Intestinal blockage is the first thing that came to my mind. Colonoscopy ASAP - hopefully the wait isn't too long!

I had a nasty stomach flu this weekend. Crackers and gatorade for awhile. Then I graduated to a plain baked potato w/ a bit of salt and nothing else on it. Then toast, applesauce, pasta w/ butter and a bit of parm. That was about it all weekend. I attempted a plain turkey sandwich on day 4 and it made me feel super sick. I'm almost a week out and still a bit tender! Hope you feel better soon!

I ended up with 2 packages of Klondike bars once when this happened. I never buy those and it ended up being a nice mistake on our end.

We've taken DS's lead on this. At 12, he was comfortable being home alone for a few hours, but not after dark. At 14, he's comfortable with being home alone after dark, but we're old and tired, so we're never out too late. 😂 At 12, I was babysitting until late regularly, but I would definitely get anxious at weird house noises!

They look delicious! I love spring rolls. I made roasted veggie pasta. Zucchini, summer squash, sliced onion, garlic, and halved grape tomatoes - toss w/ olive oil, salt and pepper. Roasted in oven. While they were getting all roasty and happy, I cooked up orecchiette pasta and wilted some baby spinach. Tossed everything together once the pasta was cooked (added a little veggie broth) and topped with shredded parm. It came out great!

Wordle 660 4/6* ⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛🟩🟩 ⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 659 3/6* ⬛⬛🟩🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 My Wordle family group text has heated up today - is today's word really a word? Or just an acronym? I googled it, and the Oxford dictionary added it in 1941 as a word, but we still have crabby family members. Is anyone else having discussions about this one today?

Middle school teacher edition: "We do NOT eat pencil erasers. Wait - you're having a contest to see who can eat the most??" 🤦‍♀️

I like tinted moisturizer. Bare Minerals and Aveda both have decent ones.

I am usually either an ESTJ or ISTJ - my E/I split is just about 50/50. I just took the 16 personalities test and got ESTJ - 52% extroverted. 81% observant, 53% thinking, 82% judging.

Yep - I work in a middle school, so masking is as much for not getting sick as it is for blocking middle school smells. 🤢 Also, as a bonus, I can cover my 'wtf' face as needed. I mask in stores, at work, and at appts. I do not mask in friends' homes or when we have people over. I'm the only teacher masking at school all the time. I've noticed that they will all mask when sick, which is considerate. We have 2 students who mask as well, and I will continue masking as long as they do because I want to make sure they're not feeling totally alone. (also I've quite enjoyed not having a cold for 3+ years now and think I'd be a gigantic baby if I got one)

We each have a hydro flask for water. Mine is 32oz, and I think DH and DS have 28 oz ones. We also like the Contigo coffee mugs. We have three we rotate through. I think that's it!

Thank you so much! I'm going to reach out tonight. I'll update if I hear back. ❤️

She did want the resources - and she did end up calling and getting a therapist. There was one day she was over my house crying because she couldn't make herself take the steps to make the call herself. She asked for my help. I didn't intend for it to be infantilizing. She's helped me plenty over the years as well - that's kind of what we've always done. Be there for the other and help pick them up when they need it. I'm hurt - and confused, but not angry. I mentioned my health stuff because I hope I was able to be there enough for her. I was having a harder time for a few weeks setting my shit aside. I was thinking of sending a text to let her know that I miss her and I hope she's ok? I'm struggling with the wording though. Thank you everyone for the replies.

So I have a weird friend situation that I'd love some advice about. I helped my friend M get a job at my school last year. She worked as a teacher's aide and loved it. Our state is desperate for special educators, and our district was willing to pay for her master's and licensing to become certified. She was excited to do it and began this year as a special educator, 1/2 time at my school 1/2 time at a different school in the district. M has struggled to keep a full-time job over the years. She is AMAZING at all of the jobs she has tried, including this one, but she struggles with self-belief, depression, anxiety, etc. She gets overwhelmed very quickly, and her instinct is withdrawal and avoidance when she is in this space. Working in a school is hard on its best days, and our little team did everything we could to support her. As the year began, I ran all of her meetings, wrote the evals and IEPs, helped her set her schedule up, helped find instructional materials for the students she worked with, the other special educator that we shared caseloads with, and I made sure to give her the easiest kids on the caseload to make the first year as best we could for her. (We would do this for anyone new coming in - we want people to be able to ease into the job rather than get overwhelmed too quickly). She was great - kids loved her, teachers loved her, etc. Then her mental health took a dive. She struggled to get out of bed on days when we didn't have school; she would go a week plus without showering, would be crying at work, etc. I tried to support her as best I could, both wearing my "friend hat" and my "coworker hat." But she gave her 2-week notice shortly after Christmas. She came to my house to tell me, and I let her know that it was fine - that she needed to take care of herself and that we'd be fine at school. we had a good visit after that, but then things changed at work. She didn't tell anyone else except our boss and one coworker for the two weeks she was working. Then she stopped talking to me and avoided me at work. I know this is her way - she avoids uncomfortable things. I tried to give her space, but the work/friend line was tough. It also got really awkward because my coworker C and I knew she was leaving, but no one else did. Finally, I asked her to please at least let the kids know she was leaving so she didn't just disappear. She sort of did - she let them know she was needed at a different school and wouldn't be around as much. So they at least knew she wasn't going to be around. She didn't tell anyone else until she was leaving on the last day, or not at all. She left a lot of hurt feelings in her wake, and various staff came to me wondering what they did to upset her. I haven't heard from her since her last day of work. She has been my best friend for 16 years. I know her so well - I know she will not reach out to me or anyone else because she avoids things that feel uncomfortable. I think that she's avoiding me because she thinks I'm upset (and that's what the people that know both her and me also think). I would like to figure out a way to clear the air, maybe? I could send her a text apologizing if I did anything to upset her. I've gone through every text interaction and gone over any phone/in-person one over and over again, and I'm not seeing anything, but if I have done anything wrong, I'd love to have the opportunity to apologize. Anyone similar? Have similar friends? I don't want her to think I'm angry with her for leaving. It was hard - I had to absorb 50% more work into my week, but I figured it out, and our friendship is more important than work. I had some pretty scary medical stuff going on leading up to the time she gave her notice and just after (I'm fine), but I'm sure I could have been a little more supportive (called more, texted more, etc). I found a bunch of mental health resources for her, EAP, online, and local psych stuff, but I wasn't able to do quite as much as I normally would have. Sorry this got so long!

Depends on the school, I think. Defending yourself while being attacked would not get a student suspended at our school if there is no additional backstory.

I feel like ours are in the dark ages - except for digital xrays, everything seems pretty similar to when I was a kid getting my teeth cleaned.

Night and day with a dentist and an endo. I love the endodontist. My root canals have been easier than getting a cavity filled. The tools were better and more precise and they did a way better job with numbing!

I finished Sourdough last week. I think I got the recommendation from one of the book threads here. I loved it - thank you to whoever recently recommended it! I'm involved with a Lent church book group, and we're reading Good Enough - 40-ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. I'm enjoying it, but the pace set by the people running the group is more of a "speed read" rather than a "read and digest for a bit," so I think I'll keep this handy to reread. My current before-bed light read is a Rescue Alaska mystery called Finding Hope (available on Kindle Unlimited). The main character is part of a search and rescue team and has the ability to "connect" with victims, which enables them to find and save more people. Very light reading. And my current work book is Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler- "Perfect for students who have been convinced they are naturally "bad at math," the author offers a demonstration of how to turn self-doubt into self-confidence by relying on the "mindset" framework."

Oh I'm so glad it was a good first day!! Congrats!

I was late to work today - overslept by 30 min, and I have 3 alarms set. First time I've ever been late. The morning dark is hard.

Only for primaries, but I think we have options for any party that has more than one candidate running (progressive, libertarian, etc). For general elections, there's one ballot, and all of the independent candidates are on it as well as the democratic and republican.

Me too - in VT, you are given all ballots for each party during primaries. You choose the one you want to vote on, and hand the other back to the poll worker in an envelope.

Rhode Island - fried dough. But I've had beignets and they're amazing and now I want one.

I hate this one! I was so happy to finally be driving to school in the light again, and it's back to being pitch black. Also, in May/June, it's light so late out that it's hard to get to sleep in time to get a good night's sleep. If we keep DST permanently like some congress people want to, sunrise will be close to 830 am in the winter, which is crazy late! My body takes so long to adjust to this time too for some reason.