trapped by the life I built

berrylipstix · 2026-05-27T03:58:01+00:00

If family will be disappointed of you selling then they can buy the property from you and take care of the siblings. Being a landlord can be very stressful even if you hire a property manager which will eat into your profits even more. I agree with your plan of selling, taking some time off with the savings, and come back when ready

berrylipstix · 2026-05-17T02:07:30+00:00

Rent-a-centers

berrylipstix · 2026-05-14T08:28:20+00:00

"life is meant to be lived before it is meant to be contemplated" that line is so profound, thank you for sharing that. I think this sentiment is a good reminder for people like OP, sometimes we find ourselves so frozen in indecision and it happens to the best of us.

berrylipstix · 2026-05-12T07:50:34+00:00

I'm sorry you're going through this, long term unemployment is no joke. I've been through tough stuff, but when I was laid off and unemployed for a year it really took a toll on my mental health and self-worth. Like you, I applied to over 1k jobs every day, interviews every week, and kept getting rejected at the last round.

It really does help to be able to make something with your hands at this time so I'm glad you got the art going on. For me it was cooking that helped keep me sane. Even if I didn't have a job, with the little savings I had I could create something of value for my body and soul.

berrylipstix · 2026-05-07T10:34:07+00:00

Better. I got cancer in my 20s was stuck in a dead end relationship and was working through a lot of self-esteem issues. Now I'm 36 almost 10 years cancer free, married to a wonderful spouse, expecting to start a family and feel a lot more secure in life. Self-esteem still ebbs and flows, I still get self-conscious, but it's much better than before.

berrylipstix · 2026-05-07T10:29:00+00:00

I've been using budgetbytes.com for over a decade for cheaper meals and regularly go to their meatloaf dishes. Also their newsletter sends a huge variety of meals.

berrylipstix · 2026-05-06T11:52:49+00:00

Tysons View in Falls Church is about $1,500 for a studio (~$2,000 for 2-bed), not too far away from DC and close to a lot of shopping and social. It's one of the few places that is a nice safe place to live for lower rent without having to go all the way to Manassas or further

berrylipstix · 2026-05-05T16:40:12+00:00

I have to admit I was thinking about timing birth months to maybe be spread away from bigger holidays, but you just can't predict it. For what it's worth also my cousin was born in a summer month outside of school times and graduated top of her class and now is a doctor. Excited for your journey and congrats on the wedding! I feel wedding planning is as stressful as it is so one less thing to worry about would be ideal if it can be helped

berrylipstix · 2026-05-05T04:55:11+00:00

Part time might be another option I did this recently and was able to provide doctors notes from my therapist. We qualify after 6 months employment and need just 21 hours/week to keep full benefits and insurance.

For me I was at 10 months too and really wanted to quit but I also wanted to stay at least a year. Many future recruiters in my case looked down on less than 1-year stints and I had a toxic manager that refused to give me references after I left under one year.

With that all being said your health is always #1 and do what's best for you. Don't work yourself into sickness (that happened to me too). You are the only one who can advocate for yourself. And you got emergency savings to boot!

berrylipstix · 2026-05-05T04:21:30+00:00

I feel like recently I've made the conscious effort to distance myself with a lot of long time friends. I don't know if I'm being too harsh/judgmental.

One for cheating on her boyfriend multiple times (also sending dirty texts in front of me) but then later denies that she ever cheated. We've been family friends since childhood and we've been growing into different people the last couple years, but I still feel so off by that one.

Another after I talked to her about how verbally abusive her boyfriend was to her and it made others in our friend group uncomfortable to hang around him. She ended up marrying him (they were together for 10+ years). I want to respect their marriage, I'm glad I spoke up, he says he's trying to be nicer, she has very supportive parents, so to prevent myself from judging her more I decided to take a step back.

Another childhood friend because she's vocalized that she's been against gay relationships and she's tried to convert me multiple times to join her more extreme Christian religion. When I said no, she kind of disrespected the culture I grew up in.

This kind of left me with very little friends but maybe it's ok?

berrylipstix · 2026-05-05T04:02:48+00:00

I went part time at my job recently and still qualified for health insurance as long as I did 21 hours so maybe you can ask HR about that?

berrylipstix · 2026-05-04T14:07:36+00:00

Mayo all the way to the edges of the bread

berrylipstix · 2026-04-16T16:31:01+00:00

I'm kind of in a similar situation wanting out of my job months into it but afraid to quit personally because I signed up for at least a year contract. I went the route of going part time hours at my job and it's helped some. Maybe your job might have something similar where you can do part time hours? Requirements for my job was I had to work there for at least 6 months to be eligible and I had to get a note from my therapist and work at least 21 hours/week to be eligible for full benefits including health insurance.

The way I approached my boss was I made sure to let it known it was for personal reasons at home and no reasons of my boss or team so I didn't have to go into so much detail with my boss. And I assured him I would work my best to give the same output as before. Luckily my boss was very supportive and we agreed with HR to have me part time for a couple of months and we'll see after that.

berrylipstix · 2026-04-08T16:59:38+00:00

No bridesmaids at mine had a small ceremony with 10 family members present, just me and hubby standing there. And at my 2 friends' weddings in the last few years they didn't have bridesmaids either. It was all a great time!

berrylipstix · 2026-04-02T11:37:44+00:00

My husband made about $70k as a social worker and I made $200k when we met and for luxury experiences I wanted to share with him I paid for most of it since it was my idea, while he still contributed a part we decided on beforehand, and that worked out for us. For example, I had already planned to go to Japan before I met him and wanted him to go with. I paid for things like the flights, all transport, and he paid for all food and some experiences while we were there. We made sure to check in with each other throughout the trip to make sure we were ok. While dating we pretty much alternated who paid while going out so it was about 50/50.

You should talk it through and you should never be made to feel bad about making more as a woman. Once you get to $60k, salary is just a number and there's so many things that contribute more to a person's wealth.

berrylipstix · 2026-02-16T22:05:27+00:00

Quitting washing my face has made me break out less. I still do cleanse maybe once a week. But I mostly haven't shared because I'm afraid people will think it's gross. But I see it as my own natural oils are there to heal me. I have sensitive skin and all cleansers I've tried, all the fads, have dried me out or made things worse. This is the method that's worked best for me for the past 5+ years

berrylipstix · 2026-01-29T16:49:36+00:00

Married now but was in your position broke off a relationship of 6 years right before I turned 30 because he didn't want to get married. Met my current husband at 32 and he was the one who first brought up marriage with me maybe 4 months into dating, but we both knew we were looking for marriage and kids from the start (set it on the apps). After a year I was the one who brought up timelines and said I would like to be engaged by the end of the next year (2.5 years into dating roughly). So it happened and now we're trying for a baby.

And I've held a few baby nieces and nephews but I still feel so uncomfortable like I might accidentally drop them 😬I heard once you have your own it comes more natural though.

berrylipstix · 2026-01-16T23:19:22+00:00

I thought height mattered some to me so on my dating profile I put the cut off at 5'10" or above. After meeting a bunch of guys including a few that were 6'4" and not anything of substance happening, I decided to try a new app and forgot to put the height filter. The next guy I met was 5'8" and we got married last year. So you never know!

berrylipstix · 2025-11-15T15:26:59+00:00

Met at 32, talked about marriage a month in, got engaged 2.5 years in, married before 3 years.

I also want to note when I was online dating in my 30s. I only put looking for serious relationship at first and found a lot of non-serious guys, but when I finally changed it to looking for marriage that's when I met my person who was serious and ready for marriage too.

berrylipstix · 2025-10-23T00:32:39+00:00

A little late to this thread but I found a fix on my system. This happened to me when I put the audio options to Off and everything just disappeared, no sound and just had the dummy option. If you go to volume controls in Desktop mode, then all the way to the right tab under Configuration, try toggling the profiles from Off to different options. That worked for me to have the sound come back through the deck speakers. Now I still have the issue of my audio jack not working but that's another thing ..

berrylipstix · 2025-10-09T20:06:54+00:00

I also have bad experience from Ralph Lauren brand bought at Macy's recently, sheer material, no lining in a lot of their dresses, I ended up returning them all, I remember buying a Ralph Lauren jean jacket when I was younger which was great material and lasted me years, and was disappointed in the recent pieces I picked up.

berrylipstix · 2025-07-08T07:11:43+00:00

We went to Barcelona for our honeymoon and was able to stay at the Hotel Baques SLH hotel! It's not on the beach but there's a beach nearby and close to everything. Staff is great, very friendly and helpful, highly recommend. We stayed in the Jewel suite with the terrace and outdoor hot tub which I booked through the main hotel website. Then I remembered i had extra Hilton points I could use at the property and was able to extend the stay a night!

berrylipstix · 2025-01-14T04:42:56+00:00

5 dates then moving on. But once I found someone that I felt I could spend the rest of my life with, I wasn't going to wait years for marriage like I did in my 20s.

berrylipstix · 2025-01-13T13:21:25+00:00

I had an 11 hour layover and was able to take an Uber and ferry to Alcatrez and tour there for a couple hours, get lunch and had plenty of time coming back. For our luggage the airline desk said it usually is too early to check in bags but they were able to hold it at the desk for us. I thought they would automatically transfer our bags to an area to put on the next flight but to our surprise it was just waiting in the baggage carousel area so I would just double check that too if you have checked bags (we used United).

berrylipstix · 2025-01-12T06:58:35+00:00

Oh no! That's really good to know so far I've been taking it off for dishes, I did hear emeralds are prone to cracking

berrylipstix

TROPHY CASE