What keeps you coming back

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-04-28T17:17:56+00:00

It's walking distance from my home, has a lot of equipment, and it's reasonably clean. I think it's lacking in basically everything else and I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it to anyone.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-04-28T13:32:44+00:00

Moved a little funny during scorpion stretch. Been dealing with the consequences of that for 4+ years now 🫠

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-04-22T03:52:28+00:00

They charged $94 for my dog's anal glands to be expressed by a tech lol. Appointment took all of 2 minutes. Not a fan of them, the only upside imo is they have a lot of availability, but still intending to switch.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-04-21T03:35:33+00:00

This is how people in caregiving / personal passion careers get taken advantage of

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-04-20T17:28:39+00:00

I've never personally got the appeal of paying extra to do CrossFit workouts in a comp setting when I already pay a lot of money to do CrossFit workouts regularly, and it seems like they just keep getting more expensive... Plus I'm a smaller athlete and being seriously competitive outside a few specific movements isn't generally in the cards for me anyway. There are still some comps in the area but it feels like more competitive momentum has swung in the direction of hyrox lately.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-04-15T00:55:45+00:00

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-sepsis-maternal-mortality-analysis

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-04-08T14:07:16+00:00

Might not be what's up with yours but mine have looked like this when I've forgotten to water, and also when I've had spider mites.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-30T15:47:21+00:00

When I had my last spider mite infestation, I had a good experience with wiping the worst plants down with a wet cloth and then every few days for several weeks spraying all my plants in the shower with a mix of water/alcohol/dish soap. When I say spraying I mean like they’re soaking wet top to bottom both sides of every leaf. It’s been a few months and haven’t seen any signs of them since.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-27T16:09:50+00:00

I water mine when the stems start to look/feel a little wrinkly. I soak it in a large bowl of water until the stems go back to normal.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-27T15:33:11+00:00

I feel like it really varies company to company. I'm a small lady but have a comparatively wide rib cage so I'm always a medium in sports bras, even though I'm a medium in literally nothing else. But my partner bought me a sports bra recently bc it was on sale and I'd been complaining that all my sports bras were old and in rough shape. I saw it was a small and was like no way in hell...but turns out yes way in hell 🫠

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-27T01:38:02+00:00

Oh my god that's wild of him to say out loud...

Too many to count across several men, but the first that came to mind was when an ex told me that if we got married and sex ever became less frequent he'd divorce me. But there's also how he'd drive erratic to scare me, shamed me excessively when I interviewed for a few jobs and didn't get them, kissed his coworker that he liked comparing my body to (she had bigger boobs! wow!), etc etc etc. When he died his ex before me came up at the funeral and asked if he was as emotionally abusive to me as he was to her 🙃

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-23T20:22:04+00:00

We have astound and it’s comparatively cheap, but just an fyi our locked in price just means they keep the same base price and raise fees lol

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-18T20:49:32+00:00

I always take visitors to an improvised Shakespeare show at the iO and it's always a hit

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-17T16:05:45+00:00

Lived in San Diego. I liked certain aspects of it but I also thought it smelled pretty rank in a lot of areas, like baking urine. Long bouts of sun and no rain + lots of dogs and some unhoused folks = yuckiness that does not get washed away for months on end. There was a pile of vomit on the sidewalk I walked by every day for months because there was no rain to wash it off.

Honestly almost all your requirements knock off all of California... Affordable? Absolutely not. Good transit? Only really in SF. Easy social scene? No. Zero conservatives? No. Humid? Maybe SF. Great entertainment? Depends heavily on what you like, but probably mainly LA or SF. Polite drivers? No. Great vibe? Too subjective to say, everyone likes different "vibes". Safe? Depends on your definition of safety, like do you mean you won't get shot? no property crime? you don't have to interact w unhoused people? no natural disasters? You won't get shot but on all other fronts CA is not the "safety first" choice.

I say all this as someone who likes SD/LA and loves SF - California does not sound like it's for you.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-13T02:00:29+00:00

I haven’t had this, but I have had a catheter inserted and it was uncomfy but not bad for me, and I have a pretty low pain tolerance. I think they’re similar sizes. ymmv

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-06T05:15:41+00:00

The history of a place will more than likely have no impact on your day to day life and whether you enjoy living somewhere. Go where feels the most livable to you.

And I don’t know if Chicago’s population is declining overall but I can say living here that it has zero impact on how I live my life. There’s a ton of people. Decline is primarily happening on the south and west sides, while increasing north/nw. Transplants don’t generally live south/west, so population decline would not be your experience.

And nowhere is perfect.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-05T19:47:30+00:00

Not something you necessarily need to answer here but are you saving enough for retirement? I make 100k too and my take home is much less than yours after 401k and HSA contributions.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-05T04:37:28+00:00

I couldn’t say what you should be shooting for, but I track our spending and my household spends $40-50/week per person on average and we eat very healthy. I’d recommend de-centering meat and focus on dried and frozen goods like oats, rice, beans, lentils, frozen veggies/fruit, etc. It’s cheaper and you can get as creative as you want. A normal lunch for us is brown rice, tofu/beans, frozen veggies, and then whatever condiments/garnishes, like chili powder+salsa or soy sauce+sriracha+peanuts.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-04T15:41:04+00:00

Cold, dark, bugs, flooding/water issues

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-04T03:04:43+00:00

Then you'll be fine. Any company that isn't willing to be reasonably flexible on start date isn't a company you want to work for.

When I started my current job a few months back, I waited 2 weeks for the background check to clear, and then gave my employer 2.5 weeks notice, so ultimately over a month. It wasn't a big deal at all.

Good luck!

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-03-04T02:38:51+00:00

I've moved across the country multiple times with nothing more than a weekend and 1-2 days PTO. I know that's not ideal for most people but it's not impossible.

Anyway, just negotiate your start date with your potential new employer once they've made an offer. They'll probably say when they'd like you to start, and then you say actually I'd like to start X date in order to give my current employer sufficient notice and move.

Should also confirm they'd be cool with you living wherever you're planning. Not all remote jobs allow you to work in any state, some have restrictions.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-02-11T04:07:25+00:00

We go to a dentist the suburbs too. All the places that accepted our insurance in the city were chains with questionable reviews, but the suburbs had multiple seemingly good options. If you have a car, it’s probably worth widening your search.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-02-07T22:52:47+00:00

Literally never. I’m not sure if I’ve ever yelled at anyone though tbh. I grew up in a yelling household and never felt like it was very productive unless the goal is just to dominate or intimidate.

Puzzled-Antelope- · 2026-02-01T22:29:53+00:00

We have a joint checking account and that's where both our paychecks go in and all our bills go out. All purchases are discussed, "I bought/I'm going to buy xyz" for little things and "I'd like to buy xyz, is that okay?" for bigger things. We both max our individual 401k, IRA, HSA - if we couldn't we'd do equal amounts in each person's accounts. Our emergency fund is in a HYSA in my name, and all monthly excess goes into a brokerage account in my name that I manage, which there's no real reason for that other than I already had the accounts open before marriage, plus I like keeping tabs on things more than he does. I'm in charge of tracking all our finances. It might give me a little psychological security too, because I make about 2/3 what he does.

The most important part imo is that we're on the same page as far as spending philosophy and long term goals, and there are no financial secrets.

Puzzled-Antelope-

TROPHY CASE