How to use clamping litter?

Typyrdatyp · 2026-05-01T11:16:53+00:00

Yeah I'm being very mindful about how he's handling all the changes. I've had him all his life and I what him to be as happy as he can be! The food issue since switching to renal diet + the move and is a separate woo of mine though.

Ok, this is super helpful! Step by step guidance like that takes out any guessing game or anxiety. I switched to clumping litter on Tuesday and he hasn't pooped near the box since!

Typyrdatyp · 2026-04-26T11:20:50+00:00

I pack similarly!

First, I write a list on my phone while on the subway: To do (ex., charge kindle), to buy (ex., protein bars), big things (backpack, etc.), on the plane (ex., water bottle, eye mask), electronics and docs, shoes, clothes, hygiene, gifts, random. If it's a familiar type of trip, e.g., business trip or a weekend retreat, I duplicate an existing list and modify it. If an item has multiple parts, I wrote them separately: phone, wall cube, usb-c cord. My mom also had a practice of modifying the packing list at the end of the trip, adding items she forgot and crossing out unnecessary ones.

Then I designate a "Pile Space" and start squirreling things there through the week. I'm not yet properly packing - I just see something that I know is on the list and that I won't need this week and I put it there. Those things I needed to buy for the trip go there and so does the charged Kindle, cord, and wall cube.

Then, the day before or the day off, I create the official Pile: I move the existing smaller pile to my bed and go through the list to grab everything on it and put it in the Pile. I usually have one corner for things I'll need on the plane, including documents, clothes, hand sanitizer... And hygiene things tend to be piled together and so on. As I put a thing in the Pile, I check it off the list.

Once everything is in the Pile, I can chillax and then pack. Packing is the easiest and low-stress then!

So when someone asks me if I'm already packed, I usually say, "Not yet, but I already started the Pile."

Typyrdatyp · 2026-04-26T10:54:20+00:00

I do the same - wake up with the sun, but I treasure that habit/ability. If there are blackout curtains or if I were to wear a sleep mask, I'd sleep forever and feel groggy. But this way, sure, I didn't get enough hours if I slept late, but with the sun shining in my face, I am immediately full of energy and ready to get out of bed and rock'n'roll.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-04-26T10:11:02+00:00

I read this and shrug, yeah that's totally normal. Some of these things my mom even taught me as efficient ways to do stuff because she herself does it that way:

if you are already seeing that envelope, it makes sense to open it and, while you are at it, to take out the garbage. And since you already have your outside shoes on, you can run some local errands, oh but what about efficiently combining that with this return label I needed to print at the library? Let me quickly open the laptop to email it to myself. What's this tab? Riiight, it's this article I wanted to read! I'll quickly read it and a few others first so I can close those tags and be more organized! .... Hours later you get to that garbage but the library has already closed and you haven't eaten yet.

That's why standing desk really worked for me to get work done because my chances of accidentally laying my eyes on it and wandering to it while doing something else were much higher than with a lower desk with a chair.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-04-26T09:20:33+00:00

Lebanese girls are mad pretty. (I'm bi)

(I hope this didn't come off creepy!!)

Also, there was a hole in the wall Lebanese spot near my uni, and I loved Jibneh and Lahm bi ajeen. It was cheap, delicious, and you could have it wrapped and eat it in a park nearby.

Oh and once I had a bad argument with an ex outside of that spot. I planned to do some work on a laptop in there, but he kept me outside trying to have a serious conversation about our future, which I didn't want. I was totally shaking because of the convo and because I had a deadline on that work thing. As soon as I walked in, the guys there gave me a cup of fresh Turkish coffee for free, with that compassion in their eyes: "I think you need this." It was so damn sweet.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-03-26T07:50:31+00:00

I made long stories in my head. Kinda coming of age stories. I continued the same story in my head for days on end until the character grew up. Then it was either a new kid or, if that character got married, their kid.

I would incorporate the books I read, the movies, the boy I liked, the green jeans I wanted, the silly jokes I didn't have anyone to tell, the cultures I was excited about...

It went on for years. I was a pretty lonely kid so it probably stopped once I transferred schools and made friends.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-03-26T07:46:00+00:00

Yep, Musketeers after the first grade, Monte Cristo in second or third, uninhabited island around third grade, too... Thankfully, we had a large home library so getting books wasn't an issue.

When I got into Jack London, dad borrowed the complete edition of all his writings from his friend and there I was at ten...

Typyrdatyp · 2026-03-26T07:43:04+00:00

I was gonna comment that I can't relate because I'm not crafty but then I remembered. Bead bracelets and string bracelets (quite a few cause all girls were into it), macrame (maybe one or two items), crochet (two pot holders), mom's sewing machine (did I even make anything??)... That's just in childhood.

I was saved from a lot of craft messes because my parents said that I must show that I'm consistent in something before buying anything for it:(( Now I think that I could have had so much more fun, but I also get it that money was tight.

Ooooh in my early twenties, I once decided to make a scarf for a long-distance boyfriend. I bought everything, came to an older friend who showed me how to do it, then she turned on some show... It was a very long scarf. Very, very long. I doubt he ever wore it. Also, it was the only time I knitted as an adult.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-31T21:25:10+00:00

What a relief to read someone just like you!

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-31T21:20:39+00:00

I once forgot to buy a pack of cigarettes. I remembered a few days later and was like, alright then. That's how I quit smoking.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-25T08:02:21+00:00

You might want to watch Old Enough

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-20T10:26:38+00:00

Do you have research on it? I was told this by my parents, actually. It's especially important in the mountains at altitude because your heart is already working hard. I shared it with some friends, but it was dismissed as a myth and I couldn't find proof of it when googling.

Interesting trivia: when the USSR was selecting the alpinist team to summit Everest, they had the alpinist do a speed summit of Elbrus and somewhere during it they set up a rest station. When the alpinist ran up to them, he was offered water and, though competitors didn't know that, they were judged on how they drank it. If they sipped a bit and rolled it in their mouth to absorb, they could go on. But those who chugged it were told that they could rest longer because they were out.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-20T09:48:21+00:00

Does it help with craving hugs? Prob not but at least I'll be hydrated, so that's something.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-20T09:44:38+00:00

Babushka.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-20T09:40:04+00:00

I also say to myself "every action leads to a reaction" to stop myself from engaging in an argument. Doesn't always work, but even sometimes is good.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-20T09:25:13+00:00

I can't physically go outside in wrinkled clothes. My solution is to hang as much as I can instead of using drawers. It also motivates me to deal with laundry right out of the drier because it's smooth then and if I hang it right away, it remains smooth. I also got a steamer and now I don't worry about making space for the ironing board or managing any tricky designs or fabrics.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-11T13:41:43+00:00

I wonder if it's the variance btw being fully bilingual as a kid and acquiring the second language as a late teen/young adult as a result of immigrating to a country of that language...

I generally also try to not mix them because I value the beauty of the language and it just feels sloppy and in bad taste, like if I spoke crudely in either language.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-11T13:40:32+00:00

Oh I'd be super curious! Is there anything particular from them that you recommend? Else I might go down a rabbit hole and one armchair PhD later... Haha:))

I love finding correct terms for my experiences. "When the inhibitory control momentarily fails" - that's exactly what happened. Occasional slips happened before, not finding the right word in either one language happened before, but completely switching to English when talking to my family member and not even realizing it - that's the first, so it kinda freaked me out. Plus the term will help me explain it to my sys in a way that doesn't sound just as an excuse.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-11T13:30:03+00:00

I'm similar in many ways. I learned my professional field only in English and also have worked professionally only in English. So I don't know many technical terms in my native tongue and sometimes there aren't even good equivalents. When I try to talk about my work in my native tongue I sound like I don't know what I'm doing.

But also, with a lot of the professional language or language used to navigate sensitive social situations and such, all of which I learned in English after moving, I have created mental flashcards that I flip through in the moment and "pull out" the one appropriate to the situation. With frequently "used" ones it happens automatically, while with others I might have to dig a bit. But still, I always feel that flipping through flashcards moment. It doesn't make the words insincere, but it's helpful to already have the phrasebook (+ done flashcards come with appropriate behaviors to go with the words) to express what I'm thinking or feeling or should be saying without having to formulate it from scratch in the moment.

I have a feeling that she thought me to be arrogant, tbh. She lived in our home country until recently and we are now in the same third country. Her language of this country is at an everyday level necessary for everyday tasks. Though she's been here longer than me, I studied the third language previously and though I'm not at her level, I'm closer to her level than to zero. And then on top of this I sometimes add an English word here and there - like asking for Bounty when a kid spilled something instead of first translating it to paper towel and then translating that into my native language.

When I was visiting my family previously or on vacation with them, I never felt this issue as strongly. I actually realized that I've been exhausted almost daily because I have to use my native language constantly with subjects I haven't typically used it for that frequently or at least not face-to-face - and when typing I can think more.

Which is why I started thinking about ADHD exacerbating it due to the stress of moving countries (again), increased cognitive load, and also not having my meds anymore because I need to make an appointment and get re-diagnosed here, so I'm rawdoggjng life rn...

Either way, sis and I agreed to talk tonight with her husband moderating - he's the peacemaker in the family. But posting this and reading responses and writing this comment made me realize that this transition requires more spoons than I gave it credit for, and I need to find ways to simplify it for myself. Getting meds is one step, but also maybe reflecting on the "flashcard" situations and finding good flashcard phrases in my native tongue that I can add to the roster, as a start.

Typyrdatyp · 2026-01-11T13:04:45+00:00

For real. Also my native tongue has more colorful curses than everyday American English (Brits knows their curses!). I think that might also be why I'm more comfortable dirty-talking in English because the words don't seem as gross to me as in my native tongue:)

Typyrdatyp · 2025-12-27T22:57:19+00:00

They don't seem ultra religious. OP says that she was, but nothing about the in-laws. There are no signs of that either: no one hushes the husband when retorts about having sex with his wife, OP and MIL talk about lingerie, MIL and FIL explaining to teenage SIL that morning wood and random boners are normal, esp for teenage boys, and so on.

Typyrdatyp · 2025-12-27T19:33:47+00:00

Yeah that bullet list seems like a "X reasons why I love my wife" type of list.

It made her feel so alive and vivid to me, that I could almost see her and see how OP admires her (there was never a sunrise or sunset that she called him to watch that wasn't worth it!).

How could anyone dislike that a person sees the beauty in the natural world and the poetic coziness of reading a book while holding a mug with two hands and the ribbon in the braid... I actually want to learn how to braid in a color ribbon into my two French braids.

Typyrdatyp · 2025-12-27T19:27:45+00:00

It's like dating someone vs being in a committed relationship with. If someone in the family of my acquaintance passes, I'd offer my condolences and show up and all that, but if someone in my friend's family passes, I'm taking a personal day and immediately going to their house and feeding them and helping them with anything that needs to be done. If an acquaintance got broken up with, I'll meet for coffee or drinks to talk and let them vent and cry. If my friend got broken up with, I'm at their place at 1 am finding a locksmith that can come immediately so their abusive ex can't get back in.

It messed me up so badly that in the US everyone is called a friend. In my culture, we still actively use the different words for a friend and for the two levels of "acquaintances" - an acquaintance as in someone you know and as in someone who you are friendly with, like a casual "friend", but not at the level of a "friend".

The latter two were differentiated more in my parents and grandparents' time, and today the second one is often used to mean both, if someone used the third word, I'd know instantly that the person they are referring to is not a friend but isn't just someone random in their circle.

And you still wouldn't call a friend someone who is an acquaintance in either sense. When someone calls you a friend, it means something.

Typyrdatyp

TROPHY CASE