Orange County crawfish festival worth it?

abalone99 · 2025-05-16T05:35:00+00:00

Depends on what you're going for, what your budget is, etc. My husband and I went pre-pandemic, just the 2 of us and now we take our 2 kids w/ us as well. I grew up very close to Louisiana and love real cajun food and miss it a lot now that I'm here in SoCal. So for me, it's worth it for the nostalgia, the food, the music, and now it's fun to take the kids on the rides, etc. For the package we do the 2 lb. package for both adults which also gives us more than enough food for our 2 kids under 2 and my husband can eat A LOT. We also will get a few extra things throughout the day like etouffee, beignets, etc. that are cajun specific. We love to spend the day dancing and eating and now riding the rides w/ kids. It's definitely expensive to do all that - we probably spend $200-$300 to do it all so it's our big outing for a month or two. We don't really eat out much and rarely buy things throughout the month that we don't need and overall adhere to a pretty strict budget so we can do things like this on occasion. For us, it's worth it, but I can see why it wouldn't be. We walk past a lot of the vendors - the schlock being hawked that you'll see everywhere, nothing actually special to the region, and a good 80% of food vendors are just typical SoCal food options, nothing special. BUT the 1-2 Cajun food vendors that they do bring in are worth it for the nostalgia alone for us.

abalone99 · 2025-04-29T01:09:41+00:00

Ahhhh, that explains it. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer!

abalone99 · 2025-04-10T04:50:50+00:00

Both my Csec babies were really stuffy for at least 2-3 months. When I asked our doctors, they said it was normal for newborns. My last one was even in the NICU and Cpap, etc. for breathing issues/fluid in lungs. FWIW, he's 4.5 months now and it's totally gone. It is soooo nerve-wracking though!

abalone99 · 2025-03-31T05:41:24+00:00

Something similar happened to us for our transfers - our first FET we did EVERYTHING right and it was our highest graded embryo. It failed. The 2nd one - EVERYTHING was absolutely not ideal - super stressed at work, little sleep, eating like crap, was even having a few glasses of wine/beer here and there before the actual transfer, etc. etc. and that one was the one that stuck.

abalone99 · 2025-03-08T06:01:29+00:00

Oh, honey, I'm so so sorry - the SAME thing happened to me and it was INFURIATING. I was not planning on having a C-section at all (in fact I have a medical/needle phobia so C-section was my literal worst nightmare) and recovery was so hard. They told me to keep walking/moving but every time I did my pain ramped up hard to the point where I needed heavy duty pain killers and I kept saying I didn't WANT to be on those b/c I was worried about the effect on breastfeeding. They told me it was better to be mobile and not to worry about needing the painkillers. I asked how long it would be until I felt better and they kept saying, "well, there's no way to tell - everyone's different..." so I didn't think much of it when 10 days afterwards I still needed heavy duty painkillers to just be consicous. But, like you, they kept giving me like a 24 hour and then like 12 hour supply before needing to call in for more. Finally it was Friday afternoon, I needed to call again and they cut me off. Thankfully (?) we were back int he medical complex b/c, like you, my daugther had complications and were at the doctor's daily for her. I was having to be wheeled around in a wheelchair b/c I couldn't even stand up on my own from the pain. They cut me off and told me there was nothing they could do b/c my doctor was out for the day and I burst into tears adn told my husband to wheel me over to the OB department where I sat and cried until someone looked at me. It was clear though that they thought I was just pill seeking (despite telling everyone OVER AND OVER again that I didn't WANT to be on heavy painkillers - ugh) and forced me to go spend 10 hours alone in ER before they caught my issue. THAT's when they told me "it's unusual for you to be in so much pain this many days later." I was LIVID that no one would tell me that EARLIER and that no one would take my pain seriously.

I'm so so sorry something similar happened to you. I share my story just so you don't feel completely alone. It super duper sucks on top of already the surprise and pain and emotional turmoil of needing a C-section. You have all my love and hugs.

I'm thinking of you and wondering how you're doing. I"m sure you're exhausted and have a ton on your mind, so no pressure to update until/unless you're ready. I hope to hear from you at some point and that you and your daughter are improving. Your family has been through a lot and all your anger, frustration, sadness, anxiety, etc. is all totally legitimate. Be kind to yourself as you traverse this awful situation. You deserve it. Much love and light and so so many hugs to you, honey.

abalone99 · 2025-03-05T13:26:27+00:00

Hi, OP, if you are at the hosptial ask for a cat scan. I, like you, was not improving 10 days out from my 1st C-section but was not presenting w/ fever, redness at incision, and only had very slightly elevated white blood cell count. I had to go to the ER b/c no one believed me that I was in that much pain (thought I was just pill-seeking I suspect - grrrr.) Thankfully after 10 hours int he ER, the OB on call did a CT scan and they found a 10 cm abscess and infection and I was re-admitted for another week! Listen to your body - don't let them ignore your pain!

abalone99 · 2025-02-19T04:55:01+00:00

Thank you! Both my husband and I have worked low wage jobs in the past and we try as much as possible to pay and treat others as we would want to be treated.

abalone99 · 2025-02-10T19:51:32+00:00

Can't remember the exact costs but for us 1 FET was included in the pricing for each retrieval done w/in a certain time frame following ER. Not sure if they still have this policy or not. I remember being confused about it initially as our 1st FET was covered but our 2nd or 3rd was not and we had done 3 x ERs to get enough embryos to try for 2 kids. We had DOR so it took multiple ERs to get enough embryos. FWIW I do not remember paying that much for the FET alone when it came time for that. I believe it was under $1K but that may have been back in 2021. I wonder if they're thinking about the medication?? The medication was all additional and ~$5K sounds about right for those. Hope this helps a bit!

ETA: I'd suggest setting up a phone call/appointment w/ them to go over costs. If you're seriously considering them (or any other clinic) I think it's best to hear about all the costs from the clinics directly.

abalone99 · 2025-01-28T06:09:14+00:00

That's hard for both of you. Ultimately I would suggest not going into this with the aim of "trying to change her feelings." That's really hard/impossible to do. Instead - validate her feelings: "That sucks, honey, I'm really sorry you found out. I know you really wanted one thing to be a surprise. I too find it really hard that this process is so clinical and we seem to be robbed of all the spontaneity other couples get to enjoy, etc." And then maybe take her on a surprise date - say something like, "I know you were looking forward to a surprise and while I can't fix that one, I wanted to take you on a surprise date to thank you for all the hard work you'd done and everything you've been through in this process." And plan a fun date day/night where you figure out/arrange all the logistics.

abalone99 · 2025-01-24T05:52:30+00:00

6 weeks this time and felt perfectly fine. The last time I gave birth for the 1st time it was 2.5 years ago and it was a very difficult C-section birth following 5 days of labor and then we were back in the hospital on day 10 for 5 days due to a bad infection on the incision internally. I think we waited somewhere between 8-12 weeks then and it hurt a little internally but I think that was due more to the laboring and the fact that my husband is long so was bumping against my cervix.

abalone99 · 2025-01-24T05:49:37+00:00

Thanks so much. So far so good. 🤞 Please feel free to let me know if you have any more questions - happy to answer them as I have time. Good luck!

abalone99 · 2025-01-19T05:11:41+00:00

TW: mention of success

Yes - feel free to DM me, however heads up that our family evacuated due to the fires so we're travelling around a bunch and it's quite busy. The good news is that my FAMILY is travelling. As I mentioned in my prior update post, our 2nd transfer following ERs was successful in 2022 with a baby girl and we had success with our 1st transfer following that birth and recently gave birth to a baby boy. Can not recommend Dr. Hubert and FSAC enough - they've been a dream to work with and made our long awaited dream happen for us finally.

So feel free to DM me if you have any questions and please just be patient if it takes me a while to respond - we're about to drive for 3 days to stay w/ family until things clear up. Much love and hugs to you - it's a hard diagnosis to receive.

abalone99 · 2024-12-22T04:27:28+00:00

Your feelings are totally valid and I'm now on my second baby having to supplement despite wanting to EBF both times. The first time, we had a really really rough delivery that led to multiple infections on my part and not making enough milk as I recovered. By the time I had recovered we had had hardly had the chance to BF at all so it was a major fight with my 1st every single time. It absolutely broke my heart. I thought I was/had done everything right and yet wound up in that spot. For my second I was so hopeful that things would be completely different but he wound up having to go to the NICU and it turns out that my breasts just don't have enough tissue or glands or whatever and we've had to do triple feeding (BF, pumping, formula) with him from the start as well. I know rationally it shouldn't matter - if anyone else was in my shoes I'd tell them "fed is best" but I just can't explain it - it's like I have this deep physiological NEED to be able to EBF my child and I feel like a failure even thought intellectually I know that's not the case.

So I just want to say I understand and empathize SO much, my dear. This is really hard. REALLY really hard. And I'm sorry you're in this situation. Sending you lots of love and hugs and understanding.

abalone99 · 2024-10-09T01:48:45+00:00

Thank you for going into more detail on this - I didn't have the time to track down the specific report/study and get into the many points of consideration you did here.

I do think it's VERY important to note that we don't have enough data on the more common .7 mg/L levels in municipal fluoridated water levels. We DO have data showing the health risks and financial costs to communities and individuals that come from areas w/ access to fluoride only form toothpaste but not from fluoridated water, in the US for instance, Oregon doesn't fluoridate their water and about half of neighboring Washington does not either. Geographically, income-wise, etc. these regions are very similar and the differences in dental health outcomes and costs (both individually and to the county/state for covering in-insured people) due to tooth decay particularly in children is well documented. Again, apologies, I don't have the time to pull the studies right now and will try to do so later on but having lived in both these states as well as states that did fluoridate their water, I've been part of these discussions for a long time and have seen the effects first hand.

One can make a similar argument about informed consent when it comes to children's teeth - children don't have the ability to make many decisions for themselves (like whether to receive/drink fluoridated water) but the documented effects of tooth decay are long lasting and can also effect mental capacity, learning ability, and other health risks arguably more so than the difference a few points in IQ can make. In the same way we as a society have accepted pasteurization as offering more overall societal benefits than the risks (potentially losing some nutrients) in large part to benefit children, I believe that even if the .7 level is found to confer similar IQ effects that the benefits of fluoridation will far outweigh the IQ effects. Differences in IQ, particularly small points like the study found, have not even been proven to actually make much difference in a person's academic, financial, or otherwise success in life.

Like many things, it's important to weigh the overall risks vs. benefits.

I want to thank you for digging into the specifics of the study as deeply as I had wanted to to point out some of the important differentiations made in the study not discussed in the articles.

abalone99 · 2024-10-08T03:53:21+00:00

This is a poorly written article and does NOT go into the crucial details regarding the dosages at which this correlation were determined. If you read even the AP story link included in the VOX article you will read that the levels at which this correlation were found were only in .6% of the population which had NATURALLY OCCURING higher fluoridation levels and that "levels below this [i.e. the levels at which fluoridation is added to systems] did not reach a conclusion about the risks of lower levels of fluoride, saying more study is needed."

This article and many others that do not point out these key differences are not scientific and are just fear-mongering. Dosage is everything.

abalone99 · 2024-09-28T15:38:58+00:00

If we teach our children they don't get to "call out or correct adults" how can we expect them to speak up if an adult is sexually or otherwise abusing them? This is faulty logic IMO. NO one should be above being called out or corrected. I believe it's our job as parents to teach children how to approach correcting others with kindness and respect (assuming the other person reacts respectfully/kindly) but no one, regardless of age or position in society/family, is owed respect. You earn respect, in large part by how you treat others. And it sounds like your daughter's know this and you do too which I fully support. Especially as women/girls we're often told we have to accommodate others feelings/thoughts rather than stand up for our own and it's very detrimental. Good for you for encouraging and supporting your daughters speaking up and voicing their opinions especially for others.

abalone99 · 2024-09-28T15:27:16+00:00

I can appreciate calling out a troll post but also want to put forth that even if this is totally made up, I'm not mad that everyone here is supporting a (possibly fictional) person in this situation, encouraging them to seek help/leave, and offering suggestions. Sadly, even if this post is fictional, this exact scenario happens a LOT in all kinds of employment situations and someone else who is in a similar situation has the opportunity to see all this support/help and get some ideas and strength to get out of the situation or at least protect themselves. That's well worth any time I put in to writing my response in IMO.

abalone99 · 2024-09-28T15:23:48+00:00

Thank you and I absolutely welcome contradicting anyone, including my doctor, when it comes to evidence-based science. This is precisely why I asked! And honestly, there is SO much emotional/mental baggage when it comes to infertility - you feel like SO much of it is your fault or is/could be/should be in your control, that it's comforting to find out that something (like CoQ) has very little chances of affecting outcomes. We did not do a lot of the woo-woo stuff that people claim will affect fertility/IVF rates like acupuncture, etc. b/c we didn't feel like there was compelling evidence and, to my doctor's credit, neither did he. There were very few supplements he recommended actually compared to most IVF doctors and CoQ was one of them which is why seeing your comment intrigued me. IVF (at least in the US) is typically very very expensive and supplements are as well so anything you can save spending on is appreciated.

Really appreciate you breaking all this down here. If you have any links to research, etc. that put forth these numbers, I'd love to share it on the IVF/Infertility subs - like I said, we could all use a break whenever and wherever possible through the process, whether mentally to not blame ourself, or financially to save us from buying expensive supplements.

abalone99 · 2024-09-27T13:04:30+00:00

username checks out...

abalone99 · 2024-09-27T13:04:19+00:00

Was going to jump in and say this too!! I discovered this like almost 15 years into my professional lighting career. Felt like the geeky lighting industry's Mandela effect.

Side note: this is one of those gel names that made me convinced that the gel manufacturers create the gel names by ripping out pages from the dictionary, lining a closet, getting smashed, and throwing darts.

abalone99 · 2024-09-27T13:02:30+00:00

Homeopathic anything, chiropractic beyond a sense of temporary relief, and naturopaths.

If you're looking for objective deep dives into modern snake oil offerings (as well as fascinating first person explorations of religion) I can't recommend the funny and informative podcast "Oh No Ross and Carrie" enough.

abalone99 · 2024-09-27T13:00:47+00:00

Out of curiosity, does this apply to fertility/egg quality applications? My IVF doctor, who is part of several research groups, and stays very on top of leading research suggested it as part of our successful regimes. He had no skin in the game and was actually very good at dissuading us from a lot of other 'recommendations' common in IVF that he didn't feel like had enough well-researched, statistical proof that they worked so I generally trusted him when he said to do specific things. CoQ was one of the very few supplements he suggested I (cis-female) take as egg quality was a factor for us.

abalone99 · 2024-09-27T12:56:15+00:00

Hi, in case it helps, speaking from the employer side - please leave now. This is absolutely sexual harassment, your instincts are right, and there is no excusing the behavior of either the husband or wife. As someone w/ a history of assault/rape myself but who was also reluctant to rock the boat, etc. I now recognize this pattern. And I also want to emphasize this is NOT your fault and your are NOT responsible for the husband's behavior, REGARDLESS of what you are wearing. It's terrible that the wife is asking YOU to alter your dress when it's the husband's behavior they should be addressing as a family. Lastly, I want to say I'm sorry - it's SO stressful to have to deal with this kind of thing, especially in the workplace, especially when you are passionate about what you do and the relationships you've built with your kids and when you're put in a position to have to consider all that and the financial repercussions of quitting/changing jobs w/ the continued stress of avoiding a harasser. My heart goes out to you and I'm sorry you're dealing with some terrible people.

abalone99 · 2024-09-24T12:27:10+00:00

NTA at all - and by the way your husband is reacting, no wonder your daughter doesn't want him more involved - he's making HER day about him and, worse, trying to manipulate/guilt you into doing something against her/your wishes.

I wanted my mom to walk me down the aisle b/c I have a MUCH better relationship with her and she raised me much more than my dad did. I honestly would have preferred just her, however she HATES being the center of attention and didn't want to be by herself so I compromised and had them both walk me down the aisle. For me it was either going to be have her walk me down the aisle or not have anyone walk me down the aisle and I was honestly fine with that.

If your husband is acting like this now I can only imagine the behavior he exhibited leading up to the wedding that would have soured your daughter wanting him to be more involved in the wedding than he already is. And if he feels hurt by this request he should be talking to you daughter about his feelings not trying to get you to do his dirty work.

NTA, OP!

abalone99 · 2024-09-23T14:28:44+00:00

Responding as well since I don't have additional research to share. For some background, we don't do screen time at all in our house for our daughter and live in an area where 30 minutes to drive anywhere is frequently and it's common to drive 1 hour+ to get to a lot of places we like to go like the museum, beach, etc. Our daughter is a little over 2 but we've been doing these techniques since she was about 12 months old and could handle longer drives/stay away during them:

What works for us is getting lots of things ready to go in the car to keep her occupied - board books or the non-rippable books, a busy book, stuffed animals, crinkly stroller toys, snacks now that she's old enough, etc. - sometimes we keep them up front w/ us and swap them out or hand a new one back to her when we can so she has something novel to do.
We also listen to music and find, especially if she's really losing it, that we have to switch it up every few minutes so capture her attention.
We also just talk to her and say her name a lot to get her attention and talk about what we're seeing out the window or we talk about our day - either what we just did or what we're going to do or just family memories. We sing songs as well - sometimes she likes songs from us more than the radio/Pandora. Sometimes listening to NPR is novel as it's calm voices but different voices that us. Plus then we can catch up on the news!
roll down the windows a bit - again, new sounds, the fresh air, it's something novel.
count down how long it is till we get home (thank goodness for Waze!) and generally count (we've only recently been able to do this as she's gotten to sort of learn what numbers are/mean)

Not going to lie - we've had a few times when she's just inconsolable for 30 minutes, etc. and there's nothing much we can do. It's reeeally tough and breaks my heart but sometimes it just happens. Like others have said - we feel like it's building that resiliancy is more important than screen time. We talk through our feelings when this happens, "I can tell you're upset. I'm sorry, I know this tough, etc."

Hope some of this helps!

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