Cvs walk in clinic

Five months sober and I've managed to get through most of my triggers: it was a hard day at work, it's Friday, it's Sunday night and I have to go to work tomorrow, I'm mad at , boozy party, I'm bored, I'm hungry, family vacation to water park with swim up bar (spicy virgin bloody marys taste just as good as booze when sitting on a submerged bar stool), I don't feel like doing , job contract ended, can't find a new job, yay I have an interview scheduled so I should celebrate, interview stressed me out so I need to calm down, yay I got the job so I should celebrate...But my new job scheduled my (unbeknownst to them) first sober work trip for next week. I looked up the hotel on a map, then suddenly found myself figuring out nearby restaurants I could walk to so I didn't have to drive back drunk, locating a nearby grocery store so I could buy booze, checking out the hotel restaurant and if they'd deliver bottles of wine...and then I realized what I was doing. Nice try Alcohol! Not on THIS trip! Bad enough my introverted self has to be around people all day and has to deal with business lunch and dinners. I'm not crawling out of bed hung over for all-day meetings in overheated conference rooms where I have to try to stay awake, and be chipper and witty. Alcohol can f&&& the hell right off!

Hi there. I'm a 31 year old Mexican from California. I work as a high school teacher. My summer break has just begun. I'm looking to relax and unwind for these next couple days, so I'm looking for anyone who may be interested in a chat. You can be a fellow teacher and we can exchange stories and/or experiences. Or you could be someone just looking for a chat. My interests include watching sports, anime, movies, going on walks, and playing some video games.
Let me know if you're interested. Have a nice day!

Hi,
I’ve been working as an in-patient clinical dietitian for about 5 months now. I absolutely hate it. The tube feeding is just so blah and it’s put a damper on my passion for teaching nutrition. Once I hit my 90 days, I started pulling back on my hours as PRN from 40 hours a week to 32. During this time, I started interviewing for out-patient clinics . Long story short and many failed interviews later, I was offered a contract in out-patient care but it doesn’t start until July.
So I signed this contract at end of May for a job that starts in July. It’s too early to put my 2 weeks notice in. But I feel so dam desperate to leave the Hosptial that it’s painful for me 🤣. I looked at my time clock and noticed for the past 9 shifts I’ve been working 6.5 hours.
Anyways, I just wanted to put that out there that I hate working in clinical nutrition and I still have 4 weeks until I can place my two weeks notice. Any advice on how to survive ? Does my manager notice me leaving at 6.5 hours ? And since I’m PRN does it even matter? 😹😆
Please help me 🤣🤣

I just need some advice on how to handle this situation, whenever I think about it, my mind pulls me in 100 different directions and I honestly don't know what to do.
Back in 2021, I had my first born at 16 years old with my baby daddy who was also 16. When we found out that I was pregnant, he was not very supportive of the situation. Immediately he scrambled to find someone to take me to an abortion clinic and wanted to keep the entire thing on hush. I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do and being a 16-year-old, I was terrified. I did not end up getting an abortion, and once we passed the first trimester, that option was of course off the table. This was the topic of every conversation but now it was revolving around an adoption. Which I also did not want. When I was about 7-8 months along, he seemed to have started supporting me but it switched on and off. One day we talked about baby names and the next I got messages telling me how much of a b*tch I am and that I f*cked his life up. This continued the same way, every single day for the rest of my pregnancy. I ended up having my baby a week early and surprise surprise, my baby daddy did not come to see his son being born. He slept through the entire thing and when he woke up he made a promise to come see us. But instead, after I brought his son into this world, I had to argue with him the entire time I was in the hospital. He made threats of suicide and told me that he would make sure to include in the note that it was all my fault. I remember one detail of this text specifically, he said "You reap what you sow". Basically saying since I had my child, I caused his death. The day I went home, he suddenly wanted to be involved again. Which I accepted because I loved him and wanted it to work. I was constantly home with my baby and provided all the care and needs that this tiny human needed. He would come and stay a lot but even in the same room as my child, he did not provide care.
Fast forwarding: That same pattern continued for a long time and our partnership eventually took a crumble due to his infidelity. Once we split, he would start seeing my son less and less. He would go days, then weeks, and now, months without seeing my son. He has become an alcoholic and deadbeat. A lot of time for girls, parties, friends, and alcohol but no room to be a father.
Eventually, I caught on to the pattern and now I do not engage with him at all. I even put up an ultimatum, you either step up or step out. He said he was going to step up (and did not) so I went and filed for child support, but he refuses to take the steps for a court date. I really just want to close that whole chapter of my life but I know I cannot just block him and go about my life...right? Idk, I have been thriving with him completely out of the picture, I just know that eventually, he is going to try to come back. I just don't think that it's best for my son to go with him because he is not the type of person I would even normally trust my son to go with. The only reason I allow it is because I feel it's wrong to keep my son away and the one time I did block him, he told everyone I was keeping him away from his son. I know this post is messy and there are so many different factors but any advice at all would help.
I just want to heal and keep my son protected.

Hello TSO30! After seeing the immense camaraderie and wholesomeness of the folks who attended the meetup, I’ve decided to put myself out on a listing.
I’m a lean, fit, tan South Indian, about 5’9”, wear glasses, and I’m a creative advertising copywriter by profession. I used to be shy growing up, but I’ve since blossomed into a sexy outgoing butterfly, slowly conquering my fear of putting myself out there. 😂
I’m looking for something casual (not a fling, mind), and if a connection grows, I’m happy to see where it goes.
My ideas of dates revolve around people and culture: movies, plays, museums, art galleries. Coffee dates, long walks around the city, board games, wandering the aisles in secondhand book stores. I’m not a hiking or a big fan of sporting events or bars; that’s not my cup of tea. I love the literal interpretation of Netflix and Chill (take-in, snuggles, 420, and old reruns of Seinfeld and Frasier).
Speaking of Netflix, I am sexually inexperienced ( a byproduct of shyness growing up and a rigid social structure in my home country). I was virgin-shamed on a couple of dates here, and it has made me self-conscious. If you DM me, I assume you can empathize and not judge me if we get physical.
I’m incredibly self-driven, have a good sense of humor, and want to spend some quality time with someone this summer. I live close to Finch.
My dealbreaker is cigarette smoking. I respect your choice, but that’s not for me. I also do not want children; I know it’s very premature to say that here, but if sparks do fly, I do not want either of us to be sad about this point.
Please DM me if you are interested. You are guaranteed a respectful reply.

I see a lot of expats posting about problems and challenges in their new country, and I am not objecting to that. When you're unhappy, this can be a good place to find some support or at least a sympathetic ear. But I've lived outside of my home country for nearly three decades now, and I'd like to share my story and some of the positives I've experienced.
I was born and raised in Norway. By all accounts, that's winning the birth lottery. I'm proud to be Norwegian, and that will always be a part of my identity. However, in my teens, small town Norway felt kind of boring, and I wanted an adventure, so I went on a pilgrimage.
I was a computer geek before geeks became popular. When you're a computer geek, Mecca is in Silicon Valley, or at least it was back then. And so for my first real trip outside of Scandinavia, I moved to California as a high school exchange student.
High school was different. There was homesickness, but there were also new friends, new activities and a whole new climate. I arrived proficient in reading and writing English, but my spoken accent was very characteristically Norwegian. By the time I left, I was basically fluent. A slight accent remained, but it was no longer a barrier to communication.
I came home with a very pro-US viewpoint. I was dazzled by this land of opportunity, and in retrospect, I was overlooking some of the negatives, even back then. But I decided that I wanted to go back to the US for college.
I did exactly that. This time, I moved to Texas and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. This was my first experience really trying to live on my own (in California, I had had a host family) and it would be a lie to say that the international factor didn't make it extra intimidating. My dorm roommate told me he couldn't imagine what it would be like to be that far away from his family. Then his parents moved from Houston, Texas to Fairbanks, Alaska, so I guess he got to find out.
Even I can't find anything positive to say about dorm food, and there were some other problems. Surviving and thriving on a student budget could be tough, for one thing. But there's a silver lining to every cloud. I was able to obtain an off-campus work permit by showing the US government that the strengthening dollar had left my scholarship (in Norwegian currency) inadequate. Work permit in hand, one of the easiest student jobs I could find was a bus driver position with the university shuttle system. Not exactly your typical job for a computer science student, but it paid surprisingly well and I could schedule my shifts around my classes, so it proved a great fit. The only drawback was that junior drivers got no work over the summer when the university ran a much reduced bus schedule.
I solved that conundrum by going into trucking...helped in part by a really nice road trip I had stumbled into with a trucker friend the previous year, and by statements from him and others that I wasn't the trucker type and would never make it in that industry (challenged accepted!) Over the next few years, I was a college student from September through May, and drove trucks coast-to-coast every summer. I made it through 46 states and got paid to see the country.
That likely wouldn't have happened in Norway. Not because Norway doesn't have truckers, but because that kind of random detour from the "ideal" career path wouldn't sit well with Norwegian society. Norway likes social order. America likes individualism. I found that American friends found my little detour into trucking cool while Norwegian friends mostly just found it...odd.
Fast-forward a few years, and my first job offer out of college landed in my lap very unexpectedly. Through a friend in Norway, I landed my first full-time job. However, it wasn't in the US. Or in Norway. It was in Vienna, Austria. And it was too good to turn down, especially in an IT job market on life support after the .com bubble burst.
So I packed my bags and moved to Vienna. I still had an overly positive view of the US, although the way the US conducted itself in the wake of 9/11 would shake those convictions to the core. The job in Austria was fantastic in every way, I had fun at work, I had supportive coworkers...and then I had a few challenges.
One of them is that I have asthma. And in Austria in 2001, people still smoked inside. The first thing that happened in my new job is that I had to walk in and tell the three people I was sharing an office with that they could no longer smoke in the office. Thankfully, HR backed me up, but that didn't exactly win me any popularity contests I tried to be humble and explain as best I could that the asthma was beyond my control, and that did work...eventually. The ice thawed, and I settled into my new job.
But what about when it was time to go home? I did not have much of a social life at first. In the beginning, I could blame the language barrier -- much like my school English, my school German was inadequate at first. My coworkers were mostly fluent in English; the rest of Austrian society, not so much. And after all, I was in their country, it was only proper that I should learn THEIR language. So I put a lot of effort into that, speaking German with my coworkers and with anyone else who would put up with me. This was when I ran into another typical expat problem: Whenever I encountered an Austrian who spoke English, he/she would detect my foreign accent and switch to English unprompted. It took me a while to pick up on Austrian accents in general and Viennese German in particular, but eventually, I did.
That still didn't help my social life. Nor did the fact that bars and other similar venues were off-limits due to the aforementioned asthma. My coworkers were nice and polite, but Austria seems to have a bit of a taboo against socializing with coworkers outside of work. Truth be told, this is a nut I never quite did manage to crack. I did eventually make a number of friends in Austria, but the majority were fellow expats.
One of those friends was an American who had moved to Austria for personal reasons, but still tried to run a business along with a business partner of his back in Florida. To make an already-long story somewhat shorter, they hired me on a skilled worker visa and I moved back to the United States. I was excited to be in the US again, and I was not sorry to leave Austria behind. But I also don't regret taking the opportunity I was given in Vienna. I learned a lot from my years there.
Since then, my career path has been more normal. I've mostly lived in Florida since, with the exception of a few years back in Norway during the Great Recession. Even then, I wound up working for a well-known US company, so I'd sit in Norway fielding conference calls from Oklahoma and Texas. Then I moved back to Florida again because my wife (now ex-wife) decided she didn't want to live in Norway. At this point, I've lived in Florida continuously since 2012. And while I miss friends and family in Norway, life in Florida has been good to me. I've met great people here, and I've had adventures that wouldn't have been possible back home.
My asthma likes the Florida climate. Warm and humid sounds like a nightmare to some, but that warmth opens up my lungs and the humidity keeps the worst of the pollen out of the air. On the social scene, many Europeans call Americans "superficial", but I find that makes it easier to break the ice and make friends. So not everyone you meet is going to be your new BFF, but what's the harm in meeting them anyway?
People often ask me why I would leave Norway when the quality of life there is "so much better" (their words, not mine.) But quality of life is subjective. Sure, there are things I like better in Norway than in the US, but the reverse is also true.
Life has not been the straightforward path I'd envisioned in my teens, but it has been an adventure so far, and I can't wait to see what's around the next corner.

Credit to u/SpacePaladin15
Somebody explain how to embed links in text on mobile please
Memory transcription subject: Salvek, Human-Venlil Exchange Program Candidate
Date [standardized human time]: September 3, 2136
I hate banks. Or, more specifically, I hate the United Banking Service. I've never really used another bank, on account of my mother signing me up for a twenty-five year family plan for a cash bonus that never came (it was twenty-five thousand credits, I can't really blame her) but that just makes me hate this one more.
The fat, lazy Gojid on the other side of the bulletproof glass teller window tapped away at his keyboard in order to process my application for a loan. Above him I saw the UBS logo and motto: "Speed, Security, Success." All a load of vyalpic if you ask me. (I will die of old age before this loan ever comes through)
"Sooooo....." Thank the Herd, he was finally talking. I was worried his fat ass had a heart attack and died with how little moving he did. "Your credit score issss....." Oh Protector, just spit it out already! Now I get why predators have such violent impulses. (What if I can't control mine? What if we're worse than them?)
Brahk my intrusive thoughts. How does Jack control his so well? I resolved to ask him when my loan got processed, assuming neither of us starved to death in the meantime. (Speed, security, and success this dick)
"Seven hundred and ninety." Oh, thank Inatala. (Inatala hates predators, can I still say that with one as my best friend?) Venlil credit scores go from zero, being applied to people who took out million-credit loans and blew all the money on gear to unsuccessfully rob the bank they got the loan from, to one thousand, which went to those who panicked over a two credit overdrawn balance and had a heart attack whenever they were a week away from a loan's due date and it still wasn't paid.
Seven hundred and ninety was above average, since my parents had always taught me to manage my finances well, but only slightly above average since Jack's presence and the constant racism that came with it were more trouble than the government stipend was worth. (I would never send him back home, he's better to me than many Venlil)
I thanked the Gojid with sincerity that I meant none of, and asked "Is my loan approved?"
He told me "Yes, it's been approved at..." Oh Herd, not this again. How do his coworkers interact with him? "5% quarterly interest." That's not even bad. (Five percent might be a robbery, but for UBS banks it's decent) "You'll have six months to pay it off in full... or the interest will double every quarter." (Somebody should disband the United Banking Service)
I agreed to these terms, since they were the best I was going to get, and left without another word. Eight thousand Federation credits had just entered my bank account, making me a very rich man. (Not really, but it was the most I'd ever had)
Jack was sitting on a bench outside the UBS building tapping away on his pad. A more skittish Venlil would have assumed that he was plotting something or bathing in the virtual blood of his prey, but I knew better than to assume the game he was playing was predatory.
Never mind, it was absolutely predatory. An army of huge winged beasts descended on what looked like a walled fortress in the middle of a hellish landscape, and lightning rained down from the skies at Jack's command to pick apart what I assumed were strategic defenses. (He might not actively do predator things, but he is excellent at them)
Within thirty ticks of the timer at the top of the screen, the beasts were above the fortress raining destruction on whatever they pleased. A few soldiers ran out of a building near the center of the base, attacking Jack's army, but they were quickly dealt with. Without the defenses that were destroyed by what I assumed was orbital bombardment, the base was helpless against the conquering predator.
A chill ran down my spine as I saw the defenders being slaughtered. A Venlil general or admiral (there were actually surprisingly many when compared to the rest of our military) could accomplish such results but those types of Venlil were very few and often had mild cases of Predator Disease. (That needs a new name. Maybe Arxur disease? No, too scary)
Seeing an average human, whose only military experience was four years serving on a war boat (They still have a boat military? Herd, those predators love their weapons) complete what many Federation officers would struggle to do terrified me for good reason.
We Venlil had treated Humans like they weren't even sapient, just dirt or pests that we had to tolerate. And the rest of the Federation treated them even worse. What if they decided peace wasn't worth it? What if, in our fear of the Arxur, we unleashed a threat worse than them? (Could Jack spare me from a human cattle farm? I'd have to kill myself if he couldn't)
Venlil Prime would be the first world to fall. We'd all die of our own hubris.
"Hell!" Jack turned his pad down so I couldn't look over his shoulder anymore. "I'm sorry you had to see that." Why did he have to be sorry for everything? The way my species, my Federation, treated him and his kind always angered me.
I told him "Don't be sorry. It's not your fault your hobbies are so... you know." I didn't like using the word "predator". At least, not to describe humans. Jack was cool with me using it as long as it wasn't in a derogatory way, (since they are predators) but it just reminded me of how unjustly he and his kind were treated.
Jack clearly didn't listen when I said not to be sorry because he kept apologizing. "Yeah, but it's not your fault you're so damn skittish either. And it is my fault I played Clash... I mean the game here. I should've known better." Herd, why did he never stand up for himself? The exterminators can't be that bad!
I explained to him "You don't have to apologize, Jack. You never meant to scare anyone." and before he could keep apologizing (I know him too well to think he wouldn't) I changed the subject. "We have money at our disposal now, we can buy something from the Mellow Firefruit on our way to the train station."
Jack agreed, but he was worried about "spacists". (Oh Herd, has he lost it?) I asked "What in the Arbor is a spacist?" In case you don't know, the Arbor is where followers of the Great Protector go when they die. It's a huge forest with plentiful and delicious food, and no predators.
When I finally mustered up my courage and told Jack that the god I worship hates his kind, I was half expecting to die horribly by his unusually short claws or extremely dull fangs. (Are they so peaceful because of their lack of natural weapons, or do they lack natural weapons because they're so peaceful? I should ask Jack that)
Instead, he shrugged it off and told me that, apparently, "Jesus still solos." When I explained the Arbor at his request, he had the brilliant idea to convert to worshiping the Protector and then kill himself in order to appear there and scare the afterlife out of everyone else. He quickly and profusely explained that he would never actually do that, but Inatala would never have accepted him anyway so it didn't matter.
Anyway, back to real life. Jack told me "Oh, spacists? They're just space racists except I mushed the two words together. It's a play on words type thing." The words 'space' and 'racists' do not fit together in Venlilese, and frankly, I was astounded that the translator even gave me the concept. (I bought it second-hand from a Mazic who stepped on it one too many times, but it was incredibly cheap)
I told him "If you told anyone but me that the words 'space' and 'racists' fit together then you would be screened for Predator Disease." and he covered his mouth in the gesture that was universally recognized as a prey-safe predator's laugh.
"God, sometimes I forget you guys have a sense of humor."
Just then, I started walking. I was tired, like any Venlil would be after a long walk, a long wait in line and the anticipation of another long walk, but the thought of the sweet, delicious food at the Mellow Firefruit kept me going. (I have to get Jack some, he's been underrating Venlil cuisine ever since he first tried my subpar cooking)
Jack fell in behind me, then he moved up to be at my side as an equal. Us Venlil didn't care where you were in line, but I guess predators have different priorities. (Is thinking 'predator' as bad as saying it? That's a dilemma I need to deal with later) I asked him "How come your claws and... uh... those pointy front teeth are so small?" (I don't like talking about fangs, sue me)
Jack turned to look at me, jerked his head away a little, then he turned and looked at me again. He responded to my question, realized I was a Venlil, and realized I was Salvek, in that order. I was good at reading people. He told me "First of all, they're called nails and canines. And second of all, we've never needed claws so they never evolved." A predator never needing claws was absurd! When would Jack learn that he didn't have to lie to me?
I interrupted my friend's explanation by telling him "Jack, I'm not going to run away or faint just because you tell me that ancient humans hunted. I get it. Just tell me how you lost your claws."
Jack sighed. He didn't sigh a lot, only when he was driven to the end of his very long rope (Turns out that's a human idiom too! Who knew?) by someone else's, usually my, stupidity. "Salvek, we didn't lose them. We evolved to eat fruit from trees, and by the time we were eating meat we had at least developed the art of throwing rocks at things. There was never any need for them, and they never appeared as a result. Satisfied?"
Developing weapons early on did make sense for humans, given how good they are at combat, so I nodded. It wasn't really a Venlil expression, but those in the exchange program had learned everything they could about their human partners. (I'm saying human instead of predator! Progress!) "Yeah, that makes sense."
Jack continued, explaining about human 'canines'. We just called them fangs. "Canines were originally fangs, yeah," He lowered his voice when he mentioned fangs. "but when we made fire around a million years ago, we didn't need them anymore and so they got smaller. I'm no expert, but that's what I know."
That actually made sense. I knew the Arxur didn't eat cooked meat, since I found uncensored raid footage on an internet rabbit hole when I was fourteen, (I peed myself and had nightmares for weeks but no one has to know) but I always assumed humans shared that trait. Maybe I was just like the rest with how I kept comparing humans and Arxur. (Why am I capitalizing one and not the other? No one knows!)
Maybe I was just like the rest. Maybe one day I would lose control and run from Jack, or freeze up, or worse, call the exterminators, and then it would all be over. I could never live with myself if my damned instincts got him to hate me or got him killed. I've only known him for a few weeks, but when we met we just clicked.
It's still weird to me how the concept of platonic soul mates doesn't exist yet.
"That's it, right?" Jack asked while pointing to a red restaurant a few blocks away. That was it. I was about to eat good.
"Yeah, that's it. Come on, let's go!" I ran to the Mellow Firefruit faster than most humans could, on account of my species being designed for sprints, (or we're just better than them) and Jack tagged along in a brisk walk. He was probably trying not to be mistaken for chasing me and shot dead, or worse, set on fire.
I know most predators don't feel pain, but humans do. Why in the Herd didn't exterminators at least have the decency to kill them humanely?
A couple seconds later, Jack was waiting outside the restaurant and looking at his pad while I waited in line (In case nobody noticed yet, I hate lines) for my meal. Jack's meal too, since nobody wanted their entire customer base to leave the second they began serving humans. At least, that was the official reason. The real reason is that most Venlil are still racist.
After an agonizing minute and a half of waiting, since the Mellow Firefruit was a popular restaurant (for good reason, as Jack was about to discover) I finally got to order my food. "I'll have two yaccay salads, and two red fires please." Jack only asked for a salad, but red fires were excellent drinks and if he said no to one I would drink both. I was being smart with this.
"Okay, that will be 43.8 credits." All right, maybe not so smart.
I asked "44 credits?" in shock as my mind struggled to wrap itself around this sudden increase in price. The last time I got a meal here it was only twenty credits.
The cashier, a large green Krakotl who was a tiny bit taller than me, explained "Inflation. Those damn predators brahked up the economy and now we have this." Putting hate on my friend Jack wasn't something I would normally tolerate, but my father had always said it wasn't wise to anger the people who made your food. I just swiped my card across his card reader and stayed silent, like dad would have wanted.
"If you ask me, Sovlin was right."
Was my father really that wise? He probably didn't know what he was talking about.
"How can you say that? No one deserves what he did to Marcel." I shot back, managing to contain the venom in my voice.
The cashier retorted "No one sapient. But those... things that Tarva's dumb ass let roam our planet don't qualify." with barely-contained hatred. (Thank the Herd Jack doesn't have to hear this)
Before I could respond, however, the manager came with my order and reprimanded his subordinate. "Don't get into politics with customers, and certainly don't spit those lies in my establishment!" Maybe the Great Protector was still looking out for me.
The manager handed me my items and apologized profusely. "My cashier here is still new to Venlil Prime. He hasn't gotten used to the... the new arrivals yet. Herd, even I struggle sometimes, and I'm in the exchange program!"
I thanked him, explaining that it wasn't a big deal but the cashier should still be reprimanded, and brought our food to Jack. He wasn't playing that predatory (it was predatory, but predatory didn't necessarily mean bad) game again, but he was scrolling through his account on UHerd.
UHerd was the Venlil's main addition to the galaxy at large, being a huge social media service that Jack had described as "just like Instagram." when he first heard of it. Bleat was another large website just like it, but it was much less known than UHerd. (Fun fact: the U stands for Internet! Maybe not in English, but in Venlilese it does)
Jack never posted much, but he had me and a few mutual friends from the Program followed and he liked hearing what we were doing. I plopped down next to him and handed him his food. "Here, I got you something."
He picked up the salad nonchalantly, but when I handed him his drink, he inspected it curiously. "What in God's name is this doohickey?" He asked.
I told him "Try it, it's a red fire. It's good." and he did try it.
Jack exclaimed "Holy christ!" and the look in his eyes was comparable to what I saw the first time I agreed to being pet. "This is heavenly!" He guzzled the spicy fluid with hunger that would have terrified me if I hadn't seen him devour meals a dozen times before, (He'll eat me next I have to run I have to run run run run for it [oh, shut up already]) stopping only to praise its taste. "This is like the nectar of the gods!" Then "Shit, this is what I was missing out on? We gotta desegregate the restaurants immediately!"
That got him thinking, and I could almost see the money-making gears turning in his head. "You know, Salvek, what if we opened up a restaurant? You could be the official owner and waiter, I could cook some delectable earth recipes, and as long as no one saw me, we could make bank!"
I didn't like that idea. It sounded a lot like a recipe for disaster. I told him "Nah, it would be too hard for just the two of us. And besides, we already have the clothing business." Selling shirts online is a lot easier and cheaper than owning a restaurant.
Since Jack asked me a question, I figured I could ask one too. "Hey Jack, do you mind if I ask you a question?"
Jack didn't care, and he told me as much, so I continued. "How do you keep yourself in check all the time? How can humans control themselves so well?"
He paused for a bit, causing me to involuntarily panic, (he's looking for weak points, or exterminators, he's going to snap my neck for this) but I quelled these thoughts and there was no visible change in my expression. Finally, the colossal man spoke. "How do you do it?"
"W-what?" I stammered, and he picked up a leaf that was blowing in the wind before cherishing his last sip of the red fire.
He held the leaf up to my mouth. "How can you resist the temptation to just chow down on every plant you see? It must be exhausting." I took a brief nibble of the plant, despite it being completely unappetizing in nature, and he told me "See? Your herbivore instincts made you eat it! How can you keep them in check all the time?"
I wasn't a fool, not by any means. I knew he was mocking me. But the thought of a predator not having any predatory instincts was an entirely unheard of concept, bordering on heresy for some. It would probably have gotten me screened for Predator Disease if I spoke of it aloud, but I still spoke of it aloud. (There were no exterminators, I was fine) "So you're trying to say that you don't have predatory instincts? But what about the drive to hunt?"
Jack sighed again, muttering "So smart, but so damn stupid." in a low tone before he explained to me exactly what I wanted to know. "We have the need to eat meat in the same way you need to eat plants, because if we don't do it we die." That made sense. "But just like you don't have a primal urge to devour all the greenery in sight, we don't have any instincts of our own. Make sense?"
It did, but I was still struggling to wrap my head around it, so I just nodded and finished off my salad. Jack had apparently forgot about his salad, as he hadn't touched it. He opened the plastic carton, looked at its contents weirdly, and took a bite.
"This is mid." He told me, point blank. "Like, I don't mean to offend anyone, but it is mid. I'm not even hungry."
I was mildly offended, but there wasn't much I could change about his honest opinion, so I just told him "I thought it was good." and left it at that.
Jack slid his salad over to me (I love these things like my only son) and offered "You can have it. I don't want it." I would have accepted, but I wasn't hungry. Jack didn't really mind, so he threw his salad out and told me "Then we should get going. We have only [1/8 of a claw], I mean... 1/8 of a claw before our train leaves."
I agreed, getting up and walking to the train station, and Jack followed. I was well rested by then, so the brief walk was easy. Jack... Jack was Jack. He never got tired.
We actually made a pretty good pace to the train station, and within 1/16 of a claw we were on our way back to my home district and my third-floor apartment. I had money to my name, I had a huge predator (Human! Damn, those words get mixed up too much) friend, and he and I were about to make a truckload of credits. Life was good.
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I always loved to go to the circus as a kid my parents used to always take me to a one in my small town. As I grew older I remembered it and I decided to explore the abandoned circus. As I approached the abandoned circus on the outskirts of town, I couldn't help but feel a sense of curiosity about what lay inside. The once vibrant and bustling circus was now a haunting and ominous sight, with overgrown weeds and rusted gates.
I pushed past the gates with trepidation, and as I entered the main seating area, it seemed as if time had stood still. Rows of empty seats surrounded a worn-out ring, and old posters for long-forgotten acts hung from the walls. The only sound was the eerie creaking of the old tent, swaying in the gentle breeze.
As I walked further, I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was not alone. The silence was deafening, and my every step seemed to echo like a thunderclap through the abandoned circus.
I heard a faint whisper, soft but unmistakable. I looked around, but nobody was there. My heart began to race, as I realized something sinister was lurking in the darkness.
Suddenly, a beam of light illuminated in front of me, and three clowns emerged from the shadows. They wore tattered costumes, and their faces were painted with garish and menacing smiley faces.
I turned to run, but they were too fast for me. The clowns began to hunt me, their laughter echoing through the deserted halls of the circus. They appeared and disappeared like phantoms, stalking me in every shadow and corner.
I ran through a maze of corridors, but no matter where I turned, the clowns were always there, grinning and sneering at me. I could feel their breath on my neck, their cold and clammy skin sending shivers down my spine.
I heard a sound behind me, and I knew they were closing in for the kill. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, but it was a losing battle. Suddenly, I saw a door, and without a second thought, I opened it, slamming it shut behind me.
I found myself in a room filled with clown costumes and makeup, and at first, I thought I had finally found refuge. But as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw that the clowns were surrounding me on all sides, their bright and sinister smiles creeping closer and closer.
I was trapped. And then, with a final, blood-curdling scream, I was consumed by the darkness.
When I regained consciousness, I was lying on the cold, hard ground. My head ached, and I could feel bruises all over my body. I was alone, but I could still hear the echoes of laughter in the distance.
I knew that I had to find a way out of the abandoned circus. I stumbled to my feet, my body groaning in protest, and began to make my way through the maze of corridors once again.
But this time, I was more cautious. I moved slowly, trying to be as quiet as possible. I didn't want to attract the attention of the clown creatures once again.
As I walked, my mind began to fill with questions. Who were these clowns, and why were they in the abandoned circus? What had happened to the other people who had entered the circus before me?
I reached a dead end, and then I saw them. The clowns were there, standing in front of me, their bright and maniacal smiles still plastered across their faces.
I knew that I had to confront them. I couldn't just keep running forever. I took a step forward, the clowns still blocking my path.
And then, everything went black.
I woke up in a hospital bed. It had been a week since I had last seen the clowns, but I still had nightmares about them every night.
I hoped to update the people of the internet about what happened once I faced the clowns, but as time went on, I began to realize that I could never go back to that place.
Every time I slept, I could hear their laughter. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw their twisted and sinister faces.
I'll never forget what happened to me in that abandoned circus, and I'll never go back there again. Consider yourselves warned - stay away from the abandoned circus.

Looking for some advice. A very close loved one passed away last weekend and it has me evaluating what I want to do for the rest of my career.
I have been working in Human Resources/IT for the last 10 and a half years in a large hospital system and am making about $65K/yr. I’m getting tired of the corporate environment and the 9-5 schedule. Anyone have any suggestions on alternate career paths for an MBA?
My top skills include customer service, data entry, and working in Microsoft software such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
My top interests/hobbies outside of work include computers, bowling, cars, simple construction, and walking/working out.
I have worked from home since March of 2020 and prefer to work primarily remotely. I’m not opposed to commuting (I love driving), but not during the “normal commute hours”.
I’m open to obtaining new education/certifications as well if needed.
Any suggestions and ideas are welcome.

Background: Now, I am 21M, She is 19F. We first met at work. After a year we started to see each other.
To this date, we have been out together on twice.
As of the texting state, she seems interested (heavy emoji usage, jokes, positive conversation).
DATE 1: We played table tennis, walked the mall, had slush drinks, sat down for conversation.
DATE 2: Went by the sea, sat on the big rocks (very private, open sea in the front, straight line of rocks at the back).
We both deep know implicitly that we are dating. (Texting reveals it, the tone is uncertain)
DATE 1& 2 - If we sit down for a conversation, she wouldn't necessary sit close to me (our bodies don’t touch).
DATE 2 - while going over the rocks, I offered my hand for support while jumping down so she doesn’t fall, but she would ignore it (2-3 times).
DATE 2 - She was scared of geese that were in our way, while I was walking on the front to be her cover, I slowly raised my hand in the back (she ignores).
When saying goodbye - she would never do a straight hug, always to the side.
After DATE 2’s night, I am receiving a text asking “Am I worth it?”, if i would pay ransom to get her from the kidnappers. (jokingly manner).
I have finally made the decision to end it here. I don't find this going anywhere.
Anything I am missing, any thoughts?

Hey everyone. I am new to nc and need to get a nc state id. For the initial license I have to do it in person so sadly can’t renew online this time. I tried looking for appointments but there isn’t a way to book since the entire calendar is booked. Can anyone recommend a dmv I can go to for walk-ins? I live in Cary and the one over here I can’t get there early enough to wait for a walk in. Thanks for any help!

Now, there’s a reason the media has to lie about the stories of Sarah Comrie and Amy Cooper—not to mention the egregious recent example, which was Daniel Penny—and the reason is simple: It’s because they can’t FIND any videos and new stories of white people going out and hunting black people. It just doesn’t happen. They lie and pretend it happens all the time—and a lot of white leftists believe it, even lives come crashing down because of it—but it’s not true. And the people spreading this narrative, they KNOW that it isn’t true.
Just last week, the NAACP Board of Directors issued a travel advisory for Florida, and they were warning that the state, under the leadership of that infamous white supremacist Ron DeSantis, is not safe for black people - not safe for black people because of white people, just to be clear. But guess where the board’s chairman lives? Florida, of course. So these people don’t believe their own nonsense, but they expect YOU to believe it, or at least pretend that you do.
On the other hand, black people committing crimes against white people for sport is common - in fact, it’s so common now, that it’s of the fastest growing genres in social media. Here’s just one example from the UK: watch as a black TIkToker perpetrates a kind of casual home invasion, walking into a random white family’s home for the sake of going viral. Maybe that family there in the UK is learning why we have the second amendment here in the United States. There’s another one where that same guy goes into a random person’s car, another one where he steals a random woman’s dog, and the victims in all of these case are white, so maybe it’s not so random after all. Now, to state the obvious, you don’t see this kind of thing happening in the reverse, there are no viral videos of white people stealing from black people or invading their homes all for internet clout. It goes one way because it can ONLY go one way. The racial hierarchy has been firmly established.
Speaking of which, last week, UC Berkeley held its graduation ceremony. It was a wonderful celebration for all of Berkeley’s graduates - well, not all of them, just the black ones of course, this was their black graduation. Our nations finest scholars to be sure. It does look at least more entertaining than your average graduation ceremony, I’ll say that much. And that was one of the many race based graduation ceremonies in tax funded college campuses across the country this month. Many universities offer special ceremonies for black students and members of other privileged races, NO university offers anything special for white students.
Segregation is back in a big way, and as Sarah Comrie and Daniel Penny have recently discovered, so is lynching. This is life now in the United States of America, and it’s all happening by design.

Okay so i just need to start this by saying cheese is absolutely incredible, it's actually insane how good of a food it is overall. Cheese is like the only food that works with almost anything, it's so ridiculously versatile that not meals on average have cheese in them far far more often than not. It even works with straight up stupid combinations like one i saw the other day, "pear and cheese salad". It was just pear, cheese and mayonaise but supposedly it worked surprisingly well together (according to my sister who's quality of tastes vary greatly. I don't fully trust them truthfully). All the best foods also make great use of cheese as well, let me give you a few examples here: Spaghetti, Pizza, baked potatoes, mac-n-cheese, chicken alfredo, lasagna, cheeseburgers, and many many more. Don't even get me started on the various different cheese types and qualities such as: cheddar, swiss, feta, blue cheese, provolone, pepperjack, white cheddar, ricotta, brie, gouda and so many more as well. There are some people who just don't get it, some aliens perhaps that hate eating cheese on anything. I cannot understand them in the slightest, how can you not foam at the mouth when someone offers you a cheesy meal like mac-n-cheese? How do you eat hamburgers without cheese on them or eat sandwiches without any cheesy flavor? Insanity, truly.
Reminds me of a meme i once saw about southern american men gifting their girlfriends massive cheese wheels as a gift on dates, and they weren't appreciative!! WHAT? People need to get their fucking priorities straight, any sane person would prefer a cheese wheel over a ring or fancy dinner. Some people just don't understand true southern values and the amount of hard work that goes into fiddling cow nipples for some milk to make cheese with. They just don't get it. Fuckers are blind to the wonderful world of cheese and milk, they'd rather eat hot chips and drink tea and coffee. They're in their own world of darkness, unaware of the beautiful basting light of cheesy goodness. Okay maybe SOME of those hot chips have cheese but they don't even notice!! they eat chips that are so spicy that they can't even taste the fucking cheese so it doesn't count. I swear if one more person gives me another negative opinion about cheese, i'm gonna put holes in my wall. Many many holes, with my fists and with weaponry, even guns. Nobody insults my favorite fucking food, EVER. I play the game skyrim JUST because it has cheesewheels in it. I buy a house in the game and just explore the world collecting every single cheese object in the game and storing it in my house, i don't even play the game the way its intended or to progress the story, JUST CHEESE. A peek into my cheesy mind would make one simply go insane, they can't handle a reality as yellow as mine, the average brain is unable to accurately comprehend the true omniscient godliness of cheddar and swiss. I am enlightened, i am gifted with divine cheesy knowledge of the universe and it's most delicious food.
I sleep on a pillow padded with cheese, filled with cheese. I sleep on a water-bed and.. you guessed it, it's filled with cheese too of course. I even go as far as to wash my clothes in cheese sauce (no soap, it ruins the cheesy aroma). But if you thought it stops there, oh boy, you are sorely mistaken little one. I broke my leg one time, shattered the femur bone into a billion pieces and i had the surgeon replace my femur with a solid cylinder of hardened cheese, a massive concrete cheese pole, sturdy and built for walking. I am one with the cheese, i'm becoming cheesy, cheese-man they sometimes call me (no they don't, i just made that up). But hey did i ever tell you about the time i built a car out of cheese, FROM SCRATCH!? That's right, i shit you not, i built an entire car by hand entirely from cheese. The wheels were cheese wheels screwed on with carved cheese bolts and nuts, the motor was a standard piston motor made out of beautifully aged gouda cheese, and it didn't run on gasolinr either. What it ran on was a specialty type of cheese sauce (surprising i know) but it was a kind of cheese sauce that apparently they don't sell around here anymore so i can't drive my car anymore, yay. Also i made a second grave error that ruined my car, the gasoline tank was made of swiss cheese, i'm not sure uf you've seen swiss but its typically full of holes and you know, in hindsight maybe making my gas tank have millions of holes in it was kind of barely a slightly godawful idea perhaps. I was driving one time unaware of the disaster i had created and was currently driving on the road when suddenly i smelled an interesting yet stenchy odor. It hit me like a truck (the smell did, i didn't get hit by an actual truck, that part of thr story comes later on) but yeah i smelled a stinky cheesy aroma and like a smoky smell too? It smelled like someone was genuinely smoking cheese in my backseat, so i turned around and i kid you not, the back of my car was fucking flaming and my back cheese wheels were melting off. Let me tell you, there's no doubt about it, i almost shit my pants. But i'm not a pussy so i turned around and hit the emergency eject button to launch myself out through the sunroof in the ceiling of the car and i flew through the air probably miles high. I nearly got hit by an incoming plane (dipshit). Then i deployed my parachute i made in case of emergencies but damn i'm stupid as shit, i made the same mistake twice. My parachute was made out of swiss as well, all full of holes, so i started plummeting. I started panicking not gonna lie but i remembered something! My backup cheese slices! (I keep thousands of cheese slices in my right pocket just in case i get hungry while im out). So i ripped those bad boys open and started patching the holes of the parachute and you wouldn't believe me normally but im living proof since im typing this... I lived! I lived through that catastrophe, but don't get the wrong idea, it wasn't the cheese's fault, it was my own. I just don't want you getting the wrong idea about cheese, they're a good fellow.
Did i ever mention the time i accidentally crippled an elderly lady with cheese? So, funny story, i was setting up a hilarious prank for my friend (i don't have friends, i fully intended on crippling this lady) and i laid an extra slippery puddle of liquid cheese on the sidewalk when nobody was looking. Then i covered it in a thin layer of leaves, in hindsight that makes no fucking sense and basically anyone with half a braincell would notice the pile of leaves as an obvioud trap or pitfall, I'm just lucky the old lady is absolutely not intelligent like me. Anyways, i camp up in a nearby tree with binoculars and watch from afar while snacking on my tiny cheese cubes. I see this old lady, about yay high and covered from head to toe in floral patterns and colors that make me feel like im on a drug trip. She takes a few steps with her cane in hand before stepping on the cheese and man.. SHE WENT FUCKING FLYING BRO LMAO. That poor mf went skateboarding down a hill but using her face as the skateboard. I choked on a cheese cube from laughter and ended up spilling them all over the place, hate to waste them but that laughter was uncontrollable. All the nearby pedestrians rushed to help the old lady and i just started throwing cheese cubes at them for fun, hitting them in the head. I remember vividly one guy shouting, "WHO IN THE FUCK IS THROWING CHEESE CURDS AT MY FUCKING HEAD?" and then i threw one into his mouth-hole, he stopped yelling after that and kept his mouth shut. Anyways, after a day's work i went home and eventually i heard on the news that the lady broke all of her legs (she should get cheese femurs like me fr) and that they were putting a bounty on the head of the "Cheese Trapper" Kind of a shitty nickname but whatever, i'll take what i can get i suppose. God, i love cheese.

Hi everyone, i wanted to hear some opinions on what to do exactly..
So since December my left eye has been annoying me SO much, i can’t really 100% compare it to anything but a few things that feel similar are like putting an oil on ur face and getting it into ur eye or a contact lens that’s not the right size. So it feels kind of blurry and i see double sometimes, but the thing is some days are not as bad as other days. It’s not constantly the same kind of blurryness. I don’t know if it makes sense.
My symptoms actually happened a week after i had covid so my logic was oh it’s probably a side effect of covid so i’ll probably wait until it goes away..until March. I couldn’t study normally anymore so that’s when i made an appointment with my GP. He gave a referral to an eye clinic and they gave me an appointment 6 weeks later.
They did a few tests and only told me i had dry eyes and to use Terra-Cortril for my complaints for 2 weeks which i did. My eye was doing really well and my symptoms were 100% gone.
Then i had my check in a month later, on May 23rd, and literally a day after on May 24rd my symptoms are slowly starting again. I really don’t and can’t wait with these symptoms again for 6 weeks :/ So my question is can i just start with Terra-Cortril again? Cuz my symptoms went away when i used it. I will try to make an appointment asap but i have no idea when they will have space for me

My (22f) husband (27m) says things sometimes that I just cannot stand.
I came outside with my husband and son sat out there for a bit. My husband tried going back inside and the door is locked. He looked at me and goes “why would you lock the door?” I obviously have no recollection of locking the door. I told him I didn’t remember ever locking the door. He just said “what is wrong with you” and now won’t talk to me after crawling through the window to unlock the door. I get that it’s a frustrating situation but at the same time I don’t feel like he should be talking to me that way because I made a simple mistake. Also it took two seconds to open the window and get inside.
And if I’m doing something and there are dishes in the sink he will be in the kitchen and yell “hey come do the dishes”. I walk over there after a while and tell him I don’t take orders from him. Like why not ask nicely or say it in a nice way? Things he says just rubs me the wrong way. Any time he messes up I don’t look down at him for doing it and say mean things. I don’t know how to feel.

I live in the Netherlands where smoking weed is completely legal. Unfortunately my 60 year old next door neighbour is highly addicted and smokes all day every day. In the morning before he goes to work, first thing when he comes home, all night until he goes to bed. He smokes in his garden and if my windows are open, my house will smell like smoke. My bedroom window is above my garden which is next to his garden. Today i accidentally left the window open and when i walked up the stairs i could already smell it. The smell was so much that i went all the way through my bedroom through the hallway and down the stairs. Few months ago we (me+husband) kindly asked him to not smoke in the garden because the smell invades our house. His reponse: fuck off! His wife made him smoke in the shed, which he did for a while. (She doesnt allow him to smoke inside the house.) But now its getting warmer and the weather is nice so he smokes in his garden again.
What can i do? I am so desperate! Just now i got so worked up that i started to hyperventilate and now i have a massive headache which i know will turn into a migrain the next hour. What can i do? Please help!

Ok so the other day I [16M] asked my crush [17F] out after 5 months of knowing her. I have social anxiety and am a very timid person. I am always very conscious of what other people think of me and tend to do everything for other people and am kind of a ‘doormat’ as that expression goes.
Anyway, I asked her out. She said no. I’m still absolutely heartbroken and especially on Friday when I asked her, it hurt SO MUCH. I have cried more than I have ever cried in my life. However, now I am slowly bouncing back and I noticed something- I’m not scared anymore. Of anything really.
On the day she rejected me, me and family actually went on holiday (great timing I know). I was feeling really sad but we went up to the bar for drinks. My family got their drinks but I wanted a slushy but they were sold in a separate kiosk outside. My dad gave me some change and said to go get one. Normally I would be so scared to go and talk to a stranger and ask for a drink. But no. I walked up and said “Hey can I have a slushy please. Strawberry flavoured”. and as he was getting it I was just like ‘wait what the hell am I doing? Why am I not scared?’ So he gave me it and I handed him the change and said “Thanks”- absolutely unfazed. I was walking back to my table and realised that I wasn’t scared anymore. Of people. People always scare me because I hate talking. But now I’m different.
The day after, I went with my dad to pick up some food. It was from a fish and chip shop on the caravan park and there were loads of people queuing and waiting. I was sat with my dad with people surrounding us everywhere and realised I just didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care if people were looking at me or what they thought or anything.
Same thing happened again today. We ordered KFC and I had to get the door because my dad was in the shower. I got it and was absolutely unfathomed. Spoke to the guy just fine. Weird.
HEARTBREAK HAS MADE ME SO CONFIDENT!
I think it’s a mixture of things. Probably the biggest thing is that I confessed to my crush. That took absolute BALLS. I still can’t really believe I did it. She said no but I’m still very proud even if I was very nervous and stuttered a bit. I did it. Now everything feels easy in comparison.
Also maybe a short term one was also because I cried so much. On Friday night I went through so much and it really hurt. So when we went out and everyone was just acting all happy even though I’d been so much pain it felt quite powerful? Idk. It seemed like I was hurting the most out of everyone there (even though I probably wasn’t cause it’s only a girl who said no), so it felt like I was the bravest? Idk it’s difficult.
But I just feel so confident now. To anyone who is debating about confessing or is scared because they might get hurt- just do it (if the time is right of course). It DOES hurt. It HURTS SO MUCH. But with that pain comes POWER. If you have the balls to confess to your crush, you can do anything.
TL;DR: After confessing to my crush, and her saying no, it hurt. However because I was brave enough to do that, everything seems so easy now and my social anxiety has faded so much. The bravery and pain that comes with asking someone out and getting rejection mixes together to give you BALLS.

I got married a few days ago. My mother refused to attend on religious grounds, claiming her attending my queer wedding would make God believe that she approved and supported me. She, among other people in her community, convinced my younger brother to back out of being in my wedding party and beg me to not “sell my soul” in this way. My father, however, was going to attend. He doesn’t agree with my choices but has always been kind to my now-wife.
My mother tried to scheduled a trip over my wedding so that he and my brother couldn’t go, in an attempt to “save them”, but my dad made her schedule it to fly back on the day prior. However, their flight got delayed and my dad was not able to make it. I was walked down the aisle by my grandfather-in-law.
Now that they are back from their trip, they want to have dinner. But they all have chosen to not support me and not attend my wedding. They are choosing to not be a part of my life. How do I tell them I don’t want to come to dinner with them? I love my family, but this whole drama has made me realize they can’t love me properly whilst they hold these beliefs and actively pray for me to get divorced.
Advice? 😅🌈