And in all honesty they remind me of like a leisurely creek or small waterfall in that they kinda just keep going on in a pleasant consistent kind of way ya know?
Basically what I’m saying is that they’re pretty IMO
Having financial plans in place is very important, I know it’s hard but making a savings account will help a lot. Even if you just set it up so that $20 a week goes to it it will help.
Most Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency so your first goal will be getting to that point in a savings account. Your second goal will be getting to that point plus having funds in your account for you deductibles for your insurances (car, health, renters, etc). Then your out of pocket max for health.
It’s a slow roll building a savings account and it’s hard to leave it alone but it will help a lot.
Of course even then it’s still pretty nerve wracking so one thing that I’ve done is get a line of credit with my credit union and some credit cards with really high limits that I pay off every month and only use for like gas or groceries. That way they stay open and in the event of a financial emergency that surpasses my savings I’m not completely fucked. Which saved my ass 2 years ago when I had to have emergency dental surgery 3 times in one year. ($10k that I’m still paying off)
Basically trying not to over extend yourself financially will help immensely.
But a massive help is having a healthy social safety net.
You should try to explain to the family why you weren’t there (if they’ll listen)
But honestly if they’re being so petty of you missing 1 party it might be time to look more deeply at the kind of relationships you have with them
Personally I haven’t seen most of my relatives in years due to a great many of them being really shitty people or being complacent when those shittier relatives are being shitty. And it’s been pretty nice how much my stress levels have gone down during the holidays.
Family is the relationship, relatives are blood. Just because someone is related to you doesn’t mean they’re family.
I’ve used Darktable as an alternative before and I’m going to be trying it again as it was back in 3.something I last used Darktable
I really like the editing process in Lightroom but I’m hoping I can get used to something else
Davinci Resolve is one that I’ve used a lot and I’m happy there’s a Linux version, and the payment method is something I really enjoy about it compared to other editing software