis regarding chapter 100, if it feels like the book has lost its momentum, how the Comiket arc has made everyone feel, and so on. As someone that came to SBD/DUD via the anime but has dove into the manga heavy during the lull, it's refreshing to see a community taking an introspective look at the story, its arc, and the tug-of-war that seems to go on in regards to romance story versus cosplay tale.
But I also think that, by and large, falling into and caring too much about the "Will They/Won't They" of the story is a trap, and one that, if obsessed over for too long, inevitably leads to feeling let down by the time this story hits its conclusion.
On that note, let's talk about One Week Friends.
Initially released in 2012, Isshūkan Friends shares a lot of DNA with Dress-Up Darling. Both Square Enix joints, the two feature a very similar two-character lead romance dynamic. OWF is the story of Hase, a nervous high school boy who has a massive crush on his seemingly-ice queen class mate, Kaori. Taking a chance one day, he declares to her that he wants to be friends. However, she rejects him almost immediately. He comes to find that it wasn't because she doesn't want friends, but that she suffers from a condition that causes her memories to reset after a week. So, as a protective measure for herself, she just lives a life of stagnation--never making friends, never changing anything. At least until Hase comes around.
The story from there is familiar to Dress-Up Darling, in that a lot of the romantic tension comes from the perspectives of our two leads, as well as the "when are they going to get together?" of it all. In this case, the two sources of tension are as follows:
Kaori: Is entering into a friendship or having romantic feelings in her state fair to the other person? How does it affect her personally to have those feelings but only remember them through a journal--though her memory does begin to improve slightly over time. Is she worthy or friendship or love?
Hase: At a point, he places Kaori on a bit of a pedestal because he's been the only one to reach out to and make progress with this friendless girl. However, as their friend group grows and she becomes a more normal and stable person, he begins to resent not only losing this feeling of specialness, but the fact that he's feeling that way at all--no longer feeling like he's worthy of being there for her.
The parallels to Dress-Up Darling and the most recent stretch of the manga are apparent, as heartbreaking as its been to watching Marin and Gojo fumble in the metaphorical dark in that way that teen romance does so well. For Marin, she's in love with a boy that, at times feels distant, or that his main focus is the work. She's hesitated to confess her feelings time and again, both for the sake of comedy but also just because she's a teenager, and that kind of thing is hard for anyone to confess. She keeps hoping to create situations--some magical moment--where things fall into place and they both confess their true feelings, but circumstances and fate have kind of interfered to that point. However, she knows he's the only person in her life that's ever saw her for who she really is, and that's something she probably feels disconnected from as she approaches the precipice of cosplay stardom and feels more disconnected from Gojo than ever.
Meanwhile, Gojo has a similar issue to Hase in One Week Friends: He's placed this girl on a pedestal. A perfect doll that he isn't worthy of. So, he did the only thing he could ever do: Focus on the work and trying to show he cares through supporting her. However, he's hit the end road of that path, with 'Princess' now seen by the work at Comiket and feeling like, to him, that Marin has outgrown him. He feels unworthy of telling her how he feels.
And yes, both of them are idiots, but that's why we love stories like this in manga and anime.
In the case of One Week Friends, I always felt like that story somewhat fumbled the ball. The anime and the first run of the manga end on a very saccharine, melodramatic note. The two leads have a falling out, but then a memorable reunion on new year's day where they both somewhat confess their feelings. A lot of fans felt left out in the cold that the series didn't end in a full-blown confirmation of love--or even a kiss, but thems the breaks sometimes.
In the case of Dress-Up Darling, I think the takeaway to learn from is that the big, apex moment for this story is inevitably going to be the confession of love. It's what drew the most people into the story and thing that everyone on this sub is obviously waiting for. However, we really don't know if that's the way the mangaka views it, nor if that's the focus.
As insane as that feels to say. After all, what are we doing here if not waiting for Marin and Gojo to figure things out, stop being dumb, and just say how they feel?
Whether or not Dress-Up Darling nails the landing is going to completely depend on that moment. However, I remain optimistic. In a perfect world, I'd want the story to end with that confession finally happening: Marin realizing she needs to go after the things she wants and that the thing that kept her going all this time wasn't the finished product of the cosplay, but the memories made along the way. For Gojo, he needs to stop treating Marin like another hina doll--something to be placed up on a shelf and put behind a glass case, un approachable and only deserving of love from afar. He has to take agency in his own life and needs.
Personally, I could think of nothing better than this series ending with that confession happening and the last chapter detailing how Marin wants to do a cosplay of a traditional Hina Doll, making Gojo think its for an upcoming event. They work together as normal on it, the process and journey being the important part--with the final scene being them getting her ready in his room as always, with Gojo finally asking what the event is for. She responds, fully dressed as that thing Gojo has so admired for the longest time, that the event is just for him, and it always will be. Cut to that big two-page spread shot smile of her, but this time in Hina Doll garb.
Anyways, I'm going back to work.

Warning: mention of pregnancy loss and death of family members by gun violence
I, 31 female, have been together with my husband, 37 male, for 10 years and married for almost 9. We have two beautiful children, a 4 yr old son and a 2 yr old daughter and he has two other children with two other women that he doesn’t get to see and pays child support for. Before my son we had 12 losses, one of which I hemorrhaged from and then I ending up almost hemorrhaging to death after our son was born. We also had one more miscarriage after our daughter was born and I’ve since decided to not try for anymore even though this breaks my heart a little because I always wanted a bigger family.
I recently lost my mother and 10 year old niece in August after they were unalived by a family friend who also unalived himself. Less than two months later, my sister tragically passed in a car accident. To say that broke me is truly an understatement. For months all I could do was cry everyday and feel excruciating pain. My mom and sister were extremely close. We messaged and called every day, multiple times a day even though we all live within a 10 mile radius. They were there for me through everything life had to spit at us. We already have lost every female on my dad’s side of the family. My sister and I were all that was left besides our own daughters. The future feels daunting knowing that there may very well be decades with them not here with me.
It’s been many months now and I feel like I am finally starting to feel happiness and I’m just doing my best to spend as much time with my kids and remaining niece and nephew. My oldest niece is my partner in crime especially now that we are in the no mom and no sister club. She’s only in her early teens and she had also been shot but thankfully survived.
On to the issue. My husband has honestly never really put in any effort for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc. Usually my birthday I don’t give a crap for but it’s only because in the past I’ve been disappointed because no one ever did anything for it. And I’m talking about just like a card and cake. Nothing serious. I really have dirt floor standards to be frank because I just have learned throughout life not to expect anything. That said I am the person who no matter what kind of financial situation I am in will find a way to show love and appreciation no matter the budget. I’ll make you hand made cards, I’ll personally call you on your birthday or special holidays, and I’ll make cake or cupcakes from scratch. If I have a budget I’ll plan dinner and some time to spend out. I just love making people feel happy and special. I was just raised that way.
So of course I find and marry the one person who honestly could kind of care less. I don’t think he has ever gotten or done anything for my birthday, not for Christmas. I remember he got me something for Mothers Day a few years ago…AFTER I had said something. My mom and sister on the other hand always made sure I got a card and we all had a Mothers Day dinner where we would cook and just enjoy time with our kids and ourselves.
This is my first Mothers Day without them and tomorrow and my sisters birthday without her. I had already verbally mentioned how hard it was going to be and my husband fully knew that it was going to be a hard day for me. My friends even sent him ideas for me, like just cleaning up the house and waking up to make breakfast for me. Things he’s honestly never done ever, but hey those are free things anyone could do to make someone feel special. All he said to my best friend was “lol I don’t have any money.” She got pissed. She ended up buying me flowers, a wind chime, some NA beer (I’m sober), and spent extra time with me because she knew I needed my support people on Mother’s Day. My dad also came out in support and got me more NA beer, bought me lunch, and we picked up my oldest niece and I got to spend a ton of time with her. My husband? Slept in until 10:30am. Didn’t do anything all day. I was up at 6 am with the kids and made breakfast after I realized he was still sleeping because ya know, kids can’t starve and I’m not going to wait 4 hours to have breakfast myself.
The thing is, this is just the tip of the iceberg. He can’t stay employed and oftentimes will switch jobs to avoid paying child support. Sure he’s present for the kids now, but when the going gets tough he pretty much stops putting in effort. I bet if I lived even 20 minutes away from him he wouldn’t see the kids often. He has never ever done much around the house despite me working MULTIPLE jobs at times (at one point I was working 3 and going to school). I work full time for a Fortune 500 company and he can’t even schedule a damn doctors appointment for himself. Any time I try to bring things up he’s dismissive or just denies things. And now he’s also getting more angry and aggressive because child support is being taken out again and he ended up swatting our son so hard our son doubled over…in front of my whole family! This along with Mothers Day has got me just thinking I need to divorce him. He can’t hit our kids like that period. All our son did was throw a damn smore at him! And I have multiple witnesses including my niece, grandfather, brother and SIL. I want to protect our kids. I feel like after that happened if I stay with him I am essentially condoning his behavior. I absolutely confronted him about it and he says he feels bad and should never have done it but he felt justified in that moment. I can’t trust someone like that. And it’s not the first time he’s swatted at our son but this was certainly the worst. So I am ready to leave just for that but then our son would have to be with him unsupervised.
If I am overreacting I want to know. He says I am and constantly says I am. I just need some clarity and maybe just support because if I do this, this is something that once the ball is rolling you can’t really stop it. I’m just afraid…but I think I’m more afraid of what will happen if I stay.

Hi All,
Long story short While I was sick at my parents home my husband filed for divorce and left India by hiding my passport but he was texting me normal and on one day he said he was sick so I went to visit him as a surprise since it’s been too long that we stayed separately after 2yrs of being together but to my surprise my husband was not at home and my SIL locked me out while Inlaws are also not at home. She always creates something like this as she was going through divorce so after 3-4 hours of drama I decided to call 100 and she opened gate and reason for locking me out was she wanted to hide the truth that my husband left India.
Reasons I want to file FIR-
• He left without informing me & hidden my passport
• He cheated me by filing divorce on my back
• He was hidden that he had Infertility and other health related issues from before marriage
• I was jobless, hopeless because of whatever he does to me
• SIL filed fake FIR on me & inlaws not ready to have any type of discussion.
Reasons that’s stopping me-
• He texted me on whatsapp on the day I found he left, when I asked him
‘Do u want divorce?’ - “No”
Do u think trust can be built this way? - “I love you and miss you every moment and I cared you for 2 years without affection I don’t do that all”
• On our last call ( which is actually on divorce 1st hearing day he called but I haven’t received any info ) he said “ I know you kanna just work on your weight and mental health, improve your social skills, reduce screen time”

• speak something about divorce? : “Its not in my hands just work on what you can work on these 2 things weight and mental health”

I am confused as my heart says he is a good person but he told all my relatives that he hates me and he is not ready to continue this marriage and giving different reasons for different people and I am very much confused, Is he trying to manipulate me? He blocked me and not replying to my emails now. Now due to SIL fake FIR on me police suggest to file 498 and relatives also pressuring me to file it but I was with little hope that he will not do this to me.

I feel like Reddit is my only option to be able to receive insight or advice for my situation. So, to get right into it.. I was dumped on Valentine’s Day by my partner after 3 years of being together. Listen, my situation is different than most other breakups in a sense that it wasn’t mutual but we but mutually agreed to “take a break” while he’s busy with both work and school. He was in a nursing program while also working at a hospital. He had too much on his plate. I 100% understand that. The reason why he dumped me on Valentine’s Day is because I was supposed to see him after 2 months of waiting to see him in person. We got into an argument because he said that he would be free during the weekend but meant Thursday and Friday because that’s “his” weekend. Like bruh, of course I’d assume Saturday and Sunday. I called him to settle the confusion because I really wanted to see him. Like I said, I waited for 2 months to finally have a day to see him. Which then led to him saying mean things about how I’ve achieved nothing and need to figure that out while he focuses on what comes first. School and work. He promised to send a picture of all of his puppies, which I miss so much. That was February and I just got one picture of the dogs. Here’s the kicker though. He has no remorse or empathy towards the breakup. Whatsoever. He made it seem like it was a break, he even said “ we’ll see what happens during the summer.” Just to never even check up. I understand being busy but he didn’t even wish me happy birthday, which yeah, let’s say he’s too busy. No, he texted me on my birthday actually responding to a picture I sent of my pup. (His request was to give pictures of my dog) I responded THE SECOND HE TEXTED. I simply said “today is my birthday” I didn’t get a text until 2 days later. He’s going through a lot right now, especially since he failed out of the program. He’s planning to go to university and work more to pay for it. I understand he has so much to think of but how is he able to forget me and all of the three years we had together, so quickly. I figured he’d understand that it would be hard on me too. I cry about him everyday. I miss him so much. We were together one day and then broken up the next. He left and never looked back. I just thought maybe people could help me understand how to take that. I’m mad that he has no emotion or empathy towards the pain he’s caused me. I forgot to mention that I told him my grandpa was diagnosed with cancer two days before he broke up with me. He said that the call stressed him out and he didn’t need the stress. I get not being first, I get school and work being important but, did he even love me if he’s able to forget and move on so easily? I feel like I loved him too much and definitely more than he did for me. 3 years of dating and he’s said” I love you “ to me once. And it was like 6 months into dating, he said it by accident, then tried to play it off as if he was saying it to the dog. Then said jokingly to me, “ I was going to say something mean”. Of course I asked him to say it anyways. He goes on to say, “I was going to say, I don’t love you, I could never love you” and that was the last time he ever said it first. The first time I said it he told me thank you, that was 2 years into dating. I just, I don’t know how to take this. I thought he was my soulmate. What do you guys think? Just try and forget about him too? I cry about him every night. My soul feels empty. Everything hurts. I just wish things could’ve worked out.

What are some ways you combat food waste in order to save or salvage?
For our family, here's a few things I have been doing:
-Making a meal plan. I plan the entire week's meals, purchase groceries on Saturday, and then we have a plan for the entire week.
-Shopping at discount shops. For us, we have a Ruler Foods right down the street. I shop there mostly, but when I have to I will go to the Walmart that is also down the street. These are the cheapest grocery stores in my town. Our local supermarket (Sureway, in the midwest) is crazy high on prices so I avoid it at all costs. We have an Aldi in the next town over, but it is 10 miles away and I try not to drive much, especially when Ruler is comparable.
-Shop the weekly ad. For places like Ruler and Aldi, they put their weekly ads online. We typically meal plan from what meats and vegetables are on special that week and sometimes stock up if the price is right (recently bought two packs of chicken legs, each with 12 legs, for $5 a pack).
-If food is going to go bad, find ways to salvage it. For me, this week I had 1/4 gallon of milk that wasn't quite sour, but was 10 days past best buy date. I made cheese with it to top onto pasta. Any vegetables I have at the end of the week I chop up and freeze, and will use them in soups or to make veggie stock later. I also froze some corn tortillas, made breadcrumbs from bottom-of-the-bag chips, and plan to make breadcrumbs from the tortillas as well.
-First in, first out method: if food is still good, use it first before your newly store bought items. Pack of chicken from last week that's still good? Cook it up. I had about half the chicken legs left over from the meal I made, so next day I boiled them, when they were done I shredded them up and used them to add to a biscuit pot pie (leftover biscuits were already cooked and frozen from breakfast a week prior, so I used those instead of a traditional pot pie crust and there were no leftovers!) I also got about 2 quarts of chicken broth from boiling the chicken, which I froze and have used multiple times this week in recipes.
-Get creative. If you are unsure how to use leftover ingredients before they go bad, Google is your friend. I often will go to Google and try to find ways to use up items or salvage them in some way.
What are your favorite ways to save on groceries and combat food waste?

dear bean
yknow i know you definitely will not care about this and you will probably tell your friends and say how desperate or annoying or needy or shitty I am, and its fine - say what you want. because honestly I couldn't care less about how you think about me but I just want to be heard from your end one final time. and yea I did say that a couple times, I've tried reaching out a couple times, I've tried being a mature person even though I was actually breaking inside. so yea, I'm sorry I lied, sorry I said it would be my last time contacting you but breaking that promise every time, but this time it really will be the last time.
honestly, I think we had a good run for the what, 4 months we were friends? i have nothing bad to say about you, and even though it was hell after whatever you would call that, I still don't dislike you or hate you or feel negative feelings towards you, cause at the end of the day, we're all humans living life and we can decide when someone isn't worth being in our life anymore (that might sound passive aggressive, it wasn't supposed to sound like that, just read it like I understand the feeling). if you're annoyed by this email - don't keep reading, I'll just go on and on and I guess this email (that I will never send) is just a way for me to reflect and understand my feelings while also giving you, the bean that I knew, a chance to come out one last time before shutting me down once and for all. yea so if you're gonna go beserk from this email, dob me out to all your friends, then I suggest you leave before I pour my heart and soul out.
you were actually really cool in my eyes, talented and smart, it was hard not to admire the determination you had and the willingness to do things. and I hate admitting it, and I know my friends hate hearing me talk about it, but I miss you and your presence. yes, sue me, no I'm not in love with you, yes you made that big of and impact on me. i was scared of you when you first joined honk, you had very sharp and cool eyes. and again - you were talented which intimidated me. but overtime, I understood that you weren't scary, you were actually so sweet and funny and really silly. i liked how you pushed yourself to try harder and new things, like clarinet 1 in honk. i don't even know how we started chatting, I think you were looking for some sheet music or something. honestly it was nice talking to you, even from the beginning. it was fresh talking to someone new, I didn't have high expectations of where this friendship would go but I was happy enough to enjoy the moment while it lasted.
and well, that moment lasted a while. we talked for a week and I could already tell that my crappy feelings would complicate things - I just never met someone so like me before. even though I didn't have strong feelings, I knew they were there, but I still chose to talk to you. how foolish right? i mean we had the same interests, music (clarinet!!), txt, twisted tales, it was a coincidence meeting someone who was like a mini me. and of course, when we started talking about crushes, I felt adrenaline and just kept going until I just puked my feelings over you. I'm not sure how you felt then when I admitted I liked you, but if it was hard for you or if it made you uncomfortable, I'm sorry. putting you in that position must have been hard so i'msorry. you said you weren't ready for anything serious, but I was just excited, too happy to find someone finally, that it didn;t occur to me how fast i might be going.
we had our issues, but i thought that we loved each other. i loved you so i thought that even though i had issues, talking it out with you was always the best way to work things out. communication is key, that's what i told myself. i guess it wasn't key, unless it's the key to making friendships break apart. i guess i just tricked myself into thinking you loved me just as much as i loved you, so i thought you had the same idea of communication as i did. and honestly i think a part of me was right, because you did try. but it was my fault, i kept bringing in other little small things that affected me and you had to put me back together. and i guess that must've been annoying cause at some point you just stopped trying. I'm not saying that that's an issue or that it was your problem, I'm under the impression it was all my doing.
looking past that, i seriously loved you so much. i neglected a lot for you - again not blaming you, i did it because i really really loved you so much and i wanted the best for you in every circumstance (even if it didn't seem like it). i left my friends a lot, my mum noticed i was getting more distant and well, after things ended i got into touch with my loved ones again, so I'm in a way grateful for you for doing that.
love is hard to describe. but i knew i had love for you. i said i loved my other crushes, Nathan, louis. but they were absolutely nothing compared to what i had for you. i had love for you that was comparable to evangeline (don't tell her that). mayve you can tell but words could not describe how or what i felt after things ended. not sure what your breaking point was, but it must have been a big point. i have 3 main points regarding this end of whatever we had:

1. what is it we even had? you said we were just friends - i accept that - but i feel like it was definitely not what i saw. and yes, maybe this is subjective BUT i don't think friends hold hands (well they do but they're not afraid to), they don't celebrate "months of friendship" (recalling every month we were "together" we would celebrate) and friends don't kiss each other's foreheads like that (and if they didn't like it, they'd stop each other). honestly, I'm cringing recalling the fucking embarrassing things i did but it needs to be addressed. i have to ask you - and there's no shame in being truthful because i don't care anymore - what did you see us as? was i a one time fling? was i seriously just your friend? did you have feelings for me then realise i was too high maintenance to handle and dropped me? or maybe there was another factor. that brings me to my next point.
2. was there another person who you realised was better? again, while an average person might see this as morally incorrect - i do not care - you're human and you can feel whatever you want for whoever you want. But i’m genuinely asking, did you? Was it the guy you liked in year 6? The one who bullied you? Call me a detective but, i remember seqc calling one night after things ended, i was back from vietnam and had slightly accepted the idea of the situation. you pulled out some messages from a boy on discord, it was of him admitting he liked you back in year 6. i looked at the date, it was the 6th of january 2023, 9 days before you had the courage to break it off with me. Did he maybe have a part in this? Did you maybe feel things weren’t working out with me and realised you had a chance with someone else so you took it? AGAIN NO SHAME - you do whatever you want to do in life, i’m not shaming you or judging you I just genuinely want to know. I also saw you posting about a boy on your story - not sure if its the same boy but if it was, i hope it went well for you. Sorry these were all the conspiracy theories i made up to cope - crazy right? Imagine what a person can do to you.
3. why did we stop being friends? Even though things didn;t work out romantically (or what i thought was romantic, you thought of as friendship), i don’t know what happened to us. You told me you wanted to be friends. I also wanted to be friends. The only reason that kept me alright was the idea that even though you don’t think of me more, i could still keep you as a friend - someone i could share my passions with and geek out over txt music with. Thats why i tried to stay friends with you. I really and truly did try to make ‘friends’ work with you. But the more i tried - the more annoyed you got. Or i think you were getting annoyed. I wouldn’t know because you didn’t tell me how you felt afterwards. I tried to make it work because you said we could be friends but you gave up on me. I think that’s what hurt me the most - breaking your word. I keep saying it, but you’re entitled to do whatever you want, but it left an emotional scar on me. I don’t want to admit it, but on the days you started at (bean's new school name), i woke up early just to talk to you, to keep you company on the bus on your first few days. Yea cringey i know, bare with me please. I thought I owed you that, i thought that being friends with you after you ended ‘things’, i had to earn my right so i tried, i really tried to be my best for you, so you felt that maybe it was worth keeping me around. And maybe, maybe i was still in love with you then. But i think you saw talking to me for three days straight at 7am was annoying and you were probably uncomfortable because it was me. I feel like you saw me as a creep - almost like a pedo. But i tried and you gave up on me, and there was a time a couple months later where we were perfectly fine, but then things just went again.

you might think I just had silly little feelings for you. but I didn't. i really had feelings for you. and I don't know if you genuinely didn't see me that way, or you didn't have feelings for me, if you just thought it was a silly little thing we had going on or if you're hiding the fact you did like me at some point. I just know that losing you as a friend really crushed me to pieces. and yes you told people you never want to talk to me or talk about me - which is fine you're entitled to your own rights - but I just wanted to get this off my chest. one last time - I promise.
I don’t know if this will get to you. It probably won’t, theres a bit too much that i wrote in here. Do you care about this still? Definitely not (I’m assuming). It’s embarrassing how much I think about this and how much i regret not letting my feelings out before you removed me as a friend on instagram and discord (or even blocking me on spotify, not sure how spotify was a way for me to get to you but whatever works i guess). This issue has been taking up my mind for the last few years, and it really does suck. But I’m gonna let it out, so im sorry if you got up to here.
Not sure how much this means to you, but you can contact me anytime if you want to let out your feelings (of life, not about this or me), i want to support you as much as i can. I can also help you with coping with school - again i don’t think you’d take me up on that but it’s always an option if you need it. I won’t make it weird, i wont bring this up again, i’ll talk to you like you’re one of my friends.
I haven’t heard much about your feelings in this - feelings of anger, regret, sadness. If you do want to share (you most definitely don’t have to), email me, text me, contact me and we can talk about how you felt too. This email was for me to finally write down what i wanted to let out and finally let go of what happened (even if you think it was miniscule, it wasn’t for me).
Life is hard, and I learnt that through you and the experience of you. So thank you for teaching me this. Thank you for showing me what love felt like, and thank you for being my first love. You made it very hard for other people because i only compared them to what I had with you. But in saying that - I made life long friends who helped me cope. And I hope you found some life long friends as well.
I hope you have a good life (in saying that, i am assuming we will never meet each other ever again - but if we do meet again disregard this).
Thanks for everything (and nothing as well) (while that sounds bitter, its more like a thank you for what you taught me - life lessons and all - but also thanks for the pain i had to feel afterwards, while that pain was not enjoyable, it was what taught me).
kind regards,
toad
to readers: i censored the names for privacy, but i called her bean (as a nickname - it really suited her), and i was known as her 'toad', hence the names.

A little background: I turned 17 last month, me and two of my siblings were all adopted together, and our adoptive parents have 2 kids as well. I also took a bunch of extra classes so I could graduate this year rather then next.
I know that other people have a lot more to complain about but I am pissed and I need someone to talk to. On Friday, I went over to a friend's house and spent the night (both parents and younger siblings are out of state so it's just me here) and we stayed up until 2 in the morning (no big deal). On Saturday, I got home from work and went to play Xbox, and played until 10:00 the time I was told to go to bed, then my alarm clock unplugged overnight so i missed my alarm amd slept through church. Because of this my mom told me to put my phone in front of the camera and took all my tech away for Sunday(she didn't get here till Monday at like 5:30). Then she told me that I had to keep my door open until she got back(I was in here cleaning but according to her I was clearly messing around) so that the camera could see in here. (We have cameras all over our house) My response to that text was "Im actually in here cleaning but whatever". After that she takes all my shit for another day, so all of Monday. Monday was my last day of school so I had a couple of finals left, but I couldn't do them until about 730 pm so she could "monitor me on my school laptop" because in the last week I had opened insta for about 4.5 seconds to enter a giveaway. Me not being able to start on school until then caused me to have to stay up past my school bedtime (9:30) by about 45 minutes. Now, because "I procrastinated on my school work so I could play Xbox instead" she's taking my Xbox until the end of the summer, which fucking sucks because I start my full time job at the end of this month and that would mean that I have pretty much nothing to do here on my days off. (She doesn't like my other main hobby either which is Legos, so all of my Legos are locked in a shipping container on our property to "protect them from my siblings" which is ridiculous since none of them ever go in my room) And I'm also mad because she shows blatant favoritism to my younger siblings. One pretty easy way to see this is that me, the 17 who is graduating high school has a bedtime of 9:30, yet my nine year old sister gets to go to bed whenever she wants, and gets to keep her iPad in her room with her at night. My phone that I bought has to sit upstairs Infront of a security camera every night, and that's while its restricted after 9 pm so it can't do shit.
Another way is that they don't ever take anything from her when she gets in trouble,yet for literally no reason the minute I do something like saying "yeah let me double check real quick" while already playing after I finished some chores I had, I get the Xbox taken for a month because "I should know for sure that it's done before I even look at the Xbox"
Sorry about the ranting and poor grammar I just needed to get this all off my chest.

So some of you may remember me from my post about the horrible “purging” from my Tret and clindamycin combo that I was prescribed. After less than 2 weeks, I had a horrible reaction that left my entire face red, bumpy, and filled with white heads. I went from smooth skin with maybe a couple of pimples and acne marks to severe acne.
Even though this is an ongoing issue, it’s still a long read! I’m so sorry in advance!
About two months ago, I quit spirono due to a bad reaction I had (I wrote an essay in my history if anyone is interested) and haven’t had too much of a problem with acne returning.
My skincare routine was originally spirono (before I quit it), azealic acid and retinol, but my dermatologist said they won’t renew my prescription unless I visit them. I didn’t want to spend the money to visit them because my dermatologist is really expensive ($170 per visit) with really limited availability and always just talks about accutane despite me saying I wasn’t interested, so I decided not to book with them and to instead just go with telehealth to get my prescription renewed. This was such a mistake!
When I talked with the nurse on GoodRx care, she suggested I go on doxycycline and spironolactone- which were both medications I wrote in the notes that I couldn’t go on. I explained again that I couldn’t go on it , so she gave me a list of prescriptions to “choose” from, which I thought was a little strange but I figured that it was normal since I never used telehealth for dermatologist before. I told her I would be willing to try an antibiotic and tretinoin. She prescribed me clindamycin and tretinoin, and told me to read the instructions on how and when to use them. Thinking back at it, it’s strange that she prescribed me such a higher dosage of both (1% clindamycin and 0.05% tretinoin) but I just “trusted the process.”
I explained my routine in the original post if anyone is interested, but it was fairly simple. After just a few days though, my entire face erupted in giant bumps (not cysts, but they looked very similar. They were red inflamed legions with no pus), pimples, and whiteheads. I posted some pictures of the before vs after if anyone is interested, but just know it got so much worse after that.
After visiting my original prescriber, the doctor supervising her (this was all on GoodRx care, so the chat was accessible to everyone) told me to immediately go to urgent care (she never saw pictures of my acne post-treatment, I only described what happened. This is because you can’t send additional pictures via good rx care). I called urgent care and they said they could help with the itching or any pain, but they can’t do much besides that. My face was itchy, constantly inflamed, and in so much pain. I went back to nurse that gave me the routine. The original prescriber told me that she was considering adding me on to an oral antibiotic to help and I agreed, only for her to never send the prescription to the pharmacy. I went back to the chat and asked about the prescription only for the PCA to respond that I needed to pay for another appointment if I wanted another prescription.
So I made another appointment and explained what happened, only for a new nurse to respond and tell me to see a doctor because my acne was too severe and that I already used the treatments that they had available. She said she was unwilling to prescribe anything else due to my reaction to their prescriptions.
At this point, I spent so much money on appointments and medications and I just felt very tired and frustrated. I made an appointment with a primary care physician and explained what happened. He said the reaction was likely due to the 1% clindamycin and to stop using it immediately. I also thought that might be the case because a few days before seeing him I patch tested clindamycin on my chest and noticed that my chest felt itchy the next day, and that I had some red marks on it.
I talked with him about how I believed that I was having a reaction and not normal acne, and after discussion we settled on a steroid course for 10 days and an antibiotic for 30 days. The steroid (a corticosteroid) treats the inflammation and the antibiotic will treat the bacterial aspect. This is all in addition to maintaining the tretinoin in my routine.
Thank you to everyone that gave me advice on that post! Especially to the person that told me to understand the difference between irritation and purging. My case was NOT purging. This was clear because I had acne in areas I’ve never broken out before. I’ve also had acne for years, so I knew the itchy redness was unusual. I kept trying to convince myself that I was overreacting, but after talking to you all, my friends, and that doctor, now I realize that I should be much more careful and observant with my health.
Also, be careful with telehealth, it’s hard to get the same quality of care as an actual doctor. I deeply regret trying to be cheap and fast with my skin. I’m now, quite literally, paying for it (financially and emotionally lol). Also, don’t stay stuck in an echo chamber! I love all the support I got from you all, but it’s important to realize that the answer isn’t always “just be patient and stick with it,” if you think something is up, then talk with a professional!
I just wanted to share this update in case it helps anyone. Again, thank you so so much for all the kindness I received from my last post!