My cat would respond when my wife or I sneezed. Anthropomorphically, it was similar to how we blessed him when he sneezed. We adopted another cat who does the same when one of us coughs.

You may have more in common with people from the south than you realize. I live in WNC where plenty of people use that word regularly. Folks in the mountains have widely varying knowledge bases and depth that they often don’t reveal right away. It might seem out of place in Southern California, but you may be shutting yourself off to the possibility that someone could surprise you and offer insight from a perspective you hadn’t considered.

Interesting litmus. Thanks for explaining. I hope it continues to serve you well.

What do you feel like it tells you about them?

Shemomedjamo - Georgian word meaning to eat past the point of fullness because it tastes so good or as I heard it, “I accidentally ate the whole thing.”

You could take your protein pills and put your helmet on.

I’ve tried so many things throughout my life. Getting yourself to stop is going to be a personal thing. The last thing I tried that succeeded was taking a job out of town where I worked 12-16 hour days. It was manual skilled labor. I was working with my hands, they were often dirty, and frankly, there wasn’t much downtime to find myself chewing my nails. This attempt to stop just happened to finally work for me. It’s been almost four years. Keep at it, you can do it!

Biting my nails.

I started at about two years old and chewed them to the quick for over 35 years.

Toilet paper over the top

I’m over 40, have ADD, have extensive experience, and am grieving two close friends who died of fent in their coke in the last few weeks. You’ll likely conclude the same thing I did, that it’s way overpriced and you need a whole lot more to get the dopamine dump that makes it worthwhile.

You asked, I answered. Knock yourself out (but please, test your shit. Fent strips are cheap and often free. Check with dancesafe.org or others for best practices on testing. I’m not worrying about you, but I’m sure you have people in your lives that love you dearly, and I hope they never go through what I’m going through right now.)

Because of that? It’d be a lot cheaper and much much safer to get a prescription for ADHD medication. You’re not missing anything.

What’s the deal with Cleveland? Y’all also have the steamers

As I understand it, shit, piss, and fuck were common words in Old English. When the French-speaking Normans invaded the Anglo-Saxons, they made the people and their language lower class, crude and dirty. Defecate, urinate, and fornicate were substituted as the proper way to speak. This was a way to continue oppressing a conquered and occupied group of people. These views have persisted for hundreds of years and been adopted by various groups over time. Something to consider when you find yourself viewing the words others use as crude.

Based on this history, you might also see why saying “pardon my French” is ironic as fuck.

Pat dry with toilet paper

They’re relating what it feels like to be a college aged person during that time period. There are many parallels.

You’re describing a fixed menu meal. That’s completely different from preparing meals to order.

Not in the back there isn’t

Some places are. I looked around until I found a community care clinic for people who don’t have insurance. It’s free. The university near me also offers free/low cost therapy. Years ago before we were married, my wife and I found couples counseling from an intern who was gaining experience at no cost to us.

I know everyone doesn’t have the same resources, but just wanted to point out that if someone gives up because they assume it’s expensive, they may not find the affordable options available to them.

That there’s nothing wrong with their personal choices but there is with the hypocritical grandstanding for the sake of political gain.

The kids’ names are irrelevant and diluting to your otherwise good point.

I haven’t read through comments yet so I may be redundant.

Hey… So sorry. Pets are a personal relationship. That loss is a grief just like any other. It’s hard because others don’t have the relationship to that individual that you have.

Grief is something you carry through life. It isn’t linear, but it does get easier. Grief will come in waves. You’ll be fine and then it hits you out of the blue.

Do we just live and suffer and die? Well, yeah. But we also love, and get excited, and feel, learn new things, explore. We fall in love; we experienced heartbreak. We have moments when we notice the light coming through the leaves in the forest, or the sound of water on rocks in a creek, an interaction between a grandparent and young child, the smell of a newborn’s head, that first time a cat settles in your lap, coffee when no one else is awake, the first sign of success in a new hobby, I could go on and on. So many things. Observations that have a visceral yet intangible emotional reaction. So so many things.

Let grief make you tender. Let grief remind you that everyone will deal with it in different ways. You can connect to others through vulnerability. Don’t let it make you hard or resentful; there’s so much beauty and love in the world. There’s so much love in the personal relationship with a pet. There is love you can’t describe.

Engage with the grief. Don’t bottle or avoid it. Feel it. You’re grieving because of the depth and complexity of the relationship. That’s totally okay. That’s healthy. It’s gonna hurt. It hurts.

I’m so sorry you’re feeling this right now. Take your time and feel it. Don’t feel like you ever have to let that go. That’s life.

Live, suffer, and die? Yeah, you could say that, but it’s in the most beautiful way, and there’s so much in between.