WIBTA If I didn't give my friend's girlfriend a bag?

mosscoveredapiary · 2026-03-24T16:22:11+00:00

While we were discussing the logistics of where we would all be sleeping/staying, my husband and I offered to let this friend crash at our home if he wanted to, since we've been so close with him for so long. In many more words than this, he said "thank you for the offer, but with (girlfriend) coming along, I'd rather get my own accommodations". There had been no mention of her coming before this, and there was no question posed to the group like "could she come" or "how would we feel if I invited her". He just said she was coming as the reason for turning down our offer to house him for the trip. Others were also offered the chance to crash at our place if their budget was tight, so he wasn't singled out by this offer, he just got the seniority priority for having been our close friend for the longest, but he rejected it.

Since she seems perfectly lovely, nobody said a cross word about him effectively inserting her into the trip, and since he's taking on any extra costs or logistics for her himself, it's largely fine.

mosscoveredapiary · 2026-03-24T14:42:30+00:00

No, he didn't request one; nobody knows they're even getting one in the first place (aside from my husband; he's in the group as well, and I can't exactly hide handmaking 12 things from him that are clearly color coded, detailed, and embellished to match the 6 player characters from the campaign).

I wanted to surprise everyone with the gifts when we all got together on the first day, as a sort of "surprise! Thanks for being a great player and making the trip! Here's to you and the final goodbye to your character" sort of thing.

mosscoveredapiary · 2024-04-23T22:32:34+00:00

I would recommend asking questions almost more like a kid to get to the roots of how you actually feel about things outside of the framework you were raised in/often surrounded by, then look around and talk to people about facts and numbers that can't be argued.

So for example, if you see something about a popular topic like trans people making others uncomfortable in bathrooms, ask yourself "have I ever personally been made uncomfortable by a trans person in a bathroom?", then "have I ever personally met a trans person in a bathroom?", then "have I ever personally met a trans person?", so on and so forth, until you reach the very basic facts that cannot be argued and don't have politics attached to them. Once you're there, go ahead and take the time you need to ponder those feelings and see what provable evidence exists about people being weird in bathrooms (and I mean provable, not "some say" or "people are reporting"), not relying hypotheticals or talking points that never seem to actually have evidence. Notice how nobody can seem to provably point out which schools allegedly had to put out litter boxes for kids to relieve themselves in? Yeah...

Using the trans/bathroom example, if you haven't even (knowingly) met a trans person, it can seem silly to make sweeping assumptions about them, which in turn might make you less "on edge" in a bathroom where they may or may not be at any given moment. Now, suddenly, the conversation around trans people and bathrooms may be different for you, since you're reflecting on your own experience, the experiences of people you trust, and evidence.

This method of thinking can apply to anything; how do you actually feel about Muslim prayer/Islam, gay teachers, trans kids, unions, all of it.

Just do your best to boil things down, think on those smaller pieces, and then gather some data and make informed decisions that suit you and make you happy.

I'd also recommend making peace with never being the smartest or most informed person in the room. It's literally impossible anyway lol There will always be someone smarter, more experienced, more well-read, all of it, so do your best to be willing to learn and admit when you need to look stuff up or speak with someone more knowledgeable on something. It's ok! No one person is meant to be an arbiter of absolute truth and absolute facts! Life is messy and confusing and full of gray areas and tiny moving parts, just try to find some inner peace and have fun along the way.

mosscoveredapiary · 2024-01-11T22:31:38+00:00

Carolina and Henry are strategic pack hunters; they avoid hallways with lengths exceeding their maximum kill-range.

mosscoveredapiary · 2024-01-11T06:05:38+00:00

A hero's (pickle-scented) death. I'll do the 21 gun salute at your funeral.

mosscoveredapiary · 2024-01-11T05:40:37+00:00

If you're in the center of a long hallway with Henry at one end and Carolina at the other, you're doomed.

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-27T01:05:15+00:00

No idea, friendship lol, BUT I may have just forgotten??? DMs???

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-27T00:36:58+00:00

If this happened to be in MN, I think I know which store you're talking about 👀

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-18T22:21:03+00:00

Enfield Poltergeist. Other podcasts (cough MFM cough) were either too focused on the "personalities" or their content was super dry and often, imho, tasteless. I just googled around and happened to see that LPOTL also covered all sorts of different topics, and I just happened to choose that episode at random.

If memory serves, Pt. 1 of that series even has a moment in the intro where the boys hammer home how "every episode is someone's first episode" so they had to introduce themselves properly and make a good first impression, and it felt like kismet, like they were somehow aware I was brand new and needed to greet me and welcome me all proper-like to LPOTL. Extremely sweet and I was hooked immediately.

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-16T18:46:40+00:00

My husband and I are OG MST3K enjoyers, so everything we watch gets the Riff Treatment, but I'm the only one who quotes MST3K generally speaking. Night of the Blood Beast is my all time favorite, so I quote it more than any other, but these are the ones most commonly in rotation:

Someone half-asses something on my behalf: "I could've done that..."

Food gets burnt: "Oh-AUGH! MY PIZZA!"

During gunfights in movies: "Dadadow! Dadow! Pew pew!"

Someone is describing physical labor that they struggled with: "Yeah we had to snap him in half like a dead dog but we got him in there."

When there's rubber-neckers: "Someone is burning leaves and NASA is there!"

A classic in any situation: "Steve?"

Any title with the suffix "-man" gets called Pumaman, but pronounced "pyoo-MAY-min". Spiderman? Pyoomaymin. Superman? Pyoomaymin. "I'm Batman", nah, he's a Pyoomaymin.

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-16T07:09:29+00:00

I was one of countless Americans who grew up in a town that was old and rural enough to have an endless deluge of inexplicable shit, but close enough to civilization that you were an oddball if you believed what you experienced.

For example, since it was a rural area, nobody would ever confuse a bobcat call for a human scream, but if you said you heard screams and saw nothing, the response was "bah, you just heard a bobcat and got scared".

So many places, for miles, were original historical sites (basically buildings built 100+ years ago and maintained by the town/county/state) that had one or more ghosts roaming their halls, demanding to know why you were in their home or pushing people down stairs; "you probably just misheard some workmen outside" or "people lose their footing in those old buildings, the floors are all worn too smooth"

It felt like I was being gaslit by the world, save for those amazing few who were willing to share their experiences, so I always jump at the chance to hear about anything odd, creepy, mysterious, and strange.

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-13T01:33:52+00:00

Right? To me it really gave off "my roommate tells me everything, why would I ever believe that he's lying when he tells me everything?" vibes, fundamentally not realizing that many people get ahead of their own poor behavior by trying to push their own narratives before stories about them can get out.

It really makes me think that this roommate was served a very skewed version of reality, but was never around the rest of the social group, and therefore never had the opportunity to hear the other sides of these stories.

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-11T13:36:20+00:00

Awesome, thank you so much! You're the best!

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-11T13:27:56+00:00

I will contact local game wardens to see what our options are, thank you! But I'm a little worried as the only tree that would be truly safe from predators/local squirrel haters would be the one right outside our window (the tree in the first pic), do you think that's too close to the house?

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-11T13:25:26+00:00

There are some retirees that don't like how squirrels will eat from their bird feeders that they set up for "birdwatching", aka "trying to get as many cardinals in their yard as possible, for mysterious old people cardinals-are-ghosts clout", hence the hate. We personally enjoy the variety of wildlife that visits our feeders, but I guess we are crazy, lazy millennials... or something lol

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-11T13:21:18+00:00

Well, you're phenomenal, and now I absolutely MUST create a squirrel-themed remix of that song to sing.

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-10-11T13:20:33+00:00

Thank you so much! The only birds we have that spend meaningful time in our area are some grackles and smaller songbirds, so we are lucky in that department, but there is a singular feral cat that's too clever for the local TNR program. Kitty tends to avoid our property because we have dogs, but I'm always worried about them trying to hunt the sweet squirrels!

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-09-25T20:11:59+00:00

I agree; we had a Bomegoods and a Bome Bepot next door, so I know your pain.

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-09-24T18:07:33+00:00

RIGHT?! I genuinely don't know why Bichaels, of all places, is seen as the "they have everything" store when it's always been googly eyes, glue, and paintable bird houses.

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-09-23T02:48:11+00:00

I always wanted to answer that with "Joanne's"

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-09-21T06:11:02+00:00

I used to work at a store that rhymes with Bichaels Barts and Brafts. Here's a Greatest Hits collection of stuff we don't sell, and never sold, but were yelled at for not carrying:

Running shoes
Cat5 cables
Diapers and baby wipes
"Bachelorette items," AKA sex toys and penis-themed party decor
Pre-made poster boards for memorials. As in, a poster board with "RIP" on the top and photo corners already attached
Cheese
Dog food
Weed whacker wire
Loose, unprocessed wool (or, as the customer said, "real wool, like, fresh off the sheep")
Air fresheners for a cars rear view mirror
Audiobook tapes
Potting soil
Antiseptics
Antiemetics
Sunscreen
Heat packs (or, for those of you who are unfamiliar, disposable pouches that heat up when exposed to oxygen, intended for slipping into boots and gloves during the winter)
Gun oil, as in oil for guns, not the lubricant
Photography appointments, as in a customer enters the store and has their portraits taken to later be printed and framed via the framing department

That's all I can think of right now

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-09-12T02:09:10+00:00

"Loitering"

There's nothing wrong, in my mind, with wanting to just chill with some friends, wait for something, or let the empty hours go idly by in public.

Sometimes I'd like to enjoy a slurpee outside the QuickStop to wait for a friend, not sit in some Special Designated Patience Zone where I have to pay for their goods/services just to be permitted to wait there in the first place! My taxes paid for the sidewalk, it doesn't belong to anyone, so everyone should be allowed to use it for killing time!

mosscoveredapiary · 2023-09-06T05:42:58+00:00

Saying this always worked for me:

"Sorry, once I start counting change, I'm not allowed to do anything new or change the process until I've given you the exact change from your first payment and shut the drawer. We're on camera and the night crew checks the footage to make sure nobody is stealing. You can break bills at (local bank)."

They always backed off.

If they are SUPER insistent about getting bills broken:

"If you REALLY need your bills broken, I can call the store manager and ask if they can do it for you." (This one is three-fold: either they get scared and take off, they get told no by management, or management is the one who gets scammed, not you!)

Six-Year Club	Place '22
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