You REALLY need your own place, and to take time to focus on yourself and heal from your trauma. Find a good therapist that you feel comfortable with and open up. The fact that you're on here shows you're ready to talk about it. I realize that you may not be in a position right now to move out, but you should definitely work towards that goal and put some distance between you and your family. You don't owe them anything. I'll let you in on a secret: just because you're related by blood, doesn't mean you're obligated to care for them. It's entirely okay to cut those people out of your life if it's what you need to do to heal. Your number one focus right now needs to be YOU. YOU matter. YOU have value. YOU are important. Don't let anybody else tell you any different. Learn to love yourself, even if sometimes it feels like you're the only one that does. Trust me, that's not true. Get a cute haircut. Get your nails done. Buy a nice outfit. Be nice to yourself. You deserve it. You've done nothing wrong, you deserve love. So give it to yourself. There's people out there that love you too. Your just haven't met them yet. You survived. You made it out alive. Now enjoy that life like nobody's watching.

Why not both?

I had a weird blood infection once. Gave me chest pains and the shakes. Went to the emergency room and they whisked me off the cardiac ward for a bazillion tests. The curvy nurse taking my blood four hundred times kept looking at the iv bag and every time she'd lean across the bed to reach it her boobs were right in my face. At least I was able to hide the boner that time.

Years later I'm at the urologist and the doctor is checking me out. His assistant, who was a hot Indian lady, walks in, says "oops!", then kind of smiles mischievously at me and backs out of the room. No boner that time because doc had ahold of the goods. But she winked at me on my way out. Everyone has an awkward medical story at some point. No big deal.

I read this comment in Chris Tucker's voice.

Most public schools in the US are all one big school district. Like the state budget is the same for all of them. Then it's divided up by counties, then cities and towns. The state won't allocate much budget to a preschool, and the schools they give most of the budget to spend it on sports programs. Most teachers in public schools are expected to buy their own classroom supplies. Our schools are criminally underfunded and the leadership is corrupt. If the budget were increased it'd still probably just be funneled into the sports programs. New uniforms, equipment, remodeling the gym, football field, etc.

No. At will means at will. And it's not against the law. You can be fired for ANY reason in an at will state (like mine) and its perfectly legal. As long as they're not falsifying information (and even then YOU have to prove that) they can fire you whenever they want. You don't even actually need a reason in an at will state. The boss can just walk in and be like "you're fired" and boom you're out of a job. There are no federal laws to prevent this either. Most jobs use this to hold over your head to keep you in check. Sucks but it's legal so there's nothing you can do.

Second breakfast? Seems things are going well down at the shire, other than the whole champagne mishap. Give my regards to Gandalf whenever you see him next.

I did this but I know how to Jimmy a lock. Cue me nearly getting arrested breaking into my own house. Didn't help that I'd left my wallet inside too. Lol

I have a saying: Until you put the past behind you, it will always be an obstacle in front of you.

That being said, if you spend all of your time looking at what's already happened, you miss the opportunities that are right in front of you simply because you're looking in the wrong direction. Chalk it up to experience, remember that feeling of regret, and use it as fuel to push past your anxiety and not make the same mistake again. Like, next time focus your anxiety on "what if I don't talk to that guy, and I miss my chance?" Use your anxiety like a superpower, kind of like the hulk directs his anger towards the bad guys. It doesn't always work, you'll still have bad days, but focus on what will happen if you DON'T do that thing that you're having anxiety about doing. Use it to talk yourself INTO doing it, instead of OUT of doing it if that makes sense. Now I realize this doesn't help with your current situation, but In the future it may help you like it has me.

Wasn't this a Simpsons episode? Bart had an evil twin in the attic.

I have this problem all the time. I'm a super smeller/taster. I usually smell things long before others can. Sucks when it's things you really don't want to smell. I can't imagine already being nauseous and having to super smell a raunchy fart. Lol

They have scent glands at the corners of their mouths. That's why they rub the side of their face on stuff. As far as I can tell only cats can smell it.

Like seriously, better to give it a shot, than to live out a tortured existence. At the very least you'll have that huge weight off your chest. Maybe she'll feel the same way. Maybe not. If she's a real friend, it won't destroy your friendship. Will it be a bit awkward? Probably. But it'll be a bump in the road that you'll eventually get over.

Always download the maps for your area. Your GPS will work while offline. It only needs cell service to look up the maps.

No, what I'm saying is it's useless to add more income tax because they'll just find ways to avoid it. Sales tax works better because they can't avoid it. Abolishing income tax will help the average consumer, and we won't notice much difference in the actual amount of taxes we pay because it will equal out to about the same or less than we pay now with a 10 cents on a dollar federal sales tax instead of income tax. And the whole "don't tax the rich" was directed at the proposed "wealth tax". Can't charge people taxes twice on the same money just because they have more. It also sets a precedent towards other things being taxed that historically weren't taxed. Don't think if we allow them to tax the bank accounts of the rich just because it's there that they won't also begin to go after our own savings, retirement accounts, pensions, etc. Adding a "wealth tax" sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of us as well. It's like releasing a hungry lion on somebody and naively thinking it won't turn and destroy you when it's finished with them. We can't trust the government. That's been proven time and again. Passing a "wealth tax" will backfire massively on the rest of us because it opens up a whole can of worms that we don't want. Federal sales tax accomplishes the same thing without opening that can of worms. The average consumer won't notice much difference at all, but the rich will. And you can still keep state income tax, just abolish the federal.

Sales tax takes care of that. 10 cents on a dollar is going to be inconsequential to a poor person. But to the Uber rich it equates to millions of dollars per year in taxes. And they can't avoid paying out like the do income tax. If I make 40k a year, I'll have paid 76 dollars a week in taxes if I spend my entire paycheck. That's less that what I currently am paying in income tax right now, which helps me out. But a rich person who pulls in a million a year will pay 1,923 a week in taxes if they spent it all. One large purchase, like a luxury car or a boat, or even going out to high end restaurants will be exponentially more taxes than the average consumer will ever dream of paying. And I'd wager that you wouldn't collect any less taxes from the rich than from our current system full of tax breaks and loopholes. Tax accountants wouldn't be necessary. The IRS wouldn't have much to do. Those who don't work and are on welfare/food stamps are exempt from sales tax anyway. Sales tax isn't charged when you pay with welfare/ food stamp cards. So it really will only affect the working class (for the better) and the rich.

No it's not. The rich are not a resource. Keeping more of your own money is better. Always will be.

And nobody cares what percentage of their income they pay. They're still paying more. Much more. And yes, it is fair. Being wealthy does not equate to owing some sort of debt to society. Those with more money are obviously going to save more money. Percentages don't matter at all. They don't owe you or me anything. Being salty because they get to keep more money is stupid. There is not nor will there ever be income equality. Federal sales tax works because Uber rich constantly evade income tax by keeping money in offshore accounts, tax deductions, loopholes, etc. Federal sales tax would eliminate that because you can't evade sales tax. Nobody cares how much they have left over. They'll be paying the same percentage as everyone else, and that's fair. They don't owe us anything. Nobody owes you anything. If I spend a dollar and pay 10 cents on sales tax, and they spend a million dollars and spend 10,000 on sales tax, we've both paid the same percentage in taxes but they've spent 9,999 dollars more in taxes. Anything more than that is just robbery, because once again they don't owe us anything. Same percentage for everybody. Poor people will pay far less in taxes than the rich. It works for everyone. Some people seem to thing that it's cool to just take a much money as possible from the rich because fuck rich people. It's no less morally reprehensible to steal from the rich than it is to steal from the poor. Income equality doesn't exist. And abolishing income tax will benefit everybody, poor and rich alike. No income tax means your 401k is not taxable anymore. Sold a car? Cool. You can keep all that money and only pay taxes on what you actually spend. Remove sales taxes on food and medicine. Tax everything else instead. Stop focusing on rich people because "it's not fair. They have more money than me. " life isn't fair and it never will be. Suck it up buttercup. Focus on things that will actually improve the lives of average citizens, like things that will put more money in their pockets. The poor aren't harmed by someone else that is in no way affecting their daily life keeping more money than them. Flat tax rates keep more money in your pocket period. All those extra taxes aren't actually helping average Americans. 90% of it goes to government projects and stuff that doesn't even benefit us. It's just another way to pad the pockets of politicians and create more government pork. Better to just let the average person keep more of their own money and stop looking at the rich like some sort of vast untapped resource. That money doesn't belong to you.

The still spend way more. Sales tax on a yacht is more than most people will pay in a year. Same for a Lamborghini, or a multimillion dollar home. Or that 500 dollar bottle of champagne. The amount of money they actually spend compared to the average American is more than enough to generate significant taxes. It's about actual amounts, not percentages. Dollars to dollars the uber rich will pay way more taxes than we will. Trying to rationalize taking more by percentages us just plain greedy.

I'm for abolishing income tax altogether, and establishing a federal sales tax instead. We'd probably actually get more taxes from the rich as there'd be no more tax loopholes or tax havens. All that money they spend would be taxed. And the average consumer would come out way ahead on that deal.