We had a white elephant gift exchange at work last year, where no one really made it clear whether it was the gag-gift sort of white elephant or the safe-corporate-gift sort. Everyone basically ended up interpreting it as safe-corporate-gift, as did I... but because of other stuff going on in my life right then, my husband did the shopping for me and INSISTED that white elephant is ALWAYS gag gift. That was a little embarrassing. I got gifted a mug one year, with a label for the candy in it attached... but no candy. That was a little weird.

Yes, I've signed up for classes as a backup plan to maintain full-time status, and then withdrawn when I ended up getting into the "full" class I hadn't previously been able to sign up for. I withdrew from a class "Something-or-Other for Busy People" when I discovered that it meant watching multiple 3-hour long videos lectures within a very short timeframe. Classes dropped before the drop date really shouldn't count.

I'm looking at variations on chocolate bark with pistachios and dried cranberries/cherries right now.

It's not necessarily about "responsible". Sometimes these situations come up because the person is trying to be responsible and tough it out to go to class/work/save money/not waste time or resources. Sometimes it's differences in pain tolerance, and thinking that something actually serious would hurt worse than this (I've had three broken bones. Only one of them I'd consider severely painful). Being able to manage the pain with OTC pain meds can contribute to underestimating the severity in both of these - even if the OTCs are being used in a way that approximate the effects of minor narcotics. I definitely recommend this tactic when the source of pain and severity of the cause are known and understood. Just not as first aid.

I would absolutely get one with heart rate tracking in your situation - some chemotherapy and other commonly used medications can have cardiac side effects. The main reason I still wear one is for similar reasons, because I don't really find them hugely motivating. I'm not sure who, other than Garmin, makes waterproof + HR tracking. If forced to choose between the two, I would choose the HR tracking and just not wear it in the water. I'm a bit distrustful of the waterproof claim on the VivoSmart HR anyways - I've had one for three years now, and my first had to be replaced under warranty immediately after I started using it in the pool.

Yes. But we're talking first-aid kit that you carry in a backpack. I wouldn't consider alternating the two, or taking both at once, for a pain that would otherwise necessitate narcotics, to be *first aid*. You don't want to just cover up serious pain and go about your daily business (says the person who has more than once broken bones and done exactly that). For an identified source of pain, it's absolutely a good tactic.

"Grooming behavior" is a subset of inappropriate behavior. Something can be wrong without being grooming behavior. So trust your instincts - if it feels wrong, it likely is, even if it isn't traditional grooming behavior. I think that this absolutely can be grooming behavior, depending on the context. Open invitation to all kids (or all within a particular age group)? Probably not grooming. Invitation to one individual, or a select few, because they're special and mature? That would concern me more. Putting emphasis on someone's maturity can absolutely be grooming behavior. I also agree that a pre-teen breaking the dress code is better addressed with the parents than the child.

I have an internally inconsistent view. I think a small-but-expensive present can totally be a stocking stuffer. I think that marketing something small-but-expensive as a stocking stuffer is intentional trivialization, designed to make the buyer feel that they need to get something else as the "real" present.

In my experience, Pepto tablets ends up as pink powder when stored in bags. I'd only include them if you can put them in a hard case of some sort, and would probably choose immodium instead. I'm all in favor of this strategy, but I would be a bit hesitant about encouraging that for a young adult living alone for the first time, because something causing that much pain probably warrants medical attention, not self-treatment. I'd probably include both acetaminophen and ibuprofen because it's quite likely the first aid kit will end up being used on someone else.

You will. It's just a process of figuring out what works. Figuring out how to put on my own bra was probably the biggest milestone (hook it beforehand, then put it on like a t-shirt, bad arm first - bad for the bra, but it worked, and none of mine are expensive anyways). It just felt so needy and pathetic getting someone to help with that. For taking shirts off, I did it "Cornholio"-style - pulling the neck in the back up over my head. Beavis and Butthead was useful for something. My fracture was further down so the elbow didn't actually need to be immobilized, but similar would probably work. I also wore a lot of pull-on pants for a while (I have tons of scrub pants, luckily). I could sort of manage jeans one-handed, but it seemed more trouble than it was worth. We have a similar injury history, by the way. In the past few years I've broken a finger, foot (probably, anyways - didn't get officially checked on that one), and arm (and a finger at the same time). The foot was at the gym when I dropped a weight on it, and the arm was on a motorcycle. The finger (the first one) was when I tried to grab the dog's collar as she ran past me.

As long as his description didn't include the phrase, "It's a little strange, but..." Overall, the same houses catch our interest, and he knows what I like.

I badly broke my arm this week, requiring surgery. My primary thought, even before the pain meds, was how much it would cost. Especially after they decided to Care Flight me to another hospital. I do have insurance, but we haven't touched our deductible up until now, and I know a lot is bound to be out of network or otherwise not covered. It shouldn't be this way, people.

That was my thought upon reading the article. I could totally swim home from work, at least during the summer. But swimming 5 miles upcurrent to work would be a bit much, I think.

Don't worry about going all-out on shoes for nursing school. Clinicals are rarely as long as normal shifts (except perhaps the last semester), so having absolutely ergonomically ideal shoes isn't quite as important. And chances are she'll want to dump the all-white shoe the second she's done with school - you simply can't get all that fashionable and expressive with all white. I had some sort of really boring NurseMates shoe. They worked. I actually started out in $5 all-white sneakers from WalMart. They worked too, though I imagine they wouldn't have held up well long-term. I'd definitely encourage at least trying shoes on in person, even if you end up ordering online. Danskos and so forth tend to be a love them or hate them type thing. Really only useful if you have access to an autoclave :)

https://www.amazon.com/Jessica-Babies-Breastfeeding-FAQ-ebook/dp/B005DMMDE6/ Not necessarily the One True Resource, but inexpensive, quick, and written by a CLEC who has both breast and formula-fed. Me too. Hormonal changes can cause nipple soreness. Lots of women experience this during pregnancy, ovulation, or menstruation. I seem to get it postpartum. There's no signs of actual problem like bad latch or thrush, and it goes away on its own within a few weeks. With my first, I thought something was wrong because I kept hearing that, so I kept looking for a problem. If someone had just said, "Yeah, sometimes it just hurts." it would have been a lot less stressful.

I buy used as much as possible. Previous editions even, when it seems likely to be successful (ie. classes that don't have problem sets). When there are mandatory access codes, I find that I can often buy the code on its own separately, and it still ends up being cheaper. I'm generally pretty gentle on textbooks, so I sell them afterwards and recoup most or all of the cost (I expected to make a profit on one from this semester, but then I spilled tea on it. Ah well). I've never rented. I might consider it if it were significantly less than the used cost. But only an electronic rental, because otherwise I'd end up spilling tea on it.

I think it's very geographic. Around here (west coast US), there are very few direct entry nursing programs. Most require that you take the non-nursing-specific classes (sciences, english, psychology, etc.) as prerequisites first. Then, if you survive those classes, you'll be considered for the nursing program. And most students take these prereqs at a community college, because it's much cheaper, and taking them at a university generally doesn't give you any advantage in applying to the nursing program. I did an Associate's nursing program, then RN to BSN later. Absolutely no regrets about doing it that way.

If I get myself in the right state (being a passenger on a long car ride, for example), I can actually literally listen to music in my head. Kind of like a controllable auditory hallucination. I guess that's what I feel visualization should be like. Literal seeing images. I can rotate an object in my head and so on, but it's not really "seeing" it. Just something that more closely resembles seeing than any other sense. I can "see" clear images of, for example, places I'm very familiar with. But I'm not going to visualize an image if I hear/read a description of something. I do think I have some degree of face blindness, too. I daydream all the time. It's just, as others have said, more of a narrative than a picture. I have vivid dreams. I can visualize images from past dreams (even long past) better than a lot of other things.

http://sixboxesofbooks.blogspot.com/2008/ has a good overview from someone who did this (though just reading them herself). Obviously, doesn't include any from the past decade (I'm getting old!). (Had a bit of a time tracking it down because I couldn't remember how many boxes of books there were. I was thinking forty.)

Newborn clothing. My babies have all been on the smaller side, and really needed it for at least a little while. With #4 (you'd think I'd have learned by that point), I totally forgot that NB and 0-3 month aren't the same thing. I had a ton of 0-3 month clothing but no NB. And then that baby ended up being the smallest of all, and actually had to run out and find preemie clothing. I think it was 2 months before we used the 0-3m clothing. But I know a lot of people have babies big enough that they never fit NB clothing. I'm kind of hit or miss on cloth diapers in general, but consider them an essential during the first few weeks when they poop constantly - I have a hard time with the idea of throwing away a diaper I put on 30 seconds ago. But I know other people are the other way around - they're fine dealing with cloth diapers later, but don't want the extra laundry with a newborn. Some sort of carrier. I usually use a sling at first, and an upright carrier later. This time we got a Beco Gemini, which can be used with smaller babies, but ended up switching to an Ergo because I really wanted something with a pocket to hold diapers and stuff, so as not to need to carry a separate bag for shorter outings. I'm still occasionally using it with the "baby" who is now 3. Somewhere safe to set the baby down. Car seat. Nursing bras (or nursing-compatible bras). Some babies I've used a stroller a ton (either for the baby, or for an older sibling), others not. Receiving blankets are useful, but, contrary to popular statement, it is entirely possible to have too many of them. Yes, I would have been happy with gowns and nothing else for the first few months. Pajamas are cute, but much more difficult to manage for diaper changes.

I've recognized people I knew in real life on another forum (MDC) based on little quirks combined with other details that added up (occupation, general location, kids ages). One had a very unusually vehement negative reaction to a certain book that I've never heard from anyone else, which I'd both heard from her directly and saw on the forum. One talked about some issues with her son that we'd also discussed in real life. One... I think it really just came down to her writing "voice", combined with details that fit. Really made me rethink the concept of internet anonymity, and I tend to be very conscious about posting things that could be too identifiable. Not so much on here, where I'm not really posting anything I'd have a problem with people knowing, but elsewhere. That said, I'd be reluctant to jump into a WTM conversation in real life around here in anything but a "Oh, do you homeschool too?" sense, just because the homeschooling community where I live leans so strongly conservative/religious.

Scabies is one subject where I strongly recommend STAY OFF THE INTERNET!!!!!!!! Or at least stick to reputable sites. Following the rabbit holes (scabies burrows?) just makes it so much psychologically worse. I think there's a lot of delusional parasitosis out there. My whole family had scabies many years ago - there was an outbreak in our community. It sucked. It was horrible. But realistically... we did the treatment, washed stuff, and were fine. Didn't have to get rid of furniture or burn the house down or anything like that. It can, actually. But your daughter's rash doesn't really look like it to me, and after treatment it would be unlikely. One possibility - scabies treatment can trigger eczema.

Same here. I did cursive, as required, for years. I switched back to print the second they stopped caring about it (sometime in high school), and still print everything except my signature. If I didn't master it to the point of it being easier in the years of daily use when it was required of me, then, for me, it probably isn't actually easier.

The version of My Father's Dragon on LibriVox is absolutely adorable. My son really liked the Thorton Burgess animal books at that age. Also, pretty much everything on kayray.org.

While they're technically single use, many people do reuse them. I'm sure you couldn't get years out of a single cup, but I've never had any issues with reusing one for a single cycle. They also make (made? They changed ownership and the website isn't super informative) a version that is intended to be reusable through a whole cycle - I think it's just a little more sturdy. I tried these before having kids, and had some problems with them, both in terms of discomfort and leakage. Now they're great.