Hooray! How wonderful! I love your plan to get a haircut and buy a book ❤️

I would really appreciate things for the classroom, like Expo markers, pencils, and tissues. Gift-giving is hard unless you really know the person. I have always appreciated the thoughtfulness of teacher gifts over the years, but sadly most of them go to Goodwill.

Oh, I love Wegman's!!! It's my favorite place to visit when we go to NY. 😍 I do love Whole Foods. I just enjoy looking at all the different things they have. The hot food bar is really delicious at my nearest WF.

I agree with you about the annoyance of being asked to participate in something like this. I'd go with a potted plant, too. It really would increase wellness because it cleans the air!

I got so fed up with handwashing dishes yesterday that I bought a set of plates, bowls, etc at Target that can go completely in the dishwasher. My other dishes that are really pretty and that I love (and have to hand-wash) are going to take a break for a while. Now I need 100% stainless steel pots and pans that can go directly in, too. I love you, cast iron, but we're on a break!!

Well, that's true too. I feel for those adjunct faculty.

I would hate peer review. If I'm paying for a class and really trying to improve my skills, I want feedback from a professor, not my peers.

Gut issues are so frustrating. I'm sorry!!

Have they tested her for SIBO? That's one of the causes of food intolerances.

Ha! That would be amazing.

Does watching TV count? 😄

I didn't give up coffee, but I gave up caffeine. For a while there, maybe about a year, I was only drinking decaf coffee. I had been getting a racing heart and anxiety with caffeinated coffee. That went away on decaf. A few months ago I was super tired and started drinking a cup of caffeinated black tea every day. I thought it wasn't affecting me, but I was getting anxious again and not sleeping great so I cut it out. Now on decaf coffee and decaf tea, and I'm sleeping sooo much better. I really thought the one cup of tea didn't affect my sleep, but now I think it does.

Well that's just unfair. I've never ever had a cold do that. There's a pretty horrible stomach thing going around here... I don't think anybody's had cold stuff first though. Hope it goes away very soon.

Well that's just unfair. I've never ever had a cold do that. There's a pretty horrible stomach thing going around here... I don't think anybody's had cold stuff first though. Hope it goes away very soon.

Geez, this is in addition to the sore throat/cold thing you also had? Or a continuation of it?

Oh, so hard 😞

Aw. I'm sorry. How is his eyesight these days?

Yahoo!!

Oh definitely. Emotion is one of the important parts of executive functioning. Positive emotions = good EF, negative emotions = less good EF. Taking breaks, exercising, doing something fun, etc boosts mood and so boosts EF.

If I was a vet, I'd prefer my patients to take this approach, I think.

My 18 year old cat has kidney disease. She won't eat the prescription food, so I just said forget it. I also decided not to do subcutaneous fluids. I'd be keeping her around longer for ME, not for her. When the vet told me about the kidney disease, I thought she would be on a quick road downhill, but she's been doing just fine.

I love that you're doing this! Crocodile - not sure Elephant - not sure Giraffe - Tears of the Giraffe is the title of one of the books. Emeralds/diamonds - Don't think so... Tea kettle - Tea generally... they have red bush tea multiple times per day. I have stamps from England, the Netherlands, Belgium, the US, and Namibia (which borders Botswana). Any characters or correspondence from any of those locations? - Not sure about that. Other ideas: Mma Makutsi is fond of fancy shoes. One of the pairs was blue 🙂 Mma Ramotswe shares lots of fruitcake with Mma Potokwane. Cattle are frequently referenced as a symbol of Botswana. As others said... small white van, pumpkins, tea. "The Principles of Private Detection" by Clovis Andersen is their main reference book. It's mentioned in every book at least once. (Not a real book)

INTJ or INFJ for me, too. I don't know if I do this. I'm lucky that I haven't had many (any?) experiences that would warrant door-slamming. I recently had a friend tell me that if I ever did X thing, then friend would be DONE with me forever. I was like, really? No mistakes allowed? I assume that my friend has had some trauma surrounding friends doing X thing, but I was also a little hurt that she would judge me so harshly. As I tried to explain, if I ever hurt her, it would certainly be unintentional! I hope we could talk about any issues and work through them. I was definitely surprised by what she said. I had a tough situation with work colleagues last year, and thought that I would just never care about them or their opinion of me again. This year, I've made an effort to keep an open mind and also to get to know them better, and I'm very surprised to realize, I'm liking them more these days! Some of them seem to be liking me more, too. However, I definitely agree with having appropriate boundaries and sticking to them. So, I'm not sure. This thread is making me think!

I recently told a friend that I was waiting to see how long it would be before she asked me to get together (I always ask, usually weekly). I asked if she didn't want to initiate something because she was worried that she would be bothering me (I was pretty sure this was the reason). Sure enough, she said, "Yes! You're really busy so I don't want to add another thing to your plate." I was able to tell her that she's NOT bothering me, and if I were ever too busy, I'd just say no. It was a very short and no-big-deal conversation. However, I can see how it would be scary if you think the person just doesn't want to spend too much time with you because they don't value your friendship very much. Ouch. BUT, if it were me, I'd like to know so I could put my energies elsewhere. It can sometimes feel very draining (for me at least) to keep up with relationships, even with people I really care about.

This is how I feel, too.