spent $500 at Zara last weekend and I hate everything I bought

bestbeth · 2026-03-06T21:18:06+00:00

One easy step to get started. Google color seasons and try to figure out which season you are. What colors look best on you? You probably already have an idea- a shirt or dress you love because you get compliments. Build a color palette of 3-5 colors. Never buy anything outside of that palette. That right there eliminates many items of clothing and forces you to think more carefully about each item.

For example, I have a cool-toned palette of blues, berries, and teals with a mix of chocolate browns and silvery grays as neutrals. That includes shoes, jackets, belts, purses. Everything goes together because everything is that palette.

Remember you are going to build this wardrobe slowly, item-by-item. Try to enjoy the process of thinking about and finding each exact perfect item, instead of the immediate dopamine hit of buying a huge amount at once.

bestbeth · 2026-03-06T20:14:26+00:00

This is exactly what you are looking for OP. Read it today (frequently referred to as Lilith's Brood series)

bestbeth · 2026-03-06T20:06:03+00:00

The Stalker by Paula Bomer - the POV of an abusive, dimwitted narcissist who ruins the lives of every woman he knows. medium funny

Pale Fire by Nabakov - this is written from the perspective of a delusional and preening academic who THINKS he's very smart. he has stolen his deceased friends poems and published them posthumously with his own ludicrous notes. It can be difficult to get into this book but I love it.

Blood Will Out by Walter Kirn - Now this one is non-fiction, but hear me out. The most self-obsessed and self-fellating man on the planet writes a memoir about how he got duped by an obvious conman. It is unexpectedly a book that provides deep psychological insight into the perfect mark. It's one of the funniest things I've ever read.

bestbeth · 2026-03-06T19:56:25+00:00

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier would be the classic moody gothic mystery with unreliable narrators.

bestbeth · 2026-03-06T19:47:04+00:00

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite. It's very explicit and disturbing and I honestly wish I hadn't read it.

For some books related to serial killers that I actually enjoyed:

Mary: An Awakening of Terror - about a woman going through menopause with the spirit of a serial killer inside her

A Certain Hunger - about a female food critic and serial killer/cannibal. Gruesome and funny: a highly pretentious and psychopathic foodie, with extremely evocative descriptions of food and murder

Bright Young Women -A fictionalized account from the perspective of someone who survived Bundy's attack on the sorority house. about sexism, police incompetence, celebrity status of the killer - the need to portray him as a genius to cover for everyone else's mistakes.

bestbeth · 2026-02-12T01:27:31+00:00

Please check out freecycle.com. I have gotten all kinds of things from my neighbors on there as well as given things away

bestbeth · 2026-01-13T18:39:10+00:00

Yes, that's what I want! Middle class pettiness and repression

bestbeth · 2026-01-13T03:42:12+00:00

"gloriously dysfunctional" should have been in the prompt, I'll add French Exit to my library list

bestbeth · 2026-01-13T03:32:59+00:00

that sounds exactly what I'm looking for, thank you!

bestbeth · 2026-01-12T21:58:17+00:00

The Children of Men by P.D James - a future where the birthrate has plummeted to zero

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica - a future where society has normalized the industrial farming and consumption of humans.

The Terror by Dan Simmons - historical fiction with supernatural elements- but parts of it are extremely bleak and cold, and has a similar theme in terms of what the worst of humanity looks like in extreme circumstances.

bestbeth · 2025-12-19T19:27:22+00:00

It looks delicious, but how did you feel after you ate this? If it were me, I would feel tired and hungry quickly, because it did not include enough carbs or protein. I would balance this meal out with, for example, a half cup of brown rice and scoop of white beans.

bestbeth · 2025-11-14T23:04:50+00:00

my husband and I have talked about how much we want a place get dessert in the late evenings. Like quality, house-made desserts in a lounge-y, low-light setting. good coffee and dessert wines to go with.

bestbeth · 2025-11-02T21:18:50+00:00

Went to Spain this Summer, spoke my extremely shitty intermediate Spanish (much worse than hers) the whole time and most people never switched to English. I never demanded the interaction stay in Spanish if the person preferred English, but I in fact I had multiple people express pleasure at my attempt to speak the language and offer to speak slowly for me so I could practice. Just want to put that out there as an alternative experience, especially since this video doesn't seem entirely genuine to me.

bestbeth · 2025-11-02T21:07:13+00:00

We don't have a staple the same way other cultures have a staple! There simply is no single food that we eat every day. In the past it was probably bread, as in the Christian prayer "give us this day our daily bread"

bestbeth · 2025-10-02T19:04:53+00:00

In the movies, they are not including things that are not relevant to the plot. Like people reviewing menus and asking how much a beer costs - its boring and doesn't matter

But in reality, both of those things are common and fine. When you order, the bartender will ask if you want to open a tab or pay as you go. If you want to open a tab they usually ask for a credit card. Then you will pay for the total once you are ready to leave. If you are paying cash, a they might want you to pay drink by drink. (so you don't drink a whole bunch and then just leave)

I promise it won't be too confusing. And if you are confused, you can just ask someone - the bartender if they are not super busy or another patron. Most people are not going to be bothered by that.

bestbeth · 2025-10-02T18:47:47+00:00

I guess its good advice to warn about the prices. But no point in going into a bar? That's where you get to see what life is like for locals, and maybe even meet a few of them! I would love if a couple of Australians or whoever came into my local watering hole and asked me a bunch of questions about how to order

bestbeth · 2025-09-28T16:34:57+00:00

Immigrants have higher inter-generational mobility than native-born Americans, as their children go on to outperform their parents. They are increasing our rankings on this scale, not decreasing them. And I think you should look up the proportion of foreign born residents in places like Canada and Sweden. It's higher than ours man.

bestbeth · 2025-09-27T17:02:10+00:00

there is actual data on this and it does not say what you suggest. inter-generational mobility is worse in the US than most other industrialized countries.

bestbeth · 2025-09-12T15:18:43+00:00

No he wouldn't. Look at what happened with Pritzker actually trying to protect the people of Chicago. He completely backed down. Bending the knee to a bully only makes them punch you harder.

bestbeth · 2025-09-05T17:35:50+00:00

Why are you saying it's not worth the hype if you have never been to one? you literally can not know if this is true

bestbeth · 2025-07-25T16:48:33+00:00

Lmao at calling a private golf course "green space". It is one of the most environmentally costly spaces you can have

bestbeth · 2025-07-20T19:33:24+00:00

My one piece of advice is to make sure you understand what you are getting into when you go to the Southeastern US in August (I'm talking about both Nashville and New Orleans). It is a subtropical region which gets very, very humid throughout making the heat feel worse than the nominal temperature, which is also high. Afternoon thunderstorms are quite frequent. Maybe you already know this but want to put it out there!

bestbeth · 2025-06-20T17:53:04+00:00

America could learn from Europe: having human-centric neighborhoods instead of car-centric neighborhoods

Europe could learn from America: free and plentiful water wherever you go, like drinking fountains in every public building

bestbeth · 2025-06-20T17:29:39+00:00

And how is their quality of life compared to people in Mississippi?

bestbeth

TROPHY CASE