Happy birthday wish sms with symbols

I'll start with our background. We started dating in our late teens, were both raised very conservative and religious, but have not been for a very long time. Between dating and being married we've been together nearly 20 years. We both only had 1 sexual partner prior from previous relationships that we both thought were mistakes and wish we'd been each other's first. I definitely have a stereotypical guy high libido, but I'd always thought I didn't need a bunch of sexual conquests because I'd be happy just doing all those things with the person I love.
 
Along the way my wife came out as bi. This didn't bother me at all, especially with her stance at the time of "It just means I also find women attractive just like I find some other men attractive, but I'm married and happy with you so that's not something I need act on". She said she'd probably been bi a long time, but took a long time to admit it to herself due to religious upbringing. I also have an unconventional curiosity. Basically I'm a straight guy, but I happen to find dicks attractive at times despite not being attracted to the rest of the male body. About 3-ish years ago she brought up the topic of if she could act on her curiosities with women. She wanted to try making out and maybe playing with boobs, but seemed extremely hesitant at the prospect of anything below the waist. Since she brought that up I asked about if I'd be able act on my curiosity, with a bonus benefit of maybe it being an outlet for me as well with our struggling sex life (at the time she had a very low libido and I'd get rejected 95% of the time when I tried to initiate sex). After discussing we essentially ended up opening the marriage with the boundaries being:

• She couldn't do anything with other men (nor did she want to).
• I couldn't do anything with other (cis) women.
• It would only be for physical fun. Neither of us could have a romantic relationship with someone else. (I knew and told her there was a high probability I would end up feeling neglected/jealous/insecure if I had to share her romantically). So no gf or bf, just a FWB at most.
• She didn't want this to be something that happened frequently.

Now initially I felt completely fine with the prospect of her fooling around with women. I guess it was just kinda the typical male fantasies of 2 women getting sexual together being hot and who knows if that'd potentially lead to a threesome later (though she no gave indication of that being a possibility). She seemed more hesitant at the prospect of me acting on my curiosities, but gave permission since she thought it only seemed fair if she was allowed to act on hers. I started looking after that and ended up finding a pre-op trans woman. This kinda clicked with me since I was attracted to dick, but not male bodies. We met up and she fucked me. Physically things felt good, but the combination of it being my first time having casual sex and it being very unconventional sex made it feel really awkward for me. Afterwards I felt terrible, like I had cheated. When I told my wife I was literally trembling. She was shocked that I actually did it, and said she felt a little weird but that ultimately she was fine with it. I felt better after she wasn't mad or anything. Now a more stereotypical big kink for me is anal, but I've hardly ever got to try it to even know if it lives up to the reputation of the fantasy I've built up of it in my head. My wife had always been super dead set against even trying it, eventually let me try a couple of times after we'd been married for years, but essentially had her mind made up it was going to be terrible before we even got started so that kinda fell flat despite technically getting to try it. I asked if I could try anal with a trans woman since cis women were off the table. She gave me permission, then a small number of weeks later I met up with the same trans woman and fucked her. Despite physically feeling good, it still felt super awkward to me. I basically ended up coming away with the lesson that casual sex isn't all it's cracked up to be and I HIGHLY prefer sex be with someone I'm very emotionally attached to (aka, my wife).
 
I texted my wife at work to let her know right after it happened. Apparently she let out an audible "god dammit" after she read the text. She said she was fine with it but started kinda giving signs that she was uneasy. It seemed like every few weeks she'd ask in a concerned tone if I'd done anything else since then and I'd tell her I hadn't (the truth) and that if I did I'd tell her. I'd still get horny at times, the fantasy would sound more appealing, I'd browse around online some for an opportunity but between people being flaky and me kinda feeling unsure if I should, nothing ever happened again. I'd mentioned to my wife about browsing around some and I can't remember her specific words now but it gave me the feeling she wasn't crazy about it. Eventually I told her I'd basically given up on that and deleted my relevant accounts. Her response was "good", and not long after that she gave me a hug and said she just prefers monogamy. She didn't explicitly say I couldn't do anything else or that the marriage was closed, but it seemed soft closed after that. I'd occasionally fantasize about my stuff, but post nut clarity after porn was basically that the fantasy was more enticing than the reality. She never attempted to search out someone for her curiosity during this time.
 
The beginning of last year my wife got off her birth control that she'd been on for years. A month or two after that her libido started to come back and things have been great. We'd been very fulfilled and don't feel like I need any other outlet. Early this year she mentioned she wanted to try to act on her curiosity now and asked if I was still ok with it. I said I was, and I guess it seemed fair given I got to act on mine before. It was still the same boundaries we set before and she reiterated it'd probably be some infrequent thing. I think she really started in earnest in March. She kissed a friend, but the friend didn't want to go further than that and make things weird. I felt kinda weird, but I still felt fine at that point. Then she started talking to a girl online, met up in public to get to know each other a bit more, gave a kiss goodbye, and had rough plans that when their schedules/privacy aligned they'd meet up for something sexual. I still felt ok at this point, but then my wife started borderline getting obsessed and it started making me more and more uneasy. She hadn't even done anything with this girl yet but was talking about trying to do this every couple of weeks, saying very poorly worded things such as "what does 'romantic relationship' even mean?" (she later clarified on that, but at the time sure felt like she was purposely trying to push on boundaries). When she could tell I was getting uneasy she'd say stuff like "if you pull the plug on this then I won't be happy not getting to explore this part of myself". There were 2 separate times that when her plans with a woman got cancelled she was so distraughtly disappointed that couldn't get back to sleep and had to call in to work because she had horribly under slept.
 
She talks about how I owe her at least 2 times since that's what I got, but she's kissed 5 women since this started, fooled around with 2 of them above the waist, and wanted below the waist too but badly timed periods kept her from that. She says none of that counts towards her 2 times because they weren't full on sex. I want to be comfortable with it for her, but I just can't seem to be anymore. I feel like it'd be dickish to cut her off before her 2 times, but even when I talk to her about the prospect of closing the marriage after her 2 times she can never seem to acknowledge that she could accept that. She just says stuff like "I just really hope you don't" and "I hope we can find some compromise where we can both be happy". She now says I can look for a woman to do anal with. I tried to entertain that idea, but ultimately felt like I just don't want to bother with all that hassle for casual sex (further complicated by a lot of people not wanting to deal with married men, and even more complicated by them needing to be up for anal). She's now mentioned she'd try anal with me some more now if that'll make me ok with her stuff. She does specify that I'm the one she loves and wants to spend the rest of her life with and that she's not going to leave me for a woman, but that she wants to explore this part of her sexuality. She's also been very affectionate and sexual with me because she says she doesn't want me to feel like neglected over this. She doesn't explicitly say this, but she acts more like it's a need now instead of a curiosity or want. At this point I'm pretty just want monogamy with her. I want our sex lives to just between us and nobody else being with her like that. I feel like if my curiosity had turned into some big thing I was super excited about to do a bunch and she expressed anywhere near as much turmoil about it as I have then I would've stopped right then and there, or at the extreme least slow walk it until we maybe get on a better page about things.
 
Last weekend she really hurt my feelings. For background, the whole time we've been together she has hardly ever let me go down on her. I always found this strange since women are suppose to love that, but I've got so little experience with it that I don't even know how much I do or don't like doing it. There was one time she let me do it long enough to get her off (though now says she doesn't remember that), and nearly all the other times she stopped me after less than a minute. For the most part I just hardly ever try that anymore since getting shot down so much kinda trains you to not even make attempts very much anymore. I'm also 95% sure a few weeks back while we were discussing things I said I'd be pretty unhappy/hurt if she let a woman go down on her since she pretty much won't let me do that (which she says she doesn't remember me saying). Anyway, she mentioned one of the women wants to meet up again next weekend and that the woman is really eager to go down on her (and my wife implying she was fine with this). I think I was dumbfounded at first, then after I had time to process it I was pretty hurt that she was willing to let a stranger do that when she'd barely ever let me. She was baffled that I was so "hung up" about that. We argued and she eventually said she was fine with me doing that now, wants to do that with me and just hadn't thought about it, and that it'd been about her personal hang ups on it and not about me. I asked if she could just tell the woman not to do that part or say she's not ready for that part yet, but then she was upset that I was "trying to dictate" what she can and can't do when she hooks up. I just really wanted to be the first to explore that properly with her for at least a little while instead of it being with a stranger that's probably far more experienced with it than me (not by my choice). I did get to go down on her for a full session last night, but there's definitely a learning curve when being almost brand new to doing it. I just really wish we could have a month or so to 'get up to speed' on that between ourselves before she's having a stranger do it to her.
 
She says she wants to try to find a compromise where we can both be happy, but it seems like that only means her trying to bribe me but that anything that might limit or slow her down seems to be off the table. I just feel like I'm stuck between the choice of suffering through it, or forcefully shutting it down and her probably being bitter about that, which who knows what other issues that'll cause. I just feel like if the tables were turned and she was this distraught then we'd mutually close the marriage because even if I was disappointed about not getting some fun side activities anymore that I wouldn't want to make her feel terrible or guilty for not wanting it to happen anymore. She does at least say if it came down to it that she'd choose me and the marriage over this, but doesn't know how she'd feel about not being able to anymore. The irony is I'd probably be a lot more likely to be somewhere in the realm of comfortable with her stuff if she felt and expressed anywhere near my level of concern instead of soft bullying me into stopping short of closing the marriage. Since it went downhill my mood about it can vary day to day from anywhere between "not really keen on this" to hating it, upset, and sometimes tearing up. I guess my overall feelings after experiencing this whole situation is monogomy is much simpler and dealing with other sex partners while married is nicer as a fantasy than the actual reality.

Check post history since this is not my first time posting about my mom.
Not much has changed between my mom and I since the last time I posted. There was a death in my family last fall and I spoke on the phone with her regarding some planning of the funeral. I saw her at the funeral but I purposefully didn't interact with her outside of a hello and goodbye hug. All that to say there's been no addressing of her outburst around Labor Day last year or the test message I sent afterwards.
I recently got engaged and I'm so insanely happy I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. It's felt so good to be able to share that happiness with so many of my friends and family, but it's weird to not be able to experience this phase of life with my mom by my side . I don't even know why it makes me sad because honestly she's not even the type of person who could be fully happy for me. I just wish she was, but I'm slowly excepting that this is the way things are. I feel like it's instinct to want to call your mom to share your engagement news, but I didn't given how things have been and she found out like the rest of my extended family in a group chat (which everyone but her responded to, although she liked my engagement post on fb). I called my cousins, my sister and my dad to let them know individually since we're close like that. I call them and they call me on a weekly basis just to talk and see how life is going. My mom never calls me, even when we were close. It was always on me to initiate contact.
In other news maintaining a relationship with my nephews independent of my mom has been going well! My oldest nephew's school came to my city for a field trip and he asked if I could chaperon and we got to spend the whole day together! A few weeks back I drove down to go to my middle nephew's birthday party that my sister organized (my mom was weirdly not present even though other family was) and in August I'll be going down for my youngest nephew's birthday. Going through my sister to setup time with the boys has been going great.
Anyway, I'm just rambling at this point. I don't regret holding up my boundaries and keeping my distance from her since she proves time and time again she won't get help to changes her toxic behaviors. I guess it just sucks it has to be this way. Thanks for listening to my rant :)

Hey! Looking for some people to share my weird life with. I'm currently living in an rv full time and redoing a 100 year old home that is burned out on the inside 🔥. I just started so my current shedule is cleaning/cooking during the week and getting trashy on the weekend 😆. I'm healing atm from a ton of work this weekend.
Please share your hobbies and life in general as well! I love picture updates whether it be a cool rock, bird, or something that made you happy recently.
Hobbies I like! ● Wildlife Photography ● Traveling/Finding new cool nature spots ● Finding deals (thrift stores, flea markets, goodwill bins, whatever I need to dig through) sadly my current area kinda lacks in that category ● Collecting (pokemon cards, antlers) I want to collect more but the rv I live in is very very tiny. ● Being a depressed, anxious, feral creature (Will I dissappear and hate myself for hours? Yes Will I dissappear into the forest to relax and wish I was part of nature? Also yes) ● Deer 🦌 (I grew up in an area without wildlife and now I'm surrounded by them and it's the coolest thing ever! They like the yard in the property I recently got and it makes me so happy 😭😍.)
If we don't get along feel free to just have a quick chat. If I dissappear it's me not you. I've got alot going on mentally and physically right now.

I don’t know if you’ll see this. I don’t know if I should even be writing this to you. I miss you. You’re all I can ever think about. From my dreams to waking up to my work day to going back to sleep. You are on my mind 24/7. I look at pictures of you a lot. You’re so beautiful. I cried at work the other day just because I was thinking of your eyes. You have the most wonderful eyes. I think back on all the memories we hold together, and my heart always sinks. Not having you is such a pain. I think about all the conversations and experiences we could’ve had in the last couple months. I wish I could do things as simple as tell you about my day. I wish I could hear about yours. I wish we had more time together. You’re it. You’re the one, you know? I knew it pretty early on. I envisioned us getting married and living happily ever after. I know we weren’t together for very long in the grand scheme of things, but when you know, you just know. And oh god, how I knew. Now I, probably foolishly, hold out hope to ever even hear from you again. I cry often. I’m utterly terrified that we’ve parted ways forever. I don’t want that. All I’ve ever wanted lies within you. You’re my end goal, and I couldn’t imagine it any other way. You are truly perfect in my eyes.
I know that you got back together with your ex. I don’t know the details or just how that came to be or anything. I’ll be honest, it makes me angry. It makes me beyond sad. I thought you felt as deeply about me as I do for you. I won’t pretend to understand. You told me throughout our relationship about how toxic he was and how glad you were to be away from him. Everyone around you boasted at how good I was for you. You yourself gushed about it. I may not be perfect, and I know I fell short and made mistakes, but I was trying. I was trying to be better. To be good for you. To be the best I possibly could for you. And I like to think I did a decent job. I like to think I’m a pretty good guy. Not perfect by any means, but a good person. So no, I won’t pretend to understand your thought process. And as hurt and angry and sad as I am, I still thoroughly long for you. Maybe that’s stupid of me.
As much as it hurts that it’s not me with you, I do overall wish you the best. I do want you to be happy. It makes me extremely sad and sorry that I couldn’t do that for you. I wanted to be the one to make you light up for the rest of our lives. I wanted to be your light and warmth. I wanted to be your peace, like you were for me. I have never found any greater sense of being at home and in a place I belong than when I was with you. Being with you made me truly happy. And now I haven’t been with you in two months. In that time we’ve hardly even spoken. It really really hurts and really really sucks going from what I thought us to be as a really strong couple, to complete strangers. That weighs heavy on my heart. You completely changed the trajectory of my life, and now without you, I don’t know where to go. God, I miss you. So much. Everything about you. Just flawless. It hurts so badly.
You might see this. I don’t know. Maybe you’ll respond. I doubt it. I do hope to hear from you sometime. With hopefully good news, something that could make us both happy. Whether that’s tomorrow or in another five years. I know I won’t be busy then, and my door will always be open to you.
So, to another five years. I love you with all my heart now, I’ll love you with all my heart then, and I’ll love you with all my heart always.

I never considered myself to be someone who came on too strong or developed feelings quickly. Something about her was different though and I don’t know what but I think maybe I was being manipulated and used. We were never dating at any point in this but she made it feel like we were. In the summer of 2023 we had become friends in person and would spend almost all day every day playing games together online. She was kind to me, considerate, funny, affectionate, and was just so fun for me to be around. As our friendship strengthened I started to become physically and emotionally attracted to her. I thought this was how she felt but it was only physical for her which has never been the case for me in any “situationship” I’m usually the one in that position. In October of 2023 she started to become cold towards me. She started to distance herself, started to make sure I knew she was with her best guy friend any opportunity she got to show me. It was painful to know that even when I was free she wouldn’t bother to include me in anything they did together. She kept me and him separated from each other. One of my other friends started to send her sexually explicit messages but I forgave him for that as he was very drunk. He apologized to her but I never even needed him to do that as she was not offended but I was as he was my friend and knew I liked her. She got mad at me for “interfering” with her life. I told her I talked to him about it because he was my friend and knew how I felt and as soon as she deduced that I had feelings for her she slept with her best guy friend. This all took place within 24 hours. I asked her if there was anything wrong or that she needed to tell me. She lied to me and said there wasn’t. This guy lives in the same neighborhood as me and one night I was going to get some food and happened to see her car parked at his house at 2 in the morning if not later. I asked her again the next day and she admitted it. What hurt the most wasn’t that she slept with someone else, my feelings were not something I’d characterize as love, it was the fact that I couldn’t trust her anymore. I felt so betrayed, lied to, hurt, and confused. This was 10 days after the last time we slept together. I made it clear I’d like to know if she wanted to move to someone else before doing something like that. She didn’t tell me anything and I got so angry and upset I blew up on her over text. I apologized for my reaction to what she did but she never apologized for the pain and confusion she had caused me. I will forever have to live with this feeling of betrayal. I told myself “never again” and attempted to distance myself indefinitely and completely. They had a falling out and she cut him off. A few months after this happened, she started to reach out to me again. I was very hesitant, very cold, and did not let her back into my heart. Months went by, she made me feel very seen and appreciated on my birthday, which I have a bad history with and I usually just pretend it isn’t my birthday, but she didn’t know that and it made me feel so happy and seen. This was in February. She doesn’t know this.
We started sleeping together in March. She asked me if I wanted to sleep with her again and I said yes expecting that after all this time and everything I had said to her that she would never just do that to me again. I was wrong. About a month ago she started to talk to her guy friend again. He started to be around more and more. I tried to be accepting and understanding but it made me uncomfortable being around him as it reminded me of the betrayal she had done in the past. It’s unbearable. I have voiced that to her multiple times but never made her choose between us or tried to make her feel guilty about it. She was graduating and decided to celebrate with him and her other friends and I was not a part of this so I stayed home. I was anxious she was going to do the same thing as last time as we had a slightly abrasive interaction the night before at her house. The next day when she was with them, she started to ignore my messages. I told her not to ignore me as it makes me anxious that she will do something like that again and reminded her that if she wanted to she could but she had to end things with me first. Keep in mind this had been happening for weeks at various levels of intensity.
My alarm bells were ringing. She snapped at me when I said this then proceeded to ignore me. I spiraled as I saw what was about to happen and basically begged her just to talk to me and end things properly. She ignored me and slept with him again. I was described as obsessed, in love with her, crazy, delusional, etc. she said this not only to her friends but to mine as well. My entire text exchange was shown to my friends and I’m sure she showed it to hers too. I felt so betrayed, so frustrated, so angry at myself for allowing her to do this to me again. I blocked her and all her friends as she started to turn her location on and off and leaving me on opened at his house intentionally to test me. I knew what she was doing and what the right move was but I didn’t care anymore I don’t want to play games. She would talk shit about the other guy and complained that he was “stalking” her because he was looking at her location. I was scared she was going to do this to me too. I am so upset, so hurt, so angry. I want it to end but she keeps gossiping about me, keeps bringing this guy to our mutual friend group. All I asked for from her was to give me peace and leave me the fuck alone. She never apologizes for anything. I don’t know how to process this and it sucks. I was anxious sometimes but not without good reason and it’s not fair I was punished like this. It felt sadistic almost and as I expressed how she hurt me she did it even more brazenly and without remorse. I want revenge but I know what I am capable of and I don’t want to hurt anybody to that extent anymore as the guilt lingers but the satisfaction leaves. I wish I didn’t care. I will miss the good time but I feel abused and thrown away and know ending things is for the best. I miss you and I wish things had gone differently. I don’t think I can ever forgive her until I forget.

It hurts knowing he was unhappy for weeks and was pretending to be happy with me. He told me he’s been unhappy for a while and I just keep looking back to every thing we did he seemed so happy and fine and I just wish he told me. Because all I can think about now in my next relationship all I’ll be thinking is if they are actually happy or if they are lying to me or am I taking a toll on their life. I just wish when he started feeling this way he talked to me. It hurts knowing we celebrated our 3 years together, talked about how happy we were together, our future and the next day after our 3 year he just broke up with me saying how I took a toll on his life and that he can’t cope anymore. It hurts knowing it was all a lie

I am a 22 year old male. At 18 I got in shape after being fat my whole life. I had a lot of trauma with rejections from girls and they even bullied me and made fun of me often in elementary and high school. When I have gotten more attractive things started to take a turn. I also grew more confident and started approaching them on the street. Of course, I always remained respectful, never made rude comments, never cat called, and as soon as I picked up that they are not interested, I would wish them a happy rest of the day and say goodbye.
Over the last 4 years, I must have approached hundreds of women. The results are sad though. 3 not so great short relationships, around 40 hook ups and everything else are just rejections.
I am yet to find a girl who I actually can love or who can love me. All the girls I really really liked ended up not liking me. I am unsure what I am doing wrong. I know the problem is me, I just cant pinpoint it and change it. This is turning into an unhealthy obsession where if I get rejected a lot of times in a short period, I starve myself to lose even more weight because thats the only thing that has worked for me so far and helped me to not be a total loser. This has led to me fainting multiple times and having health issues.
I work 2 jobs, I rent my apartment, I pay my bills. People often say to "work on yourself" but I dont know what else to work on anymore, I am quite happy with my living and financial situation. I have good friends, good parents whom I visit every day. All in all I think its not a matter of working on myself, they just find something so unnatractive about either my looks or my behaviour, and I want to change it. I am ready to answer any questions that will help me get to the bottom of this so I can fix my issues and maybe have better chances of being worthy of someones love.
Thanks.

(Throwaway account because I have friends and family who listen to the podcast.)
I (25F) have been best friends with Jack (24M) and Rick (25M) since college and we have always been a trio friendship. Jack and I have always been playfully flirty with one another in private and around Rick who finds it funny and occassionally jumps in to fluster Jack.
Over the past year Jack and I have been talking a lot, he has helped me through a lot of stressful situations and naturally became the person I sought comfort in. Before we knew it, we got very close and feelings started surfacing. For context, Jack and I are very guarded people and we rarely open up to others they way we have with one another. We just recently decided to start dating in private. Jack and I wanted to keep the situationship as hushed as possible until we knew for certain we wanted whatever this is.
Rick started noticing our closeness but shrugged it off because we still acted the same as we usually were around him. Then one day all hell broke loose between Jack and myself, and I finally told Rick what was going on between us because I felt like he deserved to know why there was negative tension in the group. Rick admitted he wasn't surprised nor was he angry about not being told, if anything, he said he was happy we found each other and he was rooting for us from the get-go. When I explained the fight, he acted cupid and got us back together. Throughout the last few weeks he kept encouraging us to be more proactive in the relationship, giving advice and kept commenting how adorable we looked etc etc... It was like he was our number 1 cheerleader. This went on for a while until he told me one day that he felt like a third wheel in our group.
I was devastated to hear it, so was Jack. Upon self-reflection, we tried to think of all the times we displayed any PDA or anything similar around Rick and that was not the case. As I mentioned, Jack and I are dating privately, whatever we do that involves romance or dating remains between just us two and is never displayed or shown around others out of sheer paranoia. We also always keep Rick in mind and include him in our shenanigans we usually did as friends.
It gets worse. Rick has now decided to no longer attend our weekly meet ups when I'm around because "I don't want to third wheel!". This has put me in an odd predicament because recently it feels like Rick and I are playing tug-of-war with Jack, and I hate it. He has also very recently started acting quite cold towards me, making comments like how I have other friends I can hang out with or just sending me one worded answers when I try to speak to him. Ngl, I feel like I've been made the villain here. His behaviour has made me feel isolated from our trio friendship, with Jack in the middle trying to divide his time as evenly as possible - although, quite impossible, we all have busy schedules and can only meet up once a week. I feel like rather than being myself around Rick, he is starting to see me as "Jack's Girl" rather than his actual female best friend. Which hurts and is causing me a lot of grief because I feel like I have lost a friend because I decided to date one of ours. It's also made me feel a bit isolated from the group itself because all Rick wants is to hangout with Jack without my presence.
Jack and I really haven't changed our behaviour in the group. The only difference between now and then is that Rick is now aware that we are dating. I am tired of his hot and cold behaviour about our relationship and I wish that he would just outright tell us what his issue is. He has gone from cheerleader to wingman to negativity. At the same time, I am tired of feeling stressed and upset about how Rick has been treating me recently. I have expressed this to Jack and he wants to try to fix this because he loves us both and enjoys spending his time with the trio - but in all honesty, I don't think this new dynamic can be "fixed".
WIBTAH for wanting some distance from the group?

Author’s note : Everything’s free to use and monetize or paywall as you wish, just remember to credit me please. As I’m not a native English speaker, you can feel free to make slight changes to make it better, as long as it doesn’t change the whole story of course.
Summary, listener’s perspective : Now it’s time to put the plan to execution. Your brother and mother are already gone and it’s your turn to go with your captain. You have no choice but to trust her and hope that everything will be fine. You just need a little luck.
[ ] = stage directions
** = sound effects
Alright. Your brother and mother are gone. Let’s hope everything goes well for them…
Yes. I’m nervous. And scared. I’m not used to caring about my prisoners.
Well… They’re… Your family, so I care. Because I care about you. A lot. You know that now… don’t play dumb with me. I know you’re not. You know exactly what you’re doing.
No, I don’t mean I don’t trust you. You know what you want and you get it. And I admire people like that.
Yeah, I do the same.
Are you ready? We have to go at some point…
Good, stay close to me until we get to the brothel, then you’ll follow Aly. You’re both going to go directly to my office, I gave her the key to it.
[They’re going out the cabin, walking on the deck and boarding the boat]
*door’s opening/closing\*
*chatting sounds\*
*footsteps on wood\*
*waves sounds\*
Some of us are staying on the ship, always. We’re pirates after all. We can’t really trust our “colleagues”… But don’t worry, we’re taking turns guarding the ship until we go to sea again.
Aly, when we get to the brothel, find Miss Eve and take her with you to the office.
She’ll protect you if I can’t stay with you.
Ohhh She’s really feisty! She can handle most of the men herself. I couldn’t leave a place like that to a softy. She’s strong, you’ll be safe with her until I get there.
Because I’m pretty sure I’m going to be stopped by someone. And most likely Mister Rolland after what happened at sea. I’ll try to avoid him, but it’s usually really hard to do.
[They arrived at shore and speaker is helping listener get off the boat]
Here, take my hand. Be careful.
Alright.
*Deep breath\*
Let’s do this.
*louder\* Boys! Let’s have some fun! As always, first round is on me!
Ready, princess?
Just keep walking next to me. My men will stay all around and make some noise. As per usual…
They love the sea, but they’re always happy to go back to town from time to time.
Are you nervous?
That’s really sweet of you, but if I have to fight Rolland myself I don’t think I’ll win, especially with my injury.
Oh your family?
Don’t worry, I’ll have some of my men report back to me as soon as they’re safe. They went way before us. They might already be at my place. We’ll know soon enough.
Yeah… It’s not really a nice town like the ones you can find back in your country… But we built it ourselves. It might not be much or fancy… But everyone here is proud of it. We all contributed to it. And maybe one day, it might be an important place for everyone and not just pirates.
Maybe not a dream, but a hope yes. I mean… My first goal, dream, is something else. But once I’m done with it. Yeah, making this place thrive might be my second goal, if I lived through the first goal…
Honestly… I don’t expect to outlive it…
We’ll see… Let’s focus on the moment for now. We’re here.
So Stay close and follow Aly if I ever get stuck with someone.
*Door’s opening\*
*Loud chatting/laughing…\*
[Staff is greeting the speaker]
Hi.
Hey how are you?
Good. Is everything ok here?
Great, where’s Miss Eve?
[Staff saying they’ll get Miss Eve]
Thank you.
Let’s get moving.
…
*sigh\* Mister Rolland.
Yeah. Nice to meet you too.
Of course I’m alright. Why wouldn’t I be?
It was nothing. Your concern is touching. Are you getting soft?
Oh well, I guess I’m better than you at finding those bastards.
Don’t worry, I’ll always think of you if I ever find another one. I know how blood thirsty you can be.
[Miss Eve is coming]
Ah Miss Eve, let’s do our usual report. Good evening Mister Rolland.
What do you want to talk about?
I see… Well, I’m sure it can wait until tomorrow…
*sigh\* Alright, Miss Eve, please wait for me at my office, I’ll be here in a moment. Aly go with her, I’ll be quick.
Yes Mister. I still have this kid. She’s very useful and never complains.
I know what you think of it. I don’t need your opinion about how I handle my crew.
Who?
What new girl?
Oh her? We got her on a ship we raided. She seemed eager to live, so I brought her to see if she’ll work for me here.
Yeah. Sure. Maybe you’ll get her next time.
If you don’t, you know how my next interview went. So now, if you will excuse me. I have a lot of things to do.
I’m a business women Rolland. Of course I have a lot to supervise when I get back here. And I don’t want to spend days here, I’ll expect to finish the brothel report tonight so I can do my estate report tomorrow. So I’ll keep going if you’re done.
What now?
She’s not on the menu yet.
I said no. Come back tomorrow to see if she’s available.
I know you’re not used to people telling you no, but I promise you, you don’t want to mess with me here.
Great. So now, enjoy your evening. I’ll have Misty take care of you as a gift later.
Mmh.
[Speaker going up to her office]
*foosteps\*
*door’s opening/closing\*
Alright. It’s done.
How are you all?
Good good. Thank you Miss Eve. Did Aly explain to you what’s happening?
Great, we’ll take care of our business quickly so you can go back there. I’ll promise Rolland some time with Misty for the evening if you please.
I know… But I need him relaxed… I might have made him a little on edge…
I’ll cover the expense. Don’t worry about that.
What news? What did he say?
Great, so your mother and brother are safe at my place. You’ll get reunited with them most likely tomorrow.
You can get comfortable now Princess, we’ll stay here for a few hours. I’ll send someone to tell your family you’re safe too.
Yeah Miss Eve… Kind of… As long as Rolland is here, a risk is always present…
Have Misty tell us when he’s leaving.
Thank you Miss Eve.
Aly, get us some food and drinks. We still have a lot of stuff to work on…

This may become a long post so apologies in advance.
As a first-time home buyer, I want to share a cautionary story about our experience with home remodelling, as I keep on getting DMs every now and then because of a previous comment on a post- about how I was able to get a reasonably priced contractor(which took a weird turn later on)
So, we recently purchased a house in a Very High Cost of Living Area (VHCOL) after a long and grueling process. We were finally able to secure the house by removing all contingencies (based on pre-inspection report) and putting down a substantial earnest money deposit, while releasing half of it to the sellers.
However, our dream house had dated bathrooms and a kitchen, which we were eager to update.(in hindsight, we could have waited a bit so we guess it’s our mistake) We met this amazing contractor who offered us a great rate and discount on materials, but unfortunately, she disappeared mid-project, leaving us high and dry. We shopped for a bit, but the charges were double of what we initially got quoted. With no experience in building or renovating homes, still my husband and I decided to save some money by doing it ourselves as it was the most cost effective option after purchasing the house.
We soon realized that updating the house while working full-time jobs was a monumental task. We drained our emergency funds and spent countless hours researching and learning through YouTube tutorials and multiple trips to home depot. While we're proud of what we accomplished, we wish we had known better before taking on the project.
A Word of Warning
If you're a first-time home buyer without experience in home remodeling, beware! Unless you have the means to update the house on your own, it may be wise to reconsider. We recently purchased a fully updated house for my in-laws, and it's been a blessing. (their previous owner was a contractor)
Few takeaways :

• Don't underestimate the time, money, and labor required for home renovations.
• If you're not experienced in building or renovating, consider seeking professional help or waiting until you have the necessary skills and resources.
• YouTube can be a valuable resource for DIY projects, but be prepared for a steep learning curve.
• Home improvement stores like Home Depot can quickly drain your savings, so budget wisely!

I hope our experience serves as a cautionary tale for fellow first-time home buyers. Happy renovating (or not)!

heyo, im 20F, just finished my bachelor's degree. this has been on my mind for a long time, 5 years to be precise. i feel like life just never happened for me. all the "life is over at 25" rhetoric made me realise ill be 21 in a little less than 5 months, and my life never even STARTED. i was a happy kid for the most part. sure, there were problems, i had moderate to severe asthma for about five years from 2-7, parents' unhappy marriage meant some terrible fights that i remember witnessing even as early as the age of 3, a small house (which ive now lived in all my life), very much a middle class household without too much money. but none of this really mattered too much back then, except the health part of it because obviously it directly affected me. ive always been good at studies, i was a talkative kid who was on good terms with almost everyone on school and had a few close friends every year, went on a lot of trips with my parents that we did enjoy, had some great times w my grandmother. i wouldn't say life was perfect, but it was simple and good.
the trouble started with my mom being kind of conservative when it came to befriending boys, which meant i always was shy and silent around guys, even though I was very much different around girls. a related issue (very much brought on by my mom) caused me to leave my friend group in the sixth grade, and after that honestly things were never the same. it was also around the same time that my friends from my society, who honestly were never good people OR friends anyway, also started bullying me for no reason at all. still even with a few too many traumatic experiences at home, school and the building, 11-13 was bearable because i was still a happy go lucky kid. since i turned 13, what with bullying in school, both physical and mental health problems (pcos, asthma, health anxiety, crippling depression) , family issues (remember the unhappy marriage?), being stuck in the same house and financial condition all my life, things seem to be irreparably screwed up. the other side of this is i missed out on EVERYTHING. every positive experience that people have between the age of 11 and 21, I missed out on. sure there's things i missed out on even before then, not being able to play downstairs like everyone else as a kid because of my asthma being an example, but those weren't things i WANTED in the first place. everything since 8th grade however.... god it's been hell. because of the asthma i couldn't do physical activity, so my weight always fluctuated, altho as a kid i was thin for longer than i was fat. but of course when puberty hit so did pcos, and i was overweight for almost all my teenage years. this along with me never knowing or wanting to put on make up meant i was quite unattractive as a teenager, and so had absolutely no romantic attention from anyone ever. only 3 people have had a crush on me in my (almost) 21 years of life. i lost a lot of weight this past year (on medical advice) and now that im better looking i see random guys look at me in public, and of course that means nothing now, because they wouldn't even have glanced at me a year ago. the friend scenario is just as hopeless, and not just because i happen to be going though a friendless phase for the past 8-10 months lol. at the moment i no longer have anyone from school that i consider a friend, and college is shaping up to be very similar with a couple exceptions.
the worst thing is i no longer have anything to show for academically either, and this coming from someone who had a 99.6% in her 12th boards lol. college was just a failure on every level, social, academic, EVERY LEVEL. and it was supposed to be a fresh start after 8-12th grade. made no real lasting friendships, didn't network, no real extra curriculars, didn't go away so no memories from hostel life, no parties or clubs, really nothing. truly, truly nothing.
ive had this vision in my head for the past 6-7 years of what i want my life to be like. that's one third of my life so far. and i still haven't achieved 1% of it. hell ive achieved 0%. i honestly don't know how i could end up as utter a failure as this. the worst thing is i've got so much potential, i really really do. and now it's all for nothing. the 'best years of my life' are gone, with no memories, no accomplishments, nothing. i must've written 1000 words here and that honestly barely scratches the surface of the past 10 years. i wish i could go back in time so bad. if I was 11 again i know exactly what id do, but at 20 i have no clue. i can't even decide about doing a master's degree, one that ive received an offer letter for and which ive always wanted to do. god i hate my life, and I'm so ashamed of myself. i don't expect anyone to read this far but if you do, id love some perspective.

Dear God,I am at a point in my life where I'm unstable right now. Life was not the same as it use to in 2008-2022, 2023 and 2024 were when things got pretty messed up in my brain. I have a severe social anxiety and it is killing me limb to limb. I have also lost a lot of friends in the past, moving to high school, primary school was so easy and the best place in my life. High school sucks, too many people are rude and it's not a good school overall. Everything online, realising the world is just a pathetic place and lots of killings happen and too many wars going on. Chatting to a girl that I have a crush on but she isn't a good person, Idk why i do have a crush on her in the first place, oh wait she is really pretty as i saw her profile on Discord in 2021. moving house i felt like i was dissociated with my body when moving on to a new house. it felt really weird as i wasn't in my own body. as of now i don't know if i dissociated, its hard to tell but i hope i am not. it's not a nice feeling. also i failed all my tests and it's not looking good from here. failed maths, english, and probably more, art i passed, geography failed, rmt passed, RE passed and idk. life is pretty hard for me. im turing 16 on august 8th 2024, wow that's a big number achievement. YouTube is getting boring, roblox is getting boring, life is getting boring everything i admired in 2020-2021 is destroyed. i don't know if ill keep living until my old age, 2025 isn't looking to good. im not happy anymore i miss the times when i was a child, in the summer of 2017 where everything was so peaceful and playing with my real friends. i do have real friends that actually appreciate me and care for me which i love them so much. my favourite game piggy ended in 2022 which made me sad because it was my favourite game and now the game is full of 12 year old kids. roblox making roblox videos is a lost hope because i dont know if i will keep making them in the future. i'm thinking of taking a break because i think it is really needed for me to cope. youtube, ah youtube, i miss the good old days bro i miss when i would watch pokemon videos from mcdonalds toys those good old days i need to go back to them. God, I really want to feel something again, please that's my only wish, nothing else i want, i have a good family i admire them so much they love and care for me. also my 3 budgies they also care for me i care for them so much, as school is in 2 days i just can't be bothered because it is just a bit weird to be in because school is so long and i cannot survive that hell hole it really sucks i don't like the environment it's bad. i just wish that my life would get better because im going to be honest i think im depressed, depressed meaning? depressed meaning depressed(of a person) in a state of unhappiness or despondency." so i am unhappy with my life as you could say. God you're real i know you're real i know that there's an afterlife after we all die. 100% i won't believe on these other beliefs because i know your 100% real i promise all my might. I will never take my life but i just ask you to make it better that's all i want. maybe i won't be happy tomorrow, but i want you to promise me that i will be happy someday. that could be in 3 years 6 years i don't care but i just want to feel as someone that i use to be in my 15 years of my life. i know you will promise i believe you God, i love you, you died for our sins. Thank you for this world, it's really a nice world. So as i leave this message sorry that it's long i just wanted to splatter out all my feelings in to one message as yeah, take care God, i love you so much.

I have sabotaged my relationships with 4 former best friends throughout my life. The last one has happened this March via social media. So unhinged, I know. I cannot stop blaming myself from then until now. Later I decided to block the recent person's contact on social media bc I thought it was for the best for both of us. I thought I could not eventually improve my social skills to be better and there would be some misunderstandings between us that I thought they would be in their life better without me.
I wish I could get some type of closure or heart-to-heart conversation but it seems impossible. I decided to unblock their social media accs bc I sent them a birthday gift at the beginning of this year, and I was thinking of sending a physical mail to address about this situation or even get the real closure on our relationship to them. I did got their address, but I just had this thought that me sending them anything would be absolutely inappropriate in their POV. Even one online messages, I still cannot make up my mind to send it because I am so scared of their reaction.
Anyway, it seems that they blocked me back in Discord and instagram, not sure on others. This validates that they decided to move on I their life as well. But me realizing what I have done and being stupid of not know that my actions come consequences is still very frustrating within myself. I have been back and forth with this situation and I cannot find any place to talk about this, literally. I have been keeping this bc I know it is such a small and pity problem that an early 30s adult could manage on their own.
Maybe there were nothing wrong on former best friends' parties. The problems rooted from me all along. I am the one that misbehave, cannot read the goddamn social cues and get a fucking grip.
Many times I wish my life could just end you know? These things eat me up mentally so much. And because of what I have done, I don't think I deserve living anymore. I wish I could end all of this sorrow and grief and anything else that I have done to others and I don't know how.

I (F28) am married to my husband (M27) and we have a child together. He is genuinely my best friend, we have been together for almost 10 years now and we have a really happy life together.
Sometimes though, I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to be with a woman. I technically came out as bisexual when I was with my husband (then boyfriend) even though I had always known before then. Because of the repressed feelings I had towards women, I have never dated or had sex with them before, only kissed them and felt attracted to them. I feel like part of me will always wonder what it actually feels like to be in a relationship or to have sex with a woman, but at the same time I’m happy in my marriage and we are monogamous. Sometimes I worry that one day I will feel like I have missed out though.
I don’t know, it’s weird. Like I say we are genuinely happy and have a great sex life and are so in love with our kid, we have a future together, we’re currently in the process of buying a house, so I guess these feelings of wondering just feel like they’re wrong and feel disrespectful to my husband. Yes I do wish I at least knew what it was like to be with a woman in a relationship rather than to just find them attractive and know that it can never be more than that, but I also feel a lot of guilt admitting that to myself and I’d never admit it to my husband. Sometimes I also think I makes me doubt my sexuality - I either call myself a fake or don’t feel like a ‘real’ bisexual person because I have never technically been with a woman, or I convince myself that I’m lying to myself and my husband and I’m actually just gay, masking it with bisexuality because I’m with a man. I don’t think either of these things are true though, I think it’s all just wondering.
Does anybody feel this?

I love my friends. I love people so much. I can’t stay mad at someone for more than 5 minutes. I love buying gifts for my friends, hugging them... I tell my friends I love them almost everyday. I’m so happy when someone wants to talk me even if It’s just “hey”. I appreciate everything and always forgive everyone. When I’m in love with someone I wanna make them feel loved(paragraphs, gifts…)I don’t understand why are so people mean to me. My ex broke up with me out of nowhere few days before my birthday, because he lost feelings and I can’t stop blaming myself. I tried my best to make him happy and I failed. My best friend told me I’m too soft but I can’t help it. I’m always too much. I wanna be loved the way I love but It’s impossible.

I’ve been with my ex for almost 4 years. It was great at beginning but it become very turbulent and extreme over the last year, since he developed mental issues bc started abusing drugs/alcohol+bpd+ narcissistic tendencies. At one point i thought I would die, mentally and physically/I lost 10kg, then decided to breakup cause unfortunately i couldn’t take care of him anymore. (there were too many stuff can’t fit this post) Year passed and I am doing much better. I blocked him on everything long ago, but it’s not possible to do the same with email. He keeps emailing me since then, there were different ranges of emotions, hate messages, bursts of love, anger..but most recent he is begging for forgiveness and writing me poem-like stuff telling me that he will fix everything and come to see me.. on early stage i did text back telling him that i forgive him and separated with best wishes for him, once i was angry i told him that its over forever that its useless and to stop harassing me. He lives in another country and i really never want to see or hear from him again, that relationship left me a huge trauma.. I feel unsafe, disrespected, abused, i simply don’t know how to get rid of him, it makes me want to vomit. I can’t sleep, have obsessive ptsd at times and i am afraid that he will really appear at my doors at this point.(so changing email or ignoring him will not help)
Does anyone had to deal with mentally unstable person like this?
I appreciate any advice and thank you for reading.
I still wish health and happiness to my ex, but I feel trapped and worried for my overall health and safety for me and my family.

One moment I’m fine and I accepted he couldn’t communicate with me and say he was unhappy and pretended for a long time to be happy with me. And then the other my heart aches for him back. I just wish this didn’t have to happen and he actually talked to me. My heart hurts sm

I am trying to figure out whether the benefit (making him happy, less miserable, showing him despite his faults I still love him) outweigh the potential downside (he might think things are better between us than they really are, he might mistakenly think his recent actions have had a positive impact on our relationship (they haven't)) Anyone else wrestled with this?

My suicidal thought came back a few months or so ago But I numbed them most of the time with weed and wine Now there was a change in living style, Im basically poor Liek I dont have money to buy food since this month so until now Ive been mostly starving, which triggered my eating disorder I guess Im happy I at least have one purpose (loosing weight) now, but I just csnt survive like this I really do not want to die since my last attempt when I was 15 But I dont know what to do I cant just sit in this pit of feeling horrible and wanting to crawl out of my skin and my life 24/7 Its too hard, I cant take it anymore after all this time not getting better but only worse Again Ill not kms but I dont have money to buy food or alcohol or weed so all I do is sit here and feel numb or occasionally cry Nothings fun and everything is a struggle I have to finish my work for university and I feel super bad not doing it but I feel so exhausted after just a little bit of working So now I sit infront of my laptopx supposed to work, but just vegetating, thinking it would be so much easier to die Idk what to do and I know yall cant answer me as well I just needed to rant and I guess writing at least gives u something to do Also currently thinking about overdrawing my account (which it already is but probably not a good idea to do more because then next month ill have to starve again haha) to buy wine and some chips, so I can atleast feel not suicidal for a few hours But Im also kinda scared of the calories now that I lost weight I wish I had the money to buy weed but I dont So yeah I guess im also a lottle scared that someday Ill just do it A few days ago I tried how it would feel to use the velt door method, felt scary honestly Scary because I know last time I lived at home and after overdoing and getting scared feeling my heart skipping I could get help But nowadays if I do something I dont think Ill survive And as I said I really want to live, just not like this Its funny becUse I only have like 3 % hope that itll get better but damn these 3 % are song strong percent Ok now I dont knoe what to write anymore so I guess Ill post it until tomorrow I come to my senses and realize I should delete this crings rant haha Feel free to rant about ur day/ week/ year in the comments as well

I'm so sorry for the delay in sending the thanks for the amazing cards that I have been sent. Life got a bit crazy. However, it has meant that my hubby is happy as I am finally using the new tablet with a keyboard that he got me for Christmas. This would take way too long on a phone. Also these are in no paricular order, I put them in a pile to do thanks - I know that some thanks are much more overdue than others.
u/TheCaledonainRose Thank you for the super cute colourful kitty card with cat stickers. I wish i could manage to get my cats to sit and look that pretty without running around and trying to kill each other.
u/Monetmonkey x 3 for the beautiful floral postcards. Plus paper and ideas to inspire - defintely need to take my book to a park when the weather picks up. Stargazer lillies are my favourite flowers too, I just have to be super careful with the kitties. Luckily so far so good! Thank you for your generousity!
u/t3ctim x 2 Thank you for the coloured and the to colour postcards. The coloured one actually arrived today. The coloured one is super pretty and I can't believe you did it in London then had to take it all the way home with you to send it. Hope that your travels went well.
u/Jennnnnnnnifer Thank you for the coctail essential postcard - I wish I had all of the ingredients it shows to make a good cocktail now. Hope your teams hockey season is going well. I went to my first hockey (presume we are speaking ice) last year in Sweden. I finally found a sport my husband liked!
u/xoxounityoxox Thank you for the anniversary card. Our 7th Wedding anninversary is on the 27th and i finally got round to getting my present for my husband today. The stickers are also super cute!
u/eriszt for the lovley postbard from the Porche museum. It sounds like you had an amazing honeymoon, and i am rather jealous! I am rubbish and so many of the places you visited are so close to home (a few hours on a plane), I must do more travelling. I hope you enjoyed the performance of Swan Lake