College graduation quotes sayings to daughter

I’m 24 and graduated college two years ago, and I’ve never felt more stagnant and frustrated. At the same time, though, I feel like I have started to pinpoint what I really want out of life. The problem is, I don’t know if it exists, at least not anymore.
I grew up in the suburbs, and I’m honestly grateful for so much in my childhood. Now, though, I’m looking for an environment of connection with people my age, activity, creativity, opportunity, etc. Some people will say that is what college is for, I agree, but I didn’t find it there. So naturally I started looking to my career, trying to come up with a viable path to make a living that wouldn’t bury my soul, but I have yet to find that path. I want to be creative, whether that means using my abilities as a musician, or becoming a planner or designer or journalist or something. I have a degree in English because I am a generalist. I wanted to learn about everything because there isn’t one thing I care enough about to dedicate my life to. Wanting to make a living as a creative person today, though, is almost like wanting to become an astronaut or something. Not impossible, but a long, unlikely road.
I’ve started to realize that a lot of my malaise and frustration comes down to my physical environment. I have been working in a job I hate just outside of a smaller city. There are plenty of people my age around, and a lot of them look like artist types. But no one talks to each other because there aren’t enough spaces for that sort of thing to happen. I always see people talking about a lack of third places now, and I guess that has something to do with it. But it’s also the way cities have been stretched out to the point where no one really knows where to go to socialize. You have “arts districts” that are really just places for millennial parents to go day drinking on the weekends. You have music venues, which are great, but most cost money to get into and don’t exactly promote conversation unless you hang out outside or something.
Maybe it’s a me problem, but I feel like I have no place as a creative person to network, socialize, or even just live. I am enticed by bigger cities, but I feel like it will end up being the same thing on a much larger scale. Too many cool people, not enough cool things. I can’t remember who said that, but that’s how I feel about all of these places. Where are things being done and made by real people? I don’t want to be a graphic designer for a corporation or a writer for a media conglomerate.
I’m not exactly looking for advice, I’m just wondering if anyone feels the same way.

Hi, I'm a 48 year old woman residing in southern Wisconsin and having a heck of a time meeting other single Christians. I'm from the area, but have lived out of state for 12 years. About a year and a half ago I moved back and have been trying to find a church that's the "right" fit. I visited the (non-denominational) church I used to go to when I lived here and it's changed so much it's unrecognizable. It triggered my anxiety every time I went. I tried a couple Lutheran churches and this weekend I plan to visit a Moravian church.
Anyway, along with trying to find a church, I'm having a hard time finding friends to hang out with. I have friends in the area, but all are married with kids and their own busy lives.
More about me, I'm a nanny (LOVE my job!!)
Recently divorced (biblical reasons)
I have a daughter in college
I don't drink,smoke, or do drugs.
My hobbies include learning Italian, Spanish, and most recently Romanian, fashion, flower-pressing, baking, biking, hiking, kayaking, reading, stargazing, bird-watching,cloud-spotting.
I love art (surrealism mainly),cats,lighthouses, thunderstorms, documentaries, historical fiction movies, tea, maps, travel, and exploring nature and museums.
I've been a Christian since 1997 and was baptized in 1998.
I've seen the suggestion of joining singles groups at local churches, so that's something also on my radar. I'm open to other suggestions as well. I'd love to meet like-minded friends and if I happen to find the right man to spend my life with, then BONUS.
I'm 5'2",quite thin, wavy brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin. I've been told I look like actresses Sarah Levy and Brigitte Millar (I think because of the cheekbones and brown hair).
I'm open to men in the age range of 35-48. I prefer men who are fit,active,non-smokers,non-drinkers,no porn watchers, no drugs. Financially stable is a great quality, too :)
​

I do have a diagnosis of ADD, Auditory processing disorder, seasonal depression & anxiety. I am currently on Wellbutrin and Adderall.. Apologies in advance for spilling all of my concerns out and making this post so long..
I get very over stimulated by people and require a lot of alone time. If I can go to work and come right home, lay in bed and be left mostly alone, I am okay for the most part. This is a life I can manage. Any disruptions to my routine or last minute plans that I didn’t have time to mentally prepare for are usually stressful and draining. I need to know who is going to be there, how many people, how long will I be there, what do I wear, do I bring anything, is my phone charged, etc. etc. I always like to drive independently so that I can leave whenever I want.
Outside of my family, all of my friends & boyfriend are people I met in college when I was a bit more social.. I have not met and maintained any new friendships in the 5 years since graduation. I usually avoid being around people I am not completely comfortable with and when I do interact with acquaintances I tend to become kind of monotone and my sense of humor disappears but I can’t help it.
I hate confrontation to the point that I will shut down and distance myself from the person entirely. I will think about a confrontation endlessly for days afterward. I do get defensive in the moment it’s happening but I do try to avoid confrontation as a whole. I am always going out of my way not to inconvenience people to the point it’s caused some problems. I definitely go out of my way not to be noticed by strangers. Avoiding confrontation has served me well in certain situations because I have filtered through the people in my life and only kept the genuinely good ones and have a solid friend group. I also am very emotionally aware because I am constantly observing how my behavior makes others feel. However there are circumstances where I cannot avoid it. I am good at maintaining professional and diffusing angry customers at work but I do stress about it and maybe even cry later on.. If I have to talk to my boss one on one, even just to ask her if I can leave 15 minutes early, my heart starts racing, my mouth gets so dry and I feel like I can’t formulate sentences properly. My adrenaline causes my memory of the interaction to be fuzzy. The thought of having to make it through multiple interviews has prevented me from advancing in my career. I also get this way with my doctors too but I don’t know why..
Going back to how I need a schedule to maintain my mental health.. big changes are very hard for me motivation wise and stress wise. I am always thinking about how many steps are involved to achieve the end goal and I get so overwhelmed that I need to stop thinking about it entirely before even starting. I also worry about every potential out come of the change and need to anticipate/prepare for it.. Right now I would like to have a new job and also my boyfriend has been pushing for us to live together. I have been stuck on the stage of browsing for online options and haven’t gotten any further because it’s too much to handle. So.. I have just stayed where I am at for way longer than I should, people around me are progressing in life and i’m not.
Today I found a job online i’m actually interested in but started thinking about making a cover letter and resume and got overwhelmed. Thinking about interviewing put me into a panic so I didn’t apply yet. I spent 3 years working up the courage to go to the dentist, finally went 2 months ago and found out I needed a root canal but still have not scheduled that appointment due to anxiety.. Last week I made an appointment with my PCP for today to discuss anxiety but I pushed it to next week due to anxiety about going. I am worried about not being able to remember and properly say what I want to say… Also my brain bounces back and forth between “you’re find you don’t need help” and “there is something wrong with you” and who knows which mood i’ll be in on the day of my appointment.. I have always been this way, sometimes I have a good year or something and sometimes I have a bad phase where it’s worse.. I really have a hard time knowing what’s normal/my personality (due to ADD) and what could potentially be fixed by more/different medication.. I think I need therapy but it’s so expensive and hard to get into around here.

Hey, I just graduated with my pharmacist degree and I have a lot of free time on my hands while I study. Hopefully make some new connections and maybe pass down some advice to other college students. SFW chat with other people around my age :)
I like to draw, travel, work out and play video games.

Her believing she was the Slayer in Los Angeles lead to her burning down the auditorium. Buffy was suspected of doing it, but it couldn’t be proven, and the extreme difference in how her parents wanted to approach the situation caused arguments that lead to their separation. her father stayed in Los Angeles, working harder to pay for the things they could prove she destroyed.
Joyce moves to Sunnydale w/ Buffy after her separation from Buffy’s father, and all her friends are real, and all the villains are real, but not supernatural. The Master was just the owner of the Bronze. Darla was his daughter who Liam (Angel) had a on again off again relationship with. Amy was just a girl w/ a stage mom. The pack was just a group of popular kids Xander tried to join. When Buffy 1st introduces Angel to her mother she says he’s her tutor. What if he actually was a assistant teache her tutor. The episode Nightmares was just Buffy being nervous about seeing her dad again for the 1st time after the move, and everything that happened after the gym burnt down. School hard is Liam’s (Angel) married friends (William and Drucilla) coming to town, and him having less time to tutor her. Inca mummy girl was just Xander dating a foreign exchange student. The episode Ted in season 2 was Buffy’s mom trying to date again, and she does attack him, and that’s him Joyce realizes there might be something really wrong w/ Buffy. Innocence was Buffy finding out that Liam (Angel) was having a affair w/ his friend’s wife Drucilla, and being jealous, because she had a crush on him.
Everything in season is based on something that actually happened, but season 3 is her already in the mental institution. Faith is a girl who’s also in the mental institution.

Hey, I just graduated with my pharmacist degree and I have a lot of free time on my hands while I study. Hopefully make some new connections and maybe pass down some advice to other college students. SFW chat with other people around my age :)
I like to draw, travel, work out and play video games.

I’m at a point where it’s not so much the unacceptable behavior that bothers me (although that in and of itself is problematic). It’s the almost-fake shocked reactions that both of my parents have when I say (or don’t say) something to them. Both of my parents are guilty of doing this, but they have their own style of doing it, if that makes sense.
For example, I met a guy online, moved to his home state to be with him, and then later we got married. I didn’t tell anyone in my family. My mother found out through other family members because they saw things about it on social media. I really don’t care that she found out that way. So she sent me a text asking if I had gotten married, and I told her that yes, I had, and that I didn’t say anything to anyone because I didn’t know how they were going to react. My mother then responded with, “oh, but all I ever wanted was for you to be happy!”
Now, that may very well be true, but she has always had a very perverse way of showing it. Where was this desire for my happiness when she blamed me for my father‘s affair, then apologized for it, but then took all of her anger and frustrations about it out on me, thus rendering said apology pointless? Or when she was constantly comparing me to my peers when I was growing up, asking me why I couldn’t be like this girl or that girl? Where was her concern for my happiness then? Or the many times she would say really mean-spirited things to me and I would ask her to please stop, and she would say “this is how I am and this is how I’m going to be” or something along those lines?
I mean, if you’re going to be a jerk, own it. If she owned that and said something like, “I can be a real jerk sometimes so I understand why you wouldn’t want to talk to me,” I would actually have more respect for her. But she’s not going to do that. Instead it’s, “why don’t you want to talk to your own mother? You only get one mother.”
My father wasn’t any better. When I was about 23 he was having an affair with this girl who was 19 at the time. And I begged him to stop doing that because it was affecting my grades in college (which I never finished, I take responsibility for that but my parents’ messy behavior did play a small part in that) and he told me, “you’re over 18, you don’t need a father anymore.” Fast forward 20 years later to today, I have zero contact with him, he somehow found my husband’s phone number and texts him from time to time talking about how he has no idea why his only daughter won’t talk to him, “all I did was divorce her mom.” Which is also a lie.
So, yeah. Why do they act all dumb and shocked when they know what they did? They also like to pretend they can’t remember anything when called out on their unacceptable behaviors.

Not sure where to start with this so I’ll just put it out there. I think my father is abusive towards my mother and I have conflicting feelings towards him. I came across this post a while ago where it said something along the lines of “I loved him as a daughter but I couldn’t love him as a woman” and it hit home. I wasn’t sure in the moment why I felt such a rush of emotions when I came across that post, but after giving it some time, I realized it spoke to me because that’s how I feel towards my dad.
My parents have a traditional marriage. Dad is the money maker and mom is the homemaker. There is a huge power imbalance within their marriage. My dad has done everything for us. Has sacrificed a lot and I’ll always recognize that.. but no amount of sacrifices on his part will outweigh his shitty treatment of my mom. He has never hit her (best to my knowledge) however, he talks down to her. Talks to her like she’s stupid. Tells her that he regrets marrying her. Swears at her, insults her, belittles her (in public and private), threatens her with divorce, uses religion to threaten her and say he’ll take on a 2nd wife, and has basically stripped away any and all self confidence she ever had. And what makes me even more mad and frustrated is that my mom just takes it. She won’t say anything back. Ever. She’ll obv get upset and I’ve seen her cry countless times, but she’ll never say anything back to him.
She excuses his behaviour by saying that he puts food on the table and a roof over our heads and we should be grateful for that. And that shit enrages me to no end. He has no right to treat anyone, especially his own wife, in that manner just bc he’s providing. Im 25 and so I’ve grown up seeing this shit and I know it has impacted me in all the negative ways. I hate to even think that my father is abusive.. I almost feel so guilty and ungrateful for feeling the way I feel because he provides for us all.. but I can’t help the way I feel. And yes, my parents are the kind that think staying in a shitty marriage “just for the kids” is better than being divorced… because shitty marriages have never affected kids (sarcasm).
So I ask you: 1. What do you think of the quote I posted in the title 2. How is your relationship with your father? 3. Is my dad actually abusive or am I thinking about it all wrong? 4. Am I wrong to feel a level of hate towards him?

I got a total of six quotes (five from EnergySage and SunRun). I know SunRun gets a lot of hate around these part for overpromising and underdelivering, but in light of that, I'm curious if other companies may be doing the same.
For example, SunRun and IntegrateSun are both recommending 5.2W systems with 13 panels. SunRun wants to put nine on the house and four on my garage (requiring trenching to wire back into the main panel), but IntegrateSun says they can do them all on the house. SunRun puts the electricity needs met for this system at 89% while IntegrateSun puts it at 118%. SunRun has actually sent out a surveyor while the other companies are waiting for me to commit before they'll do their official survey, which makes me trust SunRun a bit more.
Ultimately, SunRun is around $10k more than IntegrateSun (and Cosmo Solaris is somewhere in the middle of the two, promising 122% on 11 430W panels, all on the house). IntegrateSun seems like the runaway winner, but what are the odds that they're promising more than they can deliver?
TL;DR: Given SunRun's reputation for overselling, I'm wondering if other companies are doing the same. Here are the three quotes:
IntegrateSun - $14,040
13 400W mSolar 108BB panels, 7 Duracell D1500-M4 inverters; System size: 5.2 kW
Cosmo Solaris - $18,724
11 430W REC Alpha Pure 2 ProTrust Panels, 11 Enphase IQ8H-240 inverters; System size: 4.73 kW
SunRun - $19,136 (+ roughly $2500 for trenching)
13 Hanwha Q-Cells panels, 1 SolarEdge Technologies SE3800-H inverter; System size: 5.2kW

So, I'm not entirely sure what my goal is with this post. One thing I know for certain is that it will be very long, and probably sort of jumbled and frantic, more stream of consciousness than anything. I guess I just sort of wanted to share some of the important realizations I've had in recent months, and see if: 1. Other people think that they're fair or "correct" realizations, and I'm not becoming, like, delusional or something. 2. Maybe my sharing these perspectives will help or inspire someone else who has struggled in ways similar to me.
So, here's the basic background of things. I've always been a really reserved and quiet person, ever since I was a little kid. Add in being skinny and nerdy for most of my life, and maxing out at a height of 5'9", and I'm not exactly a hot product for the average girl my age (19, turning 20 in a few weeks). In fact, I'd never had a relationship until this past year in college, but I'll get more into that in a minute. Hell, I hadn't had so much as a first kiss until this past year, either.
And, at the beginning of this past school year, being my second year of college (as a commuter student, so socializing is pretty difficult), I began to really get down on myself for having never been in a relationship, never kissed a girl, being a virgin, etc. It started to really take a toll on my mental health, because I believed that there was something intrinsically wrong and unlovable about me. Whereas a lot of young men who struggle socially romantically seem to be directing their sadness, frustration, and anger outward toward the world, especially toward women, I instead found myself directing those feeling toward myself. I was convinced that, on a basic level, there was some vital component to who I am as a person that disqualifies me from being worthy of love or affection. After all, that's what 19 years of evidence suggest, right?
Looking back, I think a large component in this was how I had been struggling, and still struggle to a degree, with my identity as a young man. I'm naturally a pretty progressive person, and I make an effort to be open to the perspectives of other groups and listen to their stories. Unfortunately, as we all know, a lot of people have been harmed by the men in their lives. And I know, I know: if I'm not doing anything wrong myself, then I shouldn't take any of these stories personally.But I guess, given the poor mental state that I was already in, I took it as validation that there was in fact something intrinsically wrong about me, and that thing was being a man. I started to avoid people on the street, especially if they were a woman or presented as feminine. At work, I avoid going anywhere near female customers, out of fear of making them uncomfortable. I'd keep my head down walking from class to class on campus, worried that I might make someone uneasy with my gaze. It wasn't that I thought I was a threat; in fact, I knew that I was not. But I also knew that the people around me didn't know that. In their eyes, maybe they have to assume that I'm a creep or that I'm a dangerous type of man. And it hurt to realize that, and I realize now, like I said, that I took it as validation that there was something intrinsically wrong with me.
Due to that, as well as other factors, such as stress and exhaustion from overworking (I'm a full-time student and work about 30 hours a week, which is a lot for me, might not be for others, I admit), I experienced some of the worst periods of depression I've ever had, since being diagnosed with it and anxiety in 2021. I tried going to therapy. I went to a few sessions, then gradually started missing more and more due to a lack of time, until my therapist cancelled all of our scheduled future sessions. It was on me. I wasn't committed.
I lost my passion for my hobbies and interests, like creative writing, which had previously been an important emotional outlet for me. A lot of nights would be spent lying in bed, listening to a playlist filled with sad music and hugging a pillow, wishing it was someone who loved me in the way that I thought, or hoped, love would work.
At the behest of my friends, to whom I only presented my issues as being a little down about never having been in a relationship, I started messing around with dating apps. At first, I felt good about making some sort of effort to put myself out there. Like I said, I've always been insanely reserved, so doing something like making a dating profile felt like an accomplishment. Of course, nothing much came of it. Over the five or so months that I was on the app, I maxed out at about six likes on my profile, and only matched with two people.
But one of those two people was a girl who went to the same college as me, and we seemed to have a lot of interests in common. And I mean a lot. To the point that it was almost comical. Of course, I realize now that having some hobbies in common isn't enough to form a good relationship with someone, but I realize now that I was just desperate for someone who I could convince myself halfway-tolerated me. She and I started to go out, and after a while, we decided to make things "official." My first kiss. My first relationship. My first girlfriend.
It lasted for only a few months. After a while, something felt off. I wasn't as excited to see her as I had been before. It was hard for us to make time for each other, between my working and her being involved in extracurricular stuff around campus. Car rides and dates began to be filled with longer and more frequent stretches of awkward silence, as I tried to think of something to say or talk about, only to come up empty-handed. As we got to know each other better, I realized that we didn't have as much in common as I first thought. She was a little more conservative, not necessarily in a political sense, but more in terms of "status", if that makes sense. I learned that financial success was very important to her parents, and I could tell that it was important to her, too. She avoided telling her parents that I was an English major, instead opting to tell them that I was getting a degree in computer science, as that was my minor at the time. It seemed to me that the status of a relationship was more important to her than the quality of the relationship (pot calling the kettle black, yes, I realize). For example, there was a dance on campus that she wanted to go to, pretty much just to take pictures of the two of us together so she could show them to friends and family. But as for the dance itself, it was more of the same that had been happening before: awkward silence, short conversations, lots of looking around at anything other than each other.
After a while, I decided that, for both of our sakes, I needed to break things off. I didn't want to waste her time when I knew that my heart wasn't in it anymore. So, at the beginning of April, I drove over to her dorm, and we talked it over in my car for a while. At the end, we hugged one last time, and I haven't seen her since.
I think a key component in the decision I made is the fact that I reconnected with some old friends from high school, who are still local, even though they are going to another university. Over Christmas break, I hung out with them for the first time since the pandemic as, during that time, I ended up having a falling out with them over some dumb high school drama and political differences. To my surprise, they had changed a lot, and had managed to pull themselves out of the incel trajectory that I had seen them beginning to fall down during high school. They were kinder, more accepting people. My surprise was matched only by my pride in them. I had feared and assumed the worst of them, and I couldn't have been happier to be proven wrong. Since then, I've been invited back into their group chats, and I see them in-person with some regularity, when our schedules allow it.
I think having that connection made me feel more comfortable with the idea of being single again, and since the break up, I've been able to rely on them for support, laughs, and just feeling like I have somewhere I belong. Before, I found myself desperate for any kind of connection and fell into a cycle of denying myself that connection because I was convinced that, since it didn't just present itself, I wasn't worthy of it.
And maybe it has something to do with that, but on the drive home from my now-ex's dorm (though I still wonder if I should/could really call her an ex. Sure, we agreed to make things "official", but we still only dated for a few months), I felt my perspective on, well, at the risk of sounding over-dramatic or overly romantic, everything, being to change.
And I guess that's what the title of this post is about. The things I've begun to realize in the time leading up to and following that break-up.
Above all else, I've realized the importance of connection. If I didn't have a stable friend group again, I don't know where I'd be. Probably still in a stale relationship, clinging on and trying to convince myself that I'm not feeling the way that I'm feeling. I have people to talk with again, to confide in when I feel stressed or depressed. I go out and do things again, which I didn't realize I hadn't really done very much since the pandemic.
But I know that for a lot of people who are/were in the position I had been in, finding friends is difficult. If it weren't for my unique circumstances of being reunited with an old, estranged group of friends, I would absolutely be in the same position. I still really struggle with social anxiety, and talking to new people is a huge struggle for me. So, I've also had some realizations that don't have as much to do with the friendship side of things, and I hope that these can be of some use to people who also struggle with social anxiety.
I know that the idea of "working on yourself" is cliche and overused, so I won't frame it exactly like that. In my opinion, saying it like that makes it sound too daunting and tedious, and having been in those dark, dark places myself, I know that it was the last thing I wanted to hear. So, instead, I like to think of it this way. It's more like living in spite of your circumstances. Over the course of this past year, I essentially shut my life down, because I was so convinced that there was no point, because I felt that I knew that I would never be loved or accepted. Now, I feel an urge to go on living for myself, almost in direct spite of the fear that I may be forever alone. It's a fear that I still deal with, and who knows, maybe things will end up that way.
And, I suppose, that leads into my main realization, which is sort of an extension/restatement of the last one, now that I think about it. I now feel the desire to accumulate enough in my life, to reach a point where I am satisfied enough, that I can rest knowing that I will be okay, with or without a relationship. Before, my self-worth was almost entirely attached to my relationship status, and my lack of romantic experience. Now, I realize that a relationship can only come when I don't need it, or at least don't feel that I need it. Being a huge nerd and a writer, I think a lot about quotes from books, shows, movies, and games that have stuck with and there's one from God of War: Ragnarok that comes to mind here (by the way, I actually highly recommend playing or watching a playthrough of God of War 2018 and Ragnarok if you've struggled with masculinity in the same way I have, the music and cutscenes from those games have actually helped to pull me out of some mental spirals about my self-worth and identity as a man). It comes from a scene in which Kratos confronts his younger self, and is trying to decide if he is willing/ready to be a god again:
"Should I lose everything and everyone, will there still be enough left inside so that I do not become you? I do not know. But I have hope."
It's a quote that resonates with me now more than ever (even though it's from a DLC that just came out around Christmas, lol). I know now that I want to get to a place where there is enough left inside me that I know I'll never fall into that dark mental state again.
Something else that I've noticed has happened is the return of my passions for my hobbies and interests, especially for writing. I don't want to sound too arrogant, but I think I've begun to realize an important goal for my writing. If I'm lucky enough, I want to be able to write and release stories that explore masculinity and isolation, and, if I can, I want to create stories that can help guide other young men and boys who have struggled in the way I have and continue to do. I want to create characters who serve as positive male role models, who are emotionally strong, intelligent, and kind. I want to write stories of personal redemption, and show that no one is truly ever too far gone to be able to recover. If my writing could help even just one person who is struggling, then I would consider my career to be a success.
At the risk of being too cheesy, I'd like to end this very long-winded post with another quote, this one from a YouTube channel I recently discovered, and one I would highly recommend to just about anyone: Cinema Therapy. It's from their video about "A Silent Voice", which also happens to be one of my favorite movies, and one of my main inspirations when it comes to the kinds of stories I want to tell.
"Depression doesn't go away, doesn't lift for most people. But there's a capacity to feel again. There's a capacity to feel joy. The cure for so many things is connection. And we may think 'no one want to connect with me.' But we just need to find the right people."
I think the only thing I would add to that is that, in my opinion, the connection can also be with yourself.

Before purchasing the Season Pass, I had only gone to the Alamo once to see The Marvels. I'd had a great experience (mainly with the seats, food, and alcohol lol), but I never really thought about going back unless there was another movie I truly wanted to see. However, approximately one month ago, one of the students in my capstone group mentioned that he had the Season Pass, and I made the impulse decision to also purchase it. I figured that, since it is my last semester of college, Alamo is so close by (St. Louis location, and I attend SLU, so like a 5 minute walk), and I love watching movies (I've seen close to 600 at 22), it was something that I would really enjoy doing. Now, I'm going to do a breakdown of my experience over the past month.
So far, I have seen 24 movies total, and in order, they were: Sasquatch Sunset, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Big Lebowski, Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (Big Show), Challengers (Early Access), Hard Target, Monkey Man, Abigail, Alien 45th Anniversary, Humane, Civil War, Fall Guy (Early Access), Tarot, Star Wars: Phantom Menace 25th Anniversary, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Casino, Bridesmaids, The Amazing Spider-Man, Serial Mom, Mamma Mia, Hot Fuzz, Scarface, Psycho, and Last Stop in Yuma County. I am about to see another one tonight (If), I may see one tomorrow right before my pass expires, and I purchased one ticket just to get the rewards. I would have seen more movies if I could, but the nights I didn't go were either repeat movies, or my Alamo was closed (which I would assume is due to lack of staffing that day?).
In regards to food/drink, I've had the Regular Popcorn, Churro Popcorn, Cookie Milkshake, Salted Caramel Milkshake, Burger, Carnivore Pizza, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Loaded Fries. Their milkshakes are some of the best I've ever had (the cookie one is my favorite), and the rest of the food is pretty good (although pricey when I did purchase it). The Churro Popcorn, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Loaded Fries, and a random Dr. Pepper were free with the rewards I have built up. I also have another appetizer reward that I will use tonight (trying to decide between the Pretzel, Mozzarella Sticks, and Chips + Queso).
Now, to the general good things about my experience. Although most movie theaters are like this nowadays, I love how comfortable the seats are. The theaters were usually very quiet and undisturbed (I saw the post about the same STL location having issues, but I never experienced that). I enjoyed the wide selection of movies (I saw a lot of older ones, as you can probably see). I also liked being able to have early access to a few of the movies I saw, as it felt like a random perk of my Season Pass (even though you didn't need one for it). The servers were usually very attentive and pleasant to talk to, even if I only asked for a water, and I rarely needed to press the button to get their attention. The food would also come out pretty quickly after I ordered, and being able to move the tray table in front of me was a big plus in that regard. There was even one day that I was completely alone in the theater (Monkey Man), which was a cool experience for me.
There were also some downsides. On the days that they were understaffed, ordering was definitely harder, especially for the Big Shows (I mostly noticed this when I saw Fall Guy and got the pizza + drink). Then, for one of the movies (Monkey Man, again), the server took my card in case I ordered anything (they've never done this before, and it hasn't happened since then), and I got charged a $1 fee that was never refunded. Another time, when I went with some friends, we were stuck in the rain and wanted to order some drinks, but I guess they close the bar up before the theater closes, so we couldn't get anything, which kind of sucked. Finally, while this is something that Alamo has no control of whatsoever, I wish I would have met more people with how often I went. I'm a single man, and was hoping to maybe meet a single woman at some point, but I know that likely wouldn't have happened. (Note: these were very minimal downsides, and the good things completely outweighed the bad.)
I will now give the statistics in regards to my experience. I purchased 26 tickets in total: 23 regular movies, and 3 Big Shows. After adding up the cost of the Season Pass, the convenience fees, purchases of tickets for friends/family (with some taken off for them paying me back in one form or another), and the couple of times I purchased food, it comes out to about $126.09. To determine how much I saved, I looked at how much a ticket would cost normally ($16.63 for a regular show, $22.77 for a Big Show), and the cost of each individual reward I had received. If I did not have the Season Pass or the rewards, my total cost would have been about $526.89, which is about $400 and 76% in savings. In my opinion, that is a great deal for how many movies I saw.
Overall, I would say that I highly recommend getting the Season Pass, especially if you live within walking distance of the theater. I did purchase my Season Pass at a somewhat bad time, as I spent less time studying for finals or hanging out with friends before I graduate, but when I did have a lot of free time, this was a good way for me to pass the time. I hope to live closer to an Alamo in the future, as this was a great experience for me.

What’s up! Yeah so I just graduated and if you’re in college or entering soon, I can try to answer any questions you have. Or we can also just talk about whatever, but I would like to help people avoid the mistakes I made.

I passed CFA Level 1 (May 2023) while still in college. I was eligible because I was supposed to graduate in December 2024, which was within 23 months from the exam. My concern is if I end up graduating only in June 2025, which theoretically would make me ineligible to have taken the test, will I have a problem?

(really quickly the reason I have two vastly different locations is that there is a near 100% chance I am moving to the UK this year)
hi my name is Jack, I'm a recent cyber security and networking graduate and ideally will be moving to Scotland to do my masters :) my hobbies include games, photography, cars and F1!
if you wanna chat about anything or wanna play some games I'm down for anything
I haven't had much time recently for games since I've been studying but I really wanna get back into it! I have been playing some project zomboid though and I'll pretty much play most shooters, sandbox, open world, survival or RPG games! also really enjoyed elden ring so maybe some more souls like games (been loving helldivers 2!)
not sure what else to say, if you want to chat send me a message!
see ya!
oh and even if ur not near me I'd still be down to chat or game or whatever :)
(also my dms are open! no need to comment under my post!) (also please don't just send me a one word message, I'd like to chat but I also don't wanna interrogate you!)

For the past three years I've been living in an RV on my parents property. My mom has cancer and my dad works full-time, so its pretty nice being close by if they need anything, not to mention how much cheaper it is. It's connected to electricity, water and sewage, in great condition too.
Well, about 3 months ago we had a minor earthquake(southern california) and it collapsed my parents gas line, from the street all the way to the house. My dad repaired it over the course of 2 weeks. In that time they had no hot water and none if their gas appliances worked. So having the rv for showers and cooking worked out during the repairs. The problem lies with the gas inspector that came out to check the line. My dad got into a verbal argument with him, not once but three times. Gas inspector had to come back out three different times, finally passing on the last visit. He refused to quote which code my dad wasn't inline with(he was) dude was just a genuine dick. Two weeks later we had a city code enforcement worker come out and cite me for "camping", saying a neighbor complained (we know none did) and that I'm not allowed to live in my rv on the property, it's against city code. Looked it up and they're right, I get that part. I moved in with my boyfriend. The city worker did an exterior inspection after unplugging the rv from all utilities, and is now saying they need to do an interior inspection to close the case? I'm obviously not comfortable with this, and am tired of catering to their retaliation. I'm at a loss

(I know it's not the main focus in the title but I'd also be super keen to talk to people in the UK, either London or somewhere in England or Scotland around like Edinburgh as there's a near 100% chance I'm moving there this year)
Hi everyone!
My name is Jack, I'm 21 and I'm a recent cyber security and forensics and internetworking and network security graduate, but I hope to go on for a few more years and do post grad studies! (this year my goal is to move to Edinburgh for my masters!)
Hobbies!: For the past few years I've been heavily into formula 1, never missing a race (even the 3 am ones and even worse, the 7 am ones!)
I also enjoy doing photography, I mainly do cars but I have recently started thinking about more landscape/urban photography.
Now for games! My main ones are Destiny 2, and rainbow six siege, (for those wondering my highest rank is diamond 3 (when rank actually meant something lol)), but I haven't been playing them much these days. I play heaps more than that but I can't think of them off the top of my head lol. To try and list some id say project zomboid is one I'm very into as of right now, that and hell divers 2. I really enjoyed elden ring so I want to try more souls like games. Red dead redemption 2 is amazing and my favourite game of all time is probably watch dogs 2.
I love JDM cars and unfortunately haven't been to a car meet in over a year now. My introduction to photography was through cars so if you'd like to see some of my photos do let me know! Most of my part time work went towards getting my dream car so I definitely plan on going to more meets!
As for what I look like I'm 5"11' brown hair that touches my shoulders and never acts normally. I am 75 ish kg and I have brown eyes. That's a basic description of me but if you want a picture that's not an issue.
I'm not really too good at writing these advertisements or making titles or finishing them off so I'll just say if I sound appealing to you or you wanna know more, feel free to shoot me a message! For those in WA I'm down in the Mandurah area but travelling up to Perth isn't an issue for me! And hopefully I see all you Scots later this year!
Thanks for reading! Stay safe people!!

Here we are again in the shit stew that is the Fallowveil trailer park. We’ve got soul eating strippers, jobs that kill us, and plenty of weirdos, both the trailer trash and the potentially paranormal variety. It’s the place where even your own computer sometimes threatens to kill you. I can’t tell if I should be worried, or annoyed that all my neighbors have such irresponsible web habits. I know it’s not me that brings in all these machine wiping viruses.
So even though I got a system error that literally said “you’re useless and you should die” I’m less interested in that. Stupid thing. Like I don’t already know I’m useless. That’s not what I’m depressed about.
Well… I suppose it's tangentially related.
I hope anyone reading will forgive me. I’m feeling the sting of rejection right now. It was really stupid of me to ask. Especially now. Nobody here really likes me. They’ve only been nice to me as a courtesy because I was almost involved in a god damn shootout. And my idiot self decided that was the perfect time to push one of my few friends all the way away. Never ask your friends out on dates. It ruins everything.
So there’s this woman. I’ve talked about her in the past. Trista Ramone. She lives in the far back corner of the trailer park. You can instantly tell which unit is hers because she’s covered every square inch of the property with gardens and a rabbit hutch. The place usually has beads and colorful flags hanging on its walls as well. She’s kind of a right winger’s nightmare. I know some of those flags represent various lgbtq plus communities.
She and I have been friendly in the past. We’re both night shift workers. We crossed paths quite a bit going to and from work so we struck up a friendship over the years.
Let’s just ripped the band aid off. Recently I’ve started thinking I had… stronger feelings for Trista. I got stupid and decided to tell her about them. She wasn’t interested. I get why. We have very different lifestyles. I like meat, and she thinks the meat industry is murder. I’m not willing to give up meat, and she’s not willing to give up her beliefs. It's as simple as that. Now things are incredibly awkward with one of my closer friends and I’m still spiraling into self loathing, where I belong.
She swore up and down that she absolutely still wants to be friends with me, but I’m not sure I believe her. The look she gave me when I told her I’d like to ask her out. It looked like sadness, but a small part of me is convinced it was pity, or worse, disgust and loathing, and that small part gave me ever shuts the fuck up. But anyway, she gave me permission to write about her.
She is one of the creepy fixtures of our little neighborhood after all. She told me to make her seem as insane and scary as I possibly could and that she should get to kill me at the end. She also handed me a few of her high school yearbooks, advised me to chat with another neighbor of ours who she went to school with, and to only use creepy rumors for the rest.
Part of me is really willing to describe her as awful, but that’s just my anger. I don’t like that part of me. Trista’s not a bad person at all. She’s just weird and she doesn’t want to date me. God damn it, Petunia’s right. I need therapy.
So, I’ve told the story of the sexy, scary lady living in a polycule here in the trailer park. I think she’s got a bigger heart than she lets on. I’ve talked about the stories surrounding the Schroeder Slaughterhouse. Now let’s talk about the hippy everyone thinks is a vampire.
She’s a taller woman, maybe five-seven or eight, and she’s skinny. Her typical wardrobe is… interesting. Try to imagine your typical new-age hippy/stoner girl, wearing colorful sarongs, crop-tops, beanies, baggy sweaters, T-shirts with colorful sayings on them, sandals, boots woven from some sort of exotic plant, beaded necklaces, bracelets, a few too many piercings and some intricate tattoos. Can you picture that kind of person? Well, take that and dip them in “goth” dye. Everything is black, and contrasts to her pale white complexion, her eyes are this unusual violet color, and then make the woman wearing all that seem kind of depressed about something. That’s the look Trista has going on. Like if Wednesday Addams was forced to dress up for Hippy Day.
I’ve heard people call her an emo vampire, but as a former emo myself, she doesn’t fill out all the criteria. She doesn’t typically wear any super tight pants or cake on the eyeshadow. I guess she’s just Trista. It might sound weird (and it is) but the whole thing suits her. Her style, tattoos, and complexion all create this image of skinny vampiric waif with a mysterious past and a freaky sarcastic attitude and I found the whole thing… kinda hot.
Trista keeps to herself. She’s made the most out of her little corner of the trailer park. Like I said, she decked out her unit with garden squares, and a Rabbit pen. No idea why she’s allowed to do that. A lot of these places don’t allow pets. I heard she was also trying to put in a beehive too, but her neighbors are fighting her on that one. Our park is a bit too condensed for bees. She has a permit to grow hemp, but of course it’s not for recreational use. She treats it and uses it to weave things like handbags, clothes, and other stuff. There’s a consignment store in town that sells all kinds of things Trista has crafted herself. So she’s handy and self sufficient too. She paints, she carves wood, she weaves, she crochets, she sews, and who knows what else. She’s so good at her little crafts that apparently she’s able to support herself just selling them and working part time at the Moonlight Inn outside of town.
She’s also relatively friendly. I almost feel bad calling her weird, but here’s the thing, I’ve seen some REALLY weird shit. People jokingly call her a vampire, and she seems to embrace that, but part of me seriously wonders. The big clue is, like I mentioned, she’s completely nocturnal. She’s always asleep during the day, and every blind and curtain is drawn tight. The one time she came out during the day, she had on this full body suit with a helmet with UV glass and everything. Even then, she only showed up to give Petunia a hug, before leaving again.
That was the first time I saw Trista, come to think of it. I was kind of intrigued. It was kind of hard not to be when someone shows up to a community cookout in a freaking astronaut suit. I approached Petunia after she left.
“Who the heck was that?” I wondered.
“MASON! I’m so glad you could make it! You’ve been here about three months now! How’d that job interview go?”
“Oh. It went well. I might be doing janitorial work soon.”
“Night shift?”
“Maybe. I’m not sure.”
“If it’s the night shift, you’ll definitely meet the person who just left. That’s Trista. She’s the girl with the rabbits in the far corner. Poor girl. She’s got a really bad skin condition. Can’t let sunlight touch her.”
“Oh. Is she like… albino or something?”
“No, she’s got pigment. I don’t remember what the condition is called. I guess it started in high school or something. You’d have to ask her. And hey! If you work the night shift, you’ll probably get to chat with her!”
Petunia wasn’t wrong. I started working as a nighttime janitor for a number of local businesses. That was when I first started noticing the pale goth hippy. She rides around on a moped, with her dark hair and her sarong barely billowing behind her. I couldn’t see her face through the helmet, but she waved to me as she passed by.
The next time I saw her, she was jogging, but here’s where it gets weird. When I first stepped outside, all I saw was a blur. It actually startled me as I whipped toward it, but then there was this skinny tattooed pixie, somehow still looking like a stonehippy/vampire in jogging gear. I swear she was moving inhumanly fast when I first noticed her. That was when we introduced ourselves. She actually jogged over to say hello.
“Hey! You’re the new guy right?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. My name’s Mason!” I reached out to shake the pretty girl’s hand, like an awkward loser. She smirked and shook my hand. Her grip was weirdly strong, and a bit cold.
“I’m Trista. I’m the weirdo in the back with the rabbits.”
“Trista… oh, are you the one who has a thing with sunlight? I think Petunia mentioned you.”
“Yup! That’s me. Xerodoma pigmentosum. Sunlight hurts. I hate that it hurts.” She lamented.
“That’s gotta be rough,” I said sympathetically.
“You get used to it. You work at night?”
“Yeah. Works better for me.”
“I get that.”
And so on and so on. She’s pretty cool, with a bit of hilarious snark in there. And she secretly procured recreational weed she was willing to share. I kept working the night shift just hoping for another chance to talk to her and possibly buy a joint. Eventually she invited me over to share a joint. The inside of her place was actually pretty sparse and spartan compared to the outside. Though she was a fan of hanging beads. Most of the main room was taken up by her various crafting projects and supplies. Hemp weaves, some paintings, and even a wood carving of what I think was a rabbit, but it wasn’t anywhere near complete.
I followed her to her kitchen where she reached into the very back of her pantry and pulled out a shoebox. Inside was her stash, but there was something else which I found very strange. It was a pack of syringes and a thing I assume is to sterilize syringes. I know what you’re thinking, and that was my first thought too. It’s a poor neighborhood, the woman already smokes weed illegally, it’s not that big a shock that maybe she was involved in other drugs too. I decided not to ask at the time. We shared our joint, and we laughed, a lot. She made fun of me for being a lightweight, while I got completely hypnotized staring at the patterns of a shawl she had woven.
Months went by and we got closer, but I couldn’t forget those syringes. After a while I got worried. I’ve seen what heroine does to people. So the next time I went over to smoke and eat (vegan) pizza with her, I asked.
“Trista? Are you using anything other than weed?”
“Drugs?”
“Yeah.”
“No. Why?”
“You can tell me if you are.”
“Mason, sweetheart, I’m a stoner. I don’t fuck around with anything else and I never have.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Okay. Can I ask what that set of syringes are for?”
“Oh. In my stash box? Those are… part of my condition. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Oh. Is it like… embarrassing?”
“Yeah. So don’t ask. Can we just watch a movie?”
So I don't ask anymore. But I still have no idea what she does with those syringes. Based on what I read about that Xerodoma Pigmentosum thing she says she has, I have no clue what she would need to inject herself with.
Another time she asked me to check on her rabbits for her during the day, as her usual “sitter” had something come up. All I had to do was chop up the lettuce and carrots she left out. As I was enjoying the adorable fluffy faces, one of Trista’s neighbors, a woman named Bridget, poked her head outside her door.
“Hey. Do you know what Trista injects those rabbits with?”
“I… what?”
“I’ve seen her use syringes on those rabbits. She said she was just giving them medicine, but I swear I see her inject them every week.”
“I… I wouldn't know. She just asked me to feed them.”
“I love Trista, but that always seemed so weird. She has to know vaccines are a hoax!” I tuned the woman out after that one. My mind was on that set of syringes. Why would she be using them on rabbits? These things were her pets.
I was starting to crush on her by then. But I couldn’t help feeling weirded out by that. I was actually going to confront her, but the next time I came to visit, she was literally inside the Rabbit hutch, on her back, squealing with delight as her rabbit friends nuzzled and played with her.
“Bonnibelle! That tickles! Marcy! No chewing. Finn? Watch where you’re sticking that foot! Jake? Where are you? EEEEE Lumpy! Not the neck!”
It was as silly and adorable as it sounds. She was forced to whip herself upright when two of her little friends tried to burrow under her dress. She finally stood up with a laugh, cradling a rabbit in her arms and cooing at it.
There was just no way in hell this woman was doing anything that would hurt these animals. Bridget is a paranoid antivax weirdo anyway. If Trista was using syringes on the rabbits, I was convinced it was only for their benefit.
So life went on. I got more and more reclusive over the years. Petunia, Trista, and my next door neighbor Fred were the only things keeping me remotely connected to the outside. And so we get to now. So let’s see. What are the stories about the weird vampire woman?
Well, there’s the fact that she jogs at night, solo, in a poor neighborhood. Petunia keeps the shitty people contained and behaving for the most part, but I still wouldn’t exactly call it safe, especially for a young skinny woman. But she does it without a care in the world.
There’s one strange event that some people like to connect to this. I never knew this guy, but from what I hear he was a total weirdo who leered at anyone even remotely female. And this is despite the fact he was married. His name was Josh.
I remember him a bit. He’s the guy that Petunia chased away from one of her barbecues. Supposedly he was heard saying inappropriate things to the groups of ten year old girls that were playing in the bounce house Petunia rented. Telling them how pretty they were. Trying to coax them to take off their jackets. Police reports were filed but ultimately nothing could be proven. The guy's wife, Carole, always defends him for some reason.
But anyway, I remember hanging out with Trista one night a little over a year ago. She hadn’t gone jogging like she normally did. I asked her what was up with that.
“That weirdo, Josh has started catcalling when I pass his place. It weirds me out.”
“There aren’t other people who do that at night? I’m still shocked you jog alone.”
“Not like this. I can flip off a wolf whistler. But this guy… he keeps trying to get me to stop and talk to him, and when I don’t? He shouts about my ass. I’m gonna have to talk to Petunia about that shithead, if anybody can reign him in, it’s her.”
I’m gonna guess she never got a chance. Two days later, the whole town was awoken by sirens. I was getting ready for my shift when I heard them. I walked down the road a bit to see if I could figure out what was going on. The cops were heading toward the other side of the park, so I couldn’t see much. But I did notice Trista, in her jogging gear, skulking in the shadows. I wondered if she was in trouble. But before I could call out to her, she sprinted straight to Petunia's house and banged on the door. Petunia welcomed her inside, and that was all I saw. I still wasn’t sure what was going on, so I just shrugged and headed to work, figuring I’d text Trista later.
I didn’t learn till later that Josh was found dead. He was lying prone, face down, partly hidden by bushes at the edge of the park. His neck was cut open. He’d bled out rapidly. He had a knife in his hand, and officially it’s believed he fell on it and accidentally killed himself. There was a cocktail of drugs in his system so most people accept that explanation. But others swear they saw Trista out for her jog around the same time Josh would have been bleeding to death. She got questioned, and she swore she didn’t see anything. Without evidence, there was nothing else that could be proven.
Trista’s a friend. I know that guy was being creepy to her. So I’m happy to take her word for what happened, even if my seeing her going to Petunia’s pokes a bit of a hole in that. I can’t be sure it was Trista though. So I’m not saying a word. But if a certain creep attacked a certain lady who is rumored to be a vampire, it’s not that surprising to me that he ended up dead after bleeding to death. I’m not all that broken up about it.
I’m not the one spreading that story. Josh’s wife was the one who started the rumor. So now some people are even more convinced that the weird nocturnal hippy chick is secretly a vampire.
She’s no killer. No matter what they say. She would only have defended herself.
So that’s all the stories I’ve heard that have any credibility to them. There’s more people who swear she and Petunia perform weird rituals, and people who saw her moving “inhumanly fast” and such.
But now I have to share what I found in the yearbooks Trista gave me. I wasn’t really expecting much. I checked her senior yearbook out first. She looks about the same. Pale, goth, hippy, and sort of sad. She kind of looks even sadder in these photos if I’m being honest, but that’s high school for you. She graduated in the top half of her class, no sports or extracurriculars. I’m left wondering how she managed to go to school at the time of sun was so bad for her. I’ll have to ask her about that. So nothing really new there.
It was the yearbook from her junior year where things got really interesting. I was in shock when I found her. Trista is somehow impossible to miss, but unrecognizable all at once. She’s full of color! She wore more typical tie dye hippy attire. Bright vibrant pinks, reds, blues, greens, and yellows, in every photo, and holy shit was she busy. Captain of the soccer team, first chair flutist, president of the “green living” club and the “vegan alliance,” top ten in her class, it was all incredible. I think the main reason I didn’t recognize her was her skin. It was tan, as though she were out in the sun a lot. Furthermore there were photos of her playing sports and standing outside in bright sunlight.
It was like her disease wasn’t there, which confused me. She told me it was something called Xeroderma Pigmentosa. But that’s a genetic condition. She would have had that from birth.
I sent her a text, wondering about this.
Hey! Just went through your yearbooks. What happened? You had color? Did you discover Linkin Park?
My disease happened. Right at the end of Jr. year. That’s why I wasn’t there for the final class photo.
But your disease is genetic… isn’t it?
I guess it was dormant in me.
So it just… happened?
Pretty much.
I’m sorry.
I got over it. Mostly. It was hard. My parents were both hardcore vegan naturalists and we lived in a place that was all natural light and such, so I had to live in a shed for a bit while they built a space for me. But in my family? We kinda lean into whatever life throws at us. It took months of depression to come to terms with it. All of a sudden I couldn’t be out in the sun, and I had new dietary needs that absolutely required non-vegan sources. So I leaned into it. I was a vampire now. I can dig dark colors and “vampire style.” I could make it my own by avoiding leather. And I’d be as vegan as I possibly could.
You’re kind of awesome.
Damn straight. So I learned to love the night too and now, here I am.
I gained new respect for her after that. Frankly I feel kinda shitty about making fun of her for being a vampire. There might not be anything paranormally weird about her after all.
She sent me one more text telling me I should talk to a guy named Frankie. She’d gone to school with him. He’s a decent enough guy. Works in the Bicounty mall in town.
I had to wait a day or two for another of Petunia’s get togethers to talk to him.
“Hey!” I said awkwardly as I tried to figure out how to strike up conversation with someone I haven’t really spoken to in a long time. “Frankie, right?”
“Oh. Yeah. Been a while. How are you Mason? You okay after that whole thing at Red Nights?”
“I’m trying to be. Look, I’ll cut to the chase. You went to school with Trista Ramone, right?”
“Ol’ Boho Ramone? Yeah. We were sort of friendly. But I was a jerk to vegans back then. Why do you ask?”
“I’ve been hanging out with her. She’s being all mysterious.” He chuckled at that. “She said I should talk to you to learn more about her… weirdness? Everyone thinks she’s a vampire now.”
“She’s totally a vampire. I have no idea what else to call her?”
“Why do you say that?”
“What did she tell you about school?”
“Nothing. She just showed me two yearbooks. Between Junior and Senior year she went from colorful club president, to lonely vampire, because of her disease.”
“Nah man. I don’t want to talk bad about her. But she was kind of a bitch, junior year. She wasn’t just a colorful vegan. She was one of those “holier than thou” types who scoffed and talked down to anyone who dared to eat meat. Her “hippy” thing meant she never hung out with the popular girls but still, she acted like she owned the place at times. I was friends with this weird guy named Steven Jones. He was just kind of a weirdo. Skulking around in the background, you know? He HATED Trista. For a while I totally understood. I thought she was kinda stuck up. But this guy was like… irrationally enraged by that girl’s existence. I guess he tried to ask her out when he was a freshman and she politely declined. But he took that shit personally.”
“Huh. So like… why’s that matter?”
“Because Steven kept saying to anyone who gave him a second look, that he was gonna ‘ruin’ her. Never elaborated. But then the last month of school rolls around, Trista gets assaulted by an unknown assailant and a week later she’s got this new disease. Meanwhile, Steven spent a week strutting around the school looking smug, and saying ‘she got what she deserved.’ Then he disappears too. Teachers said he moved away.”
“She was assaulted?”
“Yeah. Someone in a face wrap tackled her while she was at one of her protests at the meat factory. The dude freaking BIT her.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah. I was there. I came to the protest. I’ll admit I was trying to hit on Trista or one of the other girls there. But yeah. Dude dressed in all gray with a face wrap just charged in and went right for Trista. Knocked her down, bit her like a freaking zombie, then ran away before anyone could stop him. Didn’t even take his face wrap off. It was freaky, man.”
“What the actual fuck.”
“That’s what we all said. Trista needed a stitch. But while she was at the hospital, I guess she started getting more symptoms. She was out for the rest of the year. From then on, she was like she is now. Total vampire.”
“Was Steven a vampire?”
“I dunno. Probably. Little dickhead is what he is. Must have been him that attacked Trista, but nobody could prove it. Bite mark didn’t match or something. So why are you asking? You hang out with her at night right? You asking her out or something?”
“Oh. No. Just a friend.”
That was all I really learned from Frankie. It’s quite a story, and it’s full of unknowns that Trista refuses to explain. So I guess I’ll let readers be the judge. Is she a “real” vampire? Or just a weirdo? All I know is, she’s totally standing behind me right now and now I’m dead. Bleh.
I did come back to life to talk to Trista once I finished writing this. She enjoyed it. I may as well include that interaction.
I went to her place on my night off. She read my take on her and what the neighbors thought and she grinned. “Ha! I’m a total monster!” She chuckled. “So. What do YOU think, Mason? Am I a vampire?” She cocked an eye and playfully gnashes her teeth at me, making a pleasant little click.
I sighed. “No idea. You’re Trista. And… you’re my friend. I’m sorry if I made things awkward.”
She looked surprised by that. “Aw. Thanks Mason. You’re my friend too. It’s okay. I’m flattered.”
“You don’t have to explain.”
“So we’re cool?”
“Absolutely not. We’re both weird shut ins.” She laughed. It was good to hear her laugh. It made me happy.
“Yeah but I got the ‘mysterious vampire’ thing going.”
“You have dirt in your hair from rolling around with bunnies. And you’re a vegan.”
“Bite me.”
“Says the vampire.”
“You know, if I were a vampire, I could have bitten you when we both went to the slaughterhouses a few weeks ago.”
“That just makes me stupid.”
“You’re not stupid, Mason. You’re not a loser either.”
“So. You know of any other good spooky town stories that I can do next?
“Oh, sure. You ever heard the tale of Salome? She was a witch who would mash up the seeds of a Sinapis Alba plant to make a diabolical potion she’d dump on herself. They called her the ‘Witch of the Sands.’”
I’m embarrassed to admit it took me four days to realize Trista was just fucking with me. I only figured it out when I looked up Sinapis Alba and learned that mashing the seeds just makes mustard. “Salomi the sand-witch.” Well played, vampire hippy…
Sexy Neighbor
Haunted Slaughterhouse

As the title said, I want to snap at my dad at graduation if he appears/ approaches me.
A little back story, I'm a 17 year old. And I'm done with my dad's bs. Some back story I've never been close to him even when he was married to my mom. He was that dad that would only be there for all the fun stuff, but never home and if he was he would always do yard work. Always putting a wall between everyone in the house just saying. He would always put the pressure on house work/ rasing us to my mom, and wonder why we didn't have the same connection as when I was younger. Before and after the divorce my mom has told me who he actually was and everything clicked. He would cheat and lie, things I've had to deal with in other drama I've been in and it's a hard line no one should pass since that's a line to be cut off. And didn't want to have a connection with him at all. I would since he's my "dad" but the way he has acted towards me isn't the best from what I want to do, the college location. And how he acted when I got in. I got the call from my college when he was moving out, I went up to him when I got into my dream college and rolled his eyes at me. A different day he wore the college t shirt get got out to dinner with me but that was one thing that broke the connection. He also shown his sico self when I was in the back of his car and wanted to find my mom to sign papers, my sibling thought she was at a restaurant but she was at home. But my dad went up and down every row to find her car. There's been others but can say all. I haven't been treated right from his family either, so when it was thanksgiving I walked out because I was being ignored for the 6th year in a row (my mom was the only person that would talk to me). And that was the end of the contact with him, he would text me how it used to be and how things have changed. So I blocked him 2 weeks ago after 5 months of ignoring his messages, he's blind to I don't want to talk to him, my mom has told him and me not answering him. He still doesn't understand. He doesn't have any accountability, always blames my mom for what happens, never his own. Only thinks of himself. Because of this he still cries, why, don't I want to talk to him/ keeps causing my mom more problems/ drama she doesn't want.
But with that anger I feel like I might be the asshole because I cause more drama/ make a scene, imbarrese my mom, and air out family drama Infront of my dad's "new girlfriend".
So if he appears/ approachs me and annoys me at my graduation AITA for maybe Snapping.

I feel like I've been celebrating the bare minimum from my husband and am now realizing maybe I'm NOT actually expecting too much. I feel angry and resentful. Because he changes diapers, is present and works lots I feel like I'm ungrateful for being unhappy.
Since birth 8 months ago I've gotten up for every single night feed (she was EBF and refused a bottle so for some time this was our only option) and gotten up first thing in the morning with her, every single morning even weekends. I've been the one to do the bedtime routine too. Pretty much all baths. Planned all of her meals and done all the research on anything relevant to her development. I make sure we have food, clean house everyday, clothes that fit her, etc. I pay half the bills while on ei and have just had to give up my well paying job to be able to be home with her when my mat leave ends as we have no daycare. I make sacrifices for her though because I chose to have her and this is the season of life i'm in. It feels like any sacrifice he needs to make is the end of the world.
Recently she has learned to take a bottle, my husband would only offer to feed her when basically begged to, and if she wouldn't take it within the first few minutes he's get annoyed and give up. I've heard other moms say their husbands get up with the baby weekends and let mom sleep in a bit, I can't help but laugh. Could NEVER be my reality it seems. It's a good morning if my husband doesn't wake up grumpy for having his sleep in time disrupted by a crying baby, or complaining about how he didn't sleep at all after I was up and down 3-4 times all night.
I do pretty much every single thing for our daughter. I love her to death and am so happy to be her mom, but I need breaks too. He'll do stuff if I ask but 50/50 chance he'll get frustrated while doing it and I end up taking over or struggle internally knowing she's picking up on his tension. He expects to be able to see friends every weekend and multiple times during the week typically and will guilt trip me if I protest it. He complains that he has no friends anymore (this is far from true). He thinks if he goes out after she goes to bed it shouldn't matter, I get it but then he's up late and grumpy in the morning - or he gets home late as fuck and expects me to be awake and wanting to cuddle or fuck. I dread weekends now as I know at any time he will ask to go out with a friend and be gone for the rest of the day/night. If I suggest family time, we'll do that but as soon as we're home he's got plans made to leave or go to the garage. He thinks if he's in the garage he's technically home and "present" and says to ask if I need help. I feel like the default parent. He comes and goes mostly as he pleases, if I protest he'll say he's absolutely fine staying home but his mood after says otherwise and he'll just sulk on his phone.
This is silly to be angry at but he needs to take a shit I swear to god 4-5 times a day and he'll be in the bathroom for up to 20 mins everytime, almost always conveniently when I could really use help. He says its unfair for me to be angry at him for using the bathroom.
I see the few friends I have maybe once every few months. The only times I get to go out alone is if I have a hair appt, occasional grocery shop alone (and then he tells me to hurry), maybe I can go for a drive if it doesn't interfere with his plans.... I have family help during the week if I want it, but the point is I want my husband to be the biggest help and he isn't. He also has mental health problems and refuses to get help, he says spending time in the garage is what helps him decompress. How convenient.
I'm at a point where I'm almost hating being around him and am happier during the weekdays with just me and my daughter, yet desperate for him to come home waiting for him to suddenly start helping more. Instead he will get annoyed/complain rather quickly which is almost laughable because I do this shit EVERYDAY AND NIGHT and regulate my emotions like a fucking grown up. If there's chores I'm behind on, he needs to be asked to do them and will usually do a half ass job I end up completing. He's amazing at apologies and words, promising changes and taking accountability when he's in the wrong.... Yet actions keep saying otherwise.
And finally, we've been planning to do a zoo trip with our daughter this summer and I keep stressing we need to put more money away. He has recently made a big chunk of money on overtime work that would pay for the trip and leave him a significant amount left. He said he plans on spending it all on car parts since he wants to enjoy his hard earned money and feels he contributes enough to our joint acc, and that if I can't find the money in there to put away to save then 🤷🏼‍♀️ basically and I'm overspending on groceries so thats why we can't save.
I feel stuck. I can't afford to give her the same home and life we have now by myself, I don't have the ability to go make that kind of money anymore. I don't wanna miss out on time with her in custody sharing. I don't know what to do. Some days are good with him and he makes her laugh and smile, and I think maybe this is all in my head.

Hello! So, I knew my hair had one too many looks and having one last bleach sesh might be overkill. It was. My hair isn't a horror story, but it isn't smooth and soft either. Overall I'd say it was worth it, because I'm graduating and will need to stay away from vivids for a new job and so I just wanted to enjoy a fresh bright vivid one last time and then while I get situated in my career I can work on growing fresh, healthy hair. I heard glosses can help a lot with texture and smoothness, though, as long as I avoid demi which has developer and may damage my already fragile hair or mess with the honestly cool dye job (it's been described as holographic, prismatic, and pearlescent, I'm definitely satisfied with the look!).
Also, is a semi clear gloss something that will work better the longer I let it sit? I've never heard of these before recently, so it's a whole new world!

Hi! I'm about to buy my first car but got pretty discouraged by the insurance costs. I thought you guys may be able to give me some advice.
I'm 28F, moved to the UK for uni in 2015. Got my driving licence in Poland in 2015. Since then, I have been using various cars semi-regularly - initially my mum's car whenever I was back home, then I signed up for Co-wheels and used it regularly since 2021. Additionally, I was a driver for my uni's mountaineering club and drove various rental cars, MPVs and even minibuses. Also rented cars regularly on holidays abroad. Suffice to say I'm experienced - various roads, countries and vehicles. Does that matter at all when applying for insurance? So far after filling the quote forms it looks like I've never driven a car before - is there any way to use that for my advantage?
I've been collecting all the tricks to lower the insurance, exchanged my EU licence for UK one, potentially gonna add my cousin as a second driver etc. Just discovered that the job titles may be tinkered with slightly too.
I'm not looking for any specific car, but I'd like it to be big enough to sleep in it or at least fit a bike in the boot easily (like Fabia Estate or something similar). Was considering Citroen Berlingo too, but not sure about its size yet. I'll take any recommendations for how to choose a car that's not gonna kill me insurance-wise in the first years. Thanks!

I posted this exact post on stopdrinking but not many people saw it and i feel like i need some advice and other points of view
The sad story of a damaged kid(me)
Well, to start it all off i know that this story doesnt really compare with many others here but i honestly think that booze has had a significant impact on my life for such a young age(22 btw).
To give some context to why the following events fcked me up so much just keep in mind that on a psychological test i did when i was 15 it showed that the thing i valued most in my life at the time was my family.
Fast forward 2 years and my life started to fall apart, i was living in a beautiful mansion with a pool and a "happy" family of 5, we were throwing parties regularly and in general people respected me a lot and not just for the huge house and get togethers i was able to have but also because i was that "mysterious down to earth rich kid that you would never think lived in said mansion and has a beautiful gf(model type beautiful" and quite frankly i loved that reputation i have to admit.All of a sudden age 17 i started developing problems with drinking, we would go out 3 times a week with m friends and i would drink until couldnt physically drink anymore since the beginning, it was clubing though so people couldnt tell i was drinking as much as i was, but i was still a happy drunk and in general it wasnt causing me problems and i wasnt doing it more than my peers were.That summer i got back home one day and realised my father was out of his mind drunk to the point of cussing at us and in general being a huge dick(something he had never ever even displayed signs of), thats the day i learned my father was just a high functioning alcoholic that had just started going off the rails with his problem.
For the next year that incident stayed an isolated one and things were supposed to be normal again, until the day my father and my mother had a huge argument in front of me and my 2 sisters(one 20 and one just 12), and when i say argument i mean big truths coming out and books being thrown, then that kind of became the norm and 2 months later just before my graduation i had 2 big news coming my way. One was that they were taking a divorce(which they announced to us while my father had a whiskey bottle infront of him and was heavily intoxicated) The second one was that we had absolutely zero money and had to sell the house to keep existing(something that we also had no clue about).Nice plus is that i was breaking up with at the time my 5 year hs sweetheart very badly(cheating and yelling and all sorts) lost her to the booze as well btw
Then the year after school is were i chose to destroy my own life over the mistakes of others, i started drinking a lot more than i used to and its not the frequency but the fact that when i started i wouldnt stop until i physically couldnt drink anymore, i made myself a fool infront of a lot of people, i was acting insane in front of all my school at certain events and in general burned down every bridge i had built and every bit of reputation i had left. Mix that with use of other illicit substances and you have a shell of a young man that lives just to drink his pain away, i was always curious as to why its only me getting so angry drunk, in hindsight its pretty obvious.A year of this goes by and i have now absolutely embarassed my self in front of everyone i know to the point of not wanting to go out at all but still going out and being a zombie until i drunk that first drink.
Then covid hits and boy oh boy was it a time to be alive, two parents fighting and getting divorced while not being able to move out because we were still waiting to sell the house, at the time my father was taking heavy meds for depression(benzos) which i unfortunately found and abused with alcohol for the whole first summer of covid, when i say abused i mean 7-8 beers daily and 9-10 pills daily( 3 different ones as well). I hardly remember any of that time but i have seen pictures of me and i looked unhinged, i was legit high and drunk the whole time for like a month straight..
Then the house gets sold and we can finally move out with my mother and two sister to an apartment she owned that was not even close to where we were living, my room now is the size my bathroom was back then and my sisters went from 20m2 bedrooms to sharing a room next to my mother(who has it even worse if you compare).I dont want to sound ungrateful because im really not, i am so happy we even had a place to go and not leave the beautiful town we live in, i am grateful to not have died during certain times, i am grateful to still have food to eat, i still remember the first market we went after the house sold, first time thatwe could but more than 15 euros things at once for like years. BUT i still grieve the life i had, the house i had, the reputation i had. People now didnt talk to me apart from my 5 best friends(i am grateful for them also).
So, after we moved i was drinking but not as heavily then i started just not being able to control it, i was rolling a dice everytime i drunk, will i be pleasant when blackout drunk or will i cause everyone to hate me for the night again? I was craving so much attention that when drunk i did anything i could to get it, some years go by and my life generally seems to be going kinda good, i wasnt doing well academicaly but i had a job, i was much better mentaly and i was developing some skills plus being an athletic helped a lot.
The reason i am writing this is because yet again for the past month i have done horrible things while drunk, the thing with me is i will do something very stupid and then control the drinking for sometime and then again the same over and over again, might i add i am a very calm kinda shy akward and sensible person when sober so the contrast to when i am drunk is so big that my friends have a name for my drunk alter ego.1 month ago i drove drunk and thank god only did some damage to the car, 2 days ago i got drunk and lashed out on my mother, everything came out but in the worst way possible, pushing her cussing her and for no reason at all, all she asked was for me to give her the car keys so she will be sure i wont drive while being so intoxicated.I have never felt the embarassment guilt and shame i feel right now, i am a person that will not kill the cockroach because i will feel sorry for it, my mother is like the most important person in my life and the fact i did this to her breaks me, i hate what this poison has done to my life and i want to stop and never drink again.I have tried moderating it but after a while i just drink "normally" again. I have left out a lot of things and a lot of drunken nights and actions i regret, almost all my days are now being spent cringing and being ashamed of the things ive done while drunk, i feel like vanishing right now(i wont kms) but its really bad. Thank you for reading and im glad to answer any questions below.