Birthday parties at bedrock bowlingtucson

The other day my partner and I were hanging out, as they are wont to do, and later in the evening I had to be at an art opening of a good friend of mine. We were both tired after a long day but I felt it my duty as a friend to go (I didn't not want to go, but it would have been a 3 hour drive to and from) and I wanted to support them. I am an artist as well, and openings are often overwhelming and kind of a drag, a sentiment my partner and I are both share, but this was one I felt I needed to go to, and I made mention of that a multiple days prior to my partner. I knew her agreement to go was reluctant, given her tepid response, so I told her "you're not obligated to go so don't feel like you should". She remained steadfast in her decision. Come the day, and I told her again, you really don't have to come but she got ready and was willing to tag along, basically to commiserate, but then she got a text from another friend of hers, a guy whom I've only met once, and I like well enough from what little I know, and hes her only friend out where she lives, Inviting her to a child's birthday party, and while I'm getting to my car I hear her audibly moan, and I ask her whats up, to which she tells me that this friend asked if she wanted to come to this party. For context, this party was like one of those cool adults with kids party, they had a DJ and all in an odd setting, in reality the makings of a could be fun, could be annoying situation. She had mentioned he texted her about this party earlier in the day and thought it would've been cool to go. Seeing how obviously she wanted to go to that party, I told her again, "You really don't have to go to this opening, if you want to go to this party you can.". She told me she wanted to come for support, considering how annoying openings can be, but really wanted to go to this party, and said she would rather go with me, but with an obvious tone of ambivalence. It was glaringly clear she wanted to go to that party, and while I would've enjoyed her company, I felt I'd rather her have fun that subject her to a potentially draining social affair, so I told her I wouldn't be mad if she went to the party. The sort of classic partner conundrum it felt like. I was convicted in my feeling of her doing her thing and I would just go and come back without her, and so that decision was made. She was to go to the party, and I would go to the opening. She asked me if I was fine with that decision and I told her yes, but I felt a little dismayed, and I knew my voice and face betrayed me from presenting otherwise. We parted ways and on the drive I gradually felt more and more bothered by her choosing to go to the children's party. I started over thinking a bunch of things, which felt more like anxious conclusions than logical reasoning, but I continued to get more and more upset that she chose that odd event than going to this opening with me. we haven't seen each other much lately due to the nature of her job, so I figured if I were in her position I would've gone to the opening regardless, but that's just me. either way, as I kept driving, I decided I would curb my social anxiety and just make it a good time no matter what, and yet I continued to get more and more upset by her decision. I think it stems from some deeper feeling about her relationship with this friend and choosing that over an event we both tend to loathe, and I did implore her to stay and have a better chance at a more entertaining evening. But I know in my heart of hearts I wished she would've come along with me, but I'm upset for not being more honest about it. Ultimately I ended up having a really lovely time with friends at the opening and at the after party but I wished my partner had come, and now I feel like a dick head being upset at her decision. I guess I just would like to get the temperature of how irrational I am probably being.

As the morning sun finally breaks through the night I am already getting dressed for my first day of second grade. As I’m struggling to button up my white collar shirt my dad walks into the room.
“You getting ready for school champ?” He asks me, clearly proud of how grown I looked.
“You betcha Dad!” I exclaimed as a wide smile beamed across my face,
Dad bent down and helped me finish buttoning my shirt.
“So…” he started asking, “what’s the plan for today? You know,” he paused trying to find the right words, “so you don’t have another one of those outbursts?”
These “outbursts” as Dad called them weren’t really outbursts. I’d had outbursts before but these were different. I’ve only had a handful of these breakdowns but they were the worst thing I’d ever experienced. It felt almost like someone was clawing into my skull. The pain was almost unbearable. Then there were the voices… ugh, I shuddered thinking about the voices.
It was because of these outbursts that we had to move cities. They were so bad I was kicked out of every school in Saint Louis.
Now that we moved to my crazy old grandmother’s house in Maryland, my parents were hoping I’d grow out of the breakdowns. They had tried everything they could to “fix” me but to no prevail. No matter how many doctors or therapists I went to none of them could ever find out what was wrong with me. It made me feel hopeless like I was doomed to be the weird kid for the rest of my life.
I still remember my 6th birthday all too well. I had invited every kid in my class to my party and was so excited to have people over.
You see, I had never had a real friend before and I was hoping by having people over at my house I could finally make one. That’s how dumb of a thought process I had in kindergarten. Now that I was in second grade I realized that wasn’t how the world worked. When it came time to have my party no one except my older brother Nathan and my older sister Jess showed up.
“I’m sorry Weston.” I remember Nathan saying, “Maybe next year you’ll have friends.”
Nathan didn’t mean that in a mean way but it sure felt like that. That year when I blew out my candles all I wished for was a single friend, a friend whom I could talk to, a friend whom I could play with and laugh with, a friend who cared about me.
But like most wishes, it never came true. And now here I am ready to reinvent myself and ready to try again. Hopefully, things were different in Baltimore, hopefully the kids were nicer.
“I’ll try not to freak out again Dad.” I finally replied to him as he finished tying my navy blue tie around my neck. “I promise.”
“I know you will Westy. I know. Just please try to take deep breaths like the kind therapist told you to.”
“Dad,” I said longingly, “I told you those silly techniques don’t work.”
“They worked for me.” My older sister Jess said as she walked into the room and sat on my bed, “I used to have the same outbursts happen to me.” She paused, “Matter of fact, the feelings never go away, you just learn to mask them.” She looked at Dad, “That’s just what the Man does to you.
“Jessica!” My dad scolded, “Stop scaring your brother. It’s his first day after all.”
“Weston.” He said turning to me, “Don’t listen to her. Do you understand me?”
I nodded submissively,
Dad turned and walked out of the room leaving me and Jess to finish getting ready.
“He doesn’t get it Westy.” She said to me once she knew he was out of earshot, “But just so you know it gets worse when he visits you again.”
“Again?” I replied in horror, “Jess you’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m not I swear Weston. Now normally I wouldn’t be telling you this at your age but you seem pretty mature so I think you can handle it.”
She was wrong, I couldn’t handle it.
"Weston, Jess!” My dad yelled from the kitchen, “Time for school!”
I arrived at school in my dad’s big, grey, Chevy Silverado and hopped down on the curb. I waved goodbye to my dad while Jess grabbed my hand and walked me to my classroom.
Ever since mom died, Jess has stepped up to be the motherly figure in my life though never fully replacing my mom. My mom was a beautiful woman with brown chestnut-colored locks of curly hair and beautiful blue eyes as pale but vibrant as the ocean on a cloudy day. I loved my mom but ever since the Man first showed up at our doorstep she was never quite the same. After the incident with the Man, she turned into a hollow shell of a person. Until, until she’d had enough.
It was right after my 6th birthday when the Man came. Maybe he was the answer to my birthday wish. In some ways, I guess he was. It was raining that day. I can still hear the pitter patter of the raindrops hitting the pavement outside my house when all of a sudden there was a knock on my door. I ran to open it, having not been able to sense danger at such a naive age, and was surprised when a tall man wearing an all-black attire stood there staring at me. When my mom saw who it was from the kitchen she immediately dropped the knife in her hand and started running toward me but not before the Man grabbed me by the shoulder and yanked me out the door. I remember being frozen in fear, not sure whether to cry or scream. I ended up doing nothing. The man shoved me into the back seat of his car and drove off as my mom came running down the driveway. I couldn’t tell if she was crying or if it was just the rain rolling down her face but I remember wondering whether or not I’d ever see her again.
I think about this now as I walked up the steps into the elementary school with my sister’s hand in mine. Once we reach the outside of my classroom, I turn and stare at my sister.
“I don’t wanna go in there,” I said, my anxiety acting up again,
“Come on Weston,” She replied, “I’m sure it will be fine.”
I usually trusted my sister when it came to stuff like this but this time it felt different, something felt wrong. Either way, I decided to suppress my fear and turn to the classroom door. Too short to look into the window of the door, I reach up and turn the handle instead, without looking inside to evaluate the classroom. I crack open the door and peer inside, what I see when I open the door makes me scream at the top of my lungs with fear. I’m struck with fear and can feel the voices coming back.
The Man was sitting at the teacher’s desk, coffee in hand, feet resting on the desk itself.
“It’s nice to see you again William.” He said as a maniacal grin crossed his face,
“Remember me?”

My husband and I were invited to an acquaintances 50th birthday party at their house. Roughly 100 guests, bar, band, food, etc. For context, I know these people a little better than he does. Halfway through, my husband informs me that he has invited a friend of his and the friend’s wife (who have never met the hosts) to come over to the party. When I told him he needs to immediately uninvite them as this isn’t his party to invite people, he became angry and told me I was being ridiculous. AITA?

First / Previous
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Suzanne thought it was absolutely brilliant of me to put books on a flash drive for Sun. She explained that Sun wasn’t as sophant (her word, not mine) as she might seem, more of a repository of information, but she was fairly intelligent. It was how she was able to connect Andrew being in pain to the fact that I was friends with Andrew, and that I would want to know that he was in trouble. Apparently some of Sun’s species had given some ‘wisdom’ to others in the past and it had made its way into mythology.
The key fact was that she was not smart enough to protect herself and her kind from the clever, organized poachers. With that information in mind, it was fascinating for me to think of how Sun took in and organized what she learned. It was almost as if she was a walking, talking library.
On the topic of tours, my first one went wonderfully, and I’m almost hoping Suzanne lets me do more of them. I know not all the tourists are going to be as awesome as these people were, but Suzanne gave me a lot of slack when it comes to dealing with them. She actually said that being a smartass is not grounds for dismissal, and that if I’m sarcastic or facetious to guests who are being ‘daft’ and they complain, she really doesn’t care. Is this the perfect job for me or what?
There were four guests in this party, two adults who were sisters and two children of one of the women, brothers aged thirteen and seventeen. The tour was a birthday gift for the older of the boys from his aunt, since apparently he was passionate about animal protection and conservation.
When they arrived at the front gate, I was sitting at Andrew’s desk, going over the booklet of information one last time. When the visitors pressed the button that sounded the alert buzzer, I tucked away in a drawer and let them in. I did have a cheat sheet with information about the animals on my phone just in case, a brief notation of each of them and which enclosure they were in, but I really didn’t need to use it.
Exiting through the front door, I saw them walk up the path toward me. “Hi, I’m Ripley,” I said, holding out a hand toward the woman closest to me.
She shook it firmly. “I’m Denise. This is my sister Carla and my nephews, Wesley and Jason,” she said, motioning to each of them in turn.
“I heard it’s your birthday,” I said to Wesley, giving him a smile. “You’re interested in animal conversation?”
“Back where we live, yeah,” he said, nodding. “The animals that you’ve got here are incredible. I can’t wait to see them.”
“Well, I can’t wait to show them to you,” I said. “Right this way.”
I led them on the path around the building, toward enclosure one. Despite the horrific memories of the animal killing Stanley’s friends, I knew it was just an animal, and I had to push past my feelings on what had happened. Keeping a small smile on my face, I motioned to the enclosure. “Fiercely territorial and amazing hunters, despite their large size, they’re arboreal and known to dart from tree to tree with barely a sound. This is one of only about two thousand left in existence.”
“Two thousand, three hundred and fifty six at last count,” spoke Wesley, his eyes on the trees.
I blinked, surprised and impressed. “Well that was fantastic. Do you plan on stealing my job when you graduate?”
Wesley looked at me with a grin. “Nah, everyone knows Suzanne only offers humans this gig. And I want to help animals like this one get off the endangered species list. The zoos are great for awareness and fundraising, but then the money has to go somewhere. I want to be doing the real work.”
“That’s really great,” I told him. “I wish you all the best in that career path.” At that, we saw the animal climb down from the tree, wandering a few yards from the tree line. This was because 90% of the time, when humans were at their enclosure and making noise, whether it was speaking to each other or calling out to the animal, it was someone bringing them prey to eat. Or, in my case, enrichment toys to play with.
“Whoa,” Wesley whispered.
“How close can we get?” spoke up Jason.
“The warding starts at the fence,” I told him with a small gesture. “So, just there.”
Both boys wandered closer and I glanced at their parents. It seemed that Suzanne’s zoo had a serious reputation for high quality invisible walls, because they didn’t look worried in the slightest about the boys being hurt or killed.
“They prefer dense forest as their home and have been known to make their nests in trees up to twenty meter in the air,” I continued. “And when hunting, they’ve been seen dropping eight meters straight down. They have incredibly dense yet flexible musculature, which allows them to tackle their prey without injuring themselves.”
There was more information about the animal that I continued to rattle off, though Wesley chimed in at certain points with the info I was about to convey. That was highly entertaining and very cool. When I’d been in school, I’d never met anyone who had my level of passion about endangered animals. I wondered if things were better where these folks came from, but realized that considering there were so few of these animals left, I guessed not.
The animal paced a little bit, seemingly waiting to see if we were the kind of humans that came bearing food, before deciding we weren’t and climbing back up into the trees as easily as I would climb some stairs.
As we moved onto enclosure two, Jason spoke up. “Are there any animals here we can touch or feed or something?”
I sighed inwardly before slowing to a stop. “Well, can you show me your hands?” Jason looked bemused, holding out his hands. “I mean…they both look like they’re in great shape. You can stand to lose one.”
The two women chuckled and Wesley smirked as Jason shoved his hands into his pockets. “Very funny.”
Grinning, I started walking again. “The animals here are all carnivores and all predators. You get to see them, but that’s it.”
“Alright.”
When we reached enclosure two, I started on my next spiel. “We’ve got three reanimated dead in this enclosure,” I spoke. They were just coming out from the trees as we arrived, presumably having heard our approach. “Marissa, Connor, and Bradley. They were donated by families who knew where they would be exhibited. Their next of kin, whoever they are, can’t stand the idea of putting them down. But we need to make sure they don’t have access to corpses, because one of them plus one corpse equals two of them.”
“They eat flesh though, don’t they?” Wesley asked.
I nodded. “Oh, yeah, but it’s from bodies that have already been dismembered. There’s no chance of them being affected by the transformation because it’s all parts.”
“Oh, got it.”
The creatures with blueish-white skin had superhuman strength, which is why they qualified for the security of Suzanne’s zoo. They also were likely the source of any Earth tales of people being brought back to life as zombies, specifically draugr, according to my research. They smelled like rotting flesh, so even as I kept talking about them and giving a background to the people they used to be, we were quick to move on once Wesley had gotten a good, long look at them.
“Enclosure four’s animal is a vampiric spirit. He’s a small, hairy humanoid creature with pointed ears. He wears a hat, and if he somehow loses it, he freaks out,” I said.
“They eat horses,” Wesley noted. “Also anything that gives them the chance to sit on it, usually catching them by surprise while they’re sleeping.”
The creature came out from the brush, giving us a suspicious look. He wasn’t in his humanoid form though; for some reason, he’d chosen to shapeshift to a dog.
I nodded. “Yep, indeed. Once the prey is dead, then he’ll eat it, and he has a voracious appetite. We have two wolves and two bears in the forest, which is one of the reasons I’ve got some self-defense items,” I said, patting my belt where my pepper spray (rated for bear) and my taser. “But the wards keep them out of this area of the zoo, so it’s really not much of a worry. It’s also a known shapeshifter, preferring the form of a dog, as you can see, as well as a cat, a snake, or even white butterflies, though the last one is rare.”
“The white butterflies are supposed to be a sign of good luck,” Wesley said, glancing to me. “Too bad we got the dog.”
“Yeah, otherwise you might be able to talk your mom into getting scratch-offs on your way home, huh?”
Wesley smirked at me.
The next enclosure was Spike, and he was waiting for us, dripping wet from having just emerged from the lake. I gave the introductory information about him, which included his propensity for eating animal eyes, nails, and teeth. “Recently, I’ve given him some enrichment activities, and I learned he likes artichokes, pecans, and hazelnuts,” I said, taking a bag out from my cargo shorts. “Wesley, do you want to toss this bag into the enclosure?”
The boy’s eyes widened and he nodded excitedly. He took a look into the paper bag before wrapping down the top to make sure nothing would fly out. Then he chucked it underhand past the fence. It landed a few yards from Spike, who waddled over to it quickly and tearing the bag open, spilling out the prizes inside. As the animal ate the pecans and hazelnuts, Wesley asked, “How’d you figure out he likes those?”
“It’s not all about taste,” I told him. “It’s mainly the difficulty of getting them out of the shells. He’s used to having to work for the parts of his prey he likes the most, so this mimics that activity, and he enjoys the process. I tried a bunch of different foods to find a few he liked.”
“Cool,” Wesley murmured, staring at him.
We watched Spike eat until he’d finished and then he went back into the woods, leaving us to move onto enclosure five. Japanese camellia were plentiful here, a type of pink flower, and that was because they grew anywhere near one of his species made their den. “This girl spends most of her time in the lake also,” I said, as the creature made its way toward the fence separating us from it. “But as you can see, she’s just as curious as the rest about what we’re doing here and whether we have food for her. She eats fish mostly, but she also regularly gets live prey.”
This creature was a spider-like monster, having six legs with long claws on each, and the head of an ox with two sharp horns. She was capable of shapeshifting to look like a human, but I guessed that she wasn’t fond of it, since I hadn’t yet seen her in that form.
“She prefers the easy way of catching prey, so to speak, by hiding in the lake and pouncing when something comes for a drink of water,” I explained. “Apparently humans are some of her favorite prey. She has an advantage of being able to spit poison, which often hits her prey in the eyes. But it’s usually used in defense rather than offense, since it secretes a limited amount.”
“What kind of animal would even go after something like this?” Jason asked, staring at her.
“Never discount one of its own species when you’re thinking about what might attack an animal,” I replied. “There are places that are breeding all of the animals here, but competition for mates is common. That means an advantage in a fight, like poison or venom, can make or break who the winner is.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
“It can’t spit past the warding, right?” Carla suddenly asked.
“Oh, no,” I assured her. “We’re fine. The wards wouldn’t let anything cross over.” She nodded, appeased.
The animal in enclosure six was the ginormous seal-hippo, Fiona, and she was looking at us as if she was imagining sprinkling us with herbs and spices and stuffing us in an oven. “This girl is one animal I’m going to work on enrichment activities for next,” I told them. “She prefers to feed on crayfish, though she’s happy to eat any humans that wander into her territory. She’ll even make a sound like a baby crying to reel us in. I’ve heard it a bunch of times.”
“Can you get her to make the sound?” Jason asked, perking up.
I grinned. “Not on command, sorry.”
“What enrichment are you thinking of trying?” Wesley asked.
“Possibly food placed in puzzle feeders,” I told him, “since she has claws that are pretty dexterous. Maybe a piñata made out of newspaper with flour inside, or a scarecrow that mimics a human.”
“Awesome,” he muttered.
After a little more educational tidbits, we moved onto Yui’s enclosure. “What is that?” Wesley asked, smiling.
“I got Yui the closest thing I could to a ping-pong ball,” I replied. “She quite likes it.”
“That’s so funny,” he said as she came out of the trees in her spider form. “I mean, the idea of her being a bloodthirsty hunter who seduces men to their deaths and eats them alive, but then on the other hand, she likes playing with something like this.”
“It is a little funny,” I agreed. “But when it comes down to it, all the animals here enjoy activities besides hunting.”
“She can shapeshift to look human, right?” asked Jason, trying to be casual about knowing something factual like his nerdy brother.
I nodded. “She looks like a woman from a region of Earth called Japan. And she’ll use strategies like holding out a hand to shake to get you closer. She tried that on me when I first got here but, as you can see,” I said, holding up my hands and waving them, “I didn’t fall for it.”
The boys both laughed as they got closer to the fence, watching her slowly pace near the trees.
Next was Sun, but she didn’t make an appearance as I spoke about her species. “Well…unfortunately we can’t guarantee that every animal comes out to say hi,” I sighed. “But…oh wait, here she is.”
The green lion with several horns and many eyes along her flank came out from the forest. “Hello,” she spoke.
“Hi, Sun,” I replied. “We have visitors.”
“What’s that?” Wesley asked suddenly, pointing at the small plastic bag that was still where I’d left it.
“Oh! That is Sun’s enrichment,” I said with a smile. “I put dozens of books on a flash drive and found that she can read them just like she’d read a shelf of books.”
Wesley’s eyes widened. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve read about anyone trying that before. That’s really cool.”
“The books are new and interesting,” Sun spoke, drawing our attention. “I’m grateful for them.”
I nodded to her. “You’re quite welcome.”
The next animal, unfortunately, wasn’t there, and we waited around for ten minutes as we discussed him. He was large and reptile-like with red eyes, with its hind legs and tail making him look vaguely like a kangaroo. Then, enclosure ten was a terrifyingly disturbing creature, the not-a-centaur with no skin, that I’d only seen a few times while walking my route. It gave a good demonstration of its ferocity, showing its sharp teeth and snapping at us a few times.
“I’m thinking of trying salt licks and other horse enrichment like a big bouncy ball,” I told Wesley, whose eyebrows went up at that. “Maybe give him more things to forage like scattered grains or a box filled with pinecones and seeds. Foraging is a huge part of a horse’s life in the wild, and humans have to do a lot of activities like that to keep pet horses busy. Of course, he also loves the little salt-water lake that was built for him.”
We spent some time looking at the animal before moving past our last stop, the empty enclosure of the animal was stolen. Carla glanced at me with a sad smile, knowing what had happened, it seemed. I gave her a nod as we continued on our way, walking into the office. “So, I hope everyone enjoyed themselves!” I said with a smile.
“That was the coolest birthday present I’ve ever gotten,” Wesley said, looking to Denise. “Thanks so much, seriously.”
“It was my pleasure,” she said with a nod. “I’d never been here before, and knew I’d find it fascinating. Thank you for the educational aspect,” Denise said, glancing at me. “I learned quite a lot.”
“Happy to hear it,” I said, returning the nod.
As I escorted the guests out of the zoo and locked the door behind them, I reflected on how much I’d changed. The first time I’d seen Yui’s tarantula form, I’d nearly passed out from fear. Now here I was, walking tourists around like it was no big deal. Humans really can adapt to anything, it seems.
That afternoon, Suzanne had texted me that she was coming by after my shift, and I met her in Andrew’s office, shutting the door to the security room behind me. “How’s Andrew?” I asked first thing.
“He’s doing well,” she said with a wide smile. “Back on non-hospital food. He’s allowed to order food on his phone, and to hear it from him, that’s the best news he’d received in a long time.”
I chuckled. “I guess some clichés are true for a reason.”
“Indeed.” She took a breath. “All right. Ripley…I would like to discuss something with you.”
My face went slack at the serious tone in her voice. “I’m not… Am I being fired?”
“What? No!” she exclaimed. Then she chuckled softly. “No, it’s nothing like that. Just, here, let’s have a seat.” Suzanne walked over to the couch and sat at one end, and I took the other. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something I’ve kept from you, that I wanted to keep from you until you found your sea legs here.”
“Well…I have,” I said with a nod. “So, what is it?”
Suzanne took a breath. “I knew your mother.”
The words hung in the air for a moment before making their way to my ears. It was a perfectly logical sentence, and yet it didn’t make any sense. “What?” I finally managed.
“When you graduated college, I decided to move the zoo from Italy to within driving distance of your home,” she said softly. “Near enough to your town that you’d see the advert. We ignored any other applicants and I hoped you’d apply. Actually, I expected you’d apply. Not just for the money, but considering the field you wanted to go into. As soon as I’d found out your major, I knew.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, holding up a hand. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How do you know Patricia?”
“She owned the zoo before I did,” Susan explained. “Fourteen years ago…she was working to track an injured animal that we could bring into the zoo and she was killed by poachers.”
My heart calcified in my chest and a lump lodged in my throat. As my breaths became shaky, I stared at her in shock. “She…she’s really dead?”
“You suspected?” she asked softly.
“It…” I swallowed hard. “We had her declared legally dead after…I don’t know, seven years I think. My dad wanted to go after her for child support, but the police said…they said they couldn’t find…” Tears came to my eyes and I blinked them back before I met Suzanne’s gaze. “She owned the zoo?”
Suzanne nodded. “It was her baby, you’d say. When Patricia passed, I inherited it, which we’d discussed beforehand, a legal just-in-case that I never expected her to need. I’m under the impression that you were told she went to Africa for her photography career, but she was in fact going to remote areas back in my home world almost every time.”
“But I-I saw the photos,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “You’re telling me she put on a show of getting pictures that someone else took for us to see every time she visited? Did my dad even know?”
“I suppose that’s an accurate way to put it, putting on a show. And no, your father was never told. It’s not the way of things to tell humans unless it’s necessary. I won’t bore you with the details, but us and humans, we’re distant relatives, so we can still have children. But it wasn’t planned. Your mother fell in love with your father despite herself; she hadn’t meant to find love. Then she became pregnant with you and…well, the rest is history.”
“I think she had a different definition of love than the one I have,” I said tightly. “You’d think she’d have put her survival as more of a priority. Put being with the man she ‘loved’ as a priority. Her kids needed her. I needed her. She signed up when she became a mom. She could’ve screwed up all the time but she couldn’t even manage that one job: be there. When I was in the hospital, I kept thinking, ‘Where is she?’ and now you’re telling me that she put these animals above being there for her kids, and this whole time she’s been dead.”
“The hospital?” she asked, furrowing her brows.
“Never mind,” I said tersely, averting my gaze.
Suzanne hesitated before she nodded slowly. “I’m sorry for your loss, and not just for her death, Ripley,” she told me. “Patricia was…well, a ‘free spirit’ would be putting it gently. She always assumed the world would be there for her whenever she needed it.”
Staring at her for a long moment, I shook my head. “Why? Why come here and hire me?”
“I thought that would be obvious,” she said, smiling. “Your mother was so passionate about this place and once I found out your college major, I figured you would be as well.”
“Did you know that I hate her?” At that, Suzanne’s expression froze on the edge of shock. “She…she left us,” I whispered. “Didn’t tell us who she was or what she really did for a living and gave us no closure. And even when she was here, it was just visiting. Her real home was her work. She could give me all the presents she wanted, but even when she was here, half the time she was still on her computer doing work. It’s not like that stereotype of never making it to my tennis practice or something; it’s that it always felt like she was only partially here, even when I was sitting next to her. I don’t even know if I appreciate her turning me into a wildlife fanatic because it…it…makes me feel like I’m close to her in a way that’s just infuriating. She loved the animals more than she loved us.”
“Oh, Ripley-”
“Don’t,” I said, shoving myself to my feet. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise.”
“I wasn’t going to,” she said quietly. I pursed my lips. “I was going to say that I’m sorry that was the case. Your mother was…flawed, just like any other person. She had two loves in this world: her family and her work. And often, her work overcame her, her zeal for environmentalism getting in the way of being a good mum. She left your father trying to fill the role of two parents, holding your family together. You and your brother and your father, you all deserved better than that.”
My lower lip quivered but I bit down on it hard. It would’ve been a lot easier for me if she’d been speaking from a place of clueless reassurance about all this. But everything she said was making sense and that meant I didn’t have someone in front of me to be angry with.
“Why didn’t you tell me when Andrew hired me?” I sighed, sitting back down on the couch.
“Well, like I said, I wanted you to find your sea legs,” she said with a small smile. “I didn’t want the truth affecting whether or not you wanted to work here, whether you wanted to stay here after finding out about what the animals are. It would’ve complicated things, the emotions you’ll have to work through now that you know the truth. Whether or not you decide to give another tour, you also know what they’re like. That’s the benchmark I wanted you to reach before you found out about who you are.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Who I-” My face went slack. “Wait.”
Suzanne nodded slowly. “You’re only half human. Your brother too.”
The room seemed to tilt on an axis for a moment. “That means I’m also half…what?”
“We call ourselves Eldritch, these days,” she replied.
My eyes bugged out. “What?” I exclaimed. “So you’re all, like, gods or something?”
Suzanne burst out laughing. “Oh no, goodness, no,” she chuckled. “It’s just a word. We live in a very different world from this one, and a few generations ago we discovered the word and it made its way into our lexicon. But it does mean you can see all the animals. Indeed you did, on the tour you gave.”
“Wait, no, I had the glasses that…” I stopped. “Did those glasses do anything?”
She gave a sly smile and shook her head. “Not a thing. You made incredibly quick progress, and then when it came time for the tour, all you needed was to expect to see the animals, and you did.”
Genetics. That’s what Andrew had said during our interview, that part of how many animals you could see was determined by genetics. I guess having a mother who was originally from the other dimension gave me all the genes I needed to see everything here. “Could I…visit your world?” I asked tentatively. “You said that my mom took photos of the animals there. Could I…” My voice trailed off, not even sure if or how I wanted to finish that sentence.
“Those who are half human, especially those who are raised on Earth, don’t come visit,” she said gently. “I could show you some photos of other animals, and I could loan you as many books as you’d like, but it’s simply not a place where you’d be safe.”
“Oh,” I said, leaning into the couch cushion as I pictured the animals in the zoo. “Yeah, actually that…makes sense.” I paused. “So, what now?”
“It’s up to you,” she said. “I wanted to wait until I was sure you were comfortable with your position here, and then put the ball in your court. And so it is. What do you want to do now?”
What did I want to do? It wasn’t that difficult a question, just a deep, serious one.
I wanted to thrive, as the animals did. This is my enrichment now, working at an incredible, wonderful, terrifying zoo. The experience so far hasn’t been perfect, and I know there are risks, but life isn’t about staying safe. It’s about learning new things and making a difference in the world. And, if you’re lucky, having a job that’s something really special.
​
THE END
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There has not been a specific single incident which has caused me to question this, but the last straw happened a few days ago. This involved her snapping as a minor disagreement and trying to hurt herself, ending up with me, her father, and her brother to hold her down. I truly love this girl, but I go back and forth with whether it is healthy for me to stay. We have been together for 3 years and we live together. She has made many promises to work on her mental health, but it feels like she just keeps relapsing (which I understand, but it is very hard on me as well, not to sound selfish).
There are many things in our relationship that is caused by her anxiety. She has separation anxiety, making it where she does not want me to be away from her for more than 2 nights. She also doesn't like me being out with my friends too long. With trips, whether it be with me friends or family, it can't be more than once every 3 months. If I am gone longer than that, she cuts contact with me and says that she would be better off without this stress in her life. There is always an argument when it comes to me going anywhere without her.
She has barely met any of my friends. We always have a date set, then she feels depressed the day of, then we have to cancel. She didn't even come to my birthday party at our own apartment because she was sacred of a couple of my friends being there (about 4). Now she has made progress and has met one of them, and she says she really wants to meet more, but it never happens.
She can get very defensive and angry about anything changing or not going her way. Usually it ends up with me being ignored and yelled at. Then her coming around the next day, apologizing and trying to find a compromise. This cycle makes me not want to press my opinion on things unless it is very important to me.
Please don't get me wrong, she is my best friend. She makes me laugh more than anyone in the world. We have very similar goals in life, morals, and are very compatible, especially with me being ace. She is super sweet, but her anxiety and depression really gets in the way, usually almost everyday. I don't know if this is enough to warrant giving up on such an amazing person.
TL;DR! My girlfriend has anxiety, social anxiety, depression, and ocd. Do I stick it out until her mental health gets better, or is it time to move on?
I would love some other peoples' opinions. I can add any context needed if anyone wants to know more~
Edit: I am using a burner account

My husband and I were invited to a 50th birthday party for an acquaintance of ours. Halfway through the party my husband informed me that he invited a friend of his (who has never met the hosts) and his wife to come over to the party at the hosts house. For context, it was a large party in their backyard with roughly 100 people, food, booze, band, etc. I was horrified and let him know he had to uninvite them immediately. He then got angry at me and began calling me ridiculous. AITAH?

So I’ve been dating my gf for 9 months now and was recently invited to one of her friend’s birthday party where my gf’s ex will be there. They dated for close to 2 years before he broke up with her and guess they remained sort of friends and part of the same friend group. But the real kicker is that recently he wanted to get back with her and went as far as calling her to confess that he still had feelings for her and say if she wasn’t in a relationship he would want to get back together. My gf told him politely that she would not get back with him even if she wasn’t in a relationship. I trust her completely and she’s been really open and telling me exactly what he said and how she responded. Just wondering what someone else would do if they were in my shoes. I’ve met her friends a few times too and they are all nice people but they are also closer with her ex and knew him for much longer so I guess in a way I will kinda feel outnumbered at this party.

There has not been a specific single incident which has caused me to question this, but the last straw happened a few days ago. This involved her snapping as a minor disagreement and trying to hurt herself, ending up with me, her father, and her brother to hold her down. I truly love this girl, but I go back and forth with whether it is healthy for me to stay. We have been together for 3 years and we live together. She has made many promises to work on her mental health, but it feels like she just keeps relapsing (which I understand, but it is very hard on me as well, not to sound selfish).
There are many things in our relationship that is caused by her anxiety. She has separation anxiety, making it where she does not want me to be away from her for more than 2 nights. She also doesn't like me being out with my friends too long. With trips, whether it be with me friends or family, it can't be more than once every 3 months. If I am gone longer than that, she cuts contact with me and says that she would be better off without this stress in her life. There is always an argument when it comes to me going anywhere without her.
She has barely met any of my friends. We always have a date set, then she feels depressed the day of, then we have to cancel. She didn't even come to my birthday party at our own apartment because she was sacred of a couple of my friends being there (about 4). Now she has made progress and has met one of them, and she says she really wants to meet more, but it never happens.
She can get very defensive and angry about anything changing or not going her way. Usually it ends up with me being ignored and yelled at. Then her coming around the next day, apologizing and trying to find a compromise. This cycle makes me not want to press my opinion on things unless it is very important to me.
Please don't get me wrong, she is my best friend. She makes me laugh more than anyone in the world. We have very similar goals in life, morals, and are very compatible, especially with me being ace. She is super sweet, but her anxiety and depression really gets in the way, usually almost everyday. I don't know if this is enough to warrant giving up on such an amazing person.
TL;DR! My girlfriend has anxiety, social anxiety, depression, and ocd. Do I stick it out until her mental health gets better, or is it time to move on?
I would love some other peoples' opinions. I can add any context needed if anyone wants to know more~
Edit: I am using a burner account

Well today was the day, that the 3 year relationship with my child’s father ended. We have NOT had a healthy relationship but it has only gotten worse and worse. When my daughter was 3 months old, we made the decision to physically seperate, but stay together, so we could go to therapy and make sure our child wasn’t around arguing - fast forward my daughter is 15 months and my baby and I have been living at my moms AND him and I NEVER made it to therapy. . Grateful I have enough support to be with her here and have been able to not have to work and have time to figure things out. Regardless, he used to be 100% loyal to me. I found out last summer he rode in a car with a girl alone, (in LA when he went with his family, which he blindsided me on even going there to begin with), so we were fighting when he went, and sure enough he rode alone in a car with his sisters friend who tried to fuck him multiple times in the past… not only that in LA he gave a girl his number. He lied to me about it for 8-9 months and I forgave him. He told me last week his balls have been itchy, and that he was going to get an STD test and to “tell him before he gets the results” God is my witness - I never cheated - I have lied to him quite a bit in the course of our relationship but mostly about past stuff, (but not even HALf as much as he has lied to me!) he told me if I lied again, he would ghost me, today I woke up with the flu bug my daughter had and asked him to come and help. He said he would, then ghosted me and answered shit face drunk and come to find out his sister was having her bday party. My daughter wasn’t even invited there as she has been to everyone else’s birthday, and his mom told me he was too drunk to help with his child. He answers the phone, tells me he knows what I did?????, and said Jamie (another one of his sisters friends he has slept with before we got together) was the only one who could watch our daughter. He hung up on me. His mom condoned his behavior, and wouldn’t even let me drop my daughter off so I could throw up and be sick without worrying about her)… and sure enough, I go to his sisters friend from LA instagram, and sure enough she’s in town, and at the party. I have no idea what I did but if the test came back positive god knows it’s from HIM! Then that’s it. I blocked him and now will be looking for lawyers. Where do I even go from here… ???

Married 2 years, dated 7 years - my husband (50M) quit his job last year to go to college to work with me in my accounting business. He has started having study sessions with a classmate (20F).
I didn’t think too much of it until I realized that they are texting nearly everyday. Then he offered to host her 21st birthday party at our home. He wants o have the outdoor bbq area we have been working on for over 2 years done for it. Our youngest daughter (his stepdaughter) graduates next weekend and will be having her grad party here - but no effort has been made to work on completing it for her.
Now I am having stinky vibes about him and this friendship. He tells me I am overreacting and jealous.
Tl:dr. Am I overreacting about my husband’s (50M) study buddy who is (20F)

Him (28M) & me (24F) have NOT had a healthy relationship but it has only gotten worse and worse. When my daughter was 3 months old, we made the decision to physically seperate, but stay together, so we could go to therapy and make sure our child wasn’t around arguing - fast forward my daughter is 15 months and my baby and I have been living at my moms AND him and I NEVER made it to therapy. . Grateful I have enough support to be with her here and have been able to not have to work and have time to figure things out. Regardless, he used to be 100% loyal to me. I found out last summer he rode in a car with a girl alone, (in LA when he went with his family, which he blindsided me on even going there to begin with), so we were fighting when he went, and sure enough he rode alone in a car with his sisters friend who tried to fuck him multiple times in the past… not only that in LA he gave a girl his number. He lied to me about it for 8-9 months and I forgave him. He told me last week his balls have been itchy, and that he was going to get an STD test and to “tell him before he gets the results” God is my witness - I never cheated - I have lied to him quite a bit in the course of our relationship but mostly about past stuff, (but not even HALf as much as he has lied to me!) he told me if I lied again, he would ghost me, today I woke up with the flu bug my daughter had and asked him to come and help. He said he would, then ghosted me and answered shit face drunk and come to find out his sister was having her bday party. My daughter wasn’t even invited there as she has been to everyone else’s birthday, and his mom told me he was too drunk to help with his child. He answers the phone, tells me he knows what I did?????, and said Jamie (another one of his sisters friends he has slept with before we got together) was the only one who could watch our daughter. He hung up on me. His mom condoned his behavior, and wouldn’t even let me drop my daughter off so I could throw up and be sick without worrying about her)… and sure enough, I go to his sisters friend from LA instagram, and sure enough she’s in town, and at the party. I have no idea what I did but if the test came back positive god knows it’s from HIM! I am left confused and hurt.
TLDR: I got ghosted randomly by my child’s father.

First time poster here so go easy on me :) 33M. Gay. 5 years of talk therapy under my belt before the dam broke.
About 9-10 months ago while meditating I hit what felt like an intense energy. This was during an incredibly stressful period of time for me when a bunch of major life events came to a head. The sensation would make my body vibrate but I felt safe enough to allow it rise. Easiest way to describe it was like leaning into a big ball of strong, tense energy. After a few weeks of “inhabiting” it I started crying daily. Huuuuuuge cries. I’m talking devastation/ catharsis. It freaked me out the first few times but felt amazing afterwards. My more traditional anxiety symptoms also vanished and haven’t returned as of yet. The chest tightness, nervous sweating, ruminating all seemed to be swept away and replaced by this new all consuming grief/anger bodily sensation. The next phase was weird. I developed insane fatigue and something like agoraphobia and just didn’t want to travel. I was fine leaving the house and doing normal things like buying groceries, but I couldn’t go more than like 30mins from home because I had this idea I needed to be close to my bed because it was my safe place. I also didn’t want to commit to meeting up with people/ needed to know I could exit at any point. The crying continued but in a controlled way, I could also start to schedule it. The agoraphobia lifted after about 2 months and the fatigue started to come and go. I’m still slightly spooked by the agoraphobia and think I worry it will come back.
Cut to now. I can do things again, like meet friends or get on a plane. But I still feel super fragile. Sometimes the exhaustion rolls back in and I just need to nap. I still cry, not as much though. I also yawn like 100 times a day lol. I’m talking huge, mouth locks open as far as it can yawns. They feel great. Also smells. Literally every smell triggers a memory from childhood. I can get a whiff of something and I’m taken back to my school classroom, a birthday present, Christmas 1997, all sorts of places. None of them feel threatening, but they all feel kind of sad.
Where I’m at now is a sort of healing frustration. I’ve given the process all my time and energy and although I can resume most activities, I don’t really enjoy any of them. I feel like I have to force myself to make use of time I’m not crying or resting.
I also feel like I have way too much new information about myself and what I want from life, but I’m unable to go after it. It’s like a yearning to join the party I’ve just found out is being held…but an inability to muster the energy to dress up and show up for it. There’s also the grief of having missed so much of it.
My question, then, is what symptoms of processing and healing signalled you clicking into a new, more stable everyday routine? What were the signs before you started feeling excitement about doing things again, feeling less consumed by all your new insights? Where am I atm in relation to your own journeys?
Oh PS - a bonus question for anyone who experienced similar. The only activity I physically cannot do, after almost 9 months, is work at a computer comfortably. Soon as I look at the screen my whole body tenses up or I space out. I’ve been able to work part time but I have to kind of jump in and out of screen time. 20mins on the PC is the most I can manage without having my neck and shoulders start locking up. I also feel a huge rage in me I can’t seem to access. This literally only happens when I open a computer lol.
Big love to you all.

I don’t understand why I feel so sad when I want to try something that is new for me or something I’ve wanted to do for a while with a specific person but for whatever reason they might end up doing it with somebody else, getting me to the point of not even wanting to mention what I wanted to do anymore, and if they now want to do it, I won’t participate. it’s not that I’m upset at them for doing it without me, I just drop my interests so fast and get really stubborn when it’s my turn to experience it, because I don’t want to do it anymore, but why? If I was exited at first, what happened to make me feel like that.
Example: I wanted to go karaoke with my bf, either only the two of us or our friend group, I’ve wanted that for a while but we’ve never had the opportunity to do so, then he got invited to a karaoke birthday party tonight, I told him to enjoy and to text me if he needed anything, but while he was there, I was crying in my room for hours and I don’t want to go karaoke or even talk about going karaoke anymore, I came up with the scenario where we did go karaoke but every time it just feels like I would not enjoy it at all anymore. Another example is when the Barbie movie came out, I wanted to watch it with him but he didn’t want to, after a couple of months had passed by, once everyone watched it, he offered to watch it with me, but I did not want to anymore, the thought of doing something I once wanted but not anymore makes me feel some type of way I cannot explain. It has happened with so many of my interests and things I want to do but idk why I drop my interests and prohibit myself from doing them in the future, I just don’t want to remind myself that for some reason I couldn’t achieve what I wanted. It’s not like I’m upset at them for doing it without me, it’s not like it was their intention to make me feel this way, I’ve told my bf before so he knows and does his best, but it’s not like im going to tell him “no don’t go karaoke with them because I want to do it” like 1 that’s not how I feel 2 I can’t prohibit him things like this when it’s just a karaoke party yk and I shouldn’t feel this way about it 3 I want him to have fun. I don’t think I’m looking for solutions on how to fix it but it would be nice to know them anyway. I can’t really comprehend the feeling and why I do that. Is this self-sabotage and if so why am I doing that to myself.
I might feel like they won’t enjoy it a second time with me when they’ve done that same activity before.
I feel horrible that I’m thinking that way, I’m not jealous or upset but I do get extremely sad for a while.

Hey all,
This may be a pretty lengthy post. At this point, I’m posting to get the support of others (or the pushback to know I’m in the wrong) because I’m tired of the biased answers my parents and everyone else are giving me, and I need an outside perspective.
I wanted to ask for advice regarding a topic that's really been nagging me. My old friend and I are on a call right now just talking things through, and as someone who was honestly hurt real bad I need to ask for advice about what to do. I can't really talk to anyone else in my personal life about it, as my parents would likely try to make the decision for me
I [16M] was best friends with J [16M] for over 12 years. According to my mother, we met at 2-3 years old when we were at preschool and got along very well, and he was invited to my 5th birthday party. There are so many specific memories I could bring up, which I could never stop writing about, but we grew up together. He was my only friend growing up, being born with a speech impediment that has since been corrected and the label that comes with it. We went through periods where we talked nearly every day and periods where we talked once every couple of months. But we made a lot of memories, and each time it’s as if we never stopped talking.
We created things together, spent holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Years hanging out together, pulling all-nighters. And these are less than 0.1% of all our total memories. It was honestly the most amazing friendship I’ve ever had and will likely ever have, unfortunately.
November 2022 was the two year anniversary of a small Roblox game I created. He had been recording and making videos for the longest time, and I had just released a video to celebrate, which he seemed to be impressed by. Again, it was as if we never stopped talking, but from that period on it was every single day. We had never talked that much, spending weekends together and doing amazing stuff. We even streamed together on YouTube to raise money for charity as part of the Thanksmas event. And he’s in a lot of my videos and other creations.
We pulled each other through hard times. High school, as you can guess, is where romantic relationships begin developing. Whenever I needed advice, he was there, and vice versa. I helped him get through a toxic girlfriend he had, and he found love again.
The only thing that really bothered me was that I was the one who introduced him to ChatGPT, which is an amazing tool if I’m being honest. I’m not mad about that, I’m mad that on my 15th birthday, which I believe is a milestone if I’m not mistaken, he didn’t take the time to write just TWO words “Happy Birthday” that would have been enough, and instead used ChatGPT to generate a birthday card, just smack dab copied and pasted. I brushed it off though, as it wasn’t too big of a deal honestly and only stands out now that the events that transpired have taken place.
This new girl he had, we’ll call S. S is an extremely manipulative girl, very good at it I’ll admit, but our mutual friends at the time, L, C, and K picked up on that, as well as myself. I consistently tried to warn him, but it was no use, and he was beginning to change to the point that it was irritating me to new levels. It’s important to note he confided in me about how unhappy he was yet he stayed and acted as if everything was normal, and appeared upset when I brought up the times he told me he was upset about everything.
Eventually, it got to the point that was all we talked about. S. It was so damn annoying. We couldn’t even have normal conversations anymore. And I wasn’t the only one, as C and I talked about it occasionally.
August 23, 2023. The day my world changed forever. He told me to screenshot messages containing him confiding in me, and send it to her privately. I did so, and she posted it to a group chat containing J, herself, K, C, and myself, and just started berating him. It’s important to note I had previously let her off the hook for insulting my mom, which I never do at all. It’s important to know that I’m not forgiving at all, and when I do forgive, it’s pretty rare. Although I can’t be sure, I believe it may be tied to the fact I used to be so forgiving to the point I allowed people to walk over me in elementary and middle school, and I never will allow that again.
The stuff she said, honestly, if she were not a girl (I would never hit a woman) and she were next to me, I would have knocked out her teeth. Although my mother and I argue from time to time, one thing I cannot deny is that she went through absolute torture to keep me alive when she was pregnant with me, and now I’m a fully healthy young teenager.
So I just started releasing everything, telling her how I felt about her hurting the people I care about and trying to play victim. It’s important to note she used J as a rebound from an ex she was clearly not over (you don’t compare exes 24/7 in a new relationship, guys!) and I previously was not going to call this out at J’s request. However, after she started going after my friends, I just said I would do it. J threatened to block me as a way to deter me (which actually solidified my decision to do it) and it was at that moment I just felt the switch of brotherly love and care (he was practically my brother) turn off in my mind. I could not believe he would threaten to do that for a girl he had been dating even shorter than the amount of time since the summer started, after well over a decade.
He blocked me on Discord after I challenged him to see if he would really follow through or take back what he said, and when I say I blocked him on everything, I mean EVERYTHING. If he tried to reach out to me through even Gmail, I wouldn’t know because it would go straight to my spam folder.
I didn’t know much, but what I did know was that he tried to reach out to me twice through mutual friends, asking for forgiveness. I learned through K what the deal was, at J’s request. A week later, S’s mother found out, and although I will not say specifics, let me just say that I’m not even sure if I can legally say anything without landing myself in a courtroom to testify.
I got a video in my YouTube recommendation tab in November (one of my comments on his videos got over 50 likes or something) about him returning to YouTube and addressing “everything.” I was interested, so I watched the entire thing, and I was surprised that a good third or so of the video was about me. I learned that he was fine the week after because this girl spoke to him (which really says a lot in my opinion) and only after his life went downhill did he realize what he did. He expressed how bad he felt about it, how he missed me, and how it’s worse because he feels like he could have fixed it, as (he claims to have lost me, not the other way around) he didn’t lose me to something like a car accident, or cancer, or some killer disease, and he was essentially pleading with those watching that he lost to reach out to talk about it. I ALMOST reached out, as he said we didn’t have to be friends, but I didn’t at the time.
Now, life has gone by at its normal pace. It was very hard living with it every single day. It's been about nine months since it happened, and we finally talked about the entire thing tonight. The thing is, I really do want to forgive him, but I'm just so anxious. I haven't healed, I'll admit, from what happened and I don't think I ever will. I see a beautiful future, but I'm also really scared that something worse could possibly happen in the future.
I wanted to ask, what would you do? If you were me in this situation, would you try to fix everything, or just leave it in the past?

My friend’s mom really needs to learn how to take care of their turtles and I need help helping them so the turtles don’t suffer any longer. Here’s their “tank” specs:
-2 turtles: 1 red eared slider that I think is female based on size 1 other turtle that I don’t recognize the species but possibly male since it’s a bit smaller than the other but could just be a smaller species
-2 half cinder block pieces that are basically fully submerged one was on an angle with maybe 2 sq in of dry space, not a lot
-Tub set up, no shame in tubs I think they are great however this is a very small tub maybe 2.5-3x1.5x1 or so feet (LxWxH) It was maybe 1/2 filled with water so about 2 turtles deep, my guess is that there is way less than 5 gallons of water here maybe only 2.5. No screen top just low water level to keep the turtles from climbing out.
-No heat lamp, dry dock, UVB, filter, heater, or enrichment
-Looks like they are feeding frozen/freeze dried krill, this may be the only food offered
-Water is super dirty and smells bad(I don’t think the water had ever been changed or at least not frequently enough) (the smell was most likely waste in the water and the uneaten food floating on top), water looks like what I think of when I think of a murky pond and I can’t see the bottom despite it only being about 6” or less deep.
With all the above said these turtles look healthy but I wasn’t able to get a great look because I literally could only see about 1-1.5” deep. I see no shell deformities, beaks looked in good shape, clear eyes, I didn’t see any visible shell rot, and both were alert and active. This really surprised me with how bad the tank was.
I didn’t say anything immediately since I was at a party and I didn’t want to ruin my friends birthday but I plan to contact their mom (turtle owner) to see if I can offer some help. The mom was super open to my suggestions with her bearded dragon whose cage looks great now and the dragon was super healthy looking along with their other animals (cats and ferrets) I was sent a photo of their dragon and recommended that they remove the red light and they did really quickly so I have some hope that they will be willing to change their set up so their turtles live a better life. What all should I recommend to them? I want to be super specific so they don’t need to do a ton of research by themselves. I plan to recommend a 150 gallon tub from a farm store like what they give livestock water in for a tank (I think the red eared slider is about 10” and the smaller turtle that I don’t know the species is about 5”-6” so times the total length by 10 is around 150 and I think that’s how you do tank size math.) But what UVB and heat source do I recommend? I don’t think they have a ton of money lying around so I want to keep the price reasonable to start out with and maybe help them DIY some stuff to save some money that way the turtles don’t suffer longer because they are trying to save up for a $1000 set up when a 100-300 will work just as well just might not look as nice.
I will send a message to them soon and I plan to be very blunt that this is abuse and things need to be changed. Honestly the saying “surviving isn’t thriving” doesn’t apply here because they aren’t surviving they are just living. I have hope that they will change the set up and give the turtles a better life but I’ve never had turtles and I need to know where to start to help my friends moms turtles live a life worth living. If you need any more specifics just let me know, I didn’t get any photos but I don’t think I’ll ever get the image of that “tank” out of my head.
Thanks in advance :)

My friend’s mom really needs to learn how to take care of their turtles and I need help helping them so the turtles don’t suffer any longer. Here’s their “tank” specs:
-2 turtles: 1 red eared slider that I think is female based on size 1 other turtle that I don’t recognize the species but possibly male since it’s a bit smaller than the other but could just be a smaller species
-2 half cinder block pieces that are basically fully submerged one was on an angle with maybe 2 sq in of dry space, not a lot
-Tub set up, no shame in tubs I think they are great however this is a very small tub maybe 2.5-3x1.5x1 or so feet (LxWxH) It was maybe 1/2 filled with water so about 2 turtles deep, my guess is that there is way less than 5 gallons of water here maybe only 2.5. No screen top just low water level to keep the turtles from climbing out.
-No heat lamp, dry dock, UVB, filter, heater, or enrichment
-Looks like they are feeding frozen/freeze dried krill, this may be the only food offered
-Water is super dirty and smells bad(I don’t think the water had ever been changed or at least not frequently enough) (the smell was most likely waste in the water and the uneaten food floating on top), water looks like what I think of when I think of a murky pond and I can’t see the bottom despite it only being about 6” or less deep.
With all the above said these turtles look healthy but I wasn’t able to get a great look because I literally could only see about 1-1.5” deep. I see no shell deformities, beaks looked in good shape, clear eyes, I didn’t see any visible shell rot, and both were alert and active. This really surprised me with how bad the tank was.
I didn’t say anything immediately since I was at a party and I didn’t want to ruin my friends birthday but I plan to contact their mom (turtle owner) to see if I can offer some help. The mom was super open to my suggestions with her bearded dragon whose cage looks great now and the dragon was super healthy looking along with their other animals (cats and ferrets) I was sent a photo of their dragon and recommended that they remove the red light and they did really quickly so I have some hope that they will be willing to change their set up so their turtles live a better life. What all should I recommend to them? I want to be super specific so they don’t need to do a ton of research by themselves. I plan to recommend a 150 gallon tub from a farm store like what they give livestock water in for a tank (I think the red eared slider is about 10” and the smaller turtle that I don’t know the species is about 5”-6” so times the total length by 10 is around 150 and I think that’s how you do tank size math.) But what UVB and heat source do I recommend? I don’t think they have a ton of money lying around so I want to keep the price reasonable to start out with and maybe help them DIY some stuff to save some money that way the turtles don’t suffer longer because they are trying to save up for a $1000 set up when a 100-300 will work just as well just might not look as nice.
I will send a message to them soon and I plan to be very blunt that this is abuse and things need to be changed. Honestly the saying “surviving isn’t thriving” doesn’t apply here because they aren’t surviving they are just living. I have hope that they will change the set up and give the turtles a better life but I’ve never had turtles and I need to know where to start to help my friends moms turtles live a life worth living. If you need any more specifics just let me know, I didn’t get any photos but I don’t think I’ll ever get the image of that “tank” out of my head.
Thanks in advance :) P.S. Sorry if this isn’t allowed

Here is a little context for what has been going onbthe for over half a year now, for over half a year I have been in constant pain, where everywhere in body will hurt all at once and the doctors can't figure out what is wrong, but it is causeing it to be almost impossible to do school work so I have actually failed my junior year of high school. Anyways, for years now, I've realized that my parents obviously favorited my sister over me even though they say they don't. (Me and everyone around me even my sister can tell she is the favorite.) I'm 16 about to turn 17 in a month and for the past couple years I have just been doing a party where we invite family and close friends, normally I only ask for money on my birthday, so I can spend it on something I want rather then have someone spend it on something I may not want. This usually leads to me getting like 50 dollars. But on my sister's birthday she has a party, gets a huge amount of expensive stuff, plus over 100 dollars, and recently got a truck. My sister is 18 now but was 17 at the time. But a few days ago I had ask my mom if I could get a car for my birthday so I could get a job since nowhere in my town is hiring and that would be the only gift for my birthday, I even offered to pay them back for the car and it was still a no. But today my sister graduated and got a huge amount of expensive stuff, everything she wanted, and a second vehicle. So I'm thinking, "Okay my sister has an SUV and a truck surely I'm gonna get her truck?" Nope. My dad is getting her truck. Oh also my sister never gets in trouble, ever, for anything. One time when I was younger I had a bad grade in a class and my dad got so made at me he was spanking me with a wooden spoon until it broke over me, then he got another one and kept spanking, and that was basically my punishment for anything wrong I did all the way up until I was about 11 or 12, also even at time my parents will go out with my sister then come home and I'll ask where they went and they will out right say they forgot I existed. Am I over thinking this?

Hi I’m an 18 year old female, this happened 20 mins ago my mom took me shopping at the mall for my birthday, I love my mom she’s so sweet on our way pack I was walking slightly fast to the car because I’m on my period and really needed to sit down and my mom knows this when I got outside I was noticed my mom wasn’t begging me so I happily sat waiting for her for a few seconds and then she came out holding the bags and her coffee she said “hey why did you walk out so fast I need help” she said in an stern voice I said “oh I’m sorry I wasent meaning to walk fast and if you needed help you could have called out to me and I would have came out happily to help” she kept telling me it was disrespectful it turned into an argument and she said “from now on I’m just gonna say no to things you wanna do” I was so confused so I said “what… you’re just making that rule right now because you’re emotional I walked out “fast”” she yelled and stoped me mid way saying “I’m not emotional!” It turned into a bigger thing her just yelling and yelling and I didn’t want to yell and for it to turn to a big thing so I said ”I need some air I’ll be right back” I said calmly and opened the car door and sat in right next to the park door before she came out yelling “ get your ass balk in the car you’re grown ass woman crying on the street” I started feeling slightly embarrassed I got in the back seat seat hung but I bit my young before she started yelling saying she the mom and yada yada yada I dealt my fist clench before u scared out “You’re not mom for the past 18 years you haven’t never been there for me you don’t get to sit here and try to act like one now do you have any idea of the shit you put me through no you don’t so don’t sit here and try to act like a mom now!” (My mom was never there for me till I was maybe mid middle school I didn’t see her as a mom till high school like 13 or 14 and she kept dragging me the relationships I never had a father he had 12 kids and my mom when I was in elementary got into an marriage and he would physically hurt me and things and his friends too it only lasted two years) I’ve never screamed at anyone and especially at that time it was like I was someone else and as soon as I finished I started apologizing and hyperventilating and my eyes got mode my moms head hanged low and I could tell my words hurt, I kept saying sorry over and over hyperventilating I love my mom I feel bad but not it definitely needed to come out in how I felt but not in that way never in that way. We’re still in car driving home and I saw her tear up again I feel bad but u don’t most of my child hood she was out partying she was my age when she had me for a while I thought she was my older sister and my grandma was my mom I don’t remember my mom a lot growing up I feel bad so AMITA for yelling at my mom if I am I understand why we as kids should never yell at our parents.

My friend’s mom really needs to learn how to take care of their turtles and I need help helping them so the turtles don’t suffer any longer. Here’s their “tank” specs:
-2 turtles: 1 red eared slider that I think is female based on size 1 other turtle that I don’t recognize the species but possibly male since it’s a bit smaller than the other but could just be a smaller species
-2 half cinder block pieces that are basically fully submerged one was on an angle with maybe 2 sq in of dry space, not a lot
-Tub set up, no shame in tubs I think they are great however this is a very small tub maybe 2.5-3x1.5x1 or so feet (LxWxH) It was maybe 1/2 filled with water so about 2 turtles deep, my guess is that there is way less than 5 gallons of water here maybe only 2.5. No screen top just low water level to keep the turtles from climbing out.
-No heat lamp, dry dock, UVB, filter, heater, or enrichment
-Looks like they are feeding frozen/freeze dried krill, this may be the only food offered
-Water is super dirty and smells bad(I don’t think the water had ever been changed or at least not frequently enough) (the smell was most likely waste in the water and the uneaten food floating on top), water looks like what I think of when I think of a murky pond and I can’t see the bottom despite it only being about 6” or less deep.
With all the above said these turtles look healthy but I wasn’t able to get a great look because I literally could only see about 1-1.5” deep. I see no shell deformities, beaks looked in good shape, clear eyes, I didn’t see any visible shell rot, and both were alert and active. This really surprised me with how bad the tank was.
I didn’t say anything immediately since I was at a party and I didn’t want to ruin my friends birthday but I plan to contact their mom (turtle owner) to see if I can offer some help. The mom was super open to my suggestions with her bearded dragon whose cage looks great now and the dragon was super healthy looking along with their other animals (cats and ferrets) I was sent a photo of their dragon and recommended that they remove the red light and they did really quickly so I have some hope that they will be willing to change their set up so their turtles live a better life. What all should I recommend to them? I want to be super specific so they don’t need to do a ton of research by themselves. I plan to recommend a 150 gallon tub from a farm store like what they give livestock water in for a tank (I think the red eared slider is about 10” and the smaller turtle that I don’t know the species is about 5”-6” so times the total length by 10 is around 150 and I think that’s how you do tank size math.) But what UVB and heat source do I recommend? I don’t think they have a ton of money lying around so I want to keep the price reasonable to start out with and maybe help them DIY some stuff to save some money that way the turtles don’t suffer longer because they are trying to save up for a $1000 set up when a 100-300 will work just as well just might not look as nice.
I will send a message to them soon and I plan to be very blunt that this is abuse and things need to be changed. Honestly the saying “surviving isn’t thriving” doesn’t apply here because they aren’t surviving they are just living. I have hope that they will change the set up and give the turtles a better life but I’ve never had turtles and I need to know where to start to help my friends moms turtles live a life worth living. If you need any more specifics just let me know, I didn’t get any photos but I don’t think I’ll ever get the image of that “tank” out of my head.
Thanks in advance :)

My friend’s mom really needs to learn how to take care of their turtles and I need help helping them so the turtles don’t suffer any longer. Here’s their “tank” specs:
-2 turtles: 1 red eared slider that I think is female based on size 1 other turtle that I don’t recognize the species but possibly male since it’s a bit smaller than the other but could just be a smaller species
-2 half cinder block pieces that are basically fully submerged one was on an angle with maybe 2 sq in of dry space, not a lot
-Tub set up, no shame in tubs I think they are great however this is a very small tub maybe 2.5-3x1.5x1 or so feet (LxWxH) It was maybe 1/2 filled with water so about 2 turtles deep, my guess is that there is way less than 5 gallons of water here maybe only 2.5. No screen top just low water level to keep the turtles from climbing out.
-No heat lamp, dry dock, UVB, filter, heater, or enrichment
-Looks like they are feeding frozen/freeze dried krill, this may be the only food offered
-Water is super dirty and smells bad(I don’t think the water had ever been changed or at least not frequently enough) (the smell was most likely waste in the water and the uneaten food floating on top), water looks like what I think of when I think of a murky pond and I can’t see the bottom despite it only being about 6” or less deep.
With all the above said these turtles look healthy but I wasn’t able to get a great look because I literally could only see about 1-1.5” deep. I see no shell deformities, beaks looked in good shape, clear eyes, I didn’t see any visible shell rot, and both were alert and active. This really surprised me with how bad the tank was.
I didn’t say anything immediately since I was at a party and I didn’t want to ruin my friends birthday but I plan to contact their mom (turtle owner) to see if I can offer some help. The mom was super open to my suggestions with her bearded dragon whose cage looks great now and the dragon was super healthy looking along with their other animals (cats and ferrets) I was sent a photo of their dragon and recommended that they remove the red light and they did really quickly so I have some hope that they will be willing to change their set up so their turtles live a better life. What all should I recommend to them? I want to be super specific so they don’t need to do a ton of research by themselves. I plan to recommend a 150 gallon tub from a farm store like what they give livestock water in for a tank (I think the red eared slider is about 10” and the smaller turtle that I don’t know the species is about 5”-6” so times the total length by 10 is around 150 and I think that’s how you do tank size math.) But what UVB and heat source do I recommend? I don’t think they have a ton of money lying around so I want to keep the price reasonable to start out with and maybe help them DIY some stuff to save some money that way the turtles don’t suffer longer because they are trying to save up for a $1000 set up when a 100-300 will work just as well just might not look as nice.
I will send a message to them soon and I plan to be very blunt that this is abuse and things need to be changed. Honestly the saying “surviving isn’t thriving” doesn’t apply here because they aren’t surviving they are just living. I have hope that they will change the set up and give the turtles a better life but I’ve never had turtles and I need to know where to start to help my friends moms turtles live a life worth living. If you need any more specifics just let me know, I didn’t get any photos but I don’t think I’ll ever get the image of that “tank” out of my head.
Thanks in advance :)