I’m so sorry that you have to go through this. It happened to me once when I was young and living on my own. I just lacked the brute strength. Lug nuts aren’t tightened by hand anymore. I ended up having to call AAA too. I hope AAA arrives soon.

Anyone else surprised by the number of INFJ and INTJ people on this thread? Those at two of the three least common personalities types. They are even less common for females.

I ended up in a tech career after a long hiatus from the workforce due to kids. It was a multi-year process that started when I was still homeschooling. I knew that I wanted to do something with computers and development. I looked into coding bootcamps, and even attended two open houses, but did not have the time or money. I ended up going the self-taught route using FreeCodeCamp and other free online resources. Then I started freelancing because I still didn’t have the time for a full time job. I tried both fiver and upwork and quickly decided that they were not for me. I also sub-contracted. Eventually I decided that I would rather just be an employee and went to work for one of my clients. I had a college degree and was a tech writer before kids, but I did not get any certifications or degrees for this career change.

It will be returned in a separate mailing. It can take a few additional weeks for submitted paperwork to be returned, but I always get original documents back. The returned passports sometimes have a hole punched or a corner clipped to indicate that they are invalid.

Maybe there is some magic in posting to this thread. My application that is six weeks since acceptance was just updated to “shipped”. I did pay for expedited service. The application that is four weeks old is still in progress, but I am feeling a little less nervous about it. I was able to find out that the application is at a passport agency that is within driving distance if we run up against a deadline. I also read that if you have a passport in progress at this location and need it in a hurry, you have to have proof of travel in 5 days, not 14. Eek. Hope it doesn’t come to that.

@matrips Did you pay for expedited service? Do you know which location processed your applications? I'm also stalking the status page. Our applications are 6 weeks out and 4 weeks out, and we paid for expedited service. Still in progress on both.

My husband and I both dislike driving each other's vehicles. Part of that is because we are very different heights and everything needs to be re-adjusted each time. We will both go out of our ways to avoid having to drive each other's vehicles. On the other hand, my daughter and I share a vehicle several days a week with no problem. She drives it to/from school in the morning, and I drive it in the afternoon/evening after she gets back from school. She and I are much closer in height and the car needs less adjusting. Other considerations are how much you really need a truck. Can you easily rent one if you want to? Do you have friends/neighbors with trucks? Do you like being the friend/neighbor who has a truck that you can offer? Do you have parking for three vehicles? Do you have kids who drive, will soon be driving, or who come back and visit and want to drive? Minimal insurance for an additional car when you have more cars than drivers usually isn't much.

I think every family has to decide for themselves. I didn’t learn to drive until I was 20-ish. I also totaled my first car less than three months after I got it when driving to work in the blinding rain on a busy highway. I was determined that my kids would get plenty of supervised experience driving to gradually build up skills before being in a situation where they felt forced to drive in bad conditions. My approach didn’t eliminate accidents, but my teen’s accident wasn’t nearly as bad, expensive, or traumatic as mine.

Anyone else have to go to traffic court for a teen driver? In my county, they hear all the juvenile traffic cases on one day and there were probably thirty teen drivers there, each with a parent or guardian who had to take time off work. At least half as many teens that were supposed to be there were no-shows. In every case the judge asked if any people had sustained injuries. It was heartbreaking to hear the number of people hurt or killed. In my teen’s case, no people were hurt, no other vehicles were involved, and there were extenuating circumstances, but there was damage to the vehicle and damage to our bank account. I also revoked my teen’s privilege of driving any friends until the entire case was settled, which took many months. I didn’t completely revoke driving permission because I needed her to drive herself some places, and not driving at all was not going to build up her skills.

When my teens got their licenses they were legally allowed only one other non-family teen in the car. For the six months to a first year or so, I also added on the requirement that both sets of parents need to approve of the trip. That meant that I had to know who the friend was, where they were going, and when. And the friend’s parents needed to know the same and still be okay with it. I didn’t want my teen driving around a kid whose parents weren’t comfortable with their kid with a teen driver. Now, getting permission from the other parent was up to the teens and reporting to me was on the honor system. So it was possible that the kids slipped some trips under the radar. Similarly, when my teens were going out with friends, I wanted to know who was driving: the friend’s parents, the newly licensed friend, or an older sibling. Sometimes I needed reassurance that it was not the newly licensed teen friend driving.

Send my daughter to a ballet intensive that she was accepted into but we cannot afford.

When I purchased my most recent car, I insisted on a backup camera, even though I had never had a car with one before. I got used to it very quickly. It makes parallel parking and backing into parking spots so much easier! I wish that our other vehicle had a backup camera. I cannot see the end of the vehicle when I am in the driver’s seat.

Thanks for this added info. Since there was no security or other staff member in the room, and you were not at liberty to immediately leave the room, that changes things slightly. I think that I would take a picture of the bag as evidence/proof. Depending on the ages and genders of the kids, I would tell the kid with me about the unattended bag and go hurry along the kid in the bathroom, and then go as a group to find security or some other staff member to tell. I would show security or the staff member the photo. I would take the photo even if there were rules about no photography allowed (because there would be no security to yell at me), but I might not show the photo to security if there were rules about no photos. Even if the owner of the bag was in the room, I would consider the bag to be unattended. I tend to have a fairly restrictive idea of “attended” though. In general, when I’m a public venue full of strangers, a bag needs to be within arm’s reach and/or a clear line of sight of its owner for me to consider it attended. On occasion, a bag might be slightly further for a few seconds, but not for several minutes. For me, the primary purpose of keeping bags attended is to avoid forgetting them or having them stolen. Depending of the venue, unattended bags do not worry me. For example, unattended belongings are fairly common at a park, beach, etc. This is why I would not ask the room. I don’t want to engage with a stranger who might become hostile, especially when you already know that the stranger does not respect the rules to keep bags attended.

Tell security and make a decision based on security’s response. If security knows that it is supposed to be there, carry on with the visit. If security is not already aware of it, probably notify the rest of my group/family and go enjoy a different area of the museum. The members of my family tend to enjoy different parts of museums at different places, so we would likely be separated. It might be an explosive, but it could also be props for an environmental activist. But it could also be actual museum supplies. Curious what reaction you actually got that surprised you.

Moving from one iPhone to another is pretty easy, but a few of my logins/passwords did not transfer. I had to manually log back in to some of my apps. Not a big deal because I had the passwords in my password manager. I also had to manually move the stuff for my two factor authentication app, but that was also a simple matter of opening the app and pointing the camera of one device at a QR code on the other device. It can also take a while for all the apps and content to download. I would plan to be on Wi-Fi for a while after the initial transfer to get my most needful apps and content downloaded.

I’ve thought of myself as a generic American for most of my life. This is in part because I was around various sub-cultures that I did not identify with from elementary school through college. However, I also thought of people in those other sub-cultures as just as American as me. I do identify with multiple groups of people, but none of them take over so much of my identity for me to consider any to be my one-and-only culture. For what it’s worth here is a partial break-down of me according to some attributes commonly associated with culture: Language: English Ancestor language: a language that is not English that I cannot read, write, speak, or understand Personal geography: mostly suburban USA, including east coast, west coast, midwest, and south. Ancestor geography: NOT North American Race: not white, but I do not have a particular affinity for cultural attributes commonly associated with my genetic race such as language or geography. I do enjoy the food (among other cuisines) when eating out but do not cook it at home. Holidays: we celebrate the ones I see advertised in big stores Food: from the big chain grocery stores in whatever suburb I happen to live in at the time Religion: varied over time ranging from atheist to regular participation at a Judeo-Christian church Education: college educated Financial: middle class I have also travelled outside the USA to other countries in North America, Europe, and Asia, and when outside the USA I feel very much in a foreign culture. I very much have an identity beyond “American”, but do I have a “cultural identity” beyond “American”? Do I need to?

The musical “Into the Woods” is also very much about inter generational trauma. It also touches on other issues like adoption, infidelity, marital strife, financial decisions, special needs, emotional attachment, and more. I was lucky enough to see it live last summer, and it gave me a lot to think about. I haven’t seen the movie versions so I don’t know if they are as deep as the live musical. I believe that student versions tend to be adapted and may not be as deep.

I only had two girls to teach. I started both when they turned 15 and took a long, slow approach. They had a year to learn and get in lots of practice. It worked out okay. For us, having lots of time reduced the pressure and also allowed us to build skills and experience gradually. I also did things like swapping out drivers in the middle of trips so that I did the harder parts and DD got practice even if she couldn’t do the whole trip. (DH didn’t have the patience for that.) I am actually more nervous now when I am a passenger with one of them the driving versus when they were learning. When they were learning, they accepted when I would flinch or ask for more following distance. Now they get mad at me. When it comes to parallel parking and reverse parking, getting a car with a backup camera made a huge difference. Getting into minor accidents when behind the wheel also helped both DD’s be more careful. 😞

I work for a small business managing its database system. The job requires no special degree or background. I taught myself the skills using free online resources. My work is completely remote--everything I do is on the computer. I first started back to work freelancing, then one of my clients hired me. I have huge amounts of flexibility. Part of this is the nature of the work. I don't have any customer facing responsibilities and large sections of my work are done solo. Part of this is the nature of my company, which really treats its employees well. A third aspect is the fact that I was up-front about my need for flexibility when considering the transition from freelancer to employee.

She decided to stick with local auditions in the first couple of weeks in January and see what happens. If she those don’t work out, she can try more auditions later. No NSIA audition—it is too far away.

Still trying to figure out which ballet summer intensives that DD will audition for. That's why it takes so much mental space. Between local auditions, virtual auditions, NSIA auditions, and video auditions, there are lots of factors to consider. DD wants to "stack" two programs this summer, which we've never considered before. Thankfully, over the years, DD has gradually taken over more and more of the planning of audition season herself.

Nutcracker went well. We had only eight shows. Then the week after Nutcracker, several dancers in my DD's class were out with injuries. Now we have mentally moved on to prepping for audition season.

Is he anxious about long distance driving, or would he also be anxious about you driving a rental car? If you have flight delays on Friday that impact his ability to see the kids on Saturday, could that cause problems? That's a lot of money for a trip of only a few days. Would it impact his budget in ways that could boomerang on you? If he has that type of money laying around, are there other uses of the money that everyone involved would enjoy more? How do the kids feel about flying versus driving? Do you have road-trip routines that you were looking forward to? Would they enjoy flying or would otherwise benefit from the experience?

I think that this is a gift that your mother thought was very cute and really wanted to give. She probably doesn’t understand why you think they are creepy, and thus didn’t really believe you when you said you find them creepy. When a person is determined to give a specific gift, it is extremely hard to convince them to do otherwise. Your acceptance of such a gift is your gift back to the giver.

Happy Birthday! What about a different approach that turns the focus back on her? "Thank you for remembering my birthday. I received your gift. How did you find it / what made you think of it?" That will give you more information about her thought process and why she did what she did. It will also give you better ideas how how to drop hints about what you do and don't like for future gift giving occasions. Maybe it had sentimental value that she thought you would like. Maybe it just fell in her lap and she wanted to get rid of it and you were the first person available. Maybe she vaguely remembers having a conversation with you about it but forgot that the the conversation was about you not liking it versus liking it.