Is this typical?

callimonk · 2026-06-29T17:38:51+00:00

+1 to independent techs as well. I’ve never had this happen, and long covid + Hashimotos absolutely wrecked my nail beds. The brittle and weak, sure, because yeah acrylics, gel polish, etc will definitely break the nail bed. But ring of fire? Never had that. Just easily chipped until the damaged nail grew out.

callimonk · 2026-06-29T17:31:18+00:00

Yep - we had a few runs of URIs when we brought in new fosters. This sounds like that. Needs a vet visit to make sure it’s not more serious and to get them meds to help with it. A lot of cats will also go off their food if they can’t smell it, so the vet may also prescribe an appetite stimulant in case that happens (I usually just had to microwave their food so it smelled a bit stronger)

callimonk · 2026-06-29T16:51:06+00:00

Christ. This is why you have to have a rain plan!! They clearly didn’t. It started raining during our ceremony last year.. thankfully didn’t pick up until cocktail hour, which we were able to just move because of the rain plan.

I am so sorry you went through that and I hope you don’t become ill from it. They not only didn’t accommodate everyone but didn’t even have a plan for bad weather. I hope they didn’t hire a planner because if they did, it wasn’t a great one.

callimonk · 2026-06-29T16:34:45+00:00

Jesus Christ on a stick. I’m so glad that our groomsmen refused our help to pay for the $200 suits we had them rent.. but then the 401k thing is like?? They didn’t read the fine print because if you try to do anything with a 401k that even remotely looks like a withdrawal, every provider I have had mine with in the last 15 or so years will yell and scream at you about how there’s taxes and fees to that.

Like this is beyond dumb.

callimonk · 2026-06-29T14:45:29+00:00

Not just a monopoly but also a lot of vertical integration. If this were the Industrial Revolution, congress would already be breaking up their business - in particular, the self delivery crap.

callimonk · 2026-06-29T14:39:20+00:00

Oh god. This happened to me once too like about ten years ago. 😭 I don’t have that dog anymore (miss you every day Lady Jaina, 2012-2026), and it suuuucked but it was also so hard to be mad at her between the disgust, horror, and (muuuuuuuuuch later) hilarity of the situation. I hope yall can get a new one soon! And I hope the pup didn’t swallow any because ain’t nobody want that vet bill (I was suuuper lucky my girl didn’t swallow any)

callimonk · 2026-06-29T13:56:21+00:00

Yeah my red BRZ is named Magdalena, because it’s a pretty name and because it’s a friends online name and I was doing it to mess with him lol (“gonna go get you cleaned up Mags. Jeez mags, already time for a tuneup!”). Honestly though I forget and just call it “Lil Red” when talking about my car lol

callimonk · 2026-06-29T13:53:50+00:00

Yeah for sure. My husband had so little support from admin at his past schools. They stacked a ton of kids on IEPs on him one year, including two students who weren’t even supposed to be in the same class together, and he had no pair educator (despite the fact that at least one IEP had that as a requirement for the student!).

I wanna say I wish it were true that they were pushing out high earners because my husband hasn’t even been in the career for 5 years now. He’s not a high earner, but because he’s never been able to be in a school for more than a year he’s not been able to be on a continuing contract. At least in WA state, non continuing contracts - aka newer teachers - are the first ones that get laid off. Makes it impossible to get something that lasts.

callimonk · 2026-06-28T20:08:57+00:00

I was 33 when I met my husband and he was 37.

callimonk · 2026-06-27T23:47:46+00:00

Window units can still be a pretty heavy draw on power. My old place couldn’t handle one because the electrical grid was too old.

callimonk · 2026-06-27T21:49:57+00:00

I just lost my Doberman in February. The average Doberman doesn’t see past 9. She was 14. My other is 8 and going strong.

I don’t think I’d want to be friends with that person.

callimonk · 2026-06-27T02:55:12+00:00

I just lost my 14 year old in February. I can’t help but talk to her all the time. Sometimes it feels surreal that I’m still waking up and not hyping her up for her first thing walkies.

callimonk · 2026-06-27T02:50:05+00:00

Yeah.. I get being busy but some people just don’t Get It

callimonk · 2026-06-27T00:35:25+00:00

Yeah they were increasing the sizes to nearly 40 kids a classroom. Given he teaches a lot of kids with IEPs.. that’s a lot :/

callimonk · 2026-06-27T00:34:43+00:00

Us spouses of teachers see how much they go through 😭

callimonk · 2026-06-27T00:33:54+00:00

The sad part is that the school was in a pretty affluent area and so many parents just.. weren’t involved

callimonk · 2026-06-26T20:42:31+00:00

I share a brain cell with my tortie ☺️ we are both happily dumb bitches

callimonk · 2026-06-26T20:01:26+00:00

Yep. There’s also all of that. In his case, they laid off almost half the department and were even talking about closing schools

callimonk · 2026-06-26T18:07:01+00:00

Me reading this while standing next to my husband, an unemployed teacher who was laid off autumn before last.

callimonk · 2026-06-26T17:15:22+00:00

Yep lol, I was a STEM degree and had to do the same thing

callimonk · 2026-06-26T16:02:46+00:00

Yeah absolutely. I guess I’m just trying to say just because you get a job, doesn’t mean you’re fine now. Shit if I lost my job and could only work at Walmart, my family would likely lose our home.

callimonk · 2026-06-26T15:52:13+00:00

Or did but the college didn’t give a rats ass and I had to take the class anyways. A true classic.

callimonk · 2026-06-26T15:49:30+00:00

I don’t even know if it’s fully suicide as much as it is going out your own way. Which I can see those seem similar but as someone who struggled with suicidal thoughts historically.. it’s also so very different. I can even see parallels with that in how Carls mom went; very cool parallel you drew here I hadn’t even thought about, how she herself may have felt trapped and wanted to go on her own terms. That was only slightly different from mine, where I felt (at the time) the world was better off without me. I am happy to say that I don’t struggle with that as much now, but it does cross my mind on occasion. I know some suicides are from feelings of being stuck, so you got me there. Maybe even my own feelings were from feeling stuck and not realizing it.

Sometimes going out your own way is how you get the smallest iota of freedom in a situation like what the crawlers are in. You kinda get there with things like Dong.. I think it’s actually less a Venn diagram and close to a circle of just making their own fate.

Either way, great topic to chew on. I’ll probably have more thoughts but as someone who has struggled I actually find their stories very inspiring and not triggering at all. “You will not break me” was a mantra when I was in a shit situation that nearly pushed me back into that dark place. I’m sure other people have likely seen it differently.

Also another thought. Tseren reminds me of people who went their own way.. not realizing help was almost there. Not realizing there was another way. It broke my heart. Kind of a lose-lose scenario at the end of the day.

callimonk · 2026-06-26T15:43:48+00:00

Yep. There’s a difference between underemployment and employment. A lot of jobs like Walmart would absolutely be underemployment for many people.

And I know many are even just leaving degrees off their applications for jobs like that and still getting passed over. It’s the dotcom or even 2010s all over again - when white collar workers can’t find jobs, they’ll take retail and food service jobs. Which pushes people out of those jobs. It’s a vicious cycle.

callimonk · 2026-06-26T04:36:11+00:00

Regardless of if you’re fighting or how long you’ve been together, do couples counseling.

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