I was able to sell one of our two edc Sunday passes. Still selling one for $150 OBO. I’m at the palms :)

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/05/17/its-created-lot-division-how-lds/
The article is paywalled but I've extracted parts here and linked additional detail. You can find articles addressing specific facets of the issue all over the web, eg Vegas, Texas, even Utah. The Cincinnati site has been announced but that doesn't mean you have no say. And if the community likes it, great!
"The church has recently entered a building spree, with more than 150 temples planned or under construction." Here's the comprehensive list
Much like airports, the temples may be named after a city but they are often sited in a small, nearby town. "From Nevada to Wyoming to Texas, small towns have become neighborhood battlegrounds as feuds break out about the buildings’ height and light." The current designs are much more obtrusive than necessary, often damaging town character such as this 88,000 square foot building on an 18 acre site in a town that was once celebrated for its dark sky initiatives and stunning mountain views, in contrast to the Chicago Temple (actually in a wealthy suburb 45 minutes north of the city) which, while still big, and still intruding upon a historic home, museum, and nature preserve, fits in a bit better with the local community aesthetic.
The article cites people who "...are adamant: They have nothing against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or its members. What the DeLoes do have a problem with is the church’s plans to build a 215-foot-high building with hundreds of parking spots in an area where residents sometimes ride horses in the street and the tallest things around are palm trees."
"Due to their opposition, both say they’ve repeatedly been called bigots. Yard signs they plant opposing the temple disappear overnight and cars periodically sit at the end of their driveway, honking." “We have people setting off fireworks behind the homes of people who are coming out against [the temple].”
LDS Temples are not churches. They are not open on Sunday. They are considered holier than traditional meetinghouses and function as private clubs--visitors are *not* allowed. They are used to baptize dead people and perform other Masonic, patriarchal ordinances for them even if this is against family wishes ; these same ordinances are done once for the living member themselves. In order to enter you must follow a set of rules that includes paying 10% of your income to the church's investment and operations portfolio (donations for charitable works are an additional, optional charge) and wearing holy garments ("magic underwear") Adherence to these rules is assessed in interviews with untrained, volunteer "bishops" who will also ask you about your sexuality and may ask invasive questions about your sexual practices. Such questions may be asked of children as young as 11 years old.
"The last thing this city needs is another lawsuit,” Commissioner Donald Walsh said before casting his vote in the temple’s favor." This politician's perspective is pragmatic. If your town does not have airtight ordinances, the LDS church will sue your community at every turn. Their access to liquid assets and land is unprecedented for a religion in the US.
If a building like the temples currently being built is not in harmony with the goals of your community, the time is now to ensure that local code prevents them.
In order to function, LDS temples do not have to be huge, they do not have to have spires, they do not have to be brightly lit. By banning buildings that are out of character with your community, you are not banning LDS church members, nor preventing their faithful practices, you are simply deciding for yourselves what your community should look like.
Not that it should need to be said, but this post is not about members. Most LDS members themselves are nice people and usually make great neighbors. They will nearly always help you move and are happy to bring cookies. This is not an issue against LDS members, their faith, or practices. It is an issue about the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bullying communities to accommodate obtrusive buildings against resident's wills.

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/05/17/its-created-lot-division-how-lds/
The article is paywalled but I've extracted parts here and linked additional detail. You can find articles addressing specific facets of the issue all over the web, eg Vegas, Texas, even Utah. The Jacksonville site is announced here.
"The church has recently entered a building spree, with more than 150 temples planned or under construction." Here's the comprehensive list
Much like airports, the temples may be named after a city but they are often sited in a small, nearby town. "From Nevada to Wyoming to Texas, small towns have become neighborhood battlegrounds as feuds break out about the buildings’ height and light." The current designs are much more obtrusive than necessary, often damaging town character such as this 88,000 square foot building on an 18 acre site in a town that was once celebrated for its dark sky initiatives and stunning mountain views, in contrast to the Chicago Temple (actually in a wealthy suburb 45 minutes north of the city) which, while still big, and still intruding upon a historic home, museum, and nature preserve, fits in a bit better with the local community aesthetic.
The article cites people who "...are adamant: They have nothing against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or its members. What the DeLoes do have a problem with is the church’s plans to build a 215-foot-high building with hundreds of parking spots in an area where residents sometimes ride horses in the street and the tallest things around are palm trees."
"Due to their opposition, both say they’ve repeatedly been called bigots. Yard signs they plant opposing the temple disappear overnight and cars periodically sit at the end of their driveway, honking." “We have people setting off fireworks behind the homes of people who are coming out against [the temple].”
LDS Temples are not churches. They are not open on Sunday. They are considered holier than traditional meetinghouses and function as private clubs--visitors are *not* allowed. They are used to baptize dead people and perform other Masonic, patriarchal ordinances for them even if this is against family wishes ; these same ordinances are done once for the living member themselves. In order to enter you must follow a set of rules that includes paying 10% of your income to the church's investment and operations portfolio (donations for charitable works are an additional, optional charge) and wearing holy garments ("magic underwear") Adherence to these rules is assessed in interviews with untrained, volunteer "bishops" who will also ask you about your sexuality and may ask invasive questions about your sexual practices. Such questions may be asked of children as young as 11 years old.
"The last thing this city needs is another lawsuit,” Commissioner Donald Walsh said before casting his vote in the temple’s favor." This politician's perspective is pragmatic. If your town does not have airtight ordinances, the LDS church will sue your community at every turn. Their access to liquid assets and land is unprecedented for a religion in the US.
If a building like the temples currently being built is not in harmony with the goals of your community, the time is now to ensure that local code prevents them.
In order to function, LDS temples do not have to be huge, they do not have to have spires, they do not have to be brightly lit. By banning buildings that are out of character with your community, you are not banning LDS church members, nor preventing their faithful practices, you are simply deciding for yourselves what your community should look like.
Not that it should need to be said, but this post is not about members. Most LDS members themselves are nice people and usually make great neighbors. They will nearly always help you move and are happy to bring cookies. This is not an issue against LDS members, their faith, or practices. It is an issue about the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bullying communities to accommodate obtrusive buildings against resident's wills.

Hi everyone, back again today for today's daily! Today's one was actually quite fun and we started off with iron hands!
As we've previously found, reloading the browser makes changes to the rng, so now I have notes when the browser has been reloaded so you can reload it too :). As per usual, sorry about the reloads - it'd be much easier if there weren't any, but I had some issues and instead of being able to restart I had to reload. Also there's at least one place where I've said to quit to menu and continue - I don't think this is the same as a reload, so maybe don't reload and just quit to menu instead?
Also, we originally though that different browsers have different RNG, but yesterday we found it may be a little more complicated than that. I use firefox when making my guides, and it seems like most of the variations are from chome, but it's not guaranteed - you can still have variations with firefox. If you do find any variations and differences, let me know - I'm trying to get some evidence so I can figure out what the changes are and see if there's a way to nullify them so we can have a single guide for any type of browser :). Also, yesterday some amazing people found a way to stay on track if you did run into variations, so thank you to those amazing people!
Also I'm currently testing this run for any missed reloads. I've currently tested up to wave 40, so wave 41 onwards is still being tested and may have some missed reloads. I'll keep this updated live as I do more testing!
ALSO ALSO: we're still trying to figure out exactly what the relationship with reloading is. For now, if when you need to reload, reload once you've chosen your pokemon for the battle, as, on average, that's when I would reload. I don't know if it'll make a difference, but it can't hurt to try and see what happens :). We think there may not be a relationship between when you reload as long as you're on the wave, but I just wanted to say this as a just in case :)
As per the others, I'm still learning about all this, so sorry for any mistakes I've made - I probably missed at least a couple of reloads, but hopefully I got the majority of them.
One note: I think I got all the unique pokemon except for 2 - a mimikyu on wave 13 that would not get into my ball and a clefable on wave 39 that just instantly killed itself.
Lastly, it seems like there's a bug in the game - I've heard it's best to change the "EXP Party Display" to "Normal" as if it's not on normal, sometimes moves you've learnt will disappear when you exit to the menu.
EDIT: If you saw that there was a bug where the screen went black after finishing the game, this has now been fixed - it's now safe to do that last level again!
There's also a few waves where there's some max IV stat pokemon if you're looking for them:

Pokemon	Max stat (31)	Wave
Tympole	HP	2
Poliwhirl	HP	6
Paliptoad	Sp. Atk	8
Phantrump	Atk	16
Theivul	Def	24
Sableye	Sp. Def	27
Gothitelle	Def	42

With the below steps, if I haven't said to take a move when one is offered, that means to not learn it. For the table, there's two columns relating to moves - one for moves to take and one for moves to replace. For example, if the "Move(s) to take..." column has Headbutt and the corresponding row in the "... by replacing move(s)" column has Wrap, it would mean you need to replace wrap with headbutt at this stage when it's offered - and if during that stage a different move is offered, don't take it if it's not on the list. Also if there's multiple moves to be offered, the moves offered in the table are listed from top to bottom of the order you get them - so if you have something like the below, it means that Crunch will be offered before Headbutt will, which will be before Firethrower (and their associated replacements):

Move(s) to take...	... by replacing move(s)
Crunch	Vine whip
Heatbutt	Astonish
Firethrower	Water gun

Also, if there are multiple waves back to back that have the same pokemon (or are within a few waves of each other), I'll label them as 1 and 2 - i.e. Linoone 1 and Linoone 2. This is to help avoid confusion if you're looking back and forth and trying to figure out where you're at
Lastly, with the steps below, if I don't say to switch out to a pokemon, that means you use the pokemon that's come out automatically.
With that, here's the guide:

Stage 1

Wave 1: Croconaw
Steps:

1. Charge
2. Sword dance
3. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Thunder punch	Sword dance

Reward: Pokeballs
Wave 2: Lombre and Tympole
NOTE FOR THIS WAVE: This tympole has max (31) HP stat
Steps:

1. Switch iron hands with nidoking and skiploom for iron hands
2. Megahorn and thunder punch lombre
3. Mud slap and charge x 3
4. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Reroll, Super EXP charm
Wave 3: Stunfisk
Steps:

1. Switch to skiploom
2. Bullet seed x 2
3. Pokeball x 2

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Mega drain	Light screen
Flail	Scary face
Bubble beam	Supersonic

Reward: Nugget
Wave 4: Ekans
Steps:

1. Switch to nidoking
2. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Super potion stunfisk
Wave 5: Trainer Glenn and Jennifer
Steps:

1. Switch nidoking to skiploom, focus punch aipom
2. Bullet seed and thunder punch galarian farfetch'd
3. Bullet seed duskull and thunder punch normal farfetch'd
4. Bullet seed and thunder punch duskull
5. Bullet seed and focus punch blitzle

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Great ball
Wave 6: Poliwhirl
NOTE FOR THIS WAVE: This poliwhirl has max (31) HP stat
Steps:

1. Mega drain
2. Poison powder x 3
3. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Sucker punch	Charge

Reward: Potion jumpluff
Wave 7: Arbok
Steps:

1. Switch to nidoking
2. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Acrobatics	Charm

Reward: Pokeballs
Wave 8: Paliptoad
NOTE FOR THIS WAVE: This paliptoad has max (31) Sp. Atk stat
Steps:

1. Mud slap x 2
2. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Crunch	Bite

Reward: Soul dew nidoking
Wave 9: Gulpin
Steps:

1. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Pokeballs
Wave 10: Paliptoad
Steps:

1. Switch to jumpluff
2. Bullet seed

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Stage end

Stage 2

Wave 11: Sinistea
Note for this wave: I reloaded my browser here; make sure to reload during the fight once it's started, and not too late
Steps:

1. Send out feraligatr
2. Ice fang
3. Pokeball x 2
4. Replace paliptoad with sinistea

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion sinistea
Wave 12: Yamask
Steps:

1. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion feraligatr
Wave 13: Mimikyu
Note for this wave: I reloaded my browser here; make sure to reload during the fight once it's started, and not too late
Note for this wave: I couldn't catch mimikyu no matter what I did, sorry. You can try if you want, but doing so may change the rng of the run
Steps:

1. Switch to jumpluff
2. Acrobatics x 5 (this kills it)

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion jumpluff
Wave 14: Yamask and Pumpkaboo
Steps:

1. Acrobatics and thunder punch yamask
2. Bullet seed and charge x 3
3. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Pokeballs
Wave 15: Trainer Cameron
Steps:

1. Switch to feraligatr
2. Crunch x 5

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Force palm	Whirlwind
Slash	Scratch
U-turn	Poison powder
Bounce	Endure

Reward: Pokeballs
Wave 16: Phantump
NOTE FOR THIS WAVE: This phantrump has max (31) Atk stat
Steps:

1. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion feraligatr
Wave 17: Duskull
Steps:

1. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Great ball
Wave 18: Polteageist
Steps:

1. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Giga drain	Mega drain

Reward: X accuracy
Wave 19: Drifblim
Note for this wave: I reloaded my browser here; make sure to reload during the fight once it's started, and not too late
Steps:

1. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Ultra balls
Wave 20: Trainer Morty
Steps:

1. Switch to iron hands
2. Thunder punch x 3
3. Swap to feraligatr
4. Crunch x 2

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Stage end

Stage 3

Wave 21: Liepard 1
Steps:

1. Switch to nidoking
2. Mud slap x 2
3. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Giga drain	Mega drain

Reward: X accuracy
Wave 22: Pawniard
Steps:

1. Switch to feraligatr
2. Ice fang x 3
3. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Pokeballs
Wave 23: Liepard 2
NOTE FOR THIS WAVE: in my testing, I got to here and there was no nugget reward. I exited to menu and continued and when I killed the liepard again, there was a nugget reward. You may have to do the same if you don't have a nugget as a reward?
Steps:

1. Switch to iron hands
2. Force palm

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Nugget
Wave 24: Thievul 1
NOTE FOR THIS WAVE: This thievul has max (31) Def stat
Steps:

1. Thunder punch
2. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Pokeballs
Wave 25: Trainer Jay and Debra
Steps:

1. Force palm piloswine and ice fang mothim
2. Thunder punch and crunch venomoth
3. Thunder punch and crunch drifblim
4. Force palm and crunch houndoom

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Shadow ball	Withdraw

Reward: Pokeballs
Wave 26: Thievul 2
Steps:

1. Force palm

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion iron hands
Wave 27: Sableye
NOTE FOR THIS WAVE: This sableye has max (31) Sp. Def stat
NOTE FOR THIS WAVE: Thanks to you guys we found an issue here. I think I've fixed it so it works better, but unless you've refreshed recently, this is different to what it used to be. I'm going to keep the old steps as a side note after the rewards in case you need it
Steps:

1. Switch to stunfisk
2. Mud shot
3. Pokeball x 2

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Cracked pot sinistea (NOTE: if the cracked pot doesn't show up, you may need to exit to menu and continue on this fight)
(Old steps were to switch to nidoking, megahorn x 2, pokeball)
Wave 28: Murkrow and Houndoom
Steps:

1. Switch nidoking to iron hands and switch feraligatr to stunfisk
2. Force palm houndoom and bounce murkrow
3. Charge (bounce should land)
4. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Lum berry iron hands
Wave 29: Leipard 3
Steps:

1. Switch to nidoking
2. Megahorn x 2

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Reroll, Hyper potion Iron hands
Wave 30: Trainer Marnie
Steps:

1. Switch to iron hands
2. Focus punch
3. Force palm x 3
4. Switch to jumpluff
5. Acrobatics x 3

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Stage end

Stage 4

Wave 31: Claydol and Beheeyem
Steps:

1. Switch jumpluff for Polteageist and stunfisk for Feraligatr
2. Shadow ball claydol and ice fang beheeyem
3. Pokeball x 2

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Hyper potion polteageist
Wave 32: Sigilyph
Steps:

1. Pokeball x 2

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Ultra balls
Wave 33: Bronzong
Steps:

1. Pokeball x 2

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Petaya berry polteageist
Wave 34: Lunatone
Note for this wave: I reloaded my browser here; make sure to reload during the fight once it's started, and not too late
Steps:

1. Sucker punch
2. Pokeball x 2

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Wild charge	Charge

Reward: Pokeballs
Wave 35: Trainer Magnolia
Steps:

1. Switch to stunfisk
2. Mudshot x 2
3. Switch to iron hands
4. Thunder punch
5. Force palm x 5

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Aqua tail	Flail

Reward: Ultra balls
Wave 36: Bronzong and Bronzong
Note for this wave: I reloaded my browser here; make sure to reload during the fight once it's started, and not too late
Steps:

1. Swap iron hands with polteageist
2. Shadow ball and crunch left bronzong
3. Shadow ball and crunch bronzong

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion polteageist
Wave 37: Musharna 1
Steps:

1. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Leftovers iron hands
Wave 38: Musharna 2
Steps:

1. Shadow ball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Rogue balls
Wave 39: Clefable
Note for this wave: No matter what I did, clefable just does healing wish and kills itself, so I couldn't catch it
Steps:

1. Sucker punch (clefable dies here)

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion stunfisk
Wave 40: Trainer Olympia
Steps:

1. Shadow ball x 3
2. Sucker punch
3. Shadow ball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Stage end

Stage 5

Wave 41: Hypno
Steps:

1. Sucker punch
2. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Close combat	Focus punch

Reward: Potion poltergeist (note - thanks to the discord community and comments, if you don't get offered to a potion here you can reroll to get a potion instead!)
Wave 42: Gothitelle
NOTE FOR THIS WAVE: This gothitelle has max (31) Def stat
Steps:

1. Sucker punch x 2
2. Rogue ball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion polteageist
Wave 43: Beheeyem
Steps:

1. Shadow ball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
Superpower	Slash

Reward: Potion polteageist
Wave 44: Tinkaton
Note for this wave: I reloaded my browser here; make sure to reload during the fight once it's started, and not too late
Steps:

1. Pokeball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion polteageist
Wave 45: Trainer Chelsey
Steps:

1. Shadow ball
2. Switch to nidoking
3. Megahorn

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion nidoking
Wave 46: Grumpig 1
Steps:

1. Switch to polteageist
2. Rogue ball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Lum berry iron hands
Wave 47: Xatu and Grumpig
Note for this wave: I reloaded my browser here; make sure to reload during the fight once it's started, and not too late
Steps:

1. Switch feraligatr for stunfisk
2. Shadow ball and mud shot grumpig
3. Giga drain and mud shot xatu x 2
4. Pokeball
5. Rogue ball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion polteageist
Wave 48: Grumpig 2
Steps:

1. Shadow ball

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion polteageist
Wave 49: Tinkaton and Xatu
Steps:

1. Switch polteageist with iron hands
2. Thunder punch xatu, mud shot tinkaton
3. Thunder punch and mud shot tinkaton

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: Potion poltergeist (note - thanks to the discord community and comments, if you don't get offered to a potion here you can take a super potion instead!)
Wave 50: Heatran
Steps:

1. Close combat x 2
2. DONE!

Move(s) to take	... by replacing move(s)
None	None

Reward: DAILY DONE!
And with that, that's it! I hope you all enjoyed today's run - I definitely had a lot of fun doing it and making the guide! Also I'm not sure if I'll be able to get one more out tomorrow, but Sunday I'll be taking off, so if I'm not back tomorrow I'll be back next week some time!
As usual, good luck on your egg pulls, your shiny pokemon finds and let me know if there's anything different compared to normal!

This is probably a longer story than it really is, but I am just trying to give as much context as I can.
In grade 11, me (F16-17) and my ex-friend (F16-17) were best friends. For some context, we both became friends fairly early in high school. In my country high school is from grade 8-grade 12. I joined the high school in grade 8 from out of city, the high school is just closer to me than the one in my city, so I was a new kid. I made some friends in grade 8 as a new kid but those friendships did end in grade 9. Grade 9 is when my best friend, we'll call her Emily, transferred to the school. And we formed a friendship. Through grade 9 we had formed our own little friend group with 2 other girls, we'll name them Clara and Sabrina. It was the 4 of us through majority of high school. We would always text each other, always hang out after school, spend any break we had at school together and had as much fun as any girls in high school could have (minus the partying because my school is not a partying school).
Emily and I were the closet in the friend group, afterall we were pretty similar and come from similar backgrounds (We're both a type of asian). We both would be described as the smart kids. We both would end up getting high grades in all of our classes. In grade 9, when we met, she told the friend group her dream was to become a doctor like her parents were, so she studied extra hard in high school to keep her grades high. I, on the other hand, did not really have any specific dreams. I wanted to become a writer or even a lawyer (but was worried because I'm not the best speaker). Due to that, I never tried that hard at school. Like i care about grades, my parents cared a lot about me getting high grades, but I wasn't studying for anything. And with that I never really studied either, I would do my homework and pay attention in class and take pretty notes but I was not spending any real time after class to do work Which is something that Emily would do. She would spend hours and hours a day just studying. If she wasn't studying she would be doing some volunterring or some club stuff.
Fast forward to grade 11. Right from the beginning of the year something just felt odd about our relationship. She seemed distant. Which I chalked up to it being we were now considered seniors at our high school so she was starting to stress about universities already, but it was still whatever. My school worked in semesters, so for half of the year we would have 4 specific classes which would then switch to different classes in second semester. During first semester I didn't have any classes with any of my friends. I was just chilling in all of my classess and getting adopted into different group friends in those classes. I was always well-liked in high school, I was not a popular kid. But compared to all the smart kids in the school, I was deemed the nicest so because of that everyone would be nice to me and friendly (even though I know for some of them it was so they could get hw answers out of me, but they were still very nice to me).
During this time, my friends and I would make up plans to hang out. We always made it a point to hang out at least once a week outside of school. It was always after school, we would usually study, walk around or go to the mall. In our gc on insta we would always double check with one another on which days to do it. Clara, Sabrina and I would always talk in the gc and were always the ones initiating the plans. Emily was also in the gc but would rarely reply to anything. Any times we would make plans to hang out, Emily would either not reply (which would then lead us to asking her during lunch the next day if she was free, where she would barely talk) or she would just say no to all plans. The few times she would say yes, she would always cancel the day of. Which would be annoying, and Clara, Sabrina and I would talk amongst ourselves that we found it odd she would always cancel and never want to hang out outside of school, but we were like it's not that big of a deal. She could just be busy.
We then just ahead to my birthday. Now i have an early birthday and it falls around the time that we come back to school after the winter break. Now during the winter break, Clara, Sabrina and I formed a seperate gc as it would just be the three of us talking and making plans. We also always took so many pictures and felt bad about sending it into the gc with the four of us in it as we didnt want Emily to feel bad about not coming. So we figured it was better if we kept it seperate. But in the main gc, I just ask when is everyone free to do something small. I'm not really a birthday person. Since high school, all my birthdays include going to some cozy restauraunt with my 4 closest friends and just having a casual dinner. So I ask and everyone leaves their responses, including Emily. We decide on a day, it would be after school just a day or two after my actual birthday and we would be going to a restuarunt and an arcade nearby (I have strict parents so I really wasn't allowed to go out late or really go out anywhere far). The plan is made and everything is set. When the day comes for the dinnearcade, we all meet up by our lockers to go take the bus together.
The 3 of us are there waiting for Emily to come and she does just a few minutes late. That is when she tells us she can't come because she has a club meeting today, and she told us it was mandatory for us to attend. Now of course my friends and I tried to convince her to blow it off just this one time, but she was adamant about going. So, whatever. We say bye to her and start walking to the bus. While walking there we bump into a mutual friend, also waiting for the bus. She is also in the same club, so we confused why she was here. We do ask her, saying "hey isn't there something happening with the club today?" That is when she tells us there was just this small meeting recapping what had happened in last weeks meeting for the people who missed it. Meaning the meeting was not madatory at all, especially when Emily had cancelled our plans last week to go to this said meeting. Meaning she did sort of lie to get out of going to my birthday party. I of course was hurt by this. When she told us she had to go to the meeting, I didn't think much of it as I knew how much school mattered to her and how much doing this club stuff mattered. But she had the choice to come, and she decided to just blow me off. We went out and had fun and didn't bring the matter up with her. We figured it was just her caring a bit too much about school.
Anyways this whole cancelling plans last minute, ghosting the main gc thing happened more and more. It also got to the point where if I wanted to talk to her, whether that was through text or in real life I would always have to approach her first. As this carried on for a while, i of course was getting a bit annoyed about where this friendship was going.
We now get to Emily's birthday a month later. Now Emily decided to plan her birthday, very last minute. I am just pointing this out as i am not a person who can do spontaneous plans, one because i have this need to plan properly and two because I do have strict parents. So i can't just spring a plan on them the day of and expect to go. Which is something Emily knows. Anyways she makes the plan and i tell my mom about it to ask if i can go and she says yes. The day before, Emily then decides to change the plan entirely. We were going to go into downtown city (for context, it's roughly 2 hours transit from our neighborhood). I obviously had to ask permission as she wanted to stay out late which is not something my parents would like, so when Emily told us at lunch the change in plans, Clara, Sabrina I told her we had to double check if we can still go as we all have strict parents, but our extended friend group were all down to go.
After school, the four of us head into the bathroom, which is a toally normal thing for high school girls to do before we headed out. While there Emily then decides to start a fight with me about not going to her birthday, which hasn't happened yet. She starts yelling at me about how Im mad that she didn't go to my birthday and am not going to hers as revenge (I'll be honest, I kinda forgot she didn't go). And starts yelling at me about how I'm being a bad friend and frankly a b*tch. And when I say she is screaming at me, I mean there is the largest echo circling our bathroom as she yells at me. Now I'm just standing there, trying to reason with her. I'm just trying to explain to her that i didn't say i wasn't coming, i just needed to get permission to go, which is something that Clara and Sarbina said as well but Emily wasn't saying anything about them. She proceeded to just yell at me for a solid 5 minutes. Another girl did walk into the bathroom, saw Emily yelling and just left, which I feel bad about. I do not do well with someone yelling at me, so I just tell her that I'm leaving now and we can talk later. I practically run out of the bathroom and out of school. Clara runs up to me and says i can't go home feeling like this. I felt horrible, i felt like throwing up. So Clara makes it her job to cheer me up as Sabrina is trying to calm Emily down. Clara takes me to Mcdonalds, where we split a meal as that became a tradition of ours and she bought me ice-cream to make me feel better. We end up spending roughly and hour and half there before starting to walk back to our houses. I did feel a lot better and I was smiling. Clara didn't really say much about what happened as she knew it would upset me. She just said that Emily was being mean and left it at that. At some point during our walk, Emily calls Clara and starts screaming at Clara over the phone about choosing "my side". I only know it was Emily because I can hear her screaming through the phone and Clara is trying to be nice to her and say she was comforting her friend like a good one would do. Emily continues screaming and Clara just hangs up on her.
We don't talk about it. Now the next day, at school, is Emily's birthday. I feel so awkward. Because i'm still upset about what happened. When I see her, I'm not sure if I should wish her a happy birthday. I feel like I am owed an apology first. so i don't really say anything to her. and we don't really talk. Now we are in the same Chemistry honours class together and are lab partners. So we have to talk. I ask her, if we're going to talk about what happened. And she just says, no, it's my birthday. I just say really but she doesn't say anything after. So Im just like, fine, whatever. We spend the entire class in awkward silence, and I do not see her again the entire day. Even at lunch because she has a club meeting or something. Clara, Sabrina and I all agree that we don't want to talk about it. Clara got an apology text last night but she was still mad about being yelled at over the phone. Sabrina asked us if we wanted to know what her and Emily talked about yesterday but i said no. I was frankly too mad and knew if anything was said, I would be upset. Emily did not end up having a birthday party. and there is now an awkward silence between the 4 of us. it's like a horror movie, where the music is playing and you just know something bad is coming and you have to wait for it.
A few days later, I know i have to say something. I can feel that our friendship is hanging by a thread and I want my best friend back. So at lunch, while we're all sitting by our lockers I bring up the topic. I do not remember the conversation that took place. All I know was that Emily was practically screaming in my face, in front of all our friends (Clara, Sabrina and 5 of our other friends). Everyone is trying to get her to stop, but she keeps yelling at me. At some point I just start crying. Now this is the first time, that someone outside of my family, has ever made me cry. Its the first time I have ever cried at school too. The tears are flowing down my face as I just say "i'm sorry i cant do this" to the rest of our friends as i had off to the bathroom to calm down. Clara and one of our other friends rush off with me to try to calm me down and stop the tears. But they keep coming. I can't stop them and am now in the bathroom splashing my face with water and doing my best to wipe them all away. Clara, this other friend and i all have the same class next. So they have to literally drag me to class as I'm sort of paralyzed about whats happening. When we get to the classroom, everyone there, which was half of the class is looking at me and seeing my red, teared-up face. Our seats are at the very back corner of the classroom, on the very opposite side from the door. So i have to walk past the entire face as they all stare at me and wonder whats happening. the entire time im not really paying any attention. during little work periods in the class, my fellow classmates would walk up to me and ask if im okay. which i would say yes, i was even though i wasnt because what else could i say. I ended up powering through the rest of the day before going home and wonderign what to do.
In the secret gc, I text with Clara and Sabrina about what my next steps should be. They suggest we have an actual therapy session as a friend group to discuss if we even want to be friends at this point. I agree to this. I even start writing up my own speech I am going to tell Emily when i see her.
So I'm just going to jump ahead to whenever this happens. It's during lunch, outside on the grass field. I am calm, I know what to say and everything. I'm sitting there with Clara and Sabrina has to literally drag Emily out of school to come and talk. I kid you not. We have like an hour for lunch. It takes 20 minutes for Emily to finally show up. And she shows up like, "ugh what are we even doing here? im kinda busy" and just acts like there is nothing at all wrong. I start to calmly explain to her how ive been feeling the entire year. I do not remmeber the conversation. But what I remember talking about is how i feel like she's distant, she's always cancelling plans, im always the one texting her first, about how she gets mad at me for small little things, how she yells at me, etc. My whole speech was about how "i don't want to feel like sh*t for trying to continue this friendship". Because even after the first time she yelled at me, I just wanted an apology and we could move on and that didn't happen. And now Im just like I don't want to cry again and don't want my tears to come from someone who's supposed to be my best friend. She does argue her case in this. Her whole thing is how "i'm being clingy and annoying and controlling".
Now for her arguement, I think it should be known more about my persoanlity type. I am not the best people person. I have social anxiety and how that manifests in me is that i can't really talk to people that well. I don't know how to converse and get incredibly nervous to talk to anyone new. So when I do become friends with someone, I do latch on to them. I talk to them all the time, when i can, and they become my person. I think that is where the clingy party comes from. For the controlling/annoying thing, I can only chalk it up to me always texting her. Like i said, i would always have to be the one initating our conversations and plans. So our chats always look like 5 bubbles of text from me (because i am the person that types in multiple bubbles rather than one large text bubble) and her short responses. When it comes to plans, as I said i do not do spontaenous plans. I need to have them properly organized for both my parents sakes and my sake. I'm not someone who plans everything out minute by minute, I just need to know times and places. And if you are actually free.
Thankfully this time, Emily isn't yelling at me however she is talkimg a bit loudly. Now at this point we have spent 25ish minutes talking about this when she suddently gets up and says "i have to go otherwise i'll be late for my class and get in trouble". Which there is still 15 minutes before lunch ends. And her classroom is across the hallway from my next class with Clara. The walk from the grass field was literally 2 minutes. Our coversation wasn;t done. There was no convlusion and no real understanding on either part. So all of us get up as Emily starts speed walking and we all chase her. We're all telling her there is still so much time left, but she doesn't listen and still carries on. So then I say, "i don't want to be friends anymore if this is what it's going to be like". and she says "fine." and walks away. and that was the end of our friendship.
It was almost spring break and our friends were doing their best to navigate the situation. I think they believed we both needed time to cool down and we can all be friends again. However that didn;t happen. Emily and i agreed to be civil as we still had the same friend group but she never really hung out with us in the next couple days, or talked during lunch and that was it.
The two of us did not talk at all. The only times we did was in our Chemistry class, where she did the most un-civil thing ever. As I said we were lab partners. Anytime we had any lab, involing the microscope, I would always be the person doing the microscope work as Emily writes down the results of what I found. I would then get the numbers or obersations from her and add them to my worksheet as our teacher wanted us to work in partners but submit our own work. This one lab went off for too long and the bell rung. So as we are packing up quickly, I ask Emily for the numbers she wrote down. She said she's late for something and will send me the numbers later today. And I'm like fine. She never did. It was also a Friday so we went into the weekend and she never sent me anything. I did text her once on Saturday and another time on Sunday if she could send it. but she never replied and i just asked another classmate if they could send me their answers. If our teacher asked why did we as partners have different answers, I was going to tell him Emily wouldn't give them to me. He never did ask and that was the last time we really talked.
We then headed into spring break which ended up turning into the pandemic lockdown. Now I feel so bad when saying this, as i know this was a difficult time for so many people. But me as a 17-year-old high school studnet, loved the first few weeks of lockdown. I saw it as a mental health break as all the stuff that went down with Emily did in fact put me into a depression phase (I actually do have depression and i do end up in mini-phases where its really bad). The lockdown gave me time to breathe as it felt like i was holding my breath for so long and i could relax. Now in the fall, our school did a hybrid for our last year. Which was fine, it was weird but managable. Emily did not talk to me, Clara or Sabrina at all during our seniour year. We graduated and my friends and I had the best time we could under pandemic restrictions.
Current day, I (21) am now in university. Clara and Sabrina and I are as close as ever and have managed to keep our friendship alive and strong even 3-4 years outside of high school and while all attending different universities. We still hang out regularly (once every week or so) and text all the time. And would you believe it, Emily goes to my university. Remember, how I said she wanted to become a doctor. Yeah so her plan was to go to university in Toronto for some medicine thing. I don't really know. She didn't do that. Instead she stayed in our city and decided to do business instead. What am I doing, you ask? Also business. Now I know I can't claim a school, or a major or anything like that. But i can't lie, im a little annoyed that she decided to swtich her career path to the same as mine. Thankfully Ive only had one class with her and it was one of those big lecture halls so i didn't have to talk with her. Just seeing her tho reminds me of high school and i can feel my blood pressure rising and me sweating as all the nerves and stress come back.
Anyways Clara and Sabrina's birthdays are coming up. Their birthdays are within the same week so since high school, they've always just done one big combined party. The two of them are both really chill people, they are friends with everyone and anyone. So as their coming up with their birthday plans, they are thinking of their guest list and Emily is on it. Now, Clara and Sabrina did ask me beforehand if they could invite her. They do want to make sure I am comfortable. They both tell me that they don't really talk to her anymore, maybe once every 3 months or something. They also haven't hung out since high school. But for their 21st birthday they are thinking of inviting everyone from our high school friend group to have sort of a mini-reuinion. I am down for it, I do think i have moved on, in the sense that I know I do not want Emily in my life. I do tell them I will probably feel awkwad but I can manage for one night for their birthday.
As I'm telling my sister (F16) about Clara and Sabrina's party and who's coming, she asks me about Emily. She basically says if Clara and Sabrina are fine with inviting her, that means they have forgiven her for high school stuff, so am I not being a bit mean for holding on to my feelings? I am a person who believes there is no expirational date on any pain caused by a person. I should not have to "forgive and forget" a person, who has not asked for it and who caused me so much pain just because that is how the world has worked. But it go me thinking, am i being a bit rude?
So, two questions: AITA for what happened in high-school? (am i in the wrong for the friendship breakup) and AITA for not wanting to forgive her?
A FEW NOTES: (i'll add more when i think of it)
I have not spoken to Emily since grade 12. Not in person, not through people, not through text. We have had no contact with one another and i am fine with that. I do not want any relationship with her.
Clara and Sabrina are two of the sweetest people in my life. It does not hurt me at all they have the odd interaction with Emily at all. Afterall they do say its very minimal contact and the few times they have made plans with Emily included, they let me know well in advance, ask if its okay to invite her and all that. Each time I say its fine because I know Im in a good place to not feel bad.
I have never yelled at Emily. Nor have I ever spoken badly about her. With our mutual friends I might complain about the situation, but I never say anything bad about her. I should also say, Emily i don't think was well-liked. As I said the two of are good students, the smart kids, whatever else you want to say. However Emily is what would be described as a "teacher's pet" and does give off an arrogant vibe at times towards others. Some of my other friends/classmates would sometimes make comments about this to me, but i would always sort of downplay it. Like, oh that's not how she really is, she just cares a lot about school. A few times I would say the comments are harsh to some of the classmates. Her, on the other hand, has called me a controlling b*tch to several people. who have all told me about it. She did bad-mouth to quite a few people.
At some point in grade 11 (not really relevant to the main story, but might be part of the reason Emily's always made at me), but I was blamed for a rumour going around that Emily had a crush on this guy in our grade. Emily and I had to go to this one teacher's class for some notes or something. And in the class was this girl who I didn;t really like. So before we walk in I whisper to her, no one can hear, that "hey there's that girl i don't like". Emily then makes it so obvious that she is looking at this girl. And next to her is one of the popular boys in our class. Emily makes it so obvious that shes looking in his direction and does it a few times, that the rumour she likes this guy becomes a huge joke in our grade. She does not like this guy, never has liked this guy, but it is a joke that him and his friends carry on. This continues for the entire year, and Emily in our therapy session does mention this fact. She says its my fault that this joke has gone around. I don't see how.

My husband loves me, and he loves Sadie. But mainly, he's tired. And so eventually Sadie got her rat. Honey lived happily in Sadie's room in his 3-tiered Rat Palace, and every day I would take time out from soothing the infant and wrestling with the 3-year-old to play with the rat, something the pet store warned I had to do if I wanted to socialize him. 

Cigarettes and rebellion have always gone hand-in-hand, and in an age of cigarette packet-sized health warnings, now more than ever, smoking a fag says: 'I do not give a fuck.' But if Brandon Flowers is hoping to strike a seditious pose by sparking up at the start of the interview, it's not going according to plan. The Killers' frontman is on all fours rooting through the junk that carpets the anteroom at the band's rehearsal space. "Has anyone seen my lighter?" he asks, rocking back on his heels. The question hangs in the air while Brandon cocks his head, waiting for an answer like a meerkat listening for a predator. Twenty-five years old and with a delicate bone structure, there's something almost dainty about him. Receiving no response, he returns to his search. "Oh, Jeez," he sighs. "I had it just a minute ago."
It's a scene that emphatically does not suggest a rebel without a cause. The mess isn't helping. The Killers' HQ - an industrial unit sandwiched between a construction supplier and the offices of a housing development just off Dean Martin Drive in West Las Vegas - is ankle-deep in designer clothing. A Dior Homme suit lies crumpled by the door; there's a pile of shoes topped like a sundae by a pair of Marc Jacobs trainers; and anyone wishing to enter the shoebox room the band use as an office must negotiate a mountain of discarded jeans. Many items are identifiable as coming from the wardrobe of Hot Fuss, The Killers' hugely successful 2004 debut album - triple platinum in the UK with two weeks at Number One and five million sold worldwide. Look! There are the shirts, ties and suit jackets they wore when they thrilled Glastonbury 2005 with indie rock anthems Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me. That was the crowning moment of a two-and-a-half year tour that finally concluded in October of last year. It seems that after playing that final date in Miami, they returned to Vegas and shrugged off their image onto the floor of this bland white box.
Now a fine layer of dust covers the dead clothes. The Killers have no further use for white tuxedos on their second album, Sam's Town. Today, Brandon wears a black polo shirt, black pin-stripe waistcoat, black jeans and black boots. Where there used to be a layer of foundation, there is now a beard - an untrimmed beard at that. Dave Keuning (30, guitar), Mark Stoermer (29, bass) and Ronnie Vannucci (29, drums) all echo Brandon's black ensemble. Ronnie has added Aviator shades and a handlebar moustache for a dash of motorcycle cop, Dave's frizzy bubble of hair gives him a Marc Bolan-ish air, and there's something very teenage about Mark's scuffed Vans.
Short of walking around wearing sandwich boards saying, "Our new record is a bit heavier than the last one," The Killers couldn't hope to communicate that message more effectively. And they have gained some musical girth on Sam's Town. The pop hooks that made Hot Fuss so irresistible survive intact - see the ringing guitar riffs on first single When You Were Young - but there's a newfound punchiness, coupled with an epic sweep. The minor-to-major uplifts on Bones are fabulously dramatic, the coda to Why Do I Keep Counting? thrillingly intense. Comparisons to Bruce Springsteen have been made. If they overstate the case a little, they are at leaset qualitatively accurate. The Killers are back and this time it's serious - they've got the bootlace ties to prove it.
"Hey, it says here that Springsteen's headlining Glastonbury next year," shouts Ronnie, who's flicking through the NME. He nods sagely at the page without looking up.
"Really?" asks Dave, nicknamed Crazy Dave on account of his alledgedly volatile nature.
"The Boss is headlining one night, we're playing second on the bill the next night and Kylie's headlining the Sunday," says Brandon, charging like a bull through Michael Eavis' as-yet-unannounced line-up with what subsequently proves to be a characteristic gaucheness.
But that lighter is proving elusive. This being America, none of the people hurrying to-and-fro prepping the world for the release of Sam's Town smokes. Manager Robert Reynolds - Bobby Rey to the band - barks into his mobile, booking his band onto eye-wateringly demanding tours. "We're going to make a lot of money," he cackles to himself before switching calls to make a series of stern pronouncements on legal matters. Dave, Mark and Ronnie disappear for a jam session. Artwork is approved, B-sides are decided on and schedules are hammered out.
"I can't find it," Brandon says, finally. But he's not going to be denied the opportunity to underline The Killers reinvention with a puff of smoke. "Let's go to the gas station. I'll have to buy one. It's too busy to talk here anyway."
+
Brandon's black (of course) Volkswagen Touraeg four-wheel drive is barrelling down West Flamingo Road into town. "I was a bell boy there," he says, pointing out of the driver's window at the stucco facade of the Gold Coast casino. "I was working there when we were signed."
Coming from Las Vegas, it is perhaps inevitable that casinos play a big part in The Killers' story; not only is Sam's Town named after one, it was recorded in one, too.
The band began writing songs while on the road with Hot Fuss, turning up early for soundchecks to run through new ideas. On a trip home to Vegas, George Maloof, a hotelier known for cultivating famous friends, invited them to record the album in the new studio he'd built at The Palms, his flagship hotel-cum-gambling den. When the tour finished in October 2005, they returned to Vegas and spent five month finessing the songs they'd sketched out on the road. Then, in February, they decampled to the third floor studio at The Palms and recorded Sam's Town over 11 weeks.
Producer Flood (U2, Depeche Mode) encouraged them to experiment. They overdubbed, fiddled with synthesizers and played with new equipment. It took them five weeks to get the backing vocals right. The band sang the harmonies, then double-tracked them four times. The end result recalls Queen wondering, "Is this is the real life? Is this just fantasy?" When Ronnie, a trained classical percussionist, brought some kettledrums down, eyebrows were raised; but the fabulously bombastic coda on Why Do I Keep Counting? vindicates his indulgence.
"That's kind of the Ben Hur of the album," he says. He's not wrong. Sam's Town is a record on an epic scale. "Yeah, it has drama," he continues. "But, at the same time, I think it's a little more exposed than Hot Fuss. It's a little more naked. Last time it was about a lot of fictional things." By "fictional", Ronnie means that Hot Fuss wore its predominantly British influences for all to see. Brandon's taste in music is rabidly Anglophile - he constantly references The Smiths, The Cure and Joy Division - and it showed. By contrast, Sam's Town is an unequivocally American record. The lyrical imagery is pure American dream - cars, girls, wide-open spaces and escaping to a better life. "We're burning down the highway skyline/On the back of a hurricane that started turning/When you were young," sings Brandon on When You Were Young. That's the basis of the Springsteen comparisons then, though the lack of pathos more closely recalls another blue-collar rocker from New Jersey - Jon Bon Jovi.
The phrase "this town" recurs throughout the album, and it's always receding into the distance as The Killers escape to a new life. "This town was made for passing through/I never did get along with everybody else," sings Brandon on This River Is Wild. On Read My Mind he "never really gave up on breaking out of this two-star town", while on the title track he offers something of an explanation: "Nobody ever had a dream round here."
"With the first record, there was this feeling that there was this world out there that we didn't know," says Mark later in the day. Before The Killers, he studied philosophy: now he's their quiet one. "We wanted to get out and away from this and be somewhere else. We hadn't had a lot of experience - hadn't travelled much - then we were gone for three years. We didn't sit down and say that we wanted to make a record about how we're glad to be home, but that's what happened naturally."
It's not an angsty record. The Killers have already escaped with Hot Fuss, and, having done so, they view the experience fondly now they're back. There's a mistiness to Brandon's eyes as he explains how the album got it's name.
"Sam's Town is a casino on the edge of Vegas," he says. "I grew up in Henderson, which is out on the way to the Hoover Dam. My mom and dad lived in a trailer park, and my dad used to hitchhike up and down Boulder Highway, which is the only way you could get to Vegas. Sam's Town was the first thing you saw on your way in to town. So, when you're driving down Boulder Highway from Henderson, I always thought you finally knew you were getting somewhere when you saw Sam's Town. It was kind of like a beacon."
"It's not a completely American album," contines Brandon. "We still have our English influence, but we're also from the Wild West. Somehow we've managed to unify all that on this album. it's just such a perfect resemblence of what we are."
At the petrol station, Brandon rummages through the glove box looking for change to buy a lighter. "This is a great album," he says, pointing at Highway Companion, the latest from iconic American rocker Tom Petty. "I've always been a big fan of his. He's such a great American artist."
Yes, Brandon: we get the point.
+
When Brandon finally lights his cigarette, he smokes it awkwardly, like a child mimicking something he's seen the grown-ups doing. However, when he cheerfully admits that, "I feel the same mentally as I did when I was 12," it's not a knowing nod to the fact that he sometimes behaves like a loveably precocious child, but a reference to an unusually comprehensive grounding in pop music at an early age.
When Brandon sings about "this town", he doesn't mean Las Vegas. He means Nephi, Utah or Henderson, Nevada, where he spent his childhood. His parents are Mormon and he is the youngest of six children. "I was a surprise," he says. "I've got a 42-year-old sister." If he was issues about his "surprise" status, he chooses to gloss over them. "It turned out perfect because my brother was a teenager when I was a kid," he says. "He would bring home things like Rattle And Hum by U2 and I would watch it. I remember he bought Live In Dallas by Morrissey. It was always him watching these things, or his door was shut and you'd hear The Head On The Door by The Cure blasting through the house and rattling the walls."
The Killers were formed when Brandon answered an advert Dave had placed in a local paper in late 2002. Dave cited Oasis as a big influence; Brandon had seen them play recently and responded; and, as Dave has said in previous interviews: "He was the only person to reply to my ad who wasn't a complete freak." However, the band was born in Brandon's brothers bedroom.
"His room was like a shrine," enthuses Brandon. "It was a holy place. I wish I could show you a picture of it. It was covered in posters. There'd be a big picture of Elvis wearing a bow tie that just said 'The Smiths' [the artwork for The Smiths 1987 single Shoplifters Of The World Unite]. You had The Cure wearing face paint [the artwork to The Cure's 1985 single In Between Days] - all that kind of stuff. I remember Morrissey being on the cover of the NME, with the halo [from 1985] - stuff like that. You just wanted to know about these people 'cause they were so cool. My brother seemed like such a cool person. But he was a teenager, so he wasn't going to be that nice to me, a kid."
Brandon was fascinated by his brother's collection of music, magazines and posters, but he was denied access to them - officially, at least. "I would sneak in," he says. "I knew he'd be angry if he found out, but I would go in as soon as he left the house." For a long time Brandon was too scared to actually play anything. "That didn't come 'til later. I just used to go in there because I liked it. Then I got to the point where I'd actually take a tape out and put it in. It took more guts to do that."
It was a life-changing moment. "I was ten and the first song I played was Sing Your Life by Morrissey. I remember dancing about to it."
The lyrics to Sing Your Life include the lines, "Sing your life/Just walk right up to the microphone/And name all the things that you love/All the things that you loathe." It's intriguing to wonder what Morrissey makes of the neophyte he inspired with these lines.
Eventually, Brandon inherited his brother's tape collection. "It was around the same time CDs started coming out in a big way. He started buying CDs and gave me his tapes. And that was it: it took off from there. I got a hundred of the best albums - all the New Order, all the Morrissey, all The Smiths, The Beatles. I started buying posters. I went to see The Cure in concert. It was just kind of a continuation of my brother. And it was nice because, though my parents were strict, they were already used to it from him. There was no, 'My dad doesn't understand me,' or any of that kind of stuff. My mum likes The Smiths."
Brandon was 13 and his favourite band was late-'70s/early-'80s American new wavers The Cars, and particularly their jaw-droppingly catchy 1979 single Just What I Needed.
"I wouldn't exist without that song," he says. "That was the one. I remember driving around with my mum when I was 13, and we're living in Nephi - a really small town - and I felt so cool when I put that song on. Like: 'I have something that none of these kids I'm going to middle school with tomorrow have.' That excitement is what music's about, isn't it? That's why I understand the mentality of people that don't like us because we've sold so many records. I used to like it when no one else knew about a band. So I get that - I do."
+
Brandon's first band was called Blush Response. It was never going to work out. Not because he refused to move to Los Angeles with them, but because he is utterly - comically - shameless. He's given to making outrageously boastful statements like: "It's not like the '60s, '70s and '80s now. There are only a few bands around that are really good, that just do it. I mean, there's what, five or six of us?"
For the record, in Brandon's estimation, those bands are Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and, of course, The Killers.
"I don't want people to think I'm lumping myself with other people just to make us sound cool," he says. Really? It sort of sounds like you are. But he just steamrolls through it. "Yeah, but you know what I mean," he says, grinning at his own cheekiness. He's so disgracefully forward you can't help but laugh along with him - Oh you are awful, Brandon! But joking aside, The Killers are the most commercially successful of all the bands he mentions.
Later, back at the rehearsal space, the band run through Sam's Town at deafening volume in preparation for the forthcoming tour - first the US, then the world. The infectious, almost contagious, chorus of When You Were Young sounds fabulous, as do the U2-like guitars and Twin Peaks synths of Read My Mind. Meanwhile, Smile Like You Mean It and Somebody Told Me benefit from the newfound harder edge.
They somewhat heavy-handedly underline the new direction by playing Paranoid by Black Sabbath and Get It On by T Rex. That's the thing: The Killers are not a subtle band. Their songs are like a wet kiss from a girl who's a bit too drunk. They are big and brash, and not everyone loves them for it. Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me might go down as well at hip nightclubs as they do on the festival circuit, but the DJs play them with the same guilty look they wear when playing a pop record.
"I hate that," says Brandon. "Like writing a song you can hum somehow cheapens it? It makes me think of this quote by Morrissey. Everybody knows how he read Oscar Wilde, Keats and Yates when he was growing up and that he wanted to be a writer. He was talking to this journalist who asked why he hadn't become a writer, and Morrissey said: 'What I do is more powerful than what you do because I can write down these words and you get it to a melody. How can you beat that?' I'm of the same opinion. I don't understand why a good melody that's memorable is a bad thing."
Being dismissed as pop particular aggrieves Ronnie. "When we first came out we got compared to Duran Duran all the time. Jesus Christ! We got a keyboard player now all of a sudden he's Nick Rhodes! Come on!"
"The people who criticise us for being too poppy don't get it," agrees Mark. "I think that's the problem with a lot of rock music. People are afraid to write a song any more. Either that or they can't. And that attitude hurts music in general. The best bands ever have all written great songs. You can still do it and do it intelligently and it can be original. This isn't a studio creation with a producer writing these songs for us. We're not Avril Lavigne, or something like that. We're a real band writing real songs, just like a punk band would do, except that we write pop songs."
You get the impression that The Killers knack for showboating pop hooks that border on vulgar is inextricably tied up with the brazen side of Brandon's personality. But while his ebullient charisma, not to mention the songs themselves, mitigates his outrageousness, there is a less attractive side to his ego. He has a combative streak. He can't resist taking pot shots at emo bands, notably Fall Out Boy, whith whom The Killers share an A&R man.
Has he heard how many emo kids it takes to change a light bulb? "No." None. They just sit in the dark and cry. It's a full 30 seconds before he stops laughing. When he does he admits: "Yeah, we've had problems with other bands. You know, when you walk in the room it's like..." He whistles the theme to The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. "We're like gangs."
And while the other members of the band are diplomatic on the subject of Brandon, you don't have to read too deeply between the lines to conclude that there have been internal issues, too.
"Some people will think Brandon's the big genius," says Dave, visibly bridling. "There are songs, such as Why Do I Keep Counting?, where he's written every note. But there are others, like When You Were Young, that were more of a collaboration - like Mr Brightside, where I had some of the music and Brandon came up with the lyrics. We always have arguments about who wrote what. The truth is that we all help in that process."
When asked how success affected them, Ronnie says: "There were certain things that needed adjusting. When you're on tour for two years, people can get a little needy. It doesn't help that you're surrounded by yes men and everybody's working for you. At times we've had to say, 'Who do you think you are?' to people. No one wears the trousers, but some people would like to. I think if it wasn't for the people in the band kicking each other in the ass... Let's just say there was some ass-kickin'."
It doesn't take a genius to work out whose ass needed kicking most often.
+
It's the following day and The Killers are back at their rehearsal space. The topic of discussion is what to wear in the video for Bones, the second single. It's a big deal: the director is Tim Burton. "I feel like Frank Sinatra when I sing it," announces Brandon. "With maybe a little bit of Morrissey and a little bit of Elvis, too."
Of course he does. But if securing the services of Tim Burton tells you one thing, it's that The Killers are about to get even bigger, perhaps even make the leap to the same level as Coldplay et al. Already stars, they are about to become superstars. Brandon can hardly wait.
"Do you know that Rolling Stone didn't want to put us on the cover last time," he says indignantly. "They didn't think we were stars. We sold five million albums! What more do they want from a band?"
Whatever was required, Brandon would be happy to do most things. "I'll do stuff that some people don't want to do, 'cause I want people to hear the music," he says. However, even he has limits. "The Rolling Stone thing made the record label think: 'What can we do to make them stars?' If I go on vacation with my wife, do they have to send somebody to be there to take pictures of me? Is that how you become a star? I don't want that. I walked down the red carpet one time and I realised I don't like it. But you don't have to walk down the red carpet for people to hear your music. We do still have some of that indie blood running through our veins."
He heads off at a tangent: "When you walk around Liverpool, you think of The Beatles, or you go to Manchester and you think of The Smiths or Oasis. I want you to come to Las Vegas and think of Sam's Town. And I think we've started to capture that, which is a truer version of The Killers, 'cause that's where we're from."
He pauses.
"I used to live across the street from Sam's Town. Maybe it'll be like our Abbey Road where people go to take pictures."
Is that what he'd like?
"I wouldn't mind it," he says, desperately hoping it will come true.
He puts a cigarette between his lips, looks down at his trouser pockets and pats them in search of the lighter he bought yesterday.
"Hey, I don't suppose you've got one?"

Hi all! Help me clear out my life of backups and samples I'll never use. Hopefully you'll find a new HG or something you've always wanted to try in my stash. I've priced everything to sell and do feel the prices are fair and low but of course I'm willing to bundle. The prices are based off what I actually paid for the products, not the retail price. I buy most things on sale and you'll get a discount on top of what I paid.

• Shipping is $5 for 4oz, $10 flat for anything over 1lb
• My home is smoke free home in CA. I have a dog that has no access to my room where my makeup and skincare is stored
• Payment via paypal goods and services. I cover fees
• I will only ship to the address on file with paypal, so please make sure your shipping address is correct when paying.
• First come, first serve. I'll hold request for 2hrs and then move on to the next in line
• $6 minimum per order

Makeup

Eyeshadow Verification: https://imgur.com/a/EEtDTYL

• Colourpop You Had Me At Hello (Used 1-2x) $10
• Bobbi Brown Long Wear Cream Eyeshadow Stick Dusty Mauve & Golden Pink (BNIB) (FS $16, MS $8)
• MAC Paints Bamboom (BNIB) $7
• MAC Eyeshadow All that Glitters (BNIB) $8
• Bare Minerals Gen Nude Eyeshadow Palette Rose (Used x2) $10
• Too Faced Better Than Chocolate (BNIB) $15
• Smashbox Covershot Ablaze Eyeshadow Palette (BN) $10
• Colourpop Sorbet Eyeshadow (Used x2) $4
• Clarins Palette 4 Couleurs 2 Rosewood (Used x2) $13
• Makeup by Mario Glam Quads Party Glam, Bronzey Glam & Rosey Glam (swatched) $8 each or $20 for 3
• Colourpop Colourstix Warm Up (Swatched x2) $3
• Eyeko Double Stack Eyeshadow Stick Dusk/Dawn (BINB plus sharpener) $4
• Bobbi Brown Rich Color Eye Shadow Royale 8 (Light Useage) $5
• MAC Single Eyeshadows Twink x2 (BNIP) $4 each
• Catrice Liquid Metal Eyeshadow Mauves like Jagger, We are the Champagnes & Under Treasure (light use) $6 for all 3

Base Products Verification: https://imgur.com/a/YB476xo

• Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Face Base mini .24oz $8
• Becca Light Catcher Finishing Veil 01 Scattering (BNIB) $8
• Covergirl Clean Fresh Skin Milk 340 Light (BN) $5
• Georgette Klinger Marula Primer (BN) $5
• Too Faced Born This Way Powder Translucent (BNIB) $11
• Makeup Forever Mist & Fix Hydrating Setting Spray mini 1oz (BNIB) $6

Blush/HighlighteBronzer Verification: https://imgur.com/a/jhbuklM

• Natasha Denona All Over Glow 1 Light (Swatched x1) $10
• Tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof Bronzer Park Avenue Princess (Lightly Used) $8
• Benefit Dandelion Twinkle Highlighter mini (BN) $9
• Milani Baked Blush Belle Amore (Swatched x1) $6
• Wet n Wild Pac Man Power Pellets Blushlighter (Swatched x1) $4
• NYX Matte Bronzer Medium (Swatched x1) $5
• Sleek Blushes Pixie Pink (Swatched x1) $4
• Grande Glow Plumping Liquid Highlighter (BN) $5
• Laritzy Cosmetics Cream Highlighter Virtue (BNIB) $4
• The Beauty Crop Blush Duo Mauve-lous (BNIB) $3
• Topshop Cream Blushes Flush (Light usage) $2 or free with purchase of 2 or more items
• Ciate Bamboo Bronzer Palm Island (Swatched x1) $5

Eyeliners/Mascaras/Brows Verification: https://imgur.com/a/RmvE8EM

• Sephora Retractable Brow Pencil 05 Neutral Grey Brown (BNIP) $9
• Makeup Forever Brow Gel (BNIB) $5
• Tynt Smokey Eye Pencil Pinot Noir (BNIB) $3
• Mally Beauty Gel Waterproof Eyeliner Onyx (BNIB) $3
• Ciate Fierce Flicks Precise Pro Tip Liquid Liner Black (BNIB) $5
• Clinique Quickliner deluxe size (BN) $3
• Clinique High Impact Mascara full size (BN) $8
• Tarte Maneater Mascara Black (BNIB) $9
• Wander Beauty Upgraded Lashes Treatment Mascara (BN) $8
• Too Face Damn Girl Mascara Travel Size (BNIB) $5
• Tynt Brow Definer Brunette (BNIP) $2
• Tori Belle Cosmetics Magnetic Eyeliner and lashes (BNIB) $5

Lips Verification: https://imgur.com/a/3Kgc3YS

• Lancome Juicy Tubes 02 Spring Fling & 07 Magic Spell (BNIB) $10 each
• Patrick Starrr Lip Snatcher Lip Liner Outta Line (BN) sold
• MAC Love Me Lipstick Under the Covers (BNIB) $9
• MAC Lip Pencil Subculture (BNIB) $10
• Clinique Chubby Stick melon (BNIB) $7
• Bobbi Brown Crushed Lip Color Angel, Sunset & Grenadine (BNIB) $14 each
• Bobbi Brown Luxe Lip Color Mini Neutral Rose (BNIB) $7
• Bobbi Brown Crushed Lip Gloss Free Spirit (BN) $14
• Bobbi Brown Extra Lip Tint Born Nude (BNIB) $12
• Laura Mercier Creme Smooth Lip Color Palm Beach (Swatched x1) $6
• Anastasia Matte Lipstick deluxe size Dead Roses (BNIB) $3
• Visee Lip Oil 002 Hold Me (BNIB) $9
• Nars Lip Gloss mini Priscilla (BN) $2
• Saint Luxe Lip Liner Duo (BNIB) Free with Purchase
• True Lucsious Super Moisture Lipstick Vintage Rose (BNIB) Free with Purchase
• Laura Geller Color Lustre Lip Gloss (BN) $5

Skincare Verification: https://imgur.com/a/TfQlafY

• Estee Lauder Revitalizing Supreme+ Moisturizer and Youth Power Soft Creme 2.5oz (BNIB) $45
• Origins Charcoal Face Mask (BN) $10
• I'm From Rice Mask (BNIB Exp 12/25) FS $15, minis $4 each
• Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin E Mask (BNIB Exp 6/25) $4
• Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream .5oz (BNIB) $15
• Paula's Choice Hyaluronic Acid + Peptide Lip Booster (BNIB) $14
• Innisfree Pore Clearing Clay Mask (BNIB) $8
• Saturday Skin Yuzu Vitamin C Bright Eye Cream (BNIB) $15
• Kate Somerville Goat Milk Moisturizing Cream (BNIB) $15
• Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream (BNIB Exp 2/25) $20
• 111Skin Rose Gold Radiance Booster (BNIB) $18
• Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Concentrate Matrix (BNIB) $25
• I'm From Pear Serum (BNIB Exp 9/24) $18
• Rovectin Skin Essentials Activating Treatment Lotion (BNIB Exp 10/23) $10
• Wishtrend Quad Active Boosting Essence (BNIB Exp 12/23) $12
• Mudmask Eye Cream (BN) $11
• MudMask Blue Clay Mask (BN) $5
• Alpha H Liquid Gold 100ml (BNIB) $17
• Clinique Moisture Surge 2.5 oz (BNIB) $25
• Shani Darden Retinol Reform 10ml (BNIB) $6
• Biossance Squalane Marine Algae Eye Cream (BNIB) $15
• Tower 28 SOS Daily Rescue Spray 1oz (BN) $5
• Fenty Beauty Total Cleansr Makeup Removing Cleanser Mini 1.5oz (BN) $4
• Dermelect Self Esteem Beauty Sleep Serum (BNIB) $9
• AHC Essential Real Eye Cream for Face (BNIB) $8
• 111 Skin Nocturnal Eclipse Recovery Cream Mini .5oz (BNIB) $5
• Akar Restore Eye Serum (BNIB) $16
• Barbor Hydra Plus Hydration Ampoule Concentrates (BNIB) $10
• Derma E Advanced Peptides & Collagen Serum .5oz (BNIB) $8
• Symbiosis London Tightening and Replenishing Eye Mask (BN) $10
• The Body Shop Drops of Youth Liquid Peel (BNIB) $8
• French Girl La FLore Botanical Serum (BNIB) $6
• Good Molecules Niacinamide Serum (BNIB) $3
• Ulta Skincare Watermelon Refresh Sleeping Mask (BNIB) $4
• Exuviance Sample Bundle: $8
  • Deep Clean AHA Cleanser
  • Glycolic Expert Moisturizer
  • A.G.E. Less Everyday Moisturizer
  • Overnight Transforming Complex
• Peach and Lily Sample Bundle: $15
  • Glass skin face polisher
  • Glass skin refining serum
  • KP Bump Boss Microderm Body Serum
  • KP Bump Boss Smooth Body Lotion
  • Power Calm Hydrating Gel Cleanser 1oz
  • Match Pudding Antioxidant Cream .84oz
• Acne Sample Bundle: $10
  • Cerave Foaming Facial Cleanser
  • Origins Checks and Balances
  • Proactive Green Tea Moisturizer
  • Sephora Clean SKin Gel
  • Vichy Acne Control Daily Moisturizer
  • Purity Pore Extractor Clay Mask
  • Ulta Pore Strips (8pack)
  • Thayers Witch Hazel Facial Toner
• Anti-Aging Sample Bundle: $10
  • L'Oreal Age Perfect Midnight Serum
  • Keys Let Me Glow Illuminating Serum
  • Lancome Genifique
  • Shiseido Benefiance Eye Cream
  • Tony Moly Plump-kin Retinol Eye Cream
  • Bare Minerals Skinlongevity Serum
  • Pat Mcgrath Divine Skin The Essencw
  • Love Wellness Call Me Collagen x2
• Lux Sample Bundle $10
  • Estee Lauder Nutritious Melting Soft Mask
  • Peter Thomas Roth Ultimate Solution 5 Multitasking Moisturizer
  • Fresh Black Tea Age Renewal Cream
  • Sunday Riley Afterglow
  • Perricone MD Growth Factor Firming & Lifting Serum
  • Dermalogica Biolumin-C Serum
  • Dior Dream Skin Skin Perfector
• Moisturizer Sample Bundle $10
  • Ulta Beauty Honey Miel Peel Off Mask
  • It Cosmetics Confidence in a Cream x3
  • Vichy Normaderm BHA Exfoliating Serum
  • Proactiv Renewing Cleanser
  • Philosophy Purity Clay Mask
  • Vichy Liftactiv B3 Serum
  • Mario Badescue Facial Spray with Aloe Herbs and Rosewater
  • Belif The true Cream Moisturizing Bomb
  • Kylie Skin Face Moisturizer
  • Clinique Dramatically Different Hydrating Jelly
  • N07 Future Renew Damage Reversal Serum

Other Verification: https://imgur.com/a/jgUpId

• Eyeko Eyelash Curler (BNIB) $5
• Bobbi Brown Eye Blender Brush (BNIP) $9
• L'Occitane Hand Cream 1oz (BN) $5
• Body Care Sampler $12
  • Mario Badescu Coconut Body Butter
  • Mario Badescu Coconut Body Scrub
  • Dionis Goat Milk Body Lotion
  • Dionis Hand & Body Goat Milk Cream
  • Crepe Erase Body Firm
  • Hempz Body Moisturizer Ocean Breeze
  • Mega Babe Space Bar Detoxifying Underarm Bar x2
  • Osea Undaria Cleansing Body Polish
  • Crepe Erase Body Smooth Pre Treatment
  • Ulta Beauty Coconut Cream Scented Body Lotion
• Perfume Deluxe Size Bundle 5 for $25
  • Victor and Rolf Good Fortune
  • Commodity Paper
  • Ralph Lauren Ralph's Club
  • Armani Aqua di Gioia
  • Lancome Idole
• Burberry Her Eau de Parfum 1.0oz + Deluxe size dabber (BNIB) $50
• Moschino Fresh Couture Eau De Toilette 1.7oz (Sprayed x2) $30
• Clinique Happy Perfume 1.0oz (BNIB) $20
• Maison Margiela Replica Springtime in a Park 3.4oz (BNIB) $60
• Maison Margiela Replica On a Date .34oz (BNIB) $15
• Mugler Alien Goddess Supra Floral .34oz (BNIB) $11

ISO List:- Try me on Suqqu Eyeshadows and Blushes- Charlotte Tilbury Eyeshadows

Throwaway for privacy reasons.
For most of my life, I have been on the social fringe. This was the beginning of my feelings of inadequacy. Almost every day I would compare myself to others, namely my sister, and I would tell myself that I was “not good enough.” However, what was I not good enough for? To begin with, I struggled to make friends. Although I blamed that on my appearance, most of the blame can be attributed to my poor self-care. I was, in essence, a teenager who only thought. Instead of interacting, I thought of interacting. Instead of doing, I thought of doing. Unfortunately, there was no evidence of this thought in my actions. My anger at the world, and more importantly at myself, led me to become senseless in my day-to-day life. But a beacon of hope shone upon my life around my 17^th birthday. People wanted to become friends with me! In fact, I even got a girlfriend around this time. Just as life started to turn for the better, I destroyed all of my social relationships by leaving my girlfriend for no reason. The tide had shifted back towards normal, as life became meaningless for me over the rest of my 17^th year on Earth. On top of this, my now ex-girlfriend was begging for me back, which I entertained but never actually meant. As the reality of the situation set in, I spiraled down a dark tunnel of depression and suicidal thoughts. How could I be okay with being so careless of others?

As I reach a year and a half since the breakup, I still have not come to terms with my behavior. Simply put, it is unforgivable in the eyes of anybody with a “decent” set of morals. This stagnant pond of guilt in my mind has led to emptiness today. While I can portray happiness, I have not felt at peace with myself in a very long time. It’s so easy to say, “I forgive myself," but it’s a different story once it’s time to ~truly~ forgive myself. The breaking point was Mother’s Day, when she reached out to my mom. I can’t tell my mom I don’t want her to talk to her for the real reason (being that the thought of her makes me repulsed by myself). I ought to be okay with the state of affairs, as my mom does not have to listen to my opinion on the matter. After all, I was the one who broke her heart. In what world can the perpetrator blame the victim?

Nevertheless, in love, you are a victim of your own crimes. The mental snowball effect of self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy has led to the worst year of my life so far. From the outside, this seems entirely wrong, as I got accepted into my dream school and finished the semester with honors. According to others, I am blossoming into a bright young man with the world in his palm. But, in the month of May, there has not been a day I haven’t battled with suicidal ideation, and it’s only become worse since Sunday. The only thing stopping me from doing it is some stupid concert ticket. If things are not better by then, it will probably be the end of my life.

Therefore, you might be asking yourself, “does he want a song on the world’s smallest violin”? Partially, yes. That would be pretty neat. But, in all seriousness, where should I go moving forward? My mental health is shot, my emotional health is even worse, and I’ve turned to substances to distract myself. I tend to reject anybody who tries to become friends with me. My love life is a comedy of self-inflicted errors. It might sound like I’m kicking myself while I’m down, but I can’t find a reason to be happy with myself.

When your 16-year-old son asks you to chaperone the music program trip to Disney, you do not say no. And that is how I find myself in this situation.
The itinerary, flights, hotel, etc. situation is of course out of my control – the travel agency the school uses (ETSI) has planned all that out. Important thing is we're going over Memorial Day weekend.
We'll be in Disneyland from approx. 10:30 a.m. (traffic from LAX depending) until midnight Friday, 8:00-midnight Saturday (with the option to park hop to California Adventure after 11:00) & CA first on Sunday, hopping to Disneyland at some point and not leaving until midnight again.
While the chaperones are technically allowed to go back to the hotel (Desert Palms) during the day, it's discouraged & the kids are absolutely prohibited from doing so.
The kids don't have to stay with their chaperone, we just have to make them check in 3-4 times a day, using a special app. My kid will probably want to stick close to me, but let's be real, they're all going to want to be as independent as possible. Which means I'll be mostly on my own from rope drop to park close for nearly three full days.
I haven't been to Disneyland since 1996, the summer I turned 14.
So. If you had the park to yourself for nearly three full days, and wouldn't have magic bands or genie+ because the travel agency did not get you those as part of the package, how would you arrange your days?

About a week ago my mother (75 years old) called me up and asked if I would go to The Rolling Stones concert in Vegas with her. She had bought two tickets, her and my father and she told me she wanted to attend but that my dad wasn’t feeling very well. He is on oxygen when he is at home. He has COPD, a lung disease, and cannot get around much. Since it was a chance to hang with my mom a day before Mother’s Day and see the Stones I said heck yeah!!
I had already mentioned to my wife that on Mother’s Day when I return, we should grill some steak and scallops and lounge out a bit… play it by ear. My wife mentioned that grilling probably wasn’t a great idea and that the oldest of our two kids, our daughter, would be heading to Europe about an hour after we return home from Vegas the day after the concert (Sunday the 12th).
Our youngest (18 years old son) accompanied me to Vegas to stay at the relatives while my mother and I went to the Stones concert.
The next morning, Mothers Day, I woke up at my parents house, texted my wife Happy Mothers Day before even jumping out of the covers. We had a family church obligation to attend to until about noon before traveling back home to see my daughter off to the airport to Europe.
Here is where the drama begins. With all the hubbub of the concert the night before, the relatives and grandma being around, my son doesn’t text or call my wife (his mom) HMD that morning. I didn’t get a text back immediately from my wife when I texted her at about 8 am, HMD… I figured I’d let her sleep in if that’s what she wanted to do. My son and I do our church thing, my wife finally responds to my text saying that they are packing and repacking for my daughters Europe trip and that they want the packing job to be right. When we finally get home late in the afternoon, I give her the present that I bought my wife (her favorite perfume that she is nearly out of) and my son gives her his present… (a note and a Pink Yeti mug I had actually bought my wife a week ago that I hadn’t given her yet, just in case one of the kids hadn’t gotten her a gift for Mother’s Day).
Side note… My wife is very big on gifts. She is a great gift giver and anticipates good gift receiving.
When I walked in home from traveling I could also smell that she was cooking something, and there was a salad on the table. I figured she planned something she wanted to have for dinner, since I had been with my own mother since the day before and she, my wife had been with our daughter having a fun girls time, watching movies, getting a mani/pedi, having pho… THIS WAS NOT THE CASE. I got the evil eye right away. She started talking snarky to me, saying snide remarks which in turn, much to my chagrin I returned the remarks. It’s been tit for tat for the last 24 hours. She said her Mother’s Day was ruined and that it was my fault. That I should have planned the day for her. The blame is all in my court.
Ugh… I feel like every birthday, anniversary, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas… whatever day that retail America says I’m obligated to spend money to buy gifts… I’m not doing a good enough job. My wife buys our kids presents for Easter for hells sake. It’s too much. I don’t want anymore of it. Keep all the stupid gifts. It’s just the act of buying a thing and giving it. Its ridiculous.
Also… Am I supposed to be doting all over my wife on Mother’s Day with palm leaves and figs? If I am, I am. I just don’t see husbands doing all the work. I see kids…. Kids rubbing their moms back and making coupons for dishwashing and various chores. Kids taking care of moms and telling them what a great job they do raising them. In the arguments up to now, she is treating me like I am responsible for her Mother’s Day happiness and pointing at me saying she didn’t get what she wanted and that she didn’t have a good time. I can see how the husbands job is to orchestrate what the kids do for the moms but if I am wrong, I am wrong.
She is a great mom and I tell her that constantly. She knows I know that. I value her. My wife and I have a great relationship 99% of the time but this silly.

T/W: panic attacks, stre$$, anx!ety, vomit, mild su!c!dal !deat!on, s/h
I'm in high school, the year's about to end and I must admit that it went by quite smoothly. Compared to my middle school years, I didn't worry that much about grades, but I still remained one of the top students of my year. The only thing that I suspect bugs me sometimes is that I miss my friends. Due to our school's rules, all the students were re-divided into classes and I ended up all alone, while my friends were together.
Now, I tried to socialize (I'm a very introverted person btw) and I actually got sort of close with a new classmate of mine. I wouldn't exactly call us friends, given that we part ways as soon as the bell for break rings, but we do interact and I'm grateful for that. Thus, I'm not completely alone in class, however, seeing my friends having fun together and asking each other questions about their schedule and stuff kind of makes me feel... left out?
Through the months, I got over that and it's not all that bad. I figured it's just three years of this shit and, besides, I hang out with my friends on breaks so it should be fine.
The thing is, I seem to be getting stressed out for no reason?
As I mentioned before, I'm not that worried about my grades. I have a different mindset compared to the previous years and I have been doing fairly well the nights before quizzes, too, that used to be a living hell for me in middle school.
My family is not pressuring me. If anything they care more about my mental health than my grades and they try their best to keep me calm at all times.
I can't think of another thing that could make me anxious, except for the upcoming finals in a few weeks but I'm not even pretending to study so I don't think this could be it.
On the last day of spring break, I had a big panic attack. It felt like shit. It was a Sunday and I woke up early since I was planning on finishing the school work I should have gotten over with during the two weeks of break. From the moment I got up, I felt nauseous but I just assumed it was the early wake-up. Throughout the whole day, I was feeling uneasy and I couldn't pinpoint why. I didn't have an appetite to eat so I only had some pasta at lunch and went back to studying. (I wasn't really studying, I had my phone next to me and opened TikTok every few minutes.)
Anyway, at around 4 pm I decided I had had enough and had a bath. It was relaxing while it lasted but the knot in my stomach never really went away. I got out of the bathroom determined to get those freaking physics exercises done in a few hours and I was in fact productive.
Somewhere around 6 pm, the nausea came back and I rushed to the bathroom. I threw up. I didn't think much of it as I blamed it on not having eaten enough. I went to the kitchen and got some crackers to calm my stomach. A few minutes later I went back to the bathroom and vomited again. I was home alone and vomiting sucked so bad I started crying. I was crying, lying on the bathroom floor scared as hell and I didn't know what to do.
After I felt I could stand up without hurling, I returned to my room and lay on my bed to relax. At that point, I had started to think I was sick but those symptoms were too similar to what my usual panic attacks are like so I knew that wasn't it.
At that point, I felt my heart palpitate faster than normal and I was hyperventilating. All the thoughts that had been rushing through my mind all day became clear as sky; I had subconsciously been thinking about throwing myself into the sea. I didn't really think of ending myself but I did feel like falling in the water facefirst and not making an effort to swim. I thought that would calm me down. I started clawing at the back of my palm with my nails as I tried to console myself.
Eventually, my parents and siblings came back home and I pretended to be asleep. Luckily, I often express my love for sleep (in fact, my dad teases me, calling me a sleepyhead all the time) so they believed it. After a while, my mom woke me up to go eat pizza. I guess she was worried since she had only seen me eat a little pasta. I got up and started rubbing my eyes. I entered the bathroom and washed my face to hopefully reduce the puffiness and make the redness in my eyes go away.
Anyway, it's been about two weeks since then and I've had another two similar attacks and a few less intense ones.
I feel stressed but I don't know what's causing it. I don't want this to go on for much longer.
For now, I just trimmed my nails to stop me from scratching myself again and tried getting as much sleep as possible to relax. When I'm experiencing a panic attack, I usually practice some breathing exercises like 4-7-8 (inhaling for 4 seconds, holding it for 7 seconds and exhaling for 8 seconds) and the 54321 rule (identifying 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste) but these techniques don't help much when I'm throwing up or hyperventilating.
Please, if you know what could be worrying me, tell me. And if you're going through something similar, just know that you're not alone and I hope you get over it easily.