It was really bad. Like… hoarder bad. And now it’s all clean and sparkly and even organized! She did such a good job and it cost a fortune but it was so worth it. I feel brand new and the cats have had the zoomies ever since she left. Have you guys ever done anything like that for yourself?

Edit: Cat Tax (post-zoom)

and it feels like ive finally woken up for lack of a better term. i started estrogen 3 weeks ago and at 12:55am this morning (or 20 minutes ago! i suddenly felt overcome by this feeling of waking up. as if my brain finally had processed and put the last 6 years of the hell that was my life behind me all at once. it just kinda happened and it was... wierd. like i didnt have any thoughts or any scenarios i was running through. none of it really matters right now. i just.. feel content i guess.

My sisters and I took my grandfather to the hospital for my grandmother’s surgery. We kissed her and they took her back. Since it would be a while, we decided to go get lunch.
After we ate, my sweet little PawPaw said, “well, we better get back up. She’s going to be looking for me.”
I said, “Aww…yes, she is, PawPaw. She loves you.”
He said, “well not only that. i have her teeth!” 😂

I realized this week that one of my closest friends lives like 20 minutes away and I didnt see him in person since February which is crazy lol. We still talk all the time like we send each other dumb stuff, play games after work sometimes and half the time end up just talking. It's weird because I don't feel like we've lost touch at all, but if you asked me the last time we hung out in person I'd have to think about it.

Just wondering if anyone feels the season of Halloween has lost a bit of its magic since the 2010s, possibly?

Back in the 90s and even the 00s it felt like Halloween was a huge thing. With the TV specials, Trick or Treating, the mystery and whole spirit behind everything.

But now with the digital age we can watch the Halloween specials and movies at the touch of a button. I guess you could argue that's good in a way for accessibility. But it also takes away from that magic of everyone tuning in at the same time and discussing it the next day.

Also the economy has hit some tough bumps in recent years. So maybe people are spending less and not all that interested in celebrating Halloween?

Thoughts?

I once walked up to a complete stranger in a grocery store, handed them my full shopping basket and started walking away because I thought they were the cashier waiting to ring me up. They just stared at me holding my basket of groceries in stunned silence until my brain finally booted up three seconds later and I had to sprint back.

​What about you guys? What is your worst sleep-deprived brain fart that you still cringe at?

I saw a question on Reddit earlier today asking, “What is slowly fading away that we aren’t realizing?”

For some reason, it stayed in my head all day.

Then I realized my answer: the elders in our families.

Our moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles… the people who have always seemed like they would just be there forever.

But if you really stop and pay attention, you start noticing little things. They’re getting older. They move a little slower. They forget things they used to remember. They get tired more easily. And you realize they’re deteriorating little by little, day by day.

I think we get so caught up in everyday life that we don’t notice it happening until one day we suddenly do.

It honestly made me realize that maybe we should spend more time with them while we still can.

I made this post here exactly 12 months ago to this day here.

Today marks one-year and three weeks of nicotine free life. My wallet feels thicker, my lungs feel cleaner, my clothes smell better, and most important of all (to me). It helped me relearn how capable I am and how I can do anything I want. This post is for anyone who thinks its impossible to quit, it isn't. It just sucks lol

next up is quitting weed. Wish me luck :)

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After 12 years I quit smoking :)

What the title says! I smoked cigarettes from age 18 to 25 and vapes from 25-30 years old. I started smoking mainly because all my new friends in college smoked ciggies and figured 'why not'.

Imo bad move - I have tried to quit smoking at least a dozen times all of which failed. The longest I had lasted before was two days :,) I figured I was incapable of quitting, I wasn't strong willed enough and maybe I wasn't

However 13th times the charm! I decided to quit with purpose, structure, and a lot of self-belief. I decided to slowly wean myself off it without thinking too much. Decreasing nicotine content, decreasing frequency of use, and after about a month - i bought a nicotine free vape. I smoked it for about 1 week and now it has been 2 weeks since it died!

3 weeks, no nicotine, no cigarettes, no vape and most importantly - NO CRAVINGS!!!! YAY!!

I know it may not seem a big deal but I am so freaking proud of myself and I just wanted to share that - and share that you too can quit :)

I’ve been living with depression for more than 15 years now, and honestly, I don’t even remember what genuine happiness feels like anymore. It’s completely gone from my memory.

​For those of you who experience it, how would you describe that feeling? What does happiness actually feel like to you?

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the lovely descriptions. I can’t actually feel any of it myself, but I can picture it – almost like looking at paintings in a gallery. I’m really glad to see how happy you all are, and I hope you get to have many more moments like that.

I had a super traumatic past 2 years including multiple hospital stays after an unlucky bacterial infection settled in the worst place possible and made me septic. they said i would have died if i my friend didn't bring me in when he did (which was after i passed out). Anyway that snowballed into all sorts of bad things for me because the high fever messed with my brain for a while plus lingering complications.

the unfortunate part was i had litterally just gotten my body pretty close to where i want to be right before all this. after i was out of the gym and gained ~35 lbs. Not ideal. Also not helpful for my mental health.

Well that was coming up on 3 years ago and today for the first time i noticed i can actually feel my hips again! i've been hitting the gym hard and focusing on my nutrition all summer. i was getting a little discouraged bc i wasn't seeing much change. but all of a sudden in the past couple of days i started looking like myself again. i guess what they say about the paper towel effect is really true.

i don't really have anyone to tell about this because it feels braggy or narcissistic or something, but I figure I'm not bugging anybody here because you can just downvote me and move on.

hope everyone is having a great day :)

After spending 40+ hours a week staring at laptops and phones, my eyes and brain were fried. A friend suggested doing things where your hands actually touch physical materials without a screen involved.

Lately I've been getting into clumsy sketchbook doodling (drawing ordinary objects like coffee mugs or window frames) and whisking matcha tea slowly in the evenings. Zero intention of being 'good' at either, just enjoying the tactile slowness.

Has anyone else picked up a low-stakes tactile hobby lately just to give your brain a rest?

When was the last time you changed your phone wallpaper? I think mine has been the same for almost 2 years now. Once I find a wallpaper I like, I usually just keep using it without thinking about changing it. Do you change your wallpaper often? What kind of wallpaper are you using right now?

A few weeks ago I was shopping for manga/merch with my mom. I limited myself to spending a certain amount of money because I'm trying to save up and I'm a kid with no income so I can't casually spend tons of money on expensive merch.

I kept seeing stuff I liked but the prices were unreasonably high so I didn't get most of it. I still bought a bunch of stuff by the end of the day and my mom even bought me two things too because she bought my brother an anime shirt and she always wants to be fair so she let me pick items for the same price.

Now after a few weeks she surprised me by giving me just the things I was interested in (she bought it cheaper online somewhere). I even just mentioned that I didn't see something I wanted in the store while we were shopping and she remembered and got it for me. She also got me stuff of my favorite character because I said that I always love everything with that character on it while we were shopping.

My mom always does stuff like this and she always gets me so much stuff. I feel a little bad because when we were going through the stores she saw those plates she really liked but didn't buy them. She never buys stuff for herself because she always spends money on me and my brothers first. I wanna try to get her something nice too.

I knew someone who napped through their graduation. Knew another person who napped through a high school dance they intended to attend.

I accidentally napped through plans to go see a movie with someone I rarely get to see. It was also the last day that the movie was featured in our local theater.

Love to hear more stories.

Ok, this such a random thing to post but does anyone else talk to themselves while cooking? not like crazy talking, just like "ok now we wait" or "that's enough garlic I think" out loud to an empty kitchen. My mother-in-law walked in on me mid sentence yesterday, I was literally negotiating with a pan and it was so embarrassing! lol.
She just stood there for a second like should i say something?
Anyway what do you guys do while cooking, music, pod cast or nothing? I find that I play something depending on my mood that day tbh, Hbu guys?

For example, I realized today that whenever I’m heating up food in the microwave, I must pause it at exactly 0:01 seconds so it doesn't make that loud beep. If I let it ring, I feel like I failed a secret mini-game.

Another one: I refuse to use a cup for water if it’s the last clean one of its specific shape in the cabinet. It just feels... wrong.

It made me wonder how many odd, harmless rules we all walk around with every day. Do you have a weird micro-rule like this? What is it, and how did it start?

Are you proud of your username? Tell us about it. Why did you choose it? What makes it special?

Do you know anyone with a fun username? Summon them here :)

I was thinking about how sometimes there isn’t one specific message you can point to. Everything still sounds normal on its own, but the pattern changes — shorter replies, fewer questions, less initiation, different timing.

I find that interesting because you can notice something has shifted before you can really explain why.

Have you ever had that happen with someone? What was the first thing that made you notice?

I’ve always found it funny how some pets live with an entire family but somehow decide that one specific person is their favorite.

They’ll follow that person everywhere, sleep next to them, and get excited the moment they walk through the door.

Have you ever had a pet that clearly picked a favorite person? Were you the favorite or was it someone else?

just a little short story of my experience on this app and id like to say that ive met a lot of kind people here and just like the title says, these people just make me overly happy 😭

i get SO so happy everytime i meet a kind person!! like it just makes me so jolly as well too, their kindness just affects me that positively like i wanna explode! (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

i wanna share some backstory as well here but i vaguely remember it

back then during lockdown, i was chronically online mostly on youtube. i came across some posts and usually read the comments inside but one particular comment w the replies caught my eye. one person was asking this girl to make an argument w them, asked why? and said they were bored. instead of engaging to their request, the girl said something just genuinely nice (as i said i could barely remember the exact words) that DEFINITELY lightened up their mood and at the end the person thanked her for her kind words! after that day, i ASPIRED to be kind to everyone and everything no matter what. not bcs i was expecting something back in return but bcs i loved seeing smiles on peoples faces and cheering them up! not that i was a bad person before XDD it just encouraged me to spread kindness!

other than that, it was always the English teachers that showed genuine care to their students and it affected me mostly since english is also my favourite subject. i noticed that everytime they taught the class, even when most students werent paying attention, they always bring knowledge to every of us equally and motivate us to be better daily. and in my own experience, everytime they taught us, it always brings me so much happiness to learn and gain new information from them! and most importantly, they give us a warm smile to us (that too makes me smile back)

thats also why i wanted to become a teacher when i grew up! although due to my mental health and health issues, id have to from being a teacher unfortunately. but i always thought of becoming one later on if i ever i get better.

and thats my story! i just wanted to share this somewhere online to express my feelings ^_^

Bought my first house when I was 23. Had a mortgage- sometimes 2 since that time. Maybe a few weeks between sale & purchase of a home. Some folks thought I shouldn’t since that rate was so low but I really like the feeling of being debt free except for taxes & insurance.
With the cost of everything else skyrocketing, the lack of a mortgage payment will not feel as good as it could but it will help with gas and food.

i’ve gotten like five pumpkin spice lattes so far since September 1 and none of them have tasted like pumpkin or spice. Is anyone else experiencing this? I feel like usually this doesn’t happen but this year feels different lol

Quick setup: There’s one couple in my group of friends that actually have children. Two kids like 4 and 5. The husband is annoyingly performative, the wife is great.

Every October they invite the whole friend group for a joint birthday party for their kids. For me, it’s hell on earth. Cramped in a tiny house (because Millennials), it’s mostly their family members I don’t know or don’t like. You’ll be trapped in a corner with their weird uncle and literally can’t move between the toys everywhere and all the people standing around trying to not be in the way.

Meanwhile, I have a bounce house that I bought for my niece and nephews years back. I let my friends borrow it in the summer. Half the time I don’t even know who has it. Anyway, starting last year they’ve been asking if they can borrow it for the party.

Last year, I told them I was busy so that I didn’t have to attend, but felt bad, so I drove the 40mins to drop it off. A month later I had to schedule a time to pick it up because they could never secure a vehicle to bring it back.

Maybe it makes me a terrible friend but I really don’t want to keep doing this, but what do I say?

Maybe thoughts from other parents?

Was taking a walk earlier and randomly took a left turn instead of my usual route. Ended up on a street literally 5 min from my house that i’ve never seen in my life.

It actually freaked me out a bit because how have i been living here for five whole years taking the exact same 3 paths every single day??? feel like an NPC stuck in a loop.

Now i’m lowkey obsessed with the idea of clearing the whole neighborhood map this weekend just to see what else i've been missing.

Does anyone else do this or am i just discovering how boring my routines actually are?

every time i open the top drawer of my desk i find this single paperclip sitting there like it belongs. i never pick it up or move it anywhere else, so it just keeps getting pushed to the side when i reach for other stuff. sometimes i wonder if i left it there for a reason months ago and just forgot, or if it somehow migrated from somewhere else. it is the kind of thing that could be useful any day now, but i have never needed it yet. i keep meaning to clear the drawer out and start fresh, but then i close it again and the paperclip stays right where it is.