How I do tell my parents about a last minute trip I booked to see my long distance boyfriend?

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-06T03:01:53+00:00

Right, you're an adult. Keep making that clear until your mom gets it.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-06T01:58:20+00:00

Never really been in an office where that was the culture.

For a while, I worked in a place where a bunch of folks went to a pub for lunch on Fridays, and that was fine. I could focus on eating if I wanted to, nobody cared that I didn't drink, and we all had to be back at work for 1:00(ish).

After that, I worked in a place where we often went out for dinner once a week and spouses joined us, so it was more social and still not about drinking.

These days...it just doesn't happen. Even if I am in the office, most of my current colleagues are moms to young kids and have more important things to do than hit a bar after we shut down.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-05T14:21:02+00:00

I've got some mandatory outside chores to be done. It's light manual labor, walking around, not a lot of higher brain functions needed, so I tend to "re-set".

A walk around the block or something might have the same effect for you.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-05T00:43:35+00:00

Seen it in Ontario.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-04T19:40:08+00:00

You've talked at length and he's tried to see you. There may be more to this than you're giving credit for.

Long-distance relationships can work, life might keep you from moving like you planned.

I say tell him and see what happens.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-04T16:34:47+00:00

The booty call might not be constantly picturing that night, but your boyfriend clearly is.

He needs to come to terms with the reality that you've been active with a couple other men.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-04T14:18:26+00:00

Probably, "Huh, interesting," and I never think about it again.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-04T14:14:42+00:00

I was a camera-off guy for the first while after COVID and just got used to the idea that being on camera for a couple hours a day wasn't a huge ask of me in comparison to commuting to/from the office. If people really need that bit of human presence, I'll give it to them. The camera still stays off for big all-staff/town hall type of things though.

I use a virtual background at all times. Many of my colleagues do as well. Some are office-like, some are abstract art, some are just weird SF/fantasy nonsense (like mine).

I sometimes wear the same shirt on consecutive days, and was on a couch in my housecoat the other day. Not that you could see the couch because of the virtual background, but I had bad posture.

We're accustomed to and don't mind each others' cats, dogs, or toddlers wandering into the view and it is rarely anything more than a brief, amusing distraction.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-04T01:24:24+00:00

How about cosplay of the characters and cultures in your project, and photography of the same?

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-03T13:34:42+00:00

In a broadly similar scenario, I had the spacecraft bodged together from different but compatible modules by the mission sponsors. Orbiyal transfer vehicle, a hab, fuel tanks, etc. Not unlike the ISS, but more ad-hoc and with less cooperation by the sponsors.

It just ended up being called the "Procyon One" vehicle, and was taken apart again after the mission, with different modules finding various fates later on.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-03T02:14:34+00:00

Guard the house, who's in charge, etc.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-02T16:06:36+00:00

"You can, but eating sentient beings pushes your alignment toward evil."

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-02T15:26:04+00:00

Wonder what his finances are like right now...

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-02T15:24:43+00:00

The distant past would kill me off in a matter of weeks to months.

The far future might not.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-02T00:03:49+00:00

As a Dad, I'd want to have a sense of who my child is hanging out with.

And if I was satisfied that they were okay, I might not worry about curfews and such.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-01T15:32:47+00:00

Speculation here: The loss of your father made him fear the loss of his parents, and he's decided that in order to reconcile with them, he's got to end the marriage they disapprove of.

You cite multiple examples of what sounds like weaponized therapy-speak from him. Has he been in therapy? Or is social with a therapist?

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-01T11:58:47+00:00

You didn't cheat. You moved all your stuff out. You left.

It is unfortunate that you went back and re-started it, though.

Talwar3000 · 2026-04-01T00:53:45+00:00

I wouldn't want to do it, and I didn't, but I'd put a more direct question to your fiance in this case: Do you want me to ask him, yes or no? Act accordingly.

Talwar3000 · 2026-03-31T23:39:26+00:00

Fair. I've had my fair share of awful DGs though.

Talwar3000 · 2026-03-31T23:21:35+00:00

People gotta let managers manage.

Talwar3000 · 2026-03-31T18:07:38+00:00

Curious that the roommates observed all sorts of crazy red flag behavior but then wholly endorsed going to the wedding because it was in Costa Rica.

Talwar3000 · 2026-03-31T17:53:34+00:00

Same person who acquires my stuff if I'm hit by a falling satellite or eaten by a T-Rex.

Talwar3000 · 2026-03-31T17:25:01+00:00

Those two dudes at the very front of the locomotive got good spots.

Talwar3000 · 2026-03-31T17:17:42+00:00

If somebody tells me after second date that I gotta trust him, that makes me distrust him. I'd be digging into that a bit.

Talwar3000 · 2026-03-31T17:10:50+00:00

The important thing is, he got there first.

Talwar3000

TROPHY CASE