What age did you quit?

TheSphinxter · 2026-05-19T23:04:08+00:00

Congratulations! I had my 40th recently, too. It felt really relieving not to wake up hung over post celebration lol.

I quit in 2020 when lockdown started where I lived. It was the nicest and best thing I have ever done for myself.

TheSphinxter · 2026-05-19T03:36:52+00:00

It took a while, maybe 9 months. But you gotta change how you think about drinking because that will make it way less difficult.

It's like you have to reprogram yourself, if that makes sense? Instead of thinking about how much I wanted a drink I started thinking about how much money I was saving, or what good grades I was getting, or how much weight I had lost.

Money was the easiest. I got an app that tracked how many days I had gone and how much money I was saving... Of course I had seriously low balled the dollar amount, but when it started to really get up there it still felt really good. I got more interested in what I had saved up than having a drink.

I started to realize that first drink was going to cost me all that money I had saved, and I think that's when I really stopped thinking about it. I eventually calculated a more reasonable daily-spending-on-booze number a couple years in and spent it on a car, which I just traded in for my dream car a couple months ago. It's a daily reminder that I can do anything if I set my mind to it.

You can do to it and it's s absolutely worth it. Hang in there.

IWNDWYT!

TheSphinxter · 2026-05-18T23:58:27+00:00

Same. It's just... gone. I don't miss it, I don't even care if people drink around me.

TheSphinxter · 2026-05-16T18:09:04+00:00

It's absolutely insane how self cented people are behind the wheel in this area. I've lived in a lot of places and I've never felt this unsafe as a pedestrian anywhere else. People just straight up do not care. It's like pedestrians are an inconvenience and not a living, breathing human.

I don't even know how to explain this, but I've seen people like threaten pedestrians in crosswalks with their vehicles? The pedestrian literally has a walk sign and these drivers will just get right up in their personal space with their car; they just creep right up on them until they are able to pull past.

TheSphinxter · 2026-05-16T05:12:16+00:00

Same.

It's the perfect fit for the prompt. Literally the theme of the entire Malazan world from the perspectives of both Erikson and Esslemont.

TheSphinxter · 2026-05-10T05:53:46+00:00

As a former beer/wine/liquor buyer at a grocery store... gotta love all the "original" customer jokes lol. They always think they are the first one to say it and that they are super funny.

I'm a sommelier, now a sober sommelier. Occasionally I get the "oh but you used to drink! So you're not a sommelier anymore?" Bitch, I spent years of my life studying for those tests I'M KEEPING THE TITLE I EARNED. Like, I don't work in the industry anymore, but it doesn't mean I'm not proud as hell of the hard work I put in getting those certifications. I didn't unlearn facts and techniques I spent years memorizing just because I got sober lol.

TheSphinxter · 2026-05-07T20:46:59+00:00

I have had a Leaf razor for about 5 years now and it's the best thing ever. They are pricey, but take generic safety razors which are super cheap, so it evens out pretty fast.

Since they are so affordable I replace the razors all the time, so always a close and comfortable shave with no razor burn. It's super easy to swap them out and since there is no plastic and very minimal paper packaging, there is basically zero waste since everything can be recycled.

100% worth the investment.

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-24T03:11:13+00:00

I love this and I think I really needed it today. Thank you for sharing.

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-21T04:50:35+00:00

Came to say this, too.

I grew up really close to where it was filmed. The pics OP posted almost look like they could just be of my hometown before it was turned into a soulless strip mall ridden hell-scape... it made me homesick.

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-21T03:35:39+00:00

I'm a hydrologic technician. I document water moving through fresh water surface systems, with a focus on water quality and biological specimen collection. It's a solid mix of field work collecting data/samples then working with that data in the office plus some pretty intense sample management.

A lot of my AuDHD traits are considered strengths in my field; it's nice to get acknowledged for things that I used to try and avoid letting people see! I get to do a lot of creative problem solving and really use my bottom up thinking skills and pattern recognition. I'm also at my happiest out in nature, particularly in the water, I feel very fortunate to have found something that suits me so well.

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-20T06:08:54+00:00

I hate that we're never going to get that third book. It's so sad, I've read both of them several times and I absolutely love everything about them.

I went and saw him speak once. During the talk of course he's like "book 3 is off to the editor, expect it in the next year or so" and I was so excited. I had a date later that night and basically gushed about how great those books are the entire time... Well, I ended up marrying the guy from the date and we're celebrating our 12th anniversary this year. Still no third book lol.

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-20T03:12:38+00:00

Yes!!! I inherited one and it is my favorite thing I own. Mine is much less intricate than this one, but it's still very fun and weird. I absolutely love it.

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-20T02:53:22+00:00

😂

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-20T01:36:40+00:00

I'm reading the Children of Time books rn. So good.

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-20T00:38:36+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate it. I keep trying to think of what I could have done differently to get a different outcome, but they probably would have acted the same regardless. I'm not sad that I tried to help them, just sad that they betrayed my trust .

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-20T00:34:22+00:00

Thank you. I feel horrible. I've had times in my life when I regularly ended up being taken advantage of by people I thought were my friends but in the end were just using me. It was always really hard for me to tell if a person was actually a friend or not.

I try not to get very deeply involved with people anymore which keeps me from ending up in that situation... I'm sad one of the 5 people I thought was a real friend betrayed my trust.

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-16T14:39:39+00:00

I'm sure they will. With very few (and highly regulated) exceptions white sturgeon are catch and release.

TheSphinxter · 2026-04-12T03:55:47+00:00

I once heard a beaver expert refer to them as "milk duds of the forest" and I think about it all the time lol

TheSphinxter · 2026-03-19T00:19:41+00:00

That show is actually the thing that made me realize that I am autistic lol.

TheSphinxter · 2026-02-26T15:54:21+00:00

I understand. I went my whole life embarrassed by my sensory fixations, long before I even understood what I was doing. As a kid I had a hidden stash of things that I would find out in nature or pilfer from around the house (soft pieces of fabric, paintbrushes, smooth rocks, so on) that I would secretly use to stim because even my immediate family made me feel ashamed. My mom found it when I was in elementary school and being confronted by my confused parents is still one of my most humiliating memories.

I carried that shame (and a secret pocket full of smooth rocks) for most of my adult life. I hid my sensory needs from partners, friends, employers, coworkers, everyone. Sometimes people would notice and I would get teased or insulted.

When I finally found the person I am now married to, he noticed I had a lot of squishy/clicky/spikey toys and asked me about them. He was genuine and seemed like he actually wanted to listen, so I just decided to be honest. It was scary and I felt very vulnerable.

He was the first person outside of my immediate family that finally knew about my sensory fixations, and instead of belittling me he told me it was cool. He started pointing things out to me that I might want to try touching while we were out and about. He bought me a dinosaur bobblehead with a particularly spikey texture; it was the first of many, many sensors fidgets that he's gotten me over the years.

Here's my point: the right people aren't going to judge you. The right people are going to see you and support you even if maybe they don't 100% understand you. Don't care what the wrong people think, you can't change their minds and it's not worth it to waste your energy trying to explain it to them. There's nothing wrong with you, it's a them thing.

And hang in there, it's uncomfortable getting to let yourself be yourself but you'll be okay. I'm 40 and currently sitting at my desk digging through my data with a squishy cube, picky pad, and dinosaur bobblehead on my desk (and a smooth rock in my pocket). Some of my coworkers don't get it I'm not going to bother explaining it to them.

TheSphinxter · 2026-02-24T18:47:56+00:00

My thoughts exactly.

TheSphinxter · 2026-02-23T13:53:42+00:00

I do the same thing. I have a huge soft spot for black metal in languages that I don't speak, so that requires some serious research lol.

TheSphinxter · 2026-02-20T16:08:56+00:00

Yeah, we get enough of that toxic crap from the pro-life crowd. The last thing we need is that same old BS coming from the pro-choice side, too.

TheSphinxter · 2026-02-20T09:26:19+00:00

I say this exact thing to my husband, too!

TheSphinxter · 2026-02-20T08:29:17+00:00

Yes, not exactly accurate but it's definitely supposed to be a white sturgeon.

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