I was not close with my mom, I was close with my dad but he died when I was 16. My relationship with her was ok when I was grown, she liked my kids and was a pretty good grandma for someone busy with a job. But we were not close.

My kids talk to me more as high schoolers and young adults, they ask for advice, discuss things, we are a lot closer, though the ones who moved away don’t call much (like I texted one of them to ask if I’d pissed her off, it was so long, but she is just too much like me and so neither of us called, lol) but - the kids are all close with each other and I think that matters more in the long run.

Young, Dumb, Young Dumb and Broke.

Dude. If you got into college you aren’t dumb, and the good job may help your mood (as my husband says, money doesn’t buy happiness but sure removes a lot of the stresses and lacks that cause sadness.)

My best wishes to you, and also to that weird vegan who is in a similar situation. I can’t say things will get better but will say things CAN get better.

Ooh a debutante. Does he get a fancy dress and a coming out party? How exactly do you get jumped into that club?

We had a poster with “nutrition per calorie” and collard greens were at the top, I imagine kale is similar.

But you do need calories too!

I think dal with greens in it is probably the most nutritious. Love soup with meat but beans, greens, and rice feels so good and healthy, and has most of what you need for a day.

If the OP is asking for the most calorie dense soup, I would guess cheddar broccoli or cheddar cauliflower.

Because he’s ever so pretty?

Nowhere, I’d travel. If money was endless I would be happily homeless because we could travel in style.

Hayes Carll

Joshua Ray Walker

Jason Isbell

Sturgill Simpson

Tyler Childers

Maren Morris

Probably a hundred more, pretty popular but no radio play because commercial radio is nonsense and mostly commercials. But if you put the above into a streaming playlist, you will find the good country music of today.

The unbrawlah. Any violence ends when you get within a meter or so of the umbrella when open. Not bounces off like a forcefield but like a zone of safety.

I don’t expect people to believe things just because I say I experienced them, but can’t think of anything that’s happened that NOBODY believes, I am much more often surprised by how much they do.

I don’t think I can ask for immortality or close to it since I already had kids, so I would like a magic purse - the ability to pull whatever I need out of a pocket universe and store whatever I need there. Or if I can’t have the stuff, then to be able to create space where it doesn’t exist at least, to store things in and pull them out. I would probably use it for crime, yes. But also just so much easier if I can always only get what I am reaching for, but don’t have to organize or store it IRL. Like having stuff without having stuff.

You would have to be very skilled, though. You would be the replicator from Star Trek, but do you really know how to assemble complex substances and even living things from their constituent molecules?

We still get some. Maybe 20 groups of between 2-7 kids, all were with parents, all seemed under 11 years old. No roving groups of older kids this year. We do have kids in our neighborhood, and a couple of apartment complexes nearby with more so there is no way most of them came out but it seemed more little kids this year than last. I don’t live in the suburbs, but in a residential neighborhood in the city.

I was in costume because we had a party. Olivia Octavius. And had the pleasure of threatening a wee spiderman, which made his parents laugh but he didn’t understand.

Most of my soups are of the Clear Out the Refrigerator variety, so all are inventions in a way, I guess.

But recently made a dal with red lentils, coconut milk, Hong Tsoi, and Berebere and wow it was good.

Ana Aho by Hassan el Asmar

Ana Ho!

Wenta Ho!

Off topic but MHT was a lifesaver for me, and it’s safer to start it as early as you can so maybe talk to your doctor.

So far for me it has been from 40ish on.

Agree on childhood, mine wasn’t bad really but I hated the absolute lack of freedom.

Early adulthood is poverty and struggle, and anger is closer to the surface.

30s were the worst for me, raising kids was nice but I was stressed all the time, ALL the time, and also didn’t realize how much birth control pills were messing with me.

Early 40s, wow. Sex drive like a teenager but so much more opportunity to use it. Probably nature aiming for some reproduction before cutting it off but WOW. Felt good physically, and almost certainly my best looking years were mid 40s, underweight but tall, I love the look, so felt attractive too.

50s so far probably my most comfortable years. Nothing hurts, still some financial stress but kids grew up great, better relationship , it’s mostly just work, exercise, fewer responsibilities I’d say. Certainly an easier time emotionally - don’t get mad as easy.

Stay in shape and hang on. I can’t say it WILL get better but will say it CAN get better. It has for me. And it’s been kinda nice to have it come later.

What did your parents do for you, OP?

I certainly couldn’t afford to support my kids that much financially, you must be very well off! But I did always do more for mine in some ways, than my mom did for us (and less in some other ways). My mom did get us cars and covered the insurance, she saved some money for us for school but in K-12 just sent us to bad schools because she thought it was better to not let them get even worse by putting us in private (there were no good state options back then), so I didn’t get much in the way of academic education until college. She kicked me out at 17 since I wasn’t in high school and not ready for college so I was homeless for awhile. Tough love in some ways, I guess.

I worked to get my kids in better schools K-12, to find a good fit for each kid, and warned them that I wasn’t going to be able to do much toward university. So the academically inclined among them got into schools that either did sliding scale, only charged what we could pay, or state schools (the state now covers tuition for high achievers who jump through a few hoops) and lived at home or took loans for their other costs.

I do let them (and their girlfriend or boyfriend actually) live at home until they get on their feet financially, so far that seems to work fine, it’s an enormous discount for them not paying rent, so they can save enough to get started.

I cannot get them cars or pay the insurance in this current economy, and couldn’t for the first two because the insurance alone would increase monthly cost by $600 and that certainly is not in the budget. My penultimate child pays her own insurance and I let her use my car to go to school, because my office is so close I don’t need the car, made her bus before but then she said she’d drop off the high schooler on her way so that worked out.

Basically - my main constraints are financial but I don’t think I’d be inclined to provide as much as you have. If I could get them cars I probably would have, though.

I rearranged the letters on the after hours sign to After 5 pm Please Dance and nobody ever figured out who did it.

This is part of why I went into accounting. Can do it at any company, don’t need to work anyplace I think is evil, every organization uses this skill set, most everyone needs something accounted for.

But - when my oldest wanted to go into physical therapy work I pushed hard for her to do the training in the Army because she could easily meet the physical requirements, they pay you while training instead of you paying for school, and yes you are indentured for 7 years while you get the best possible training, but are not used in the field just in the hospitals in safe areas, and don’t do anything evil just help people. She could not countenance it but I still think she’d be better off, would have finished all that by now. So I guess I have still no problem rationalizing working for an evil empire if you are doing something good for people, and getting good pay and training for yourself, that you can then take out into the world to do good and make money.

How is your shower, though?