Anne Bronte seems to have been an animal lover. In her novel Agnes Grey, she portrays Agnes as an animal lover who's heartbroken to see the animal abuse that she sees in her role as governess. She even kills a nest full of birds to prevent them from being tortured. I wonder how much of the torture scenes are from her actual time as a governness, and if any are from recounting her sister's abuses.

Cilantro doesn't taste like soap to me - it tastes as I imagine cilantro should. I'm just not a fan.

Well, I don't agree with that either. But if he does die, you think his loved ones won't see all the nasty things said about him while he was dying? What's the point in making others feel bad?

I think it's tacky to talk crap about someone as they lie in the hospital on life support.

Y'know, now that I'm making the effort to pronounce the 'alm,' it's actually kinda fun to say. But I definitely noticed my stilted pronunciations and sometimes I try to improve upon it only to fall back into the lazy habit. It's a battle :)

My balm and bomb sound alike ETA: I know how to pronounce balm, but I usually don't draw out the "alm" like I should.

Wet tissue of any kind makes me gag. I have trouble wiping up spills with paper towels because it makes me feel ill.

I'm an introvert and my sister is very much an extrovert. When I was younger, my sister thought I was a b*tch. She didn't understand that withdrawing within myself after a certain amount of social interaction was how I kept sane. She thought everyone should be able to put on that extroverted show. I think she understands me better now as we've gotten closer. I'm a listener, and I think she appreciates that. Thankfully, my DH is also an introvert.

I was going to vote yes, but I don't know if husbands counted as friends for this poll. Growing up, I lived in a predominantly Hispanic area, but I went to school where there was a pretty equal distribution of races. So grade school through high school, yes. Now my husband (black) and I live in a predominantly white area and our groups of friends are white and Hispanic.

Yes, I am. But not in the way you're asking. I'm 21 and feel as if I get painted as an immature, thoughtless girl. I tend to hang out with the older (than me) crowd - 30+ because I feel as if that's my social group and where I belong. I don't take kindly to being ignored due to my age - both as a professional and a person.

When she inserts the tampon, is she inserting it straight up? If so, tell her to try at an angle - pushing it in towards her tailbone.

Not something someone said, but I went with my obviously pregnant sister to a maternity shop and I could tell the saleswoman was trying to decide whether it was just my sister who was pregnant or both of us. You'd think she'd find a more covert way of looking than staring at my mid section.

It must be a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

My dentist as a child was Dr. Chow

DH is allergic to tree nuts but NOT peanuts (which are a legume). He eats peanut butter fairly regularly when I'm not around him (I have an allergy to peanuts). He insists that he's allergic to peanuts but not peanut butter. As in, he'd have a reaction if he ate a Snickers bar but he's perfectly fine to eat a Reece's or PB&J. No matter what I say to him, he insists he will only eat one on his deathbed so he can test his theory. Whatever. This one didn't happen to me, but I was present. I worked with a biracial woman (black and white). Two Spanish-speaking only customers requested our help and became frustrated when she insisted that she didn't know Spanish. We tried as best we could to help with online translation software and miming, but they were incredulous throughout the whole exchange that she must know Spanish and was tricking them. We could both understand bits and pieces of the conversation, which is how we were able to know that they thought she was lying, but beyond that that language barrier was too large. We were finally able to enlist the help of a bilingual customer who confirmed to us that the Spanish-speaking customers thought we were lying to them about her language skills.

I'm able to schedule text messages from my phone, so if something comes to mind during after hours that I don't want to forget but I don't want to disturb someone either, I just schedule a text to send to them. I don't assume that others put their phone on do not disturb.

Thanks. That makes sense.

But what can the SW do? As long as the birth parents work the case plan, I can't see how posting pictures of their child to their social media account would stop them from regaining custody.

I thought birth parents had every right to post pictures of their children online, even when in foster care? I know that foster parents can not, and if the children are adopted then the birth parents wouldn't be allowed. But if that's true, I'd assume if they were actually having visits there be bunches of pics. I don't know. Maybe each state us different when it comes to birth parents and pics.

DH and I live in a LCOL area. We've currently moved, so DH is looking for work and I'm the sole earner at this time. I work as an independent contractor - we can get by on me working about 20 hours a week and I work from home. I absolutely live the flexibility and freedom. I work more than 20, however. I'm building my own business as well, so I spend a lot of time asvertising, marketing, networking, etc. It can be difficult to step away from work as it seems there's always more I can be doing.

The reason I support the legalization of homosexual marriages is because I have seen what happens to those in homosexual relationships who split up or are otherwise separated (death). They didn't have the same rights as heteros in these regards -- they had a child together, but when they split, all of a sudden one individual decides not to honor their initially agreed upon custody decision -- the parent without custody all of a sudden had no rights and no legal recourse because they don't have legal custody. Or upon death, families will contest the will of the deceased who left their belongings to their lifelong partner. I don't see marriage as anything beyond a contract between two consenting individuals who want to spend their lives together. So, to me, it seems silly to say that marriage is only between a man and a woman. Perhaps that was the past view, but it's the view no longer. I don't see how legalizing a union between two males or two females is socially condoning -- it shouldn't be a problem to begin with. As long as the relationship is consensual, and there is no harm being done to others, what is there to condone?

I apologize if I've wrongly assumed your beliefs. What am I saying here that would be so offensive to gay celibates? I don't disagree with their choice, but I also don't think it's the ONLY choice for homosexuals. You are correct -- I don't care if it's a choice or not -- two consenting adults should have the option to enter a homosexual relationship that is legally protected as is a hetero relationship. We, as a society, have determined that the context of marriage can include homosexuals. This wasn't so in the past, but that doesn't mean it has to always be like that. Homosexual relationships weren't always linked to marriage -- agreed. But what does that have to mean for today?

You believe gays shouldn't be married. Fine. So if a law had been passed that made gay marriage illegal throughout the US, your beliefs would have been upheld, but the rights of homosexuals would have been trumped. Gays believe they should have the right to marry. A law was passed allowing this, and in your opinion, your beliefs have been trumped, but the rights of gays have been upheld. Out of the two situations above, who is more directly impacted? In the first situation, gays aren't allowed to marry meaning they have no legal rights whatsoever. In the second situation, they're allowed to marry but you're still free to go on believing as you wish. I guess my initial statement, instead of "your truth shouldn't trump the truth of others," should have been "your truth shouldn't trump the rights of others." I apologize, that was a mistake on my behalf and I believe we've been talking in circles due to it.

I ETA'd but I did it a little late, so I'll post what I said here: "Your truth should not trump anyone else's truth" isn't a truth in the sense that I'm speaking. It's a right. Everyone has a right to their beliefs, but no one has a right to squash someone else's beliefs. You can declare all day long until you're blue in the face that my beliefs are wrong, but you have no right to literally force your beliefs upon me. When I say "truth" I literally mean beliefs or strongly held convictions. I mean that I have a right to espouse what I believe, and you have a right to do the same. You may believe gay marriage is wrong, but not allowing gays to marry is your beliefs trumping theirs. The legalization of their marriages in no way trumps your belief -- you're still free to believe as you wish about gay marriage, because you aren't being forced into one yourself and everyone is able to do as they see fit.

Double post.