I’ve noticed that the people who are the first to tell someone else to suck it up are the ones least likely to ever do that. They expect you to suck it up for their benefit because of course they’ll never make any accommodations for you. So I hit that line finally, where it was the proverbial last straw. Something inside me just snapped and that was it. Tired of ignoring the constant disrespect, minimizing and invalidation. Tired of being the only one expected to “just forget about it” or forgive. Tired of being anyone’s doormat or scapegoat. I don’t care what you call me or how you feel about it either. I visualize myself getting up off the floor and brushing off the dirt they kicked onto me as I walk away smiling.

I love rom coms, I always dreamed of a love you see in these. The way the man does everything in his power to make the woman of his dreams his. I love trees, I walk down streets or trails or the beach. I look up and see how they’re so tall and proud. Even the ones with fallen leaves or old branches. They still hold their beauty with their endless flaws, yet still standing proud and tall. I love scratch n wins. I get excited knowing I might be the next billionaire, I think about all the ways I’d help my family, friends and then me. I love dogs, everytime you meet one they judge you not on your looks but your soul, energy and who you are inside. I love chocolate, it reminds me of my dad and the sweets he would never deny me. I love smiling at strangers, the feeling of maybe I made their day. Maybe I changed their morning afternoon or night. The imagine you receive from a short small interaction, all you feel is a beem of warmth I love photos,taking the time to find the right pose, right shot, right angle just to see the result in my friends faces. Seeing the beauty that they can’t always see. I love many things,but I wish that I could feel that one thing. Love. I’ve never truly been loved, not the love you receive from your family or friends. It’s the love you receive from that one person. Your person. I want the feeling of a man asking every detail about me and remembering the small things like my middle name,or that I have strange thoughts that I sometimes just let loose. I want a man who looks at me like I’m tall and proud,that my flaws make me even more beautiful. I want a man who buys me small simple things,just like the way my dad did. I want a man who takes his time,bends down and captures the beauty I sometimes can’t always see. I want a man where when I smile he knows that my heart is fully his. I want the love I see everyday,and feel everyday. I want to feel that love I pour into others. I want it,but I don’t need it. I see it everyday and feel it everyday. So I know I’ll always be my person.

I'm tired of cancel culture coming for celebrities. Celebrity women, celebrity trailblazers. The idea of not being satisfied when someone isn't cancelled, seeing aggregate websites cancelbombing them until they win. Drew Barrymore is a child star. Child stars are notorious for being completely screwed up. Without committing a crime, but for the inability to not be in front of a camera(something that's been her whole life), she's been cancelled for... crossing a picket line. Really? People are going to tear down a woman for that? That is gross.

Leaving a bad job. Told to train new person. They are nice, but unqualified after having this job myself knowing how demanding it is. I’m teaching them basics. I’m sure they are paid low, perhaps half of my salary. The company will save money, yes. But they won’t be able to get any work done with a Jr. it feels weird to teach someone your years of experience. My years have been hard fought, skills learned because I enjoy this area. Teaching someone so green, who hasn’t had the interest to learn the basics, seems like a waste of time. I now realize my worth. When something comes so quickly and easy to you, that’s what employers should pay for, the breadth of your skills.

If you find something valuable that’s obviously been lost by someone else, and you keep it without trying to get it back to its rightful owner, you’re no better than a thief. You’re a greedy thief. At least make an effort to return it! You can post it on CL lost and found or on your local Facebook group, whatever. But just keeping it for yourself is a really shitty thing to do and that karma is going to bite you in the butt someday.

Is anyone else growing rather… impatient(?), cross(?), while the ruling class of corporations, developers, and politicians reap almost unfathomable wealth at the expense of our ability to barely get by and/or keep a roof over our heads? The thought occurs to me that WE outnumber THEM by at least a thousandfold. We have tremendous amounts of power, if we worked together, instead of letting them divide and conquer us. Christ- in Canada we don’t even have to worry about being arrested and summarily executed if every last one of us didn’t show for work and took to the streets. Seriously. It could be the party of a lifetime. These invisible hands have taken everything from us. Maybe… maybe we take it the fuck back?

Nothing shocks and angers a manipulative person more than when the target of their abuse stops falling for the tactics. It took me way too long (20+ years!) to really accept that they did not deserve the benefit of the doubt that I always allowed them, but I finally learned. So now their sad face and their protestations of confusion, ignorance, and innocence leave me cold. I know exactly what they’re doing and why. I know it’s nothing but a ruse to lure me into engaging with them so they can employ the same tactics as always. To try to confuse me and make me doubt my own perceptions. They didn’t change, but I did. Once you’ve really seen the reality, you can’t un-see it. Life is so much more peaceful now.

One can't openly admit they don't have any friends and would like to make some.

Whether it's a friendship, or a romantic relationship, or a family relationship, if it feels like work, if it's non-stop effort and pouring of your own energy into the relationship and winding up exhausted and drained, it's not really meant to be. Relationships should not feel like work. One should be accepted and worthy just for being themselves. You don't have to work, you just have to be.

You're giving away your last name soon. And I have a feeling that I was uninvited by your lovely bride to be. It was so interesting watching that unfold. How you told me you would never date a female like her, and now look at you two, about to tie the knot. Why did you change your mind? Is it because she still lives with her parents? You know, so many of our friends thought you and I would end up together. I really messed it up. Dare I say that I hated you at first? But in the last two years you're all I can think about. All I feel when you're around. There's a strange and intriguing pull I feel when you're in the room. I guess maybe in another lifetime. For now, I will say thank you for showing me what a fine young gentle wise husband looks like. I will never tell you this irl but you will be the person I compare men to when I go on dates. If anything you gave me that, so thank you.