Sicle

My dad was old New Orleans and oh my God the restaurants there are so good that when my brother was in school there he literally never cooked, never learned to cook, at all. They have such a ridiculous tradition of hospitality, absolutely top notch food, drink, and service.

Gumbo I make once in a while and it can make people cry, it’s so good, that can certainly be one of the most delicious things ever if you take your time with it, but my best memory of food there is the soft shell crab po boy with the legs hanging out of the sandwich.

Tampa FL, our local dishes are:

Chicken and yellow rice, with black beans and fried sweet plantains.

Deviled Crab (sort of a croquette with crabmeat in the middle)

Cuban sandwich (called that but really it’s a Florida thing and the cuban bread in Tampa from La Segunda Central is the absolute ideal)

Cafe con leche and cheese toast (cheese on cuban bread, pressed) for breakfast is heavenly.

Guava and cream cheese in various arrangements is also one of the things I don’t see everywhere, but is so delicious, I don’t think it’s local exactly but is all around here.

I asked to pick up the curly hair one here, but admins are so busy, and with the mod gone I can’t ask her. I don’t want to make ANOTHER one, that seems worse.

I am tallish for a woman, at least where I live, but not for a person. Countertops are too low for the average height person, they are still built at the 36" height that was in my old house, built in the 1920s. We are taller on average now, and both men and women use the kitchen now.

Stove vent hoods that don’t actually vent outside are fucking stupid. My over the range microwave basically just takes smoke from my stove and blows it back out over my head almost directly at the smoke detector.

Amen. The one non-negotiable item when we eventually renovate our kitchen is a vent fan so powerful you should be afraid to bring your small dog into the kitchen when it’s on.

We had one of those downdraft ones and it was similarly useless, worse than useless even though it technically vented outside because it got so disgusting, the vent grate right in the middle of the stove so things fell in, and heat doesn’t go down, it didn’t pull anything when it ran.

Countertops should be just a couple of inches higher, they are calibrated for a 1930s housewife but most of us aren’t 5’2" and it’s easier to stand on a stool if it’s too high than to stoop because it’s too low.

OP I hate those low ziploc bag openings too, they are so stupid.

I was quite skinny but 5’9" and not so leggy. If they are thigh highs I’d buy your regular size and just let them end a little lower, that looks good. For pantyhose I would look more for “Medium - Tall”, Long Tall Sally make some, Foot Traffic has tall tights, or see also if you can find any that say sky high rise, that might work. Because often they slide because they don’t reach the natural waist on tall ladies, the rise can be more problematic than the inseam because tall women are not short women on stilts, but brands seem to think so.

35" hips on 6’ also sounds like you may want to exercise though?

I know that’s not what you are asking! But I bulked and went from 32-30-33 to 38-31-42, and my legs went from 18" to 23". So more conventionally ‘pretty’ proportions and people still seem to think I am lean and slender.

Oh the chubby cheeks to jowls slide is real, and I think that’s part of it. Also lower teeth showing more than upper.

Caffeine I have quit a few times and that has the worst physical withdrawal of anything I have quit (hard drugs & alcohol I have never used enough to become physically habituated). Speed probably the most difficult emotionally/psychologically.

I don’t worry about caffeine anymore, just maintain the habit.

No car picture? There is always a picture of the guy sitting in his car. Always.

Not at all.

I grew up in a big family, in a busy household. My kids laugh at me because when reading (and it really is only when I am reading) I tune out everything. They would be yelling “mom! MOM!” and I wouldn’t notice.

I would worry about a friend doing drugs, except occasional psychedelics. I wouldn’t insult them, but I would worry. And even the psychedelics I would worry about the legal risk here. And would honestly worry about your obsessive approach to them.

I would also worry about anyone drinking too much.

Your friends are wrong, it’s counterproductive to insult or demean you for the drug use, it is both rude and unhelpful. Even if they aren’t wrong to worry about you, it is your life to live, and you aren’t hurting anyone else, they could calmly explain whatever their worries are and leave it at that.

Yes, my mom made us take swim lessons up through lifeguard lessons, and some of my brothers were competitive (like very competitive) swimmers. I got my kids lessons through the drownproofing, not more.

Kids drown here every year, it’s not important to have paid lessons but very very important to know how to swim.

Yes. Especially if you are not even working on it and just say “that’s how I am”, because it implies a complete disregard for how your actions (actions, not feelings) affect other people.

It’s exhausting to be around someone who is always angry. That doesn’t mean there is nobody who would “like you for you” but it will limit your potential pool of friends a lot, yes.

I was walking in the neighborhood recently and passed a guy putting a pigeon in a high up box in his yard. It was such a an odd thing that I wasn’t sure what was going on, and mentioned to my daughter that I thought this guy was keeping pigeons, and she said “because you saw him KEEPING PIGEONS?” Which I guess is fair, it just was so weird I wasn’t sure!

I don’t know if he uses them to send messages, but some people certainly have them at least as pets.

It takes exponentially longer to heal from physical injury. That’s it so far, except for feeling calmer - older people are exceptional at emotional regulation, which oddly enough is why they are easier to scam, they don’t freak out as quickly.

But mostly it’s the slow healing. I am still strong and flexible but have to be careful and moderate because getting hurt will set me back much more than it used to.

My mom once made plans to come up here (she lived near Miami) to see Tab Benoit with some of her friends - by the day of the concert two of them were dead! She said “if you want to see your friend when you are old, go see them, don’t make plans.”

If that’s possible nobody should be able to be rich, because it depends on everyone else being poor. I do agree that if you take care of yourself you can do more good in the world, but the relentless flow of money upward and industry set up to exploit the poor need to be dismantled.

I find coffee to be the best replacement but never liked sugary sodas, only the sugar-free ones.

I still have a diet soda now & then but not even once a week.

Gotta keep moving, then. Need a good information network, they can’t be everywhere at once, and there are more of us than them.