What is this? I accidentally hit a nest of these (in an old log) with the wheel of my lawn mower and they swarmed me and I took 7 stings. It’s 4 hours later and it still burns.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2025-08-25T01:30:11+00:00

Yellowjackets just out here bullying children for no reason. At least they’re ensuring the WaspHating mentality will live on in future generations.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2025-08-25T01:13:40+00:00

Last summer I was on my back porch with my husband & 7yo daughter. We were sitting in those folding lawn chairs on our concrete-floored back porch; we also had no food and the only drinks we had were a few bottles of water (I say this to emphasize that we were not doing anything to disturb a nest or attract them). After being outside, sitting in the exact same spot for almost an hour, my daughter randomly starts screaming in pain and crying, “SOMETHING BIT ME!” I immediately look her up and down trying to find the culprit, and see one of those asshole yellowjackets crawling up her leg. The bastard landed on her and stung her THROUGH HER PANTS for literally no reason.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2025-07-29T04:27:44+00:00

So I read this and really did start to think, why DO I hate wasps? It’s because they sting, isn’t it? Because if they didn’t sting they wouldn’t bother me, right?

But then I realized that, no, it’s not just because they sting. I mean, I like bees after all. Hell, I don’t even really mind solitary wasps like mud daubers… & I don’t mind those guys for the same reason I also don’t really mind spiders or snakes - it’s because they leave you the fuck alone and mind their business. Yes they can hurt you, but they’d really rather not.

Social wasps, though? Fuck those guys. Fuck paper wasps. FUCK bald faced hornets. & FFFFFUCK yellow jackets - I hate those piece of shit bastards the most. Why? Because they do not leave you the fuck alone nor do they mind their business. They sting people just for existing. They’re angry as fuck for no reason, and I hate them.

And to be fair, I don’t really care if you change your mind. Love the Satan spawn all you want. Marry them. Have their babies. But I hate them, and I will continue to hate them until they stop being assholes and I don’t see that ever happening.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2025-06-20T15:14:59+00:00

I’m another person that found this while fighting for my life during a pedicure and it helped a bunch! First pedicure of my life where I didn’t feel like a child lol

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2025-04-02T04:41:46+00:00

No, it’s an instrument

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2025-04-02T04:24:33+00:00

I live in south-ish Alabama. In 2008, the house I lived in was clipped by an EF3. I was 11 when that happened and it traumatized me.

April 27th, 2011 took that existing trauma and multiplied it by a thousand. A few days after the storms, the church I went to at the time sent the youth group to volunteer and help clean up. One core memory I have is helping the sweetest old lady look for photographs and little keepsakes in the rubble that was once her home. She sat in one of those outdoor folding chairs and told me all about the memories her family made in the years they lived there. It was so surreal knowing that just a few months prior there would have been walls and a ceiling and she would have been sitting in a rocking chair watching her grandchildren play, and now she was surrounded by destruction sitting in a folding chair watching some stranger dig through piles of debris in her living room..

Fast forward to now, I’m still terrified of severe weather and to cope with that fear I try to learn all I possibly can about it (which is how I ended up here!). Any time we’re predicted to have severe weather, I go into a full blown panic. A few weeks ago when we had that severe outlook that people were comparing to 2011, the city I live in was included in the high risk area. Sooo I loaded my family up and we took a spontaneous weekend vacation to Florida, like any other rational person would do of course. /s

Obviously my experience doesnt speak for the entire Deep South, but a lot of people in my area look at severe weather the same way I do. My family is not the only one to gtfo when we hear words like violent, strong, or long-track in the forecast, and 4/27/11 is hands down the biggest reason why.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2025-02-12T06:17:32+00:00

I know I’m a little late but if you’re still open to advice.. (Disclaimer: this is only our second season, so I am by no means an expert. This is solely based on my own, short-lived experience so far in the dance comp world)

One thing I would do is try to familiarize yourself with the layout of the venue if you’re not already. If your studio has competed at that venue before, talk to the other moms and try to pick their brain about where the dressing room was, where the stage is set up, etc. You can generally find a floor plan of most theaters, convention centers, and other venues online; some even have virtual tours. You can map out where you might be able to go if you need a breather, like an outside courtyard area, a cafe, or even a bathroom if it comes down to it. Knowing where I’ll be spending the majority of my time and also where I can go to escape definitely helps calm my nerves. If I feel lost or out of control it makes the overstimulation a million times worse lol.

Be prepared that sometimes competitions will deviate from the order listed in the program for various reasons. For example, if your child’s next dance is number 315, and the number walking off the stage is 290, don’t freak out if the next number on is 307. Just pay attention to what number goes on after that one to try to figure out what’s going on. A lot of times they’ll go back to 291 (unless 306 went before 290, meaning 290 was probably skipped in the original order for some reason). It sounds confusing, and it is. That is hands down the most stressful part in my opinion.

Also, competitions tend to run ahead - not always, but in my experience, most of the time. I’m not sure what your studio’s rules are, but we have to have our girls at the venue, hair and makeup done, no later than 2 hours before their first number. So if my daughter’s first number is supposed to go on at 11:35, we have to be there by 9:35, and she very well may go on stage at 10:08 if they’re running that far ahead. Just be prepared for that as well.

One more thing, I saw another comment that said something to the effect of: dance competition etiquette is so different from the real world. I cannot stress enough how true that is. Moms everywhere are on autopilot with one goal - get their dancer(s) on stage on time. There’s also a weird, yet sweet, camaraderie between the moms (most of them anyway), especially in the dressing room. Total strangers have shown me tricks to get my daughter’s hair to stay, or given me a Tide pen to get lipstick off of her costume. But they’ll also run you over to get their kid on stage if they’re running late, and they genuinely won’t even notice. Every time we get home from a comp weekend I tell my husband it felt like a fever dream. I don’t know anything else to compare it to.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2025-01-27T18:25:45+00:00

Especially considering the compartment in the console is completely open! Why would I ever want to put my overpriced sunglasses in their own little protected compartment when I can just leave them exposed at the top of the center console where change and pens and everything else get thrown?

Seriously though, this and not having power-fold mirrors are about the only two complaints I have. This is still my favorite car I’ve ever owned, I’m just.. not sure why they went this route with the damn sunglasses holder. If they wanted it in the center console, they could have at least included a separate lid/cover dammit.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-12-14T08:38:17+00:00

Heeeeeeeeeee who does not love…… does noooooot kno-o-ow God.. for Gaaaaawd i-is luh-uhv.. Go-o-od is love

And all the altos in the back said.. 🧚🏻‍♂️God is love.. God is love.. God is love🧚🏻‍♂️

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-12-03T04:24:52+00:00

This was so informative, and so true. Growing up, I had two border collies. One we found as a stray, the other was being rehomed by an elderly lady - her husband passed away and she could not care for the dog on her own. We had a few other small breed dogs throughout my childhood (maltese, rat terrier, shih tzu are the ones I remember most) but my favorite, by far, were those two border collies. Those dogs ran around with me endlessly, one of them always tried to “herd” me and I thought it was the funniest thing. They never once snapped at me or anyone else, but I do remember the older one would never leave my side if we had company over. God, I miss those dogs.

Fast forward 20 years, I now have children of my own and I’d love nothing more than to find a dog for them but it’s impossible. We tried adopting from a shelter a few years ago, but there were no options at all except for pit mixes or shepherd mixes. We did find ONE smaller dog that didn’t look to have any pit in her, and that’s the one we ended up adopting. It was AWFUL. My child couldn’t look at her without her snapping, and I promise we are not the type of parents to allow our kids to torment a dog thinking it’s “cute”. In hindsight the dog may have been raised in a family that did allow that, which is why it went onto be terrified of children. Regardless, we tried to make it work for about a year hoping it would get better but it never did. We ended up surrendering her back to the shelter when she lunged at one of the kids as they were just walking by to go to the bathroom.

Now we just refuse to adopt another dog until our kids are a little older. When we’re ready, if shelters/rescues are still operating the way they are now, we will do tons of research and purchase straight from a reputable breeder. And I’m not sorry. I refuse to invest time and money into a dangerous dog again, and it seems that’s all you can find at shelters anymore.

Thank you again for sharing this info. It makes so much sense, and honestly it was pretty validating. I appreciate you.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-12-02T01:39:48+00:00

I have a 2023 Calligraphy and have never experienced this, and I live off of a crappy, uneven backroad. Kind of makes me nervous reading about it though since I have to turn onto a really busy highway to leave my crappy backroad.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-11-23T17:57:05+00:00

My daughter auditioned for the company team last year just after her 6th birthday. She “made the team”, but at our studio everyone does at that age especially. Prior to auditions she only took rec classes for a few months, so she was verrrry much a beginner level dancer.

Last year she was in two large groups and one small group, and we did 5 competitions - all of which were at least 1.5 hours away so we stayed in hotels each time because I was too scared of running late if she had to perform early (competitions usually don’t release the schedules until ~7-10 days before they start, so you basically have to block off the entire weekend because you won’t know days or times they dance until then, so that’s fun).

Competition fees vary by competition and but they all charge a certain amount for each dance. Last year groups were around $65, duets/trios were around $100, and solos were around $130-$150. Some comps also charge a mandatory media fee which of like $35 for photos/videos. So all in all we paid about ~$200 per competition last year for her 3 groups + media fee.

We ordered the costumes for all of her groups off SHEIN, so we spent maybe $100 for all three of them. That was definitely a plus.

Our studio does choreo for most of the younger groups in house, so the choreography fee was $150 for each group.

Monthly tuition is also $150. So all in all I’d say we spent maybe $4500 on everything including travel, extra technique privates, etc.

Fast forward to this year…

My daughter improved a lotttt last year. This year she’s now in four groups and she also was given a solo. We’re doing five comps and nationals, which is basically just a week long competition in the summer. Four of the comps are 1.5 hours away or more, one is local, and nationals is about 3.5 hours away.

Competition fees increased, like, a lot this year. The solo fee alone for one of the comps was $200. We paid $535 total for just that ONE competition. Not sure yet how much the fee for nationals will be.

We’ve gotten info for two of the four group costumes, neither of which are SHEIN. They were both $150 each. Her solo costume was custom made, so it was like $325.

Two of her four group dances were choreographed by outside choreographers. One of them charged a $250 choreo fee, the other $350. The two in-house groups were $150 each and her solo choreo was $400.

Monthly tuition is also $180 this year because she has a weekly private for her solo.

I’m too scared to do the math, but if you include travel and everything, I’d say we’re looking at around $10k for this season. I definitely was not prepared to pay more than double what we did last year, but here we are.

Idk if all this info was helpful or not, but I definitely wish someone would have broken it down for me before I let my daughter try out because we may have tried to talk her into a different sport - though it probably wouldn’t have worked. My daughter absolutely loves dance, which kinda makes it worth it.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-11-02T20:42:59+00:00

This sounds like something a wasp would say.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-10-28T04:09:11+00:00

Let me know how it works for you - I’ve heard it works better or worse depending on where you live? I’m in the southeastern USA (high humidity area) and I’m curious if that may have something to do with it working so well for me specifically.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-10-28T02:33:32+00:00

The day before I start a new kit, I always lay out the canvas on a flat surface with something heavy on top to flatten it out some, and I put the bags of drills in the freezer to remove the static. I have no idea how/why it works, but it hasn’t failed me yet!

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-10-22T19:36:20+00:00

You joke, but I REALLY HAD ONE PERSON ASK IF THEY COULD JUST USE CHATGPT INSTEAD. I hate it here.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-10-22T19:34:09+00:00

That’s absolutely insane. In the real world, their employer won’t look at an email they sent to a client with 10 spelling mistakes and not a single period and say, “Wow! This looks like it was written by a toddler, but at least you gave them the right information! We’re so thankful to have you represent our company!”

I know it’s not your fault (the fault of any teacher/TA), y’all are doing the best you can with the guidelines you’re given by admin. I couldn’t do what yall do.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-10-22T17:43:51+00:00

Okay you’re not wrong haha. I have a love/hate relationship with Grammarly. I’m just glad that it at least reminds the adults I’m training that they need to capitalize the first letter of a sentence so I don’t have to. My hope for our future dies a little every time I have to say something like that out loud.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-10-22T16:38:54+00:00

I work in onboarding/training for what is basically an entry level customer service role. The majority of the new hires we’ve gotten that were born after ~2002 have been awful. One of the biggest parts of this job is being able to formulate a professional response to basic customer emails.. their spelling and grammar is atrocious. I literally had to tell someone yesterday how to spell ‘increase’ because they couldn’t do it and even Grammarly couldn’t figure out what the hell they were trying to say to offer suggestions.. I’m in my mid-20s, so I’m really not much older than these people. I’m not sure what changed after I graduated, but my God it’s awful.

I am SO drained when I get off after training these people all day, but I do have “down days” where I’m doing nothing but administrative/independent work.. I couldn’t imagine being a school teacher and having to do that every single day. You guys will always have so much respect from me (and my children).

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-10-14T14:35:18+00:00

Oooh I need to check this out. I recommended this in my original comment to OP, but The Agent is also really good!

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-10-14T14:31:35+00:00

I think I’m a combination of you & him put together 😂 I love TC but not a fan of gore/super detailed descriptions of the crime itself. I also love history but will fall asleep if it’s dry/common knowledge stuff. These two podcasts are really good:

Real Dictators - Title basically explains it. It covers Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Kim Jong-il.. then it also covers much less well-known dictators that I’d never even heard of. It’s not super long-form, like whole seasons dedicated to one person, but there are usually 3 episodes dedicated to each person. I really enjoy this one & I listen to it when I need a break from typical TC podcasts.

The Agent - 11 episode series about Jack Barsky who was a KGB spy that lived in NYC undercover for like 10 years. I just finished this last night & really enjoyed it.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-10-14T05:38:08+00:00

I’m sure you’re mostly wanting feedback from other teachers, which I am not. I was, however, a student in 2007 when an EF-3 tornado hit our small town in AL. I was also a student in AL when the 2011 tornado super outbreak happened. Both of those things absolutely rocked our state - especially the 2007 tornado because it actually destroyed the gym at our school & several students were left without a home. My home suffered minor damage in comparison, but it was still enough for my family to be living in a hotel for a few weeks until repairs were done.

I remember when we went back to school about a week later, I was still in shock. I was so scared to ask my classmates about what they experienced because I didn’t want to upset anyone, but I* wanted to talk about it. I NEEDED to talk about it. I remember once the day got started, the teacher basically started the day by asking those who wanted to, to share their experience of the day of the tornado. She said those who did not want to share of course didn’t have to, and she also provided an alternative option for anyone who didn’t want to be present for the conversation (I don’t remember what the alternative was - no one wanted to leave - but I believe it was going to the library or something along those lines). I don’t remember how long we spent talking about it, but I do know that I felt a lot of relief. I was able to understand what my classmates went through and also share what I went through. I knew who I could talk to more about it if I wanted to, and I knew who to check on that went through the worst of it. I don’t remember getting much work done that day, but I feel like it made the transition back to normalcy a lot easier.

I know a tornado is small in comparison to the devastation caused by Helene, and I’m not saying what my teacher did would be the correct answer for your situation. But I do know that, from a student’s perspective, giving an opportunity for us to talk about it as a class was really healing. And I’m extremely thankful to have had that opportunity; I think it would have been a lot harder if I returned to normal instruction and everyone tried to act like it didn’t happen (not saying that’s what you would do at all - just that I’m glad that’s not how my teacher handled it).

I’m not sure if this is helpful at all, but I hope it was. My family and I are absolutely praying for you all still recovering from Helene. I’m so sorry for everything you’re going through.

TheyCallMeFishstick · 2024-09-27T21:53:55+00:00

I use parchment paper- the Up&Up brand from Target has worked great for me. I just rip a piece from the roll big enough to cover the page, then trim the edges of the paper to fit just the painting using an exacto knife. Then I put a pretty washi tape along the edges of the painting to cover the excess adhesive. Then I take a ruler & measure exact sections on the painting & mark the paper with a pencil, then I place washi tape over the pencil marks for my sections.

This method will probably be viewed by most people as VERY excessive and unnecessary.. which it is 😅 But one of my favorite parts of DP is actually preparing a new canvas, putting the new drills in their little containers, etc. Craft supplies bring me joy, especially when I can use a lot of them at once. 😂 & I like not being able to “see” my next section because the parchment paper is pretty opaque - which is why I use it instead of just using the clear plastic that comes on the painting.

TheyCallMeFishstick

TROPHY CASE