ALL THE TIME! I read somewhere, that earworms get stuck in your head because you only hear part of a song. And so to "cure" it you need to hear the entire song. Which does work for me, but then I just get stuck on another song. And ANYTHING seems to trigger it! I feel like my brain is just constantly trying to connect things to songs.

I completely agree. I hate when adults do this to minors in ANY situation. Go straight to the parents, or leave it alone. Either require the vax, or don't. And if your employer won't require the vax and you are that upset about it, then quit your job.

Thank you for posting this. IMHO we need to show more kindness and understanding to people who are are hesitant. For whatever reason. I have a long complicated story, and have struggled with the whole situation and what I was going to do. STRUGGLED. But ultimately DD&I went yesterday and got our first Pfizer shots. I felt nothing. DD tensed her arm and it hurt. I felt a little bit weird yesterday and today. DD felt the same way, like how you feel after you've been sick for a few days and are now done being sick but you're still a bit off. She has also had a mild headache since last night. I don't know when I can claim victory over terrible side effects, 48 hours maybe 😁??

I think we could go round and round for days whether this would be a welcome phone call to the person on the other end or not. I think that's largely a personality thing. I would HATE getting a phone call like this. But clearly other people would LIKE getting a phone call like this, or be neutral about it. What's icky to me is this pressure and the pushback you are getting that your boundaries/feelings etc are wrong. It seems like a small deal on the surface but is in fact a huge deal when you get right down to it. You're allowed to feel like something is wrong and choose not to do it without being shamed into compliance. You are not wrong. You are allowed to not like this, and not want your DD to do this. You do not have to justify it or explain yourself. It's gross that you are being made to feel this way.

I have posted about my mouse problems a couple of times. The first time I had baby mice falling from my ceiling, and we NEVER figured that one out. (I'm still working on my horror movie screenplay for Hollywood.) Then, this past summer, I had an infestation. I put out some little poison cubes for the mice, and our ENTIRE HOUSE STANK TO THE HIGH HEAVENS when a bunch of them died in the walls! I live in a small house, but still. There were 4 distinct "stink" zones in our house, which leads me to believe at least 4 mice died in various areas in the walls, and it was a nightmare. I know you're thinking, "so what, your house was smelly!" But I am telling you, it was AWFUL. And it stank for WEEKS. So, I called in a professional. They did find 3 holes that they plugged, they set up a ton of snap traps everywhere. We only caught 2 mice. And he said there wasn't much evidence of anything serious going on. So then they just put out more poison outside around the house. The mice allegedly won't come in the house to die. A week after the bait stations were set out, thousands of flies descended onto my house. And whether it was the mouse carcasses from before or the bait stations I don't know. I can tell you I first saw a bunch of flies flying out of the outdoors bait stations, and that is when I called to have the bait stations taken away. But it was too late by then. The professional did give me a good trick for snap traps. Put peanut butter in the trap with a sunflower seed in it sticking straight up. The mice can kind of lick at the peanut butter without engaging the snap, BUT, if the sunflower seed is sticking straight up they really have to work to get it out. It has worked like a charm for us. I have to put out traps the minute I hear any scratching, and just keep on top of the situation. That seems to be all I can do about it. And also, the worst times I have had have been August and dead of winter so I don't know about this whole fall/spring thing either... I am deathly afraid of living in an area with snakes, but I am starting to wonder if that would be better than this!

The 606K house I mentioned earlier was bought in February 2020 for $250K. It was in fine shape, there was nothing wrong with it. Just a regular house. They just made everything "really really nice". They sold it in November for $606K to someone fleeing another state. We've never had prices comparable to California before. Which is why I think the OP is smart to buy her rental, if she can.

No possibility of us finding another house right now. And in our neighborhood it's people fleeing Boston, which I think is short sighted.

I obviously don't know your exact situation. But I will say, I live in Maine. An "expensive" part of Maine. And my "starter home" 900 square foot ranch would sell for more than 300K right now. It's utterly incomprehensible. We just had a 2 bedroom, 1 car garage house on our street that was flipped and done up (extremely nicely) go for $606K. .2 acre lot. Yes, granite countertops and all that, but the prices are absolutely MIND. BLOWING. The prices just keep going up and up and up and up. DH and I would really like to move, but we can't because there is nowhere to go within a reasonable distance of his job. Houses are too expensive, and the lack of supply is ridiculous. We've lived here all of our lives, and in this house for 17 years, and the whole situation is extremely frustrating and frankly, a little scary. My former neighbor just sold her house, and has made offer after offer and cannot find another house to buy right now. Basically, another house will be virtually impossible to find. Even to rent. I really think you made the right call, in this crazy situation.

Agreeing with what everyone else said. I went through this a year ago. It's a weird place to be. Particularly if you have homeschooled for a long time. For me, the pandemic has sort of kept me on hold for the past year too. If you can, I highly suggest you just let the situation be what it is. Don't fight it and panic that you don't have the next thing planned. I think many people rush right into the next thing, without taking the time to be still and enjoy the mountain-top. I liked homeschooling, and I miss it in some ways. But it is really nice to have accomplished something like this. And it's also very nice to not have the burden hanging over me any more. So congrats! Give yourself a big pat on the back, and take a deep breath and enjoy it!

We did it for the first few years of DD's life and it was a logistical PITA. Now it would be impossible. DH worked full time, so I had to bring him in and pick him up 2-3 times a week and literally stay home the other days. So it was "doable" in the sense that DD had nothing going on at that point in her life, and I could stay home a couple of days a week. But things would come up, like we have to get our cars inspected every year (or the 27 random other things...sudden doctor visits etc). The second car is priceless in these situations, when your alternative is to wait at the mechanics for hours, or walk 4 miles home. The more people you have living in a house, the more these random situations will come up. We don't have great access to public transportation/Uber, and don't have family around to help us. We live in the suburbs, it snows a lot, and the sidewalks are barely cleared and all that. Remote work, and good access to other transportation would make a huge difference. We have 3 adults with 2 cars and honestly, it's the best we can do. When DH is retired, we will go down to one again. It completely depends on your specific situation.

I don't think you're a wimp at all. I have so much work I need to get done, insert loooooong story here, and I am terrified. It always goes badly, and I just hate it. So yeah, I get it. And good for you!

I have never heard this theory before! I like Billy Joel, and I like this song, and I don't care if it is a gay bar....but I am having a hard time believing the song was meant to be THAT deep. I think the guy "who never had time for a wife" was pretty obvious, even at the time. But, it certainly fun to speculate.

I think it's a letter opener! We had one like that (with a hole in the top) when I was a kid. Letters, BTW, are paper documents that we used to send instead of emails, 100 years ago when I was a child....🤣

Because the chat board reaches a wider audience, and fulfills a greater need now. Things have changed so much in 20 years. When I first read the original WTM, it was SO much more "DIY". It was hard to sometimes figure out how to do things. You didn't have easy access to educational items, and so many of them just didn't exist at the time. Homeschooling was still considered a weird fringe thing too. I didn't know anyone IRL who homeschooled when my dd was a toddler. My family was horrible about it, and never accepted it. I felt completely alone and overwhelmed. I never found a homeschooling group IRL. Having a curriculum like WWE available is so much more straightforward to implement than how it used to be done. There is much more advice and help out there than there was. The line between homeschooling and public schooling is also a lot blurrier than it used to be. Now my DD is graduated. But over the years I have gotten so much advice about everything from cupcakes and what kilt to buy my DH for Christmas. So I keep coming back to chat.

I ordered a fridge 3 months ago, and it's been delayed twice already. My fridge is old and not doing well, and we have a tiny kitchen with only 1 possible smaller spot for it so we don't have many options in normal times. I've heard stories of people having their fridge die and having to go months without one.

At first I was upset because no one on this thread seems concerned with what color the alleged crockpot is. I mean, priorities people. But then, someone brought up "cupcake mix". You should all lose your denim jumpers over the mere thought of using a mix. I need to go calm down now and watch something relaxing, like a debate.

I agree with this. It's just hard to discern sometimes if someone is actually taking advantage or not. The OP is obviously more intimately involved with the person and a better judge of the situation though.

That's my thinking too. So maybe she doesn't need the food. But could she use someone checking in on her every day? Because then she's not taking advantage of the program.

On a personal level, if I knew this person it would probably irritate me. BUT, it's my understanding that MOW also exists to sort of keep on eye on people that live alone. I volunteer at a food charity, and I've just decided to take the attitude that the majority of people really need the food and to just not worry about the minority that don't and are possibly taking advantage. If that helps you any.

I was thinking either Dueling Banjos or Santa Baby, but I am afraid they would LOVE IT and beg me to blare it constantly.

OHHH, now I know where my former neighbors moved 🤣! Seriously, the noise has been out of control in my neighborhood. Our neighbors had a HORRIBLE dog. And they would let it out at 1 am, 5 am, 11 pm, you name it and it would bark its head off. Every time I went into my yard to go to the car, take out the trash, or I don't know USE my yard it would bark it's head off and throw itself at my fence! For like, a half hour! I spoke to them, I was incredibly nice, and they had "NO IDEA the dog was doing that!" Bull****! This isn't a yip, or 2 minutes of barking! There is NO WAY you didn't hear it unless you are constantly running a jackhammer in your house. Who lets their dog out to bark at 2 am or 5 am when you live on tiny lots???? As soon as THEY moved in April the other neighbors started blaring music 3-4 times a week and the bass thumping and driving us nuts, INSIDE the closed up house. I spoke to them, EXTREMELY NICE but nope, "we're allowed to have a good time" too bad for you. I am frazzled. I have read that noise complaints are up everywhere. And I get it, these people being jerks are also frustrated which is why they are acting SO BADLY. But I can't believe the level of inconsiderate behavior I am experiencing this year. We're all stuck at home, tone it down people. Think about the people around you SOME.

I think you have to be in a mental space where you can handle it. You need mental resources to lose weight and eat better. I don't think it's good to justify being overweight by saying you are too busy or whatever. But, I also think there are times in life where you are just overwhelmed, and simply not GAINING weight is a real accomplishment. This summer I've lost a lot of the weight I've been trying to lose since I had my dd. Part of it was just from anxiety, which isn't healthy. But, part of it was being done homeschooling my dd and finally having some energy to put towards it. I having been paying more attention to what I am eating, when I am eating for emotional reasons, and getting plenty of exercise. And frankly, until this summer I didn't have the mental capacity to devote to it. I don't know if that sounds like a cop-out, but after years of berating myself it's become clear I couldn't do it until NOW. I don't know if that helps at all.

I really think the key to growing a bumper crop of mint is to hate it, and be actively trying to get rid of it. Maybe you just need an attitude change...🤣

Me either. I'm in the Northeast too. Also, I am grateful to Bill for posting the picture. We think our neighbor is growing pot in his backyard, but were too scared to google it.🤣 (Totally legal to grow your own pot here, BTW. I don't care if they grow it, we were just curious because we are nosy!)

Again, you guys are raising so many good points, and I appreciate the thoughts.