Hello!
Does anyone have experience with making a normal friendship knot bracelet (chevron for example, where you don’t wave basically) with the back and worth alpha technique? By some, it’s called alpha-normal. It would be cool! I did find a picture of this taken from the video https://youtu.be/Jq2e1qs9y2w. Have you also used this method or did you transition between alpha and normal in another way?
I thought of it as a way to incorporate letters easier possibly. Has anyone tried adding letters using the normal technique?
Please comment if you have tried either combining normal non-alpha and alpha knotting in a bracelet, or if you have written letters with the normal non-alpha method! I’d love to hear 😃

It's "show and tell" day on How Rude, Tanneritos! Jodie and Andrea love receiving gifts from fans, so today's the day they get to show them off! From friendship bracelets to a Lego set of the Full House, there's a plethora of items they hold near and dear to their hearts. Andrea saves the best for last, revealing a handwritten letter that her mother wrote to a fan, back when snail mail was the only way to communicate with your favorite celeb. Join us for this sentimental episode, filled with lots of laughs and plenty of memories - and make sure to check out the show’s Instagram to see what they’re talking about!

Hello! I am a troop leader for the largest troop in my service unit. I'd love to put together an end of year token of appreciation for our leaders, but it would be out of my own pocket so I can't spend too much money. Which is a challenge given that we have two Daisy leaders, three Brownies leaders, two Juniors leaders, two Cadette leaders, one treasurer, and one cookie parent. Whew. I was going to make friendship bracelets for each--but any other ideas of how I can show them how grateful I am for their efforts without breaking the bank?

Anyway I’m going to one of the dates and I love the idea of making some bracelets to trade! Anyone else thinking of doing this or being interested in doing this it’s such a fun idea!!

I was embarrassed for her with the friendship bracelet thing. She spent so much time away from the kids and E to make dozens and dozens of friendship bracelets she thought she’d get to trade at the movie. She “was very proud” of her handiwork and was making at least ten more before even packing for Paris.
If she didn’t plan on interacting with children as if she’s one of them then she wouldn’t make bracelets and try to be “cool” with TSs young fans. And who wants to say “I got a bracelet from Colleen Ballinger at the TS concert”. Nobody wants to be guilty by association.
I’ll be shocked if she even gets one from someone else. I’m sure she’ll show and tell us if she does, lol.

Hi, we were at the Fletcher concert last night (12th May) where my friends daughter got to give Fletcher 2 friendship bracelets we made.
Just wondering the name of the girls playing guitar for her? I know one is Sophie, but wondering the other one? Does she have Instagram?

I've had sensory issues with jewelry for my entire life. I remember being 4 at the jewelry store with my mom. She was putting up earrings to my ear and asking me if I liked any. Not only did I not like any but I would've rather died than let those things touch me and I was using all my brainpower to tell my mom no without hurting her feelings. I rejected a guy I liked at 13 because he "proposed" with a ring. My mom got me this pretty chain with different charms for each day of the week. I put on a turtleneck and tried to wear the necklace over it. I felt like I was suffocating. It makes me feel like a wet shower curtain is touching me. Beaded/ braided bracelets don't bother me too much and I've been getting into rings veeery slowly. I even got a silver anklet that I can kinda wear once it warms up to my skin because it's not dangling and it's far from my head. I'm still not intrested in any kind of piercing but I do like how some chokers look on others and would like to slowly get into that. Another part of this is that it would be a huge change and people would start pointing it out which will make me feel uncomfortable, same thing happened when I started wearing makeup and girly clothes after being a tomboy for 15 years. Even the words jewelry, earrings, necklace make me uncomfortable both in English and in my native language. I refuse to date anyone who has piercings or wears chains, I know I would struggle with physical contact. Any advice?

I wrote this Python script for solving the issue, and posted it to Github in case anyone was experiencing the same problem. I have to run this script every time we host a game and play together. This started after the recent update.

first of all: this is solely me gauging interest
I found this super cute rat bracelet pattern (https://friendship-bracelets.net/patterns/alpha/40901) and I want to make it. I don't have rats myself and tbh do I need this? Not really. But look at how cute it is!! (Further down on the page you can see examples of this bracelet others have made. it can be one rat, two rats facing each other, two rats following each other etc)
So basically my idea is this: if you're interested, send me a photo of your rattie(s) and I'll make this for you. I'm confident enough in my bracelet making skills to know that I can adjust the colours of the pattern, meaning your rat doesn't have to have the coat colour or pattern seen in the original pattern.
All I'd ask for anyone who wants this to cover shipping (I'm in central europe, so the closer you are, the cheaper it'll be). I might have to get some yarn colours and envelopes for this and I'm not exactly swimming in money. But I'll see.
I don't want this to be a for profit thing cause bracelet making is a hobby for me, it's something to keep my hands and part of my brain busy while I watch youtube videos.
Comment here if you'd be interested. Whether or not you are interested, please give your babies scritches from me 🥰

There was a great posts that explained the history of money, banking and the stock market using the example of someone who starts making and selling friendship bracelets (or bracelets of some type). From this they explained how/why money formed, how banking came into existence and who stock markets came about.
This was at least five years ago.

Buckle in, guys - this is going to be a long one. Also, I come out of the closet...as a Swiftie. HMU if you want me to bring friendship bracelets to Brooklyn.
Any resemblance to real people is...not coincidental, actually.

Race Information

• Name: Boston Marathon
• Date: April 15, 2024
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Location: Boston, MA
• Website: https://www.baa.org/
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11188906240/overview
• Time: 3:04:31

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Don't totally kill my legs	Sorta
B	Get the finish	Yes
C	2:55	No
D	3:00	No

Splits

Kilometer	Time	Pace (min/mi)
5	20:25	6:35
10	20:50 (41:15)	6:43
15	20:39 (1:01:54)	6:40
20	20:44 (1:22:38)	6:41
Half	4:31 (1:27:09)	6:38
25	16:20/20:51 (1:43:29)	6:45
30	21:43 (2:05:16)	7:01
Heartbreak Start (20M/32K)	10:03 (2:15:19)	7:24
Heartbreak End (21M/33.6K)	6:56 (2:22:15)	6:57 (lmao)
35	5:30/22:29 (2:27:45)	7:22
40	27:03 (2:54:48)	8:42*
Finish	9:43	7:08*

(Boston does intermediate splits late-race starting 35k (35K, 23M, 24M, 40K, 1 mile out), so so the last two splits are aggregates.)

Race Information

• Name: London Marathon
• Date: April 21, 2024
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Location: London, UK
• Website: http://www.tcslondonmarathon.com
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11231697234/overview
• Time: 3:09:57

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	3:09:30	No
B	3:09:59	Yes

Splits

Kilometer	Time	Pace (min/mi)
5	22:25	7:12
10	22:36 (45:01)	7:16
15	22:31 (1:07:32)	7:15
20	22:23 (1:29:55)	7:13
Half	4:58 (1:34:53)	7:16
25	17:45/22:43 (1:52:38)	7:19
30	22:27 (2:14:59)	7:13
35	22:42 (2:37:41)	7:19
40	22:34 (3:00:15)	7:16
Finish	9:42	7:08

(London's app shows aggregate splits, so if you look at my official times it'll look like I was perfectly even throughout.)

Opening

Some people overthink their training programs. I overthink my race recaps.
Okay, OP. Why did you do this to yourself?
tl;dr: I'm basic.
Like a lot of people, one of my goals is to be a six-star seven-star finisher (thanks Sydney). Boston and New York were relatively easy to check off, and they've both kind of become my "regulars." I did Chicago last fall after a long delay - originally I was planning on doing it in 2020, but you know what happened. You might have heard about it!
For London, I applied to the lottery - or as they say across the pond, the ballot - last year and got rejected like everyone else does. I had a backup plan, though - I was going to apply to be a pacer. Two of my friends (David and Jazmin) had paced London last year and had a good experience, and they asked me to throw my hat in the ring this year.
...Okay, but OP, HOW did you do this to yourself? I want the deets.
Step 1: qualify for Boston again. (You can do it at Boston, but I don't recommend it because that is absolutely stressful. On the other hand, the one thing worse than trying to BQ at Boston without one in hand is trying to BQ in New York when it's 75 degrees.)
Step 2: apply to be a pacer and pray. London has open pacer applications, although I think they preference returning pacers. Also pacers that have actually paced marathons before. Neither of which applied to me at the time (I had signed up to pace Philly, but applications opened around NYC for this year). However, one thing I don't value is my bodily integrity so I just put down the fastest times I felt comfortable doing.
David, Jazmin, and I got the acceptance emails about a week later. David would be pacing 3:25, Jazmin would be pacing 3:40, and I...would be pacing 3:10, or the fastest group I put down. I remember being at work and listening to "Cornelia Street" by Taylor Swift when I read my email. The only way it could have been more on-the-nose is if it had been "London Boy."
(Also, justice for "Lover.")
Since I'd never internationally traveled before, I applied for a passport in November (just before Thanksgiving). Keep that in mind.

Training/Preparation

*starts laughing with a seamless transition into sobbing*
...ooh boy.
General training (or what SHOULD have happened)
My friend David coaches a group of us, adapting the training program that our club coach used. We're fairly heavy on the MP work, and surprisingly not so much on threshold. A typical week looks like this:

• Monday - easy 60m. Normally, this is about 7 miles.
• Tuesday - track workout; ~2 miles up, ~3 miles total on (at 5KP or faster), ~1-2 miles down
• Wednesday - easy 60m
• Thursday - tempo/MP work (because I know I'm gonna get yelled at). 1-2 miles up, up to 90 total minutes at ~MP down to ~HMP (for me, ~6:30 to ~6:00, roughly), couple of miles down.
• Friday - easy 60m
• Saturday/Sunday - easy one day, LR the other day. LR's normally easy (~8:00 pace or so), but sometimes includes MP chunks. We go up to 23 miles (or 3 hours).
• (Bonus) Doubles whenever I can fit them in during marathon blocks...and strangely enough, I'll usually double on Wednesdays regardless because our local Fleet Feet has a 3-mile group run Wednesday evenings. And yes, I know this is insane but apparently I'd rather be crazy than be alone.

Normally, most of my runs are with friends - so I'll run their easy paces (a bit slower than what I'd run on my own), and then we do our workouts at our own paces.
What ACTUALLY happened
Post-Chicago, I was pretty much unstructured, but ran a couple of more races:

• I paced a HM two weeks post-Chicago (0/10 do not recommend pacing a 1:30 HM on a course with 800 feet of elevation two weeks after your goal marathon, those first few miles hurt).
• I ran with a friend at NYC to help him get a BQ (which he ran 5 minutes under - he's 47, so we did just under 3:15).
• Philly went surprisingly well, considering I had done like two marathons in the previous month and a half.
  • On the plus side, we ended up splitting 1:34:30/1:35:20ish. So a bit hot at the start, but not overly so.
  • On the downside, I ended up taking two bathroom stops. Shout out to my co-pacer Mu for...you know...not having his bladder decide to be embarrassing. Shout out to Liz (the Philly coordinator) for having the good sense to give me adult supervision.

Meanwhile, a bunch of other things happened:

• My primary training partner from last fall tore his meniscus and still can't run.
• Jazmin decided to get a private coach, but still asked me to do some of her workouts with her.
• Another one of my friends made his comeback after being hurt last year - and he's following Daniels and his own schedule, and also asked me to run with him on occasion.
• Meanwhile, the rest of the group stuck to the same schedule I posted before.
• Also, I should mention I'm a terminal people pleaser and hate making decisions.

So by the time it was time to hop back into training, I was floating around pretty aimlessly and - because I didn't really have any performance goals this cycle - I tried to run with everyone as much as I could. I...do not recommend this. By February, I was looking at my messages and considering going into witness protection while figuring out which long run out of three I wanted to show up to.
Suffice to say, my training was disorganized as hell. I think I got a couple of 70-mile weeks in back in February, but kind of fell off in March when I was still dealing with some niggles of my own and also work things. Somehow, I managed to do a couple of races:

• I ran 1:19:5x at NYC Half (like half of this sub apparently).
• Also, I ran a sub-36 10k. A week before Boston. In retrospect, this might have been a mistake.

Meanwhile, my original passport seemingly never arrived. I ended up finally calling the passport center about a week before my London flight (I would have called earlier, but work was crazy and if I'm nothing else, I'm wildly irresponsible), and somehow managed to get an appointment before I left. In Boston (I live about 4 hours away). The day after I was supposed to come home from Boston.

Boston

Pre-Race
This was the less stressful event - on Saturday, I went up with my friend Joe who was spectating. Did the standard Boston race weekend stuff (shout out to Puma for their Sunday shakeout, the amazing panel, and for actually feeding us), met up with our other friends running Boston Sunday, and had dinner with our friends Jazmin and Janna (who were running) and Janna's husband Mark (who was not).
Also, I got my bib signed by Jenny Simpson on Saturday.
Monday, I just did my usual race prep - which is absolutely no prep whatsoever. (To wit, breakfast was "coffee and a banana loaf from Dunkin'.") I met up with Jazmin - who was planning to leave that night - and caught a shuttle to the Common with her. Funny enough, on the bus to Hopkinton we met up with our friend Cole who was getting his sixth star at Boston.
Race Day
I figured I'd go for an "easy 2:55" because Chicago gave me way too much confidence. I started from corral 3 and caught up with Cole (in corral 2) within the first mile. We mostly ran together for about 6 or 7 miles and then I lost track of him. I just assumed he'd dropped me because he's much faster than me. (The guy's currently a 2:30s marathoner. I say that because his lifetime PR is in the 2:20s.)
Gradually, it got warmer and warmer, but I was still feeling relatively good through the first half. I kissed one of the Wellesley students in the Scream Tunnel (to be fair, I was going to mind my own business, but she was standing on top of the fence holding a sign saying "Kiss me if you can reach," and I'm 6'5" and do not back down from challenges), but I mostly maintained pace into Newton.
And then I realized a few things:

1. While the temperature may have been approved by Rob Gronkowski, it was definitely not approved by me.
2. I ran a 2:47 last fall, so I had exactly zero reason to continue to try for a 2:55.
3. I also had to do this again in six days. And that was the deciding factor to just throw in the towel.

So, the last ten miles or so I mostly run-walked, which concerned my friends back home. (I contemplated posting to our WhatsApp group mid-race but that would have been weird.) It felt funny - it's only the second time I've "given up" on a marathon, and while I felt about as good as you can feel after doing 16 miles straight at MP, it was weird to just be so casual about things when I felt like I could still continue to race if I really wanted to.
Anyway, so, long story short:

• Around mile 18, I actually ended up running with a guy that I'd recognized from NYC 2022 - that day, he went down on the side of the course. At Boston, we ran together for about half a mile going back and forth...and then I just let him leave me.
• Somehow, still managed to set a Heartbreak PR. I think.
• I totally missed Joe, Mark, and the three blondes Joe and Mark recruited to cheer for me around mile 25. (I regret to inform all of them that three hot women are not quite as good at getting my attention as three hot men are. 💅🏿)

My finishing time was 3:04:31. Which was my slowest Boston to date, including 2021 where I keeled over on Boylston and ended up in the med tent. I still finished in like 3:00 high or something that day. (This is not a flex, and should not be considered a flex. That day sucked.)
Post-Race
I managed to get myself back to our hotel (also, ended up taking a selfie with an older gentleman on the Silver Line), and waited for Jazmin. And waited. Opening the tracker was pretty worrisome, as she'd slowed down a ton.
Finally, she finished, but she had a rough time. Thankfully, her coach found her at the finish and drove her over to our hotel. And one of her friends picked her up and drove her home. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty worried about her for London six days later.
(I'm intentionally being vague here, but...yeah, it was rough.)
I also found out that Cole finished about 15 minutes behind me (he said he'd been sick the week before, which I didn't know until after the race). Janna did pretty much the same thing that I did, in jogging in the back half. She still ended up on the Fast Women Instagram page (as she should).
Anyway, Janna, Mark, Joe, and I had a rather interesting dinner, and then it was back home on Tuesday. For most of us, anyway.

London

But first, Boston (again)
I did the math and - yeah - it was actually less expensive for me to go back home than to just stay an extra night. Welcome to marathon weekend. Paid through the nose for an expedited passport ($225), but...hey, I managed to get it. Shout out to FlixBus for the hook-up. Honestly, I recommend the 6:30 AM buses.
London (for real this time)
To Taylor Alison Swift: Why would you drop a double album on London Marathon weekend. Not only that, while I was taking a red-eye trans-Atlantic flight. Joe Alwyn wasn't even running it (and I'm not even sure Matty Healy could run 26.2 feet), so you don't even have that excuse. Janna suggested I buy the in-flight WiFi. I opted not to, and in retrospect that was the correct decision. (FWIW, TTPD is okay, but not worth $8 to United. That said, "So Long, London" into "But Daddy, I Love Him" is a hell of a choice.)
Anyway, for London, I flew in with Jazmin and my dad (who was also flying trans-Atlantic for the first time), and meeting David and another one of our friends (who is also named Joe) in London. If you are keeping count, we're up to three Joes in this recap already. Due to an opportune seat swap (shout out to the lady who wanted to sit with her husband, I don't care if you were telling the truth or if you just felt sorry for me), I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep on the flight.
We landed mid-day Friday at Heathrow, got into London, and my dad and I checked in to our hotel. (Right next to Waterloo Station, actually, which was nice!) Or we would have checked in, if everyone wasn't evacuating the hotel because of a fire alarm.
We did manage to get checked in after everything was sorted out, and then it was off to the expo (or the show, as London puts it). When we signed up, we had to volunteer for a 2-hour shift at the expo - and in our infinite wisdom, we chose the 3:30-5:30 shift. I spent most of that shift trying to explain why we ran out of 3:20, 3:25, 3:50, and 3:55 pace bands (god speed to the pacers for those groups).
Also, I picked up my gear for pacing - including the uniform (excuse me, kit), pacer flag, and the shoes. In my case, because I have clown feet (14 US/13.5 UK), they ended up being 1080s. And since London strongly encourages us to wear NB, I did not bring my usual shoes (Endorphin Elites).
"OP, it seems like you make a lot of poor planning decisions," you might be saying if you're still reading this. And...yes, yes, I agree. (Technically, I could wear whatever shoe, I'd just need to cover the logos. But I figured I'd be running 22 minutes slower than my PR so I'd be fine regardless.) I will say the 1080s are comfortable, though. Very loud - it's the London colorway, so imagine my size shoe in highlighter yellow, orange, and hot pink - but comfy.
Got back to the hotel, had dinner, argued with my dad about English electrical ports (despite what they look like, they are not USB ports), and tucked in for the night.
Saturday was mostly sightseeing - David, Jazmin, and I did a shakeout run around Westminster and caught the start of the Mini Marathon, and then my dad and I walked around a bit. Also did a night bus tour - shout out to Emma and Julie from Golden Tours - and had the standard pasta dinner. I went to bed around 9...only to get woken up at 10 by yet another fire alarm. After stumbling outside in 5-degree weather and back to our hotel, I somehow managed to get back to sleep.
Race Morning
Whoever labeled Waterloo East on literally every map by the platform instead of the entrance: your mum.
After having a surprisingly leisurely breakfast and a surprisingly hard time finding the entrance for the train station, I managed to hop the train out to the start of the race. Met up with David and Jazmin (apparently they were in the last car and I was in the middle of the train), and then we went out to the pacer meetup in the basement of the Clarendon Inn.
Imagine a small basement room with 140 people speaking multiple languages crammed in together, and that kind of approaches the chaos we were dealing with. You also have to add in a very assertive British guy with a whistle (shout out to Akram, the London coordinator). From past experience, David and Jazmin decided to leave for the corrals (or waves - I feel like London has its own language) around 9, and I went with them to our starts (blue for me and Jazmin, green for David).
I put on my flag (which I've never run with before - every other race has been with a hand-held sign) and immediately became one of the most popular people at the London Marathon. Most of my time was spent going, "uh I guess I'm running even 🤷🏿‍♂️," which I am sure boosted everyone's confidence in me.
The Race
London is similar to NYC where there are three separate starts that merge into one course. London's merges are a bit earlier than NYC's - Blue and Green merge in the first mile or so, and then Yellow/Red merge in around mile 3. (Not sure why they use two colors for that start!) The major difference is that there isn't one unified starting gun - in fact, the starts are pretty spread out, and it feels more like a rolling start. From big-race experience, I knew my GPS would be off, so I'd have to rely on my elapsed time and my pace band. I tried to yell out splits every mile and every 5k (so yes, I was the annoying American with the especially annoying New Jersey accent yelling out random numbers).
The first mile was relatively easy and uncongested - in fact, I was a bit concerned because I was a little fast (7:11 by my reckoning). And then we came up behind the Green 3:15 pace group. Famously, Comrades Marathon (at least - I'm not sure if this is a South Africa thing, or specific to that race) refers to their pace groups as "buses." I can see the comparison, as trying to maneuver safely around the pace group while knowing I had my own group felt like trying to parallel park a double-decker bus.
Somehow, we managed to pass them relatively safely...and then we came up behind the Yellow 3:15 group. I was pretty stressed, I'll admit. (The next largest race I've been a pacer for is Philadelphia, which is at most 1/4 the field size.) Somehow, I managed to keep people with me, although I admittedly didn't look too much.
That said, it says something when Cutty Sark feels like one of the more open places on the course.
We crossed Tower Bridge and got to halfway in 1:34:55 by my watch. Okay...but a little bit slow. My preference is to be 15 seconds under at halfway, and 30 seconds under at the finish. But hey, I was well within the window, right? The halfway window was 90 seconds under to 30 seconds over, which I was within.
Heading out to Canary Wharf, we actually got a good look at the pro men coming back - Munyao, Tola, and AdvancedRunning favorites Bekele and Cairess. I don't think I've ever been that close to the pros at a major before, so that was pretty cool. If Bekele is reading this, hi, I was the weird tall guy from London. (The one with the flag.) Please continue wrecking my age grading.
Meanwhile the chaos on the course shifted from fighting through slower groups in other starts to wading through the carnage of people blowing up. I don't know if it was especially bad, but - again - it kind of hits different when you know people are following you and also you're on English roads in a world major.
As I was going, I was keeping track of the splits. I knew it was going to be close...but when I saw 3:01:16 at 25 and checked my band (which said 3:01:10 for a 3:10 bang-on), I knew things were close. For reference, pacers' flags at London actually say "Sub [pace]" because they're expected to come in up to a minute under their time. My target was 3:09:00 to 3:09:59. We could make it, but it'd take a bit of a push.
Coming around Buckingham Palace, I was checking my watch and checking the time. I thought I'd make it. And then I crossed the line and stopped my watch.
3:10:00.
Fuck.
Post-Race
But hey, some people managed to hang with me. (Shout out to Nathan on the PR!) I gave (and got) congrats, took a couple of photos, picked up my stuff, and handed in my gear. Like hundreds of other people (my god like hundreds of us), I stopped by Waterstone's, went up to the cafe, and got a tea and scone. (Very good post-race fueling, I must admit.) Got back to the hotel, showered, and went out for pints and dinner post-race with the gang and my dad.
Also, I checked my official time. 3:09:57. I made it, but just barely. It was a bit slower than I'd like, but hey - not too shabby for doing this in 1080s.

Epilogue

So Long, London
Jazmin made it through a bit off target (like 19 seconds, I think), although it was a bit of a struggle, she said.
David...had a rougher go of it. He himself was injured going into the race, so he had to take his flag down around mile 22. He still managed to finish, though.
As for me: Got home that Tuesday. Told myself that I wouldn't do this again next year as we were going through Newark passport control (aka: Satan's butthole). Changed my mind after I got back on Eastern time, went back to work, and realized what I'd missed. Ran a trail 10k (Leatherman's Loop) the week after because (again) I do not value my bodily integrity. (Also, it was an impromptu midlife crisis.)
It took me a while to gather my thoughts - and even longer to edit this down somewhat. And yes, this is actually edited a bit from where it was.
Finally, one thing I've kept coming back to is the Boston Globe article about 26.TRUE that came out around the same time as the Boston Marathon. I highly suggest you read it - I couldn't decide whether to lead or to end with this, but at any rate it's worth it.
Made with a new race report generator created by u/herumph.

My wedding is one month away and im looking for advice to deal with my toxic bridesmaids, or if i should make the hard decision of cutting them out of the bridal party.
The two bridesmaids im dealing with are sisters both that I grew a friendship with very quickly and I’ve been trying to manage their opinions since 5 months ago

1. dress shopping (5 months ago) - everyone was allowed to choose their own style in the same color but they clearly werent content or refused to try on other styles after 2 dresses then complained about it after
   
2. Makeup (1 month ago) - they recommended their friend to do our makeup. both sent in very different makeup looks for the bridal party, and were very stubborn on the style that they chose. After i told them we could combine them both and have the makeup artist adjust to our skin tones, they said nothing lol
   When it came time for my own makeup trial, the next day, one of them insisted on the colors that i chose because it looked best on them. i told them that i would be willing to change my own (with another makeup trial) if the rest of the bridal party were okay with it as well. No communication about make up after that and they scheduled a trial for themselves without me there and without any pictures
   
3. Music (2 months ago) - everyone has their own music tastes for dancing but they were upset that i did not prefer the one they liked, even though i did include some songs that they did.
   
4. Hair (a few days ago) - We were planning to curl eachothers hair and keep it simple with hair decor. I found out a few days ago that they hired stylists to style and braid (which we did not decide on) ONLY THEIR HAIR on the day of the wedding. I just feel like this was unfair to the rest of the bridal party and could have been communicated.
   

I debated if I was being unreasonable with all of this and I tried my best to keep it to myself to handle since the rest of the bridal party is completely supportive

I have this friend who I've known for about a year or so. Over time l've noticed that she likes to make "jokes". For example, we were standing in the hallway waiting for the water fountain to be open, and out of nowhere she said "I would kiss your cheek, but you have all that acne on your face." I didn't say anything then, but I did feel a bit uncomfortable because it was said unprovoked, and I've stated to her before that was an insecurity of mine. She also made a joke about my uncles death by treating it very unserious, because apparently the sleepover I missed to go to his funeral was more important. On other occasions she made jokes about me needing to work out and needing to do skincare. A few days ago, I posted on my instagram that I was taking my braids down and she replied with "Bout time." It wasn't anything that serious, but at the time I felt like her two cents was not needed. I responded with "Do you ever shut up? You always have something to say." She told me it was "just a joke," But I still felt like it was not needed, especially since this wasn't the first time she's said something slick to me. I thought about it and think that my response was quite harsh compared to what she said. I was thinking about apologizing, but at the same time I felt like it needed to be said.
AITA?
Also: Yes I have told her before that her jokes make me uncomfortable, and that I would like her to stop. She stopped for a while, but had recently started up again. For those wondering why we stayed friends, it's because I usually have a good time with her. But these jokes are staring to get out of hand, which is staring to put a dent in our friendship.

I have this friend who l've known for about a year or so. Over time l've noticed that she likes to make "jokes". For example, we were standing in the hallway waiting for the water fountain to be open, and out of nowhere she said "I would kiss your cheek, but you have all that acne on your face." I didn't say anything then, but I did feel a bit uncomfortable because it was said unprovoked, and I've stated to her before that was an insecurity of mine. She also made a joke about my uncles death by treating it very unserious, because apparently the sleepover I missed to go to his funeral was more important. On other occasions she made jokes about me needing to work out and needing to do skincare. A few days ago, I posted on my instagram that I was taking my braids down and she replied with "Bout time." It wasn't anything that serious, but at the time I felt like her two cents was not needed. I responded with "Do you ever shut up? You always have something to say." She told me it was "just a joke," But I still felt like it was not needed, especially since this wasn't the first time she's said something slick to me. I thought about it and think that my response was quite harsh compared to what she said. I was thinking about apologizing, but at the same time I felt like it needed to be said.
AITA?
Update: Yes I have told her before that her jokes make me uncomfortable, and that I would like her to stop. She stopped for a while, but had recently started up again. For those wondering why we stayed friends, it’s because I usually have a good time with her. But these jokes are staring to get out of hand, which is staring to put a dent in our friendship.