You win, lol. That’s terrible.

My mom used to be a great cook but now she just makes everything in the microwave, often in plastic containers. This year she seemed to forget half the things she was going to cook. We had plans to make beignets and homemade eggnog (we didn’t). For Christmas dinner she made this elaborate meal plan and then changed everything at the last minute. She somehow didn’t think about starting the rice until the chicken was done cooking… then suggested we have nasty precooked pouch rice. For Christmas dinner. It would be different if she didn’t cook much or know how, but cooking is her whole thing! I’m honestly baffled. I’ve decided I’m just going to volunteer to cook the entire dinner next time. I’ve been a professional cook before. I can make something fancy, even if I’m the only one who will appreciate it.

Did you have a fever? Could be a bit of delirium.

If it chipped, then it is likely some kind of vinyl or composite made to look like wood. Nowadays the fake wood looks realistic enough to fool people! But real wood doesn’t chip like that.

I’m surrounded by pine trees, blackberry bushes, and ivy. Christmas looks pretty green to me!

Yeah the problem with scrolling is that it’s designed to keep you scrolling. You could put on a TV show instead. Either you’ll get sucked in and watch it or you’ll get bored and want to do something else. As long as you don’t get stuck scrolling, you can decide what you’d rather do.

I know unfinished business doesn’t necessarily mean business in the economic sense, but it’s still funny we call it that. Like even ghosts can’t escape capitalism.

I mean, sure, you could argue we’re already there.

Mormons have three tiers of heaven. According to some, even Hitler would make it into the lowest tier. I’m not sure what you’d have to do to actually go to hell, which is supposedly just lonely infinite darkness away from the presence of God.

I hate to break it to you but almost every major corporation has a person whose entire job is to translate corporate copy into easy-to-parse, casual, friendly “conversation,” because they do want you to think of the brand as your trusted friend. They’re trying to manipulate us at every level, every interaction.

At 1.2 million, it’s overpriced. They’ve likely priced it that way because it’s now an Airbnb - “look at all the income you’ll make by buying this property!” But what really changed in the two years they owned it? Did they remodel the whole place? Possibly, but probably not enough to warrant adding $550k to the price. This house is now an investment, not a place to live.

I have noticed a particular attitude with a lot of sellers, though. They think because other sellers have been having great windfalls that they can just list for any high amount and it’ll work for them too. Those are the ones that sit, and they’re usually priced at 1m or more.

The homes flying off the shelves, so to speak, are the starter homes. You have both younger and older generations fighting for the same small affordable homes, and developers generally aren’t building as many of those.

Ok doc, what do you suggest? I’m 40 and somehow my 80 year old mother has better mobility than I do. I can’t even tell you why I have pain, there is no injury. Doctors can’t tell me why. I’ve tried everything short of opioids and back surgery, and I know those aren’t going to help either. What the hell do you do when your body just doesn’t react normally to exercise, stretching, physical therapy, etc?? It’s not that I want to accept that this is my life now, but there don’t seem to be any other options. Just be glad this isn’t happening to you, I guess.

Some just gave up entirely and made fun of the kids who could read. What a shitty exercise all around.

Can she ask the coauthors how they’re dealing with it? Maybe ask the bosses if they can open the uploads earlier, especially if everyone is having a hard time getting their work uploaded in time.

Wikipedia lists Real Clear Politics as having become more conservative and right leaning in recent years. Their polls may not be as accurate.

Really think about what you are expecting of yourself at times like that. Sometimes nice restaurants make me feel pressured to have a good time or otherwise “fit in” with the other people eating there.

Maybe it’s less popular because so many people buy ice cream to eat with actual apple pie, or some other kind of pie which might taste weird with apple pie flavors.

Uh what? Where the heck did you hear it’s bad to wear sunglasses during the day?? How would that have an effect on sleep rhythms? Do you think blind people don’t sleep, or…?

If I got an invite like this and I knew that many people were invited, I may have assumed that most of the others would show up, and therefore you may not even notice whether I showed up or not. Like, inviting 50 people is already kind of impersonal, isn’t it? Would you really have the time to interact with all 50 if they had all showed?

And really, who cares if you don’t have 50 friends? I don’t. Most people I know don’t. They might have 50 acquaintances, but keeping up that many friendships would be exhausting.

I guess I don’t understand this “professional career oriented program.” Is it like a grad school? Is there a good chance all or some of you will end up working with each other at the same employer later? There should be lots of other places to find a partner. You must have some kind of social life outside of this program, right?

Dating is hard, but breaking up in a mutual way where both people can still respect each other is even harder. Imagine the drama there will be after you’ve dated a few people from this group. People in the program may take you less seriously because they think you’re just there to find dates. But this is your career. Shouldn’t you take it seriously?

If you really want to date someone there, you can, if you’re smart about it (and make sure it’s worth the risk, not just for any passing crush). But don’t try to manipulate the whole group in order to do that. Don’t use the chats to try to get close to someone. Do any non-professional stuff outside of the program, away from the others. Don’t bring your relationship drama into the program, especially if the relationship ends. Think of all these rules as practice for how you will need to act professionally in your future career. That’s what this program is for, isn’t it?

I want to be friends and stay professional overall, while tapping into potential with the guy I like

These things are not really compatible. The sooner you learn that, you will have a lot less workplace drama. Your professional workplace should not be a dating pool. There is no reason to exclude the other women. Who cares if one of them lied? Are you the moral police? Just chill, and let people do what they want. You don’t need to control the situation.