My what?

Wedding rings were there to show who was married and who was available. Once you wanted to get married, you just found a friendly person who didn’t have a ring, and then you asked if they’d marry you. I mean, that IS what happens I suppose, but my 8 year old brain played it out like someone asking a nice stranger for the time.

Glad someone mentioned it, that was my immediate thought.

Absolutely, the only difference from sovcits is that the bogeyman we believe in is real - it’s the insurance companies and billionaires.

She’s occasionally sad she can’t go outside, but then we bring all the stimulation and excitement inside to her and she forgets all about it.

I need to get off this list, we’re at max capacity!

I’ll post a bunch tonight when she’s back indoors. We’re going to try to gradually transition her to being indoors.

I text him a photo of her being warm inside and he basically just replied “I have that same sweater” and nothing else. I can’t imagine being that careless.

My dilemma was that it was still technically someone’s pet, even if I didn’t agree with how they cared for her. She really does love being outside, so until it got cold it was hard to say she was being treated badly, he had been putting food out and left the window cracked for her to come back. He only moved last week, so things have kinda escalated since then.

The update is that he responded this morning saying she was ours! I’ll be making the vet appointment today to get her all fixed up. It’s going to be hard to transition her to indoor life as she was feral and then had two prior owners who let her roam, but we’ll try and get her there over time.

Struggles! We have an indoor cat named Snuggles who is the exact same coloring, so it kinda happened organically over the years as we spotted her around the neighborhood. Strugs for short.

Absolutely this. I am jealous each time I recommend it to someone who hasn’t played it yet.

Mortgage and three cats (plus a clingy stray and three chickens outside). Luckily the husband has a good job so we’re ok.

I always try to live my life imagining this all being a memory to my elderly future self, and thinking about how I’d be reacting to it. Am I feeling strong pride or regret about my choices? Is there something that feels like it matters right now that will totally be forgettable in the grand scheme? It really helps me when I encounter difficult decisions, and it’s how I realized that I need some time to realign myself with the things that bring me joy.

Best of luck to you, I have a sense (knowing nothing about you) that elderly you is SO freaking pumped that you’re doing this.

Congratulations! I am working out my notice period of my job right now, I am taking December to regroup and will begin job hunting in January. It feels so liberating!

Very accurate. We have the Quest 1 and 2, both just collecting dust now, I’m not even sure if they would work anymore. We set up a VR gaming night with a few friends who also had headsets, played Beat Saber and Synth Riders a bunch, then got bored and decided to explore a new game where you walk about and chop wood and whatnot. Five minutes of that and I was so dizzy I almost threw up. It made me realize that the type of game you can play on these is very very limited. I did get a lot of mileage from Synth Riders, so I’m not saying it’s all worthless tech, but we probably could have got a better ROI just buying a regular console with the money.

What did you grow?

Graphic design of print on demand products. I started it in 2017 when I was between jobs, put in serious effort for about two years, I still make around $200 a month passively from it. Doesn’t pay all the bills but it does give me a decent chunk of beer money.

I’m now exploring choice mushroom growing, as there is a shit ton of money to be made in oysters and lions mane rn.

And what about the ones, like me, in red states? How fucked are we? (I know the answer and hence drunk and high rn)

Outdoor hobbies. I’ve got really into foraging, which has multiple benefits, I get to be outside, I get exercise, I learn new things which stimulates my brain, and if I’m lucky I also get free food (which is usually superior in taste and nutrition to store bought). I combine it with hiking, fishing, geocaching etc and if I’m alone I sometimes listen to music on my headphones. Once you start developing outdoor hobbies it’s like you unlock an insanely intricate open world video game.

I just recently quit my job and it’s got me thinking about app development around this idea.

I just quit yesterday with nothing else lined up. Gonna take a WHOLE MONTH for healing (isn’t it ridiculous how ridiculous that feels?) and then figure out my next move. I wanna build an app or something.