A colleague of mine at a different office that I went to visit asked me if I wanted tea or coffee. “Surprise me”, I said.
I got earl grey tea, with milk.
I was certainly surprised, and it wasn’t terrible by any means, quite refreshing actually. I did feel like I was violating a handful of international tea-drinking etiquette treaties at the time mind.
There was a time in my life when all my socks had holes in them, because sock money didn’t come easy. Took a while after those days ended for me to realise I can buy socks that go all the way around my foot any time I want.
Yes. I think a lot of our mental health problems are a result of insecurity. Like, we have a civilization based around civility. But then we have people fighting for their lives within it. And we get on those people’s cases for being warlike, but they’re literally living in a state of nature.
But I also think that poverty isn’t the only source of mental illness at a societal level. I think aspects of our culture make it worse. For example, the expectation that life should be easy fucks people up badly.
My mental health has improved enormously as I’ve taken more responsibility for myself. In many ways, my own mental health issues were an extension of the fact that my mother would respond to me crying by comforting me. There’s a significant part of myself that believes that if I fall apart, it will trigger affection.
Realizing that I have no rescue coming has helped me stabilize myself.
But yes, we definitely don’t take care of people right. Earlier today a pregnant friend showed me her eviction notice, and I just felt so sad. It’s not even a legal matter. It’s a cultural one. That anyone, at any time, would consider profit above allowing a pregnant mother to stay sheltered, is beyond me.
She’ll be staying with me, in my 250 SF apartment, because I’m not a moral imbecile like her landlord is.
It’s a sacrifice. My privacy and decompression time is very important to me. More important to me, I’d wager, than the $$ this landlord gets from that one apartment. But I’m not a fucking moron, and I know that my own peace of mind is less valuable to me than the stress levels of a pregnant woman are to the entire lifetime of the child inside her.
Like what the fuck is this guy thinking, to evict a pregnant woman? What the actual, ever-loving fuck? I want to slap him and be like “Dude are you awake? Do you not see the precious human life in your hands?”
An acquaintance who’s pregnant is having a hard time, including being evicted. I told her she can stay with me for a while while she saves money. Hey boyfriend was trying to step out at first, and she wanted to let him at first. I encouraged her not to do so, not to let him go, not to try and pretend it didn’t matter. It totally matters.
Suddenly this guy’s done a 180, and he’s now unlocking parts of himself he didn’t know existed. I feel like I played a small role in that too, by encouraging her to not play nihilistic chicken with his childish instinct to run. They’re both in their 20s, and I’m in my 40s. I don’t have a family of my own, but damn it feels good to help out a little at the formation of a new one.
I was worried. The part of myself that doesn’t like to be involved in anything or take a stand on anything, that just likes to smoke pot and play video games, was complaining that I’d lose my sanctuary. But over the years I’ve learned to trust my abolish to handle the unknown, and just force myself forward. So I did that in this case, and now I get to help.
My prices have come down quite a bit over the past few months. It was a stretch to feed myself on $250 but now I’m ending the month with a few dollars left over
Were vegetarians and don’t buy any prepared foods or much processed food. Inflation hasn’t been uniform. Rice, beans, tofu, and a lot of vegetables are at or near the same price as pre pandemic.
My partner and I are mostly-vegetarian and it’s insane how much stuff still costs. Soy milk is constantly $2-3 a half gallon more than cow milk, veggies are expensive unless you’re only getting rice and beans, and don’t even get me started on meat substitutes
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