Incense stores near me

I (LLF30) can’t seem to get on the same page as my husband (HLM31). Before we had kids, sex was easy. Our first child was a nightmare as a baby, and just when they were out of the “wake up every 20 minutes” phase, we had number 2. Now number 2 has been a dream, but I can’t get out of the funk and it’s been years of sex maybe a couple times a month if we’re lucky. It’s all me, too. I am exhausted being a parent, and completely overwhelmed and anxious all the time and it results in me rejecting my partner so much that he’s nearly completely stopped trying, so most of the time when we do have sex, I’m initiating because he’s sick of being shot down. He’d do it all day every day if he had the choice. How do I fix this? How do I fix me? I want to be the person I was when we first met.

I am a complete novice with no e-commerce experience and want to make money online working from anywhere I want, eventually hoping to do this fulltime.
I found a person on Twitter who seems extremely successful at dropshipping. He says he has gone from working a day job he hated to having over $150,000 in profits saved in his bank account in one year of dropshipping.
He offers a full mentorship for $500 where he builds your first Shopify stores for you, trains you in the method he uses, and guarantees he will continue helping you and answering any questions until you are comfortably making sales and are profitable.
He makes it seem easy, like he just finds products that are already selling a lot and copies the stores, runs ads and rides those waves of profit, rinse and repeat. I think he is mainly finding products and selling on TikTok. He tells me I need about $500 - $1,000 starting capital if I want to make a minimum of $3,000 profit my first month.
Does this sound realistic? Is it a lot of work to make consistent profit, or is it a relatively simple matter of just copying other's success and making it your own like described above? He says he's making well over $10,000 per month profit and works a few hours a day. He says this is attainable for me with his mentoring, which sounds awesome, but almost too good to be true working from home and making that kind of bread without having to ever touch the product.
Looking for honest opinions from experienced dropshippers please. TIA

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The return trip to Madhyam somehow felt a great deal faster than the initial voyage to Rājadhānī. Tristan chalked it up to a combination of things—Encroachers seemed to stay out of their way, the winds and sands moving in their favor, and everyone received at least one full night’s rest. With so many bodies, it was easier to split the night watch between all of them.
Tristan shared his gigashank with Zahra, and they filled the time with idle chatter. His thoughts were consumed by the immense amount of work that lay before him, not allowing for anything deeper than brief observations and inquiries.
Cailu had asked him to essentially resolve the same issues on San Island that plagued San Francisco; homelessness and orphaned kittens. Battling Encroachers and Defiled were one thing, but resurrecting a broken economy? That was a task that could take years of designing and implementing. Just how long did Cailu want him to stay on San?
When they did reach Madhyam, the group made a point to visit Ishani at Tristan’s suggestion. It was the least he could do for Zahra after all of her help. They were welcomed just as warmly as their first visit with Zahra’s mother.
“Three men in my house! What an honor!” Ishani fussed between them, her eyes glittering with wonder. “Please, allow me to serve you a small meal before you continue on.” She rested her hands over her stomach and performed the traditional bow.
Tristan returned it, and Cailu was nearly in sync with his movements. Tristan cleared his throat to catch Matt’s attention and was glad when he followed suit.
“It would be our pleasure,” Cailu replied. “Your daughter has been a tremendous help.”
Ishani straightened her back and clutched her hands to her chest. “You bless us both. Sands walk with you, sir.”
There was an unspoken rule on Ichi when someone invited you to stay. The guests were meant to relax and let the members of the household do all the work. But even with Zahra’s help, preparing anything for thirteen people would be no easy feat.
“Ishani, if you’d permit me to, I’d love to help you prepare everything.” Tristan smiled. “I know there are a lot of us.”
“Oh! Me, too!” Cannoli said. She’d been far more chipper during their journey back than Tristan had seen her in a long time. He hoped it was a good sign.
Ishani studied them for a time, eyes flickering to the full group as her tail rocked back and forth in thought. At last, she nodded. “Yes, I would be glad to have your assistance.”
“And mine, of course,” Zahra chimed in. “It is still my house after all.”
Ishani swept an arm over Zahra’s shoulders and hugged her daughter close. “Of course, my sweet. This will always be your home.”
They moved to the modest kitchen while the rest of the group made their way outside. Cannoli set to work on passing out drinks and preparing small plates while Ishani gave Tristan and Zahra instructions for cutting and seasoning meats. While they worked, Ishani’s questions began to roll in like the tide.
“We heard of Magni’s death a little over two days after it happened,” Ishani began. “An Ejderha arrived begging for Sanctuary. How did it happen?”
Zahra pursed her lips. “The Ejderha didn’t say?”
“It is best to hear a tale from a tongue you trust,” Ishani replied.
“Cailu challenged Magni to a sanctioned duel and won,” Tristan said. “He left the throne to Naeemah.”
“Then it is true. That is wonderful news!” Ishani stoked the flames at the stove, hooking a large pot over the coal. “And what of Sanrai?”
Tristan looked up from his diced onyans and over at Zahra.
Zahra’s expression softened. “Sanrai returned to the sands, Mother,” she said softly. “She refused to see reason.”
Ishani froze, her hand hovering over a ladle. A string of expressions passed over her face, her eyes searching into an abyss they could not see.
Even after the hell Sanrai had put them through, Tristan’s heart broke for her mother. He couldn’t imagine how receiving news like that felt, and he desperately searched for the right thing to say. Sanrai was powerful, intense, calculating. She’d driven them out of the city not once, but twice, and very nearly killed Ceres.
“Zahra did everything she could to bring her sister home.” Tristan was careful to keep his words even. “You raised two incredible daughters, Ishani.”
Ishani’s lower lip quivered, and a string of tears trickled from the corners of her eyes.
Zahra stepped forward and embraced her mother in a tight hug.
Tristan quietly set the knife down beside the cutting board and stepped into the hallway. He was surprised to find Cannoli on the other side of the threshold, hugging the doorframe and peeking inside.
Cannoli’s cheeks pinked, and she rapidly blinked her bright ruby eyes. “I-I just didn’t want to interrupt anything,” she whispered.
“I know. You’re not the type to eavesdrop.” Tristan grinned.
“Tristan… how do you do that?”
He blinked. “Do what?”
“You always know just what to say to make someone feel better,” Cannoli murmured. She looked into the kitchen and back at him. “Not just to me, but what you said to Ishani about Sanrai was so kind. Even though Sanrai was never nice to us. Not once.”
It was Tristan’s turn to blush. He ran a hand through his hair and crossed his arms, realizing only a second later that it was a gesture he’d picked up from Matt. He sighed and shook his head. “I just try to put myself in their shoes.”
Cannoli cocked her head to the side and touched her chin. “Why would you want to wear their shoes?”
“No, not actually wear their shoes.” Tristan covered a laugh behind his hand. “What I mean is, I think about what I would want to hear in their situation. Like finding you here. You wouldn’t want me to call you a spy, right?”
“No. I would have felt awful if you thought that.”
“Exactly. It’s important to see things from the other person’s perspective, I think. No real magic to it.”
Cannoli rocked on the balls of her feet. “You make it sound so easy.”
“It takes a lot of practice.” He leaned to the side, seeing if he could catch Zahra’s eye.
Zahra locked his gaze and waved him into the kitchen. Ishani dabbed at her eyes with a cloth and inhaled a deep breath.
“Back to work, then?” Tristan asked Cannoli.
“Yes.” She touched his shoulder and flashed him a brilliant smile. “Thank you, Tristan. For the advice.”
“You’re welcome.” He cupped a hand over hers. “Though, a smile like that will make anyone feel better, Cannoli.”
Cannoli giggled and ducked into the kitchen.
“Apologies for my poor manners, Tristan,” Ishani said as he returned.
“Please, you have nothing to apologize for.” He shook his head. “Besides, cutting onyans makes everyone cry, right?”
Ishani laughed, her mood brightened, and they continued to prepare the afternoon meal.
They were able to serve it in good time, and the conversation was light-hearted and cordial. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits and laughed easily. Tristan was happy to enjoy a meal outside of the citadel. The experience was a lot closer to an intimate family gathering rather than the battle strategy style meetings that every meal in Rājadhānī brought with it.
Tristan finished eating before the others and procured his sketchbook from his [Cat Pack]. With the enchanted pen, he sketched a smiling Zahra. Something about her had changed since they first met. She now carried herself with a grace Tristan recognized in Naeemah, and the determined spark in her eyes had changed to one of excitement. She’d succeeded in her mission, and it showed.
Flipping the page, he made one more drawing. A piercing, ruthless gaze. Lips slanted in a dry, knowing smile. Dark tattoos carved into umber skin. Sanrai looked as alive in his sketch as she did in the shadow of the citadel.
As the others readied to leave, he handed the sketches to Ishani. “These are for you.”
Ishani accepted both pieces of parchment, her lips parting in a silent ‘o.’ Eyes wide, she looked at Tristan. “You protected my daughter, and now you grant me such beautiful gifts. Tristan, I have no way of repaying you.”
“You already have, Ishani.” Tristan touched her wrist. “May the wind carry your desires—”
“And the sun warm your back,” she finished for him, clutching the drawings to her chest. “You are truly Saoirse’s gift to this world, child.”
As they departed Madhyam, Tristan let himself believe Ishani’s words, just a little. He knew he’d need them in the coming weeks.
​
Zahra Pro Tip: Thank you, Tristan, for all you have done for my mother and for me. I will pay your kindness forward.
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I nearly broke up with my fiance a few times because he refuses to do his chores and pick up after himself. I do the majority of the housework even though I go to school and work full-time, while he works full-time and spends the rest of his free time playing games. Out of a list of 10 things, I usually give him 1-2 things to do while I take on the rest. I find this to be fair, but he usually fails to deliver and would complain about how much work it is for him. However, every month or so he will get random bursts of motivation and do everything on his list and more.
After talking with his family and getting insight into his ADHD, it gave me more of an appreciation for how ADHD has contributed to his struggles to do housework. He does take medication and I admit I don't understand how its supposed to make things better. Perhaps I need to educate myself and I want to keep an open mind and find better ways of managing the housework that works for both of us but I'm struggling.
His family mentioned he's struggled with chores for a long time and they eventually just do it for him. I do not want this as I feel he needs to contribute...even if it's just 20%. My fiance keeps saying he'll improve but he never does and I'm starting to get frustrated with the lack of progress. We hired a cleaner that comes once a month which helps, but he makes messes so quickly that the place is trashed within a day. I don't think we can afford more frequent cleaner visits.
Any advice on how I can manage this?
TLDR; Fiance struggles with housework and believes it is due to ADHD. How do I manage this situation and have him contribute to housework meaningfully?

Hey folks, talked about making this post several times over the last 7 months on various subs and discords. The time feels right to go ahead and post it for everyone since a lot of content creators weren't talking about them or mentioning them either intentionally because of the various races to 100, or because it might have broken their NDA's. I feel like everyone should know about them ahead of time, especially for those of you that intend to race for the first 1,000 HC100's, but they will absolutely help the average or even casual players along their journey as well. If someone is compiling a super-list or post with the consolidation of all tips, tricks, FAQs etc, feel free to steal from this post in your creation!
(Disclaimer, It should go without saying that all of this is subject to change at any time, including my mere posting of it, so take it with a grain of salt as you explore Sanctuary. Added a spoiler tag just in case. Cross-posting for full diablo fan visibility, shun me if not allowed)

• Running into a new region will automatically change your "Town Portal" location when using the default town portal keybind (T). This means while exploring the world, especially at low level, you can simply crossover into a new region like the Dry Steppes and use your Town Portal keybind to teleport to Dry Steppes's main city. Doing this early will save you a ton of time in later hunting down waypoints, altars, and dungeon aspects simply for the ease of instantly porting from one region to another. Reminder though, you still need to click the waypoint physically to unlock it even when you automatically teleport to it after crossing zones. As an example, it takes roughly 8-9 minutes in game time without mount to pickup both the Dry Steppes and Scosglen main hub waypoints as of the most recent server slam test.
  
• Campfire XP bonuses are a sneaky XP bonus that people often forget about because they take a little time to build and to get to. Certain Strongholds, like Kor Dragan, will have campfires around them near their gates after they've been completed, and when they aren't currently being invaded (only applies to invasion event strongholds). When you find one, click the campfire and every few seconds a 1%XP buff will be granted to you, and stacks I believe 15 times in total and lasts somewhere around 10-15 minutes or so. There's a few scenarios where you can absolutely maximize this benefit to its fullest extent to significantly speed up your progress. First, when you're taking an AFK break, simply teleport to the Menestad Waypoint and take the 25 second ride/40 second walk to Kor Dragan (assuming its been completed and not under invasion) and click the campfire and take your break. When you come back you'll have 10 stacks built, click the campfire again to get it up to 15 (automatically stops at 10 stacks per click) and then be on your way. Another way that I utilized this to incredible success was in the later game right before I'd go into a nightmare dungeon, I'd take a quick trip out to my nearest campfire (generally Kor Dragan via Menestad) and gain my 15 stacks, pop my sigil, then travel to that dungeon. By that point you have your mount so you're generally starting a nightmare tier dungeon with 11-12 minutes left on the buff, sometimes more, and with the changes to pathing design in these dungeons you should gain the full benefit of the buff through each nightmare tier dungeon you do this way. Remember to stack this buff with your XP potion!
  
• Don't mine nodes early on. Sounds counterintuitive right? It isn't, the materials you gain often from clicking on those ore nodes are the same materials you'll generally receive from salvaging items. Currently there really isn't anything in game that utilizes these materials, at least not in the early game, other than the blacksmith with gear upgrades, and you won't want to be upgrading your gear early on anyways. The amount of time you'll save by not clicking every early game ore node is absolutely massive. Wait until you're on your mount before you start clicking on them to get your titles and achievements. If they just happen to be in your path as you hoof it around the map give them a click, otherwise don't alter course to grab them.
  
• In complete opposition to ore nodes, pick every flower you find, especially in the early game. Flowers are mandatory for speed leveling as well as general quality of life. There are many potions available right out of the gate that significantly impact your character, all of which generally carry a 3% XP bonus to them in addition to various resistance or power gains these potions might add. On top of this, the flowers are required for your health potion upgrades which are actually quite massive as you level early on because you won't be draped in BIS level 25 legendary items farming Osgar Reede like we were in the beta tests, you're going to be in ragged rares you picked up along the way, so you won't be nearly as tough when you're clearing those Strongholds and campaign quests, so you'll benefit greatly from those health potion upgrades every 10 levels at your local alchemist.
  
• If you're a completionist like myself, and want to go out there and unlock every codex power relatively quickly, make sure you complete a codex unlocking dungeon on each alt character you intend to play for the pre-season and subsequent seasons. The way the game works is that you automatically unlock the occultist at level 25, however, there's an additional mechanic that automatically unlocks the occultist and the codex of power intently upon unlocking that character's first codex power via dungeon completion. This comes in handy later if, like me, you intend to main one class but also play several alts to keep the game fresh or breakup the monotony of the leveling grind. Eventually you'll get to a point long before level 100 where gambling obols is just significantly more valuable on your alts, and having unlocked the occultist early on at level 10 or 12 or whatever for those alts will massively increase the efficiency in playing alts once you've fully unlocked the whole codex for them. Imagine how much faster you'll blast through the game when your alts have full "legendary" powers from the codex at level 12 with a relatively comprehensive build, its significant.
  
• On the subject of alts, you really should make them, especially if you intend to play long hours in the late game. The Tree of Whispers is one of, if not the most significant portion of your end game loop later in the game, simply because of its often dual benefit gains from completing various events around Sanctuary, such as World Bosses, Dungeons, PVP zones, etc. What people don't know, yet, is that the truly valuable grim favor quests have diminishing returns on value the more you complete them, as the available quests are front-loaded with longer duration events like World Bosses and Dungeons, but when repopulated, are generally lowest value and lowest priority, like doing those random world events we saw around the world in the betas. Here's where alts come in. Every character has their own independent grim favors tracking system, so once you clear all the juicy 3-5 favor reward events on your main, you can move over to your alt (the ones we've now geared with full codex powers) to efficiently blow through those tasks. This is important because the cache rewards from the Tree of Whispers can include things like sigils, elixirs, gear, and other various materials which can all be used by your mains. Moreover, the weekly world boss chest is also separate for all characters, allowing you to fully maximize the benefit of your character list by doing one world boss per character per week for slightly better loot rewards. Remember, we run world boss primarily for prisms to add sockets on gear, and those are materials which are shared across your account.
  

If I think of anymore that are relatively unique or haven't been mentioned enough I'll add to them so long as I have the character limit, feel free to add your own the comments as well.
(admittedly I am quite distracted and busy heading into launch but I'll try my best).

Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: $460K (mine) and $250K (husband’s). We both max out our annual withholdings. I’ve been working longer than him, and my employer offers a more generous match, which contributed significantly to my balance.
Equity: $275K. Our home is currently worth about $450K. We live in a M-HCOL area (far) outside of NYC, and our home was a fixer upper when we bought it. Honestly, it’s still a fixer, and we are saving towards a major renovation.
Cars: Maybe $15-$20k total…we drive two paid off cars. One is 13 years old, and the other is 10 years old.
Other Cash and Investments: $150K
Credit card debt: None, paid every month
Student loan debt (for what degree): $80K towards the grad degree I’m pursuing now. Since we’re saving towards the home reno, I’m financing my degree rather than paying for it outright. I know this is counterintuitive given the interest rate environment. However, home reno is a critical priority for us.
Daughters’ 529s: $75K
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I've been working in my field for 13 years and my starting salary was $40,000.
I work as a Director of Financial Planning & Analysis in a niche field. I won’t go into too many details because it’s a small world. My salary progression was as follows:
Year 1: $40,000 starting, right after recession. I had an amazing boss who mentored me and recognized my potential. After six months, I received a promotion and raise to $60,000.
Year 3: Promotion and raise to $90,000, for a role with more financial and analytical responsibility. Although I worked hard, I continued to benefit from having a boss who advocated for me. I consider this a major turning point.
Year 8: Raise to $120,000 for additional responsibilities after a coworker retired.
Year 10: Raise to $135,000
I’ve received an average of 2.5% COLA increases and now earn $145K. My boss has requested a $10,000 bonus for me this year, which I haven’t yet included because it’s still under review.
My husband earns $260,000 base salary as a VP of a large corporation (this is a very recent raise…he was at $200K previously). In addition, he can receive a performance-based bonus of 20-30%. We don’t include his bonuses in our financial planning because they are not guaranteed and because a portion is RSUs. When he receives a cash bonus, we put it towards our daughter’s college accounts and/or our home reno fund.
Education: I have a bachelors and a masters in a field unrelated to my career. My tuition was paid by scholarships/assistantships. In addition, my parents covered my living expenses during undergrad. During my first graduate degree, I worked 3 part-time jobs to cover my non-tuition expenses. I’m now enrolled in a grad program more directly related to my career. My employer encouraged me to do this program and generously allows me the time out of office. In addition, if I stay for a certain number of years, they will reimburse a portion of my tuition.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
Monthly take home: $6,300 after taxes, retirement ($1,875) and medical/dental benefits ($110– self only)
Husband’s monthly take home: $12,560 after taxes, retirement ($1,875), and medical/dental ($400 for him and our two kids)
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage: $2,485 for principal, interest, insurance, and taxes. We refinanced to a 15-year loan at 2.3% when rates were low
Daycare: $3,510 per month (full-time for a toddler and preschooler)
Savings contribution: $3,000-$5,000
Daughters’ 529 accounts: $2,000 ($1,000 each)
Debt payments: $700 towards my student loans. This will increase once I’m done with my degree
Donations: $3,000 annually
Transit $350-400 for husband’s commute (3x/week to NYC)
Electric: $60
Wifi/Cable/Landline: $120
Cellphone: $180
Subscriptions: $59 for Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Duolingo, Apple Storage, and credit monitoring
Gym membership: $149 for Pure Barre
Husband’s physical therapy: $130 (portion not covered by insurance)
Car insurance: $3,200 annually. (This seems high, considering we have good records, don’t drive much, and both cars are paid off. I need to look into this)
Life Insurance: $3,100 annually
Day 1 (Saturday):
6:00 AM: Wake up. I’m doing a modular course for my graduate degree, and the class wraps up today. I study for the exam that happens this afternoon. A little after 7, I walk to a nearby coffee shop and buy a large Americano for $4.50 including tip. When I’m back at the hotel, I pack up my room since I fly home tonight. I leave a $20 tip for the housekeeping staff and scribble a thank you note on some scratch paper. On the way out, I drop my bags at the bell stand. The hotel cost is covered by tuition.
9:00: Meet with my study team to finalize a paper and presentation that’s due today. At noon, we break for lunch (also covered by tuition). I have a salad and lots of carbonated caffeine. After lunch, we have an hour-long final exam.
2:00: Final course wrap up. It’s been an intense week-long session. I learned a lot, but am so ready to head home. I walk back to the hotel to retrieve my bags. Along the way, I stop to buy an empanada ($8 including tip). Then I call an Uber to the airport ($55 including tip). While in the Uber, I talk to my husband and daughters, who are 1.5 and almost 4. Due to the time difference, it’s their bedtime and if I don’t catch them now, I’ll lose my chance. I promise them that I’ll be home when they wake up in the morning. A lot of my classmates went to dinner together before heading to the airport. On the one hand, I have FOMO because my classmates are awesome. But on the other hand, it was really important to me to talk to my family, and I know I couldn’t have done that easily in a bustling restaurant (i’ve tried, and it was a frustrating experience for everyone!).
6:00: Arrive at the airport. I check my bag ($35). Once I’m through security, I pick up some souvenirs. My hotel wasn’t in an area with good shopping options, and the class days were pretty packed anyway. I get locally made chocolate for my husband. The girls get a small stuffed animal each, and a book to share ($70 total). Then I treat myself to crab cakes and a French 75 to celebrate the end of the week ($60 including tip).
10:00: On the flight, I read until the cabin lights go out and then try to sleep. I used to be able to sleep better on red eyes, but I wake up every 15 minutes.
Day 1 Total: $252.50
​
Day 2 (Sunday):
6:00: Flight lands and I gather my bags and take the parking shuttle. Although I parked in an economy lot, the total was still $174. Ugh – this has been an expensive week.
7:45: Arrive home. The girls crawled into our bed and are snuggled up next to my husband. The toddler wakes up as I come into the room and the look on her face when she sees me is indescribably gratifying. Our preschooler wakes up soon after. It’s so good to be reunited with my people! We all head downstairs and have breakfast (waffles and cereal, plus a huge pot of coffee). It’s cold and rainy today and we spend the morning watching TV together.
10:00: Our toddler falls asleep for her nap, and my husband encourages me to do the same. Our preschooler is happily entertaining herself with Legos and puzzles, so I doze for a couple hours. Around 1:00, we all have turkey sandwiches for lunch. Then, I take over kid duty so my husband can finally have some time to himself. He spends the afternoon woodworking in his basement workshop.
2:00: Our preschooler’s birthday is coming up. I buy digital invites from Etsy ($12) and send them to Staples to print ($16 with a promo). They are ready in about 2 hours and we pick them up. My preschooler asks for kinetic sand at Staples and I cave in and buy it for her ($11). I constantly complain about the amount of “stuff” in our house, but to be honest, I’m guilty of contributing to the clutter. When we get home, I spend the afternoon doing crafts with the girls.
5:15: We heat up some leftovers that my inLlaws dropped off while I was gone. We do the girls’ bedtime routine a little early since everyone seems tired. Lights out by 8:00 for the girls. Then I catch up on work email and start making a list for the week. For the purposes of this money diary, my husband mentions that he spent $270 yesterday on groceries. Then I watch Succession and head to bed
Day 2 Total: $387
​
Day 3 (Monday):
5:08: My alarm goes off because I typically go to Pure Barre on Monday morning. I’m still jetlagged so I decide not to go today. I hadn’t actually signed up for a class because I had a feeling this would happen.
6:30: Everyone else is still asleep, so I go downstairs to make coffee and enjoy a few quiet moments to myself. When my husband and kids wake up, we all have breakfast (frozen waffles and berries for the kids. English muffins for the adults).
8:30: Drop the kids off at daycare and then get to work. I work primarily from home, so I just have to walk upstairs to my office nook. I spend the morning prepping for an important meeting tomorrow with senior leadership. I get a reminder on our phone that our toddler has a well-child visit today…usually I sync my calendars, but I totally neglected to log this on my work calendar, and it conflicts with a meeting with our chief of staff. CRAP. I debate canceling the doctor’s appointment, but decide to keep it. Our toddler is getting vaccines today and if I don’t keep the appointment, I’m not sure when I can reschedule. I apologize profusely to our COS and ask if we can reschedule. She says not to worry, and that she appreciates the extra time in her schedule…hopefully I didn’t make a bad judgment call.
1:15: I quickly eat a turkey sandwich for lunch and then pick up our toddler from daycare for her appointment. These well visits usually take 30 minutes and are covered by insurance. As luck would have it, we spend 90 minutes waiting because they are running behind. Luckily, I have snacks and activities in my purse to occupy her. To pass the time, I browse for favors and paper goods for our older daughter’s upcoming party. I end up buying paper goods, decor, and favors ($67 from Target) and iced sugar cookies ($240 from Etsy). As I type this, I realize how bananas it is to spend that much on decorated sugar cookies. Our incomes have increased pretty dramatically in the past few years, and although we haven’t increased our fixed expenses, we’ve definitely succumbed to lifestyle inflation for one-off things like this. It’s something I need to be aware of. I’m finally home around 3:30, just in time for my next call. My husband is WFH today and takes over kid duty during this call.
5:15: It’s time to pick up our older daughter from preschool, but my call is running long so my husband picks her up. For dinner, we make salads topped with roast chicken. The toddler loves salad, but our preschooler proclaims “I don’t like green leaves – I’m not a caterpillar!”. Well, okay then.
8:30: We do the girls’ bedtime routine, and then I continue prepping for tomorrow’s meeting. I wrap up around 1:00 am. While I’m working, husband preps two meals that just need to be reheated sometime later in the week. Good night!
Day 3 Total: $307
​
Day 4 (Tuesday):
7:30: Kids and I sleep in a bit this morning. My husband left home around 5:45 since he’s going into the office, so the three of us are on our own. For breakfast, the toddler has toast and berries. The preschooler has bran cereal and a frozen waffle. I eat their scraps, washed down with coffee.
9:15: I drop the kids off at daycare a little late this morning. Then I get working and practice the presentation I’m giving at 11:00
12:05: Call is over and I think it went as well as could be expected. I make myself a turkey sandwich for lunch. Then I go to the post office to mail a birth certificate request for our youngest daughter’s passport application. The cost for the birth certificate is $50. I also spend $15 at the post office to mail the envelope and buy stamps. Then it’s back to work.
5:10: Pick the girls up from school. My husband gets home around 6:45. Dinner tonight is a tofu and broccoli stir fry with rice. I don’t cook much, but I make this meal weekly and it’s everyone’s favorite. The secret is that I use soy sauce that is seasoned for seafood. I can’t explain what’s different, but the taste is so much different than standard soy sauce.
7:30: Bathtime and bed for the girls. I text with a mom from daycare whose kids are the same age as ours. We arrange a playdate for an upcoming weekend. I’m hopeful that she and I will develop a friendship – making friends is hard when you’re an adult!
9:10: I debate doing schoolwork or “work work.” Schoolwork wins tonight…I spend about two hours prepping a case study.
Day 4 Total: $65
​
Day 5 (Wednesday):
5:30: Wake up and start working. I still have a lot of deliverables to catch up on. Husband leaves as usual to commute into the city.
7:00: I get an email and text message that daycare had to close today due to unforeseen circumstances. There was an issue with their plumbing that impacts the whole building. Oh no – I immediately feel a pit in my stomach. I really can’t afford this today, especially because I am out this Friday for another day of class. Although our preschooler is pretty independent, our toddler needs constant supervision. She’s always a moment away from jumping off a couch, climbing on a table, or otherwise causing herself bodily harm. My husband has multiple meetings with his division president today so he can’t realistically come home to help. Argh. I feed us all breakfast and prepare myself for a difficult day. I send my boss an email to let him know the situation, but promise to stay on top of my work after hours as needed. I also log a half day of PTO in the payroll system…I figure I can probably be about 50% productive today.
10:00: Our toddler falls asleep for a nap, so I frantically send out emails and run reports. Our preschooler watches shows on her tablet.
12:15: Toddler is up from her nap. Our poor preschooler has been on her tablet for too long and her eyes are glazed over. I decide to take the girls out for lunch to break up the day. We go to Jersey Mikes since it’s nearby and fast. The girls each have a kids meal and the toddler is delighted that it includes a kids cup. I have an Italian sub ($29). We eat outside and the preschooler hums and loudly proclaims "I love Jersey Mike's!"
1:30: We get back home and I jump on an internal call. Thankfully the girls are well behaved and don’t cause any disruptions, beyond waving hello at the start of the call.
3:00 I have another call and the girls are again on their best behavior. PTL. Maybe I’m just lucky, or maybe it’s that I bribed them with cookies.
4:45: I wrap up the workday a little early. I take the girls on a walk since the weather is nice. When we get back inside, they immediately melt down. The toddler wants to be held constantly, which is a challenge because she weighs 24 pounds. The preschooler is thrashing, spitting at me, and throwing toys. I resist a really strong urge to scream or cry or break something or hide in the bathroom – maybe all at once. Instead, I heat up one of the meals my husband made earlier this week. When our preschooler calms down, she asks if I still love her when she’s bad. She’s been asking this question a lot recently, and it makes me wonder if it’s just a phase, or if she needs more reassurance from us. Either way, it's heartbreaking to know she worries about this.
7:30: Husband had a late meeting, so he gets home later than normal. We do the girls bedtime and bathtime routines. We get another note from daycare saying that the plumbing issue is, unfortunately, still unresolved. We’ll get a tuition credit, but they will be closed another day. Husband and I talk through logistics. We agree that he’ll go into the city again tomorrow and I’ll handle the kids. His company is in the middle of a major reorg and it’s important for him to be there in person. We decide to ask his parents if they are available to help tomorrow. Between work, the kids, and my grad program, sometimes I feel like the only thing we talk about is logistics. It’s been at least 6 months since we’ve been on a date.
10:00: I catch up on work, and also prep for school this coming weekend. I go to bed a little after 1:00.
Day 5 Total: $29
​
Day 6 (Thursday):
5:45: Husband is up and out of the house at his normal time. I wake up and run some financial reports while I have the chance.
7:30: Kids are awake. While they eat breakfast I pack their activity bags and snacks since we’re going to my in-laws today. They are semi-retired and often help when we have childcare hiccups. They are truly a godsend. They live about an hour away and we arrive at their house a little after 10:00. On the way, I fill my car up with gas ($52).
12:30: The girls are having a blast with my in-laws. We take a break for lunch, which is chicken nuggets and hummus for the girls. I eat their scraps and also have some Greek yogurt.
4:15: I have a full afternoon of calls, but it goes smoothly thanks to the grandparents. We leave a few minutes after 5:00 and both girls fall asleep before we reach the first traffic light. This makes for a peaceful drive home. Traffic is heavy so we get home around 6:30. I open the mail, and find a surprise medical bill for $572. This is for the toddler’s trip to the ER…14 months ago! This is the first bill we are getting and honestly it had completely slipped my mind. She had a triple infection and ended up severely dehydrated. Seeing this bill dredges up all sorts of unpleasant memories. I’m grateful we have the means to pay this without issue, and I’m grateful she is healthy. I understand it's a privilege to pay a bill like this without thinking twice.
6:45: Husband arrives home. We reheat a pasta dish he made earlier this week and have a salad on the side. The girls are beat today, so we skip bathtime and let them go straight to bed. Thankfully, daycare can reopen tomorrow. I feel like a weight’s been lifted from my shoulders, especially since I have class tomorrow.
9:00: I have a call with my school study team to work on our group project. It lasts for about an hour.
10:30: Husband and I discuss buying a swing set for our backyard. He’s narrowed it down to two choices, and they’re both awesome: three swings, a rock wall, slide, and clubhouse area. I think they both look great, so I leave the final decision in his hands. The total with shipping and tax ends up being $1760. We considered buying a pre-assembled swing set to save time, but similar models cost nearly $6K. He’s handy, so he said he’d prefer to assemble it himself.
Day 6 Total: $2,384
​
Day 7 (Friday):
6:15: I have class today so I eat breakfast and get dressed early. I tend to wear a lot of athleisure when working from home. Today I put on a structured ponte dress and hastily apply Tarte makeup to give my skin some color. Every time I make the effort to get dressed, I'm reminded that I really do feel more confident when I look put together. I get to school around 9:00 for my first class.
12:00: Break in my schedule for lunch. I eat a salad and some kind of chicken dish, while catching up with classmates. For dessert, I have a huge bowl of berries. Lots more coffee to keep me awake and engaged during class.
7:00: Classes are over for the day. I pay parking ($17) and am on my way. I get home at 8:30, in time to do bedtime with my girls. Husband made veggie quesadillas with black beans and guac, which I eat once the girls are asleep. I check my work email to make sure nothing is on fire. Then my husband and I watch an episode of “What We Do In the Shadows” and turn in for the night.
Day 7 Total: $17
​
​
WEEKLY TOTALS
Food + Drink: $371.50
Fun / Entertainment: $2,106
Home + Health: $572
Clothes + Beauty: $0
Transport: $333
Other: $155
Weekly Total: $3537.5
Reflections: Some of this week’s expenditures were unusual: the swing set, my travel expenses, and that old ER bill are not part of our normal recurring expenses. However, the rest of this week's spending was pretty typical. I realize a lot of this diary revolved around sorting out childcare disruptions…honestly, that takes so much mental and logistical energy on a weekly basis. Writing this diary also made me realize how little time my husband and I spend together. Often we feel like we’re in survival mode, but we need to be more intentional about prioritizing our relationship.

I (21m) fell in love for the first time for my best friend (26w), we were best friends that did so much together for many years. Not to sound dramatic, but the groundwork was there for her and I to really have something special. Ive had plenty of girlfriends and crushes throughout my life, but this one stuck with me in a way none of the others ever did. I eventually caught feelings for her a few years back that weren't reciprocated. That was almost 2 years ago now, we tried for probably all of 2022 to make our friendship work given how much we cared about each other and the friendship we've had all these years. But before the start of the new year, I put all my cards on the table, telling her exactly how I felt (that I was in love with her) and that it was okay she didn't reciprocate. But I couldn't live my life in pain like this anymore nor was it fair to her. She understood.
We haven't spoken since that day
Overall, I'm doing okay. It doesn't consume my life nearly as much as it used to and there are whole days where I barely even think about it. But I just can't fully move forward. It still hurts so bad and I mentally refuse the idea of wanting someone else or finally have that final "release" from my feelings and move on for good.
It's like I would normally have both hands on the wheel in life, but the thought of her and this entire situation feels like it has one hand on the wheel and I have the other. It controls my life and my emotions.
What are some other things I can do to move through this and be happy again?

My needs for the iPhone won't be necessarily particularly special or anything aside from calls and selfies. I've been through a crap ton of Android devices for the longest time and I've finally grown tired of both Google and Android. I love the pink on the 13 so that's ideally what I'd go with and purple is also a fantastic and favorite color of mine so I wouldn't mind going with the base 14 either if it's in store at T-Mobile same day to take home. I also don't mind the wait for UPS or FedEx to deliver me my precious pink 13 instead. The only thing I want to prioritize is being able to track it no matter what because I've been losing my Android several times recently... OnePlus 9 Pro and Motorola Moto G Stylus 2022 which I've forgotten on the bus multiple times lately and if I find it again then great but if I don't then I won't really care either. Apple is always leagues ahead of Google and most Androids, it takes Google ages to learn from Apple and iOS to catch up. I love that iOS won't fragment not slowdown as much or as easily or fast like Android. I also love the overall security aspects of iOS and Apple even if I really don't know much either about that.
Additionally, I'll be keeping my T-Mobile line as voice only even when I switch to iPhone. Again I just want a way to track down my iPhone and iPad even without data on my iPhone. I already pay for a data line on my iPad $20/mo unlimited so I'm happy and don't really want data on the iPhone especially with how expensive T-Mobile's plans are so that's why I'm sticking with dirt cheap voice only for $20/mo as well.

Ok, so my HF symptoms began a week after I threw out my back in the gym. I slipped my L4 and L5 disks. My symptoms were mainly HF, occasional LF symptoms. I had steady symptoms for about 6 months and all this time still had serious tightness in my back and pain when bending as well as various re-injuries of my back. I didn’t experience much pain in my perineum only on rare occasions and sometimes after peeing. I still got morning wood (except glans wouldn’t fill) and I could ejaculate but I couldn’t get erect at all under any circumstances. I started taking Cialis daily 2.5 mg and that helped tremendously. Got rid of nearly all my symptoms including the HF mostly it turned into mostly LF symptoms, my erection quality was perfect.
I recently decided to stop taking Cialis and try to focus on recovering my back injury. I went to a very reliable sport’s chiropractor who focuses on getting to the root causes of back injuries. We did a bunch of work and he gave me a couple exercises to do. One of them included using a tennis ball or any ball really to put pressure on the edges of my sacrum to relieve tension and desensitize nerves. Mind you I purposely never told him about my HF stuff I just wanted to see where he arrived with only the info about my back. He quickly found that the muscles surrounding my sacrum were in spasm and were very tight and tender. I did the tennis ball exercise and the others he gave me, and the day after I was completely immobilized due to super sensitive aggravated nerves in my low back. At first I was kinda pissed cause I thought my chiro straight up broke me, but after a day I felt immensely better. I continued with the tennis ball routine laying on the ball and working it around the edges of the triangular sacrum bone on my low back. I did this twice a day and I kid you not for the first time in 6 months I got a full erection with no meds. I feel looser and I think I could’ve found a serious game changer for myself. It’s been a few days and I still have the same improved erection quality.
Now I’m by no means cured I want to make that clear. I still have a few hf symptoms but the ED was by far the most pressing of my issues and that is where I’ve seen the improvement.
Just for context before this I tried pelvic floor therapy, flexibility training, strength training, and breathing techniques, along with dietary changes and perhaps the least helpful of all no fap(I actually think no fap somehow made it worse).
I know many people on here think a back injury caused their HF as I do, so I figured I’d share this new experience. I’m not saying this would work for everyone but maybe there’s something out there so keep looking and trying to tackle it from every angle, that’s what I plan to continue to do.

Hi, I just moved to York 2 days ago from upstate New York. It’s kind of nerve wracking because I have never been here before, never have moved this far from home and don’t know anyone.
I’m wondering where young people hang out here because I am hoping to find a few pals. A little about me - I’m 26 and I am a mental health counselor. I love crafty stuff, music (making & listening), books & writing, hiking/ nature and animals. Also I love a good thrift store. I am a big psychology nerd as well. Does anyone have any suggestions for places to hang out & make friends or find community ?
Thank you! 💖 I appreciate any suggestions 😊

For context, I was 12 years old when this happened to me. My dad would often take me to the grocery store, wait in the parking lot, and have me do the shopping in order for me to “build independence.” This is why I was alone at the time of the incident.
Anyways, the day it happened, I entered the store as usual, roaming the aisles and occasionally dropping items into my cart. All was normal until I noticed a man was following me throughout the store. It shouldn’t have been too panicking, but for me, as a kid with no cell phone and no way to contact my parents, it got a lot more terrifying than I suppose it would’ve been for an adult. The man confirmed my suspicions when I circled the same aisle 3 times and he was right behind me each time.
Since it was getting kind of late, a lot of the customers had started leaving the store with their purchases. The store slowly became more desolate, and my fear skyrocketed.
Desperate to get to my dad and away from this man, I sped to checkout. I should have just booked it, but I desperately wanted to prove myself “not a chicken” to my dad, stand my ground, and get the groceries I came for.
I went to a checkout and started scanning, attempting to maintain my composure. I had started to convince myself that I was overreacting and that the man was not following me and that I was just paranoid when the man came up to me.
“Hi!” he said in a cheery voice. “I couldn’t help but wonder why such a young girl like you is here alone! You must be a brave girl!”
“Um, I…” I couldn’t speak. I was so terrified I almost pissed myself. “I’m not here alone. My dad is here.”
“Is he? I didn’t see him with you.”
“He’s in the bathroom.” God, I sucked at lying.
The man crouched down and got to eye-level with me. “Tell you what: I’ll pay for your groceries and give you a ride home. How does that sound?”
Alarm bells went off in my head. Everything my mother had drilled into my head about not going with strangers was screaming at me. I froze.
“Um… I have a ride. Th-thanks for offering though. And I can pay for the groceries.”
Throughout the conversation I was quickly scanning the groceries as fast as I could. I finished up, and was about to pay for the groceries when the man smiled maliciously at me, swept my hand aside and said, “No trouble, sweetie. I’ll pay.” He put his card into the machine. It accepted the payment, and he took my hand along with the groceries. “Now come on, let’s go.”
The second his cold, bony hand took mine my instincts kicked in. I squirmed out of his grip and noped out of the grocery store, without the groceries. I started screaming at the top of my lungs and ran as fast as I could to my dad’s car. He opened the door, put out his cigarette, and started asking me what happened. At this point I was sobbing, and tears ran down my cheeks as I recanted my tale to him. A couple minutes later, we pulled out of the parking lot and drove home.
To this day, I have no idea why the man didn’t pursue me when I ran. If he had, I would’ve been caught, no question. But to the man who almost abducted me when I was 12: I wish you the worst. I hope some day you rot in hell.

My husbands parents had his truck for a few weeks while he was at work and they returned it today. I found a pink hairbrush in there and it just completely triggered me. My husband recognized this and reached out to them letting them know it wasn’t okay to borrow his truck and leave their stuff in it. On one hand I’m grateful that he did that but now I’m worried I seem crazy and controlling and have trust issues (which I obviously do lol). But this isn’t the first time and I almost feel like they do stuff like this on purpose to stir the pot and rile me up.
before DDay One time I found a Tarte concealer in our bathroom and was like who’s is this because it’s not mine? And he asked his mom and she said oh yeah that’s mine! Might be a lipstick there too! And I said why would it be in our master bathroom? Turns out it was actually MY moms from when she stayed over, and my MIL doesn’t even use that brand (MaryKay) so I know she was lying about it just to cover for her son.
Another time they were borrowing his truck again when he was out of town for work and when he got back there was a little stuffed penguin in it, the kind with the sparkly eyes that are on the corner of grocery store aisles. I was kind of suspicious of it and he called his mom to put me at ease and sure enough she said it was from her.
post DDay I’m so strung out from all the gaslighting that sometimes I feel downright paranoid, but I also know she likes to play games with me. I think I just need some validation or virtual hugs 😔

Hey folks, talked about making this post several times over the last 7 months on various subs and discords. The time feels right to go ahead and post it for everyone since a lot of content creators weren't talking about them or mentioning them either intentionally because of the various races to 100, or because it might have broken their NDA's. I feel like everyone should know about them ahead of time, especially for those of you that intend to race for the first 1,000 HC100's, but they will absolutely help the average or even casual players along their journey as well. If someone is compiling a super-list or post with the consolidation of all tips, tricks, FAQs etc, feel free to steal from this post in your creation!
(Disclaimer, It should go without saying that all of this is subject to change at any time, including my mere posting of it, so take it with a grain of salt as you explore Sanctuary. Added a spoiler tag just in case)

• Running into a new region will automatically change your "Town Portal" location when using the default town portal keybind (T). This means while exploring the world, especially at low level, you can simply crossover into a new region like the Dry Steppes and use your Town Portal keybind to teleport to Dry Steppes's main city. Doing this early will save you a ton of time in later hunting down waypoints, altars, and dungeon aspects simply for the ease of instantly porting from one region to another. Reminder though, you still need to click the waypoint physically to unlock it even when you automatically teleport to it after crossing zones. As an example, it takes roughly 8-9 minutes in game time without mount to pickup both the Dry Steppes and Scosglen main hub waypoints as of the most recent server slam test.
  
• Campfire XP bonuses are a sneaky XP bonus that people often forget about because they take a little time to build and to get to. Certain Strongholds, like Kor Dragan, will have campfires around them near their gates after they've been completed, and when they aren't currently being invaded (only applies to invasion event strongholds). When you find one, click the campfire and every few seconds a 1%XP buff will be granted to you, and stacks I believe 15 times in total and lasts somewhere around 10-15 minutes or so. There's a few scenarios where you can absolutely maximize this benefit to its fullest extent to significantly speed up your progress. First, when you're taking an AFK break, simply teleport to the Menestad Waypoint and take the 25 second ride/40 second walk to Kor Dragan (assuming its been completed and not under invasion) and click the campfire and take your break. When you come back you'll have 10 stacks built, click the campfire again to get it up to 15 (automatically stops at 10 stacks per click) and then be on your way. Another way that I utilized this to incredible success was in the later game right before I'd go into a nightmare dungeon, I'd take a quick trip out to my nearest campfire (generally Kor Dragan via Menestad) and gain my 15 stacks, pop my sigil, then travel to that dungeon. By that point you have your mount so you're generally starting a nightmare tier dungeon with 11-12 minutes left on the buff, sometimes more, and with the changes to pathing design in these dungeons you should gain the full benefit of the buff through each nightmare tier dungeon you do this way. Remember to stack this buff with your XP potion!
  
• Don't mine nodes early on. Sounds counterintuitive right? It isn't, the materials you gain often from clicking on those ore nodes are the same materials you'll generally receive from salvaging items. Currently there really isn't anything in game that utilizes these materials, at least not in the early game, other than the blacksmith with gear upgrades, and you won't want to be upgrading your gear early on anyways. The amount of time you'll save by not clicking every early game ore node is absolutely massive. Wait until you're on your mount before you start clicking on them to get your titles and achievements. If they just happen to be in your path as you hoof it around the map give them a click, otherwise don't alter course to grab them.
  
• In complete opposition to ore nodes, pick every flower you find, especially in the early game. Flowers are mandatory for speed leveling as well as general quality of life. There are many potions available right out of the gate that significantly impact your character, all of which generally carry a 3% XP bonus to them in addition to various resistance or power gains these potions might add. On top of this, the flowers are required for your health potion upgrades which are actually quite massive as you level early on because you won't be draped in BIS level 25 legendary items farming Osgar Reede like we were in the beta tests, you're going to be in ragged rares you picked up along the way, so you won't be nearly as tough when you're clearing those Strongholds and campaign quests, so you'll benefit greatly from those health potion upgrades every 10 levels at your local alchemist.
  
• If you're a completionist like myself, and want to go out there and unlock every codex power relatively quickly, make sure you complete a codex unlocking dungeon on each alt character you intend to play for the pre-season and subsequent seasons. The way the game works is that you automatically unlock the occultist at level 25, however, there's an additional mechanic that automatically unlocks the occultist and the codex of power intently upon unlocking that character's first codex power via dungeon completion. This comes in handy later if, like me, you intend to main one class but also play several alts to keep the game fresh or breakup the monotony of the leveling grind. Eventually you'll get to a point long before level 100 where gambling obols is just significantly more valuable on your alts, and having unlocked the occultist early on at level 10 or 12 or whatever for those alts will massively increase the efficiency in playing alts once you've fully unlocked the whole codex for them. Imagine how much faster you'll blast through the game when your alts have full "legendary" powers from the codex at level 12 with a relatively comprehensive build, its significant.
  
• On the subject of alts, you really should make them, especially if you intend to play long hours in the late game. The Tree of Whispers is one of, if not the most significant portion of your end game loop later in the game, simply because of its often dual benefit gains from completing various events around Sanctuary, such as World Bosses, Dungeons, PVP zones, etc. What people don't know, yet, is that the truly valuable grim favor quests have diminishing returns on value the more you complete them, as the available quests are front-loaded with longer duration events like World Bosses and Dungeons, but when repopulated, are generally lowest value and lowest priority, like doing those random world events we saw around the world in the betas. Here's where alts come in. Every character has their own independent grim favors tracking system, so once you clear all the juicy 3-5 favor reward events on your main, you can move over to your alt (the ones we've now geared with full codex powers) to efficiently blow through those tasks. This is important because the cache rewards from the Tree of Whispers can include things like sigils, elixirs, gear, and other various materials which can all be used by your mains. Moreover, the weekly world boss chest is also separate for all characters, allowing you to fully maximize the benefit of your character list by doing one world boss per character per week for slightly better loot rewards. Remember, we run world boss primarily for prisms to add sockets on gear, and those are materials which are shared across your account.
  

If I think of anymore that are relatively unique or haven't been mentioned enough I'll add to them so long as I have the character limit, feel free to add your own the comments as well.
(admittedly I am quite distracted and busy heading into launch but I'll try my best).

I just had my honeymoon (originally scheduled for Jun 2020). My wife and I are in our early thirties. It’s my wife’s first time in japan while it’s my fourth. I’ve benefitted immensely from stalking Tokyo travel reddit and would like to return the favour. I’ll provide some of my tips and observations to the end (skip to the end if the itinerary doesn’t interest you), some of which I think haven’t been mentioned before.
Thank God pretty much everything went to plan, and my wife thoroughly enjoyed the trip. We spent 12 days in Japan, most of it in Tokyo and 2 nights in Kawaguchiko. Many people were surprised to know that we’d be spending most of our trip in Tokyo, but I thought it was just fine because Tokyo had a lot to offer. My wife and I aren’t big on visiting shrines or tick tourist hotspots off a checklist. We don’t shop much, but we did a lot of it simply because it’s Japan and we bought lots of quality-of-life items (not fashion) for ourselves and others. Given how much my wife really enjoyed the trip, I think others with similar interests could find something helpful too.
Pre-trip planning

• Other than the hotel & flights, I booked the highway express bus to Kawaguchiko one week prior.
• Decided on the airport limousine bus to bring us from the airport to the city a few days prior.
• Studio Ghibli tickets booked one month in advance. International tickets were quickly sold out, so we used a free VPN to get onto the Japanese site which had more tickets & timings available. Simply Google translate the entire page.
• Booked a cooking class on cookly months prior.
• Did Visit Japan QR two days prior. It takes some time so do it earlier rather than later.
• Added all places of interests in a Google list, and all food places in another Google list. I tried the custom Google maps at first but didn’t feel the UI was easy to navigate.
• Planned itinerary based on location proximity, and also highlighted parts that were interchangeable in case we wanted to switch it up (which we did).

Planning during the trip

• The Google maps foods list was always just for consideration: if we had time or were craving something. We didn't hard-code food places into our daily plans. But when food was the primary activity (e.g. visiting Tsukiji market), we'd determine to visit particular food stalls. Otherwise, just needed to do a cursory Google review check on whether a random food place is worth eating it. As a principle, we didn't want to spend time unnecessarily queuing for food.
• I'd plan the next day's itinerary the night before, considering fatigue, interest, and proximity. I would create a brand new Google maps list for the next day, including potential food places.

Day 0 (Wed) - Arrival at Shinjuku Airport- Arrived in Haneda late, about 11. Clearance was quick but baggage took 30mins. I had no choice but to cancel my airport limousine and take the metro to our hotel in Shinjuku.- I tried Apple wallet’s Suica at first. It worked seamlessly but felt that a physical metro card was just faster so I eventually switched over.- Reached after midnight, so do let your hotel know in advance if you anticipate arriving at odd hours.
Day 1 (Thurs) - Shinjuku exploration- Originally planned to visit Tsukiji on day 1, but given that we arrive late the previous night, agreed with my wife to change the plan and spend the first day doing the Shinjuku itinerary.

• Walked to a popular Tsukumen place at 11. Queued for 20mins and it was an interesting experience as there were lines of people standing right behind watching you eat. Wife said it was her best Tsukumen ever!
• Sekaido for art supplies: My wife does art so it was a haven for her. We spent a few hours there!
• Tokyu Hands Shinjuku: but two floors were under renovation.
• Omoide Yokocho: A quick walkthrough. Many tourists.

Day 2 (Fri) - Kappabashi St., Fabric Town, Akihabara

• Kappabashi Dougu Street: looked at kitchen supplies and to find a nice knife! (Do research on what knife you need beforehand).
• Fabric Town: My wife just passed a seamstress exam so she eagerly anticipated visiting fabric town, we spent a few hours in Tomato.
• Akihabara (Animate, Bic Camera, Gyukatsu Don): It was drizzling the entire day so it was not the most comfortable lugging that many bags around a wet Akihabara in the evening. Wife wasn’t interested but I wanted to let her experience this unique culture. Had dinner at a popular gyukatsu don (beef cutlet that you’d have to cook yourself). It was fantastic and I had never eaten it. But it was a long one hour wait.

Day 3 (Sat) - Cooking class in Shinjuku, Shibuya

• Private cooking class in Shinjuku: Our host was great! We were invited into his cosy house and he taught us how to make Okonomiyaki, Yakisoba, and a Japanese salad. My wife absolutely loved the experience of getting to know a local and understanding his life story, Japanese culture, and some of his horror stories of guests. We got more food recs from him to understand where the locals really ate at.
• Shibuya 109: Paid $5 for a drink to have a bird’s eye view of the Shibuya crossing. It was Saturday so the people crossing was at its full force. Even if you think this is touristy, it’s amazing to see that many people like little ants crossing a street. There are several nice locations here to take some artsy shots.
• Ishibashi Music Shibuya: absolutely loved the vibe in this music store. Back home, I’ve been thinking about getting a particular keyboard but never got a chance to try it. I was able to play this particular one undisturbed and feel totally comfortable. Bought a few Japan exclusive guitar picks as gifts.
• Shibuya Tokyu Hands: This was amazing. I thought Shinjuku Tokyu Hands was the flagship store. So I only stumbled into this because I urgently needed to pee and someone said Tokyu hands had toilets. We were confused as its name was rebranded to simple Hands with a new logo. This is the Tokyu Hands to go. Each floor had 2 sub-floors so that’s a ton of floors! Lots of quality-of-life improvements one could get from this store. My wife got a buckwheat pillow.
• Shibuya Loft: After Sekaido, I didn’t think there was much to look at. But Loft was very different. Similar to Tokyu hands but seems more modern and fashionable. Worth visiting together with Tokyu hands! It also had packaged food available! It was late and my wife and I concluded that we didn’t have to to explore all the floors and that we’d return to Shibuya again.

Day 4 (Sun) - Komazawa Church, Harajuku, Shibuya

• Church in Komazawa: not a tourist activity, but we linked up with some partners from our home church and attended service at a little church held in a nursery. It was an amazing and encouraging experience.
• Harajuku: Way too crowded. I had anticipated this as it was a Sunday, but thought to just try. Takeshita street was so packed my wife feared there would be a trample risk (it wasn’t that bad). We did queue 20mins for pretty tasty crepe. After checking out all the recommended streets (e.g. cat street, uru-harajuku), my wife simply felt that she couldn’t stand the Harajuku crowd and the vibes. So we decided to go back to Shibuya again!
• Shibuya JINS: I didn’t mention this but previously in Shinjuku and Shibuya, I had been checking out recommended optical shops in the vicinity. I had something in particular in mind. Japanese-made glasses are highly-rated, but I couldn’t find something at the right price-point. At JINS, I found a design I liked. Though not made in Japan, it cost me less than 5000 yen. Took them 1 hour to make it. For some reason I loved the vibes at Shibuya, and I earmarked it to return again later.

Day 5 (Mon) - Tsukiji Market, Ginza Muji/Uniqlo, Tokyo station

• Tsukiji market: wanted to arrive before 8 and was 30m late. But the crowds weren’t that bad either. Everything we tried was lovely. Potato/corn fishcakes, strawberry mochi, tamago, wagyu beef, uni inarisushi, unagi. But the star was Masa burger, which we waited till 11am to try. By then, the tourist buses had come and the streets were packed. But Masa burger was in a corner and we were their first customers. The fried codfish burger + homemade ginger ale was so well done and packed with such fresh and interesting salads! It so so good we had it twice.
• Ginza Uniqlo/Muji: we wanted to take a look at some of Uniqlo’s exclusive items. Apparently they do have exclusive t-shirts for each region (e.g. Harajuku, Shibuya, Ginza). They tend to be collaborations with well-known food places in the area. However, they were always white in colour and not made-in-japan-quality. Muji was a disappointment, not a lot more than the usual.
• Tokyo Station Ghibli & Tenugui: Went to Tokyo station to check out the Ghibli store and to look for a particular traditional tenugui (Japanese towels) store as my wife were hunting these down to give as gifts.
• Shinjuku Ichiran & Mister Donut: We returned to Shinjuku for Ichiran ramen, specifically at 5+pm. No crowds at all. Yummy! We then saw a Mister Donut, and recalled news in our home country that when it first opened, people queued 5 hours for it. We thought to try it to see what the fuss was all about. Cash only, but the donuts were wonderfully textured and not too sweet. My wife doesn’t like sweet stuff, but mister donut really hit the sweet spot (no pun intended).

Day 6 (Tue) - Tokyo National Museum, Fabric town revisit, Akihabara revisit, Ochanomizu

• Tokyo Tokyo National Museum: We had a good time learning about Japan’s early history, and discovered that so much that we know of Japan resulted from Chinese/korean influence.
• Fabric town & Akihabara revisit, Ochonomizu: We decided that this was likely the right time to go back for items we missed out on or didn’t have time to see. My wife went to fabric town while I went to Akihabara’s Yodaibashi camera, which I felt to be better and with more varied things than Bic Camera. I then went to Ochanomizu to look at more music and sport shops. We met up again at Shinjuku for another Gyukatsu Don before heading to mister donuts again.

Day 7 (Wed) - Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, Mori Museum, Ginza Wakamatsu, Shinjuku

• Shinjuku Gyoen Garden: lovely large garden grounds. We spent almost an hour just lying under a tree and watching clouds float by. Wife was doing some rough sketches of the garden. We had mister donuts from last night for breakfast.
• Mori Museum: Saw the exhibition of Heatherwick studios, which was inspiring and educational. Paid for the rooftop access to have a quick view of Tokyo from 50-ish floors up.
• Ginza Wakamatsu: Because of one of the Uniqlo-ginza-exclusive t-shirts, my wife was curious about this traditional Japanese dessert. So we gave it a check and realised it’s been around for more than a century. There was a short line (mainly Japanese elderly). The shop interior transported us back decades. It felt surreal eating a dessert that the Japanese ate centuries ago. It’s certainly doesn’t excite and overwhelm one’s taste buds immediately as modern desserts do. But there’s an old charm to it.
• Shinjuku Okadaya fabric: Returned to Shinjuku as my wife wanted to check out another of their famous fabric stores. Prices were more expensive than fabric town, but somewhat different items.

Day 8 (Thurs) - Kawaguchiko

• Bus to Kawaguchiko: Packed light to Kawaguchiko, and forwarded our remaining luggage to our post-Kawaguchiko hotel in Tamachi. The Shinjuku hotel staff were very helpful. I was merely inquiring on how luggage forwarding was done, but he picked up the phone, called my Tamachi hotel to confirm the booking, and prepared the documents for me. All I had to do was roll my luggage the next night to them and make payment. Booked a 7:45am bus to Kawaguchiko and managed to catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji when we were on our way there!
• Cycling In Kawaguchiko: We lugged our bags to our hotel and headed out again. My wife was quite hesitant about cycling overseas and I was also worried it’d tire her out too much. I debated between cycling or simply taking the sight-seeing bus. Eventually felt it worth it. We unexpectedly walked by an e-bike place and decided - why not? Neither of us had tried an e-bike before and that could reduce the effort required for my wife. So we did and boy was it fun! It took a while to get used to the e-bike but it really reduced a lot of effort up the hills! I barely sweat. Kawaguchiko had pretty narrow roads so it wasn’t the easiest to cycle. But I had plenty of road-cycling experience back at home so I was not very deterred. We borrowed helmets from the e-bike place but saw that we were the only tourists that wore them.
• Kubota Itchiku Art Museum: Cycled here knowing that this museum would interest my wife. She was so enthralled by it. I was kinda sick of museums so I told her I’d wait for her outside. Wife took about 45m inside and even bought a heavy hard-cover book of Itchiku Kubota’s kimono art :/
• Momiji Corridor: was just 50m away. Still beautiful with only green leaves, but I’d imagine it would be majestic in Autumn/Spring.
• Oishi Park: Many beautiful flowers! It’s a pity that it had been cloudy the entire day, and Mt Fuji was not visible. That would have made the cycle perfect. Park was crowded with tourists.

Day 9 (Fri) - Fuji Q Highlands, Shimoyoshida Honcho St, Batting Cage
Planning for Fuji Q & Morning Jog: I didn’t plan to go to Fuji-Q highlands before the trip. Always felt it a bit of a waste to visit amusement parks overseas. That’s until I realised that Fuji Q had some of the most exciting, (I mean world-record-holding) rollercoasters in the world. Perhaps not anymore, but that intrigued me enough, because most amusement parks only had 1-2 coasters. Problem was that wife is terrified, and she said cycling on the streets of Kawaguchiko was like a coaster ride for her. So I decided I would reach at opening time, and buy time by paying for the fast passes and try their top three coasters. The night before, we felt that we had to make decisions on our itinerary as it was our last day at Kawaguchiko. If Mt Fuji wasn’t visible, go to Oshino Hakkai, if it was, we could try going to Shimoyoshida to get a nice picture.

• I took a morning jog that morning and my jaw dropped when I saw Mount Fuji towering over Kawaguchiko. I raced back to tell my wife (about 6am) and we both trekked up to a viewing spot to enjoy the view. This made it more urgent to not spend too much time at Fuji Q as we didn’t know how long Mt. Fuji would be visible for.
• Fuji-Q Highlands: Was absolutely amazing. Yes, I blew a lot of cash here buying fast passes for the three available coasters. But they were some of the craziest coasters. Took Eejanaika, Fujiyama and Takabisha. Total time it took probably a little more than 1 hour with the express passes. It was so good but so fast; I have little memory of it, except that there was a 90 degree climb to the top for Takabisha and I had a beautiful view of Mt. Fuji while climbing to the supposed world record of 79m for Fujiyama. Had more time to take a few other rides, and enjoyed all the Naruto statues around for fun photo-taking. What I really enjoyed about the park was that it was mostly filled with Japanese tourists; in fact, there was a Japanese school having an outing there. It was nice to see excited students running about.
• Shomoyoshida Honcho St: This destination was simply to take the famous street view of Mount Fuji with Japanese shops lined in the foreground. It’s not easy to get to, and there was quite a walk. We noticed there weren’t much people around, and most shops were closed. But when we reached the destination, there were many tourists right at the particular traffic light. So much so there was a grumpy Japanese traffic police person managing the crowd. We saw the worst of tourists that day. People were disobeying traffic laws and just running in the middle of the road just to get a shot. We chanced upon a hidden udon shop and it felt like we were transported back to the 50’s! It was super old school, people sat on raised platforms, and several elderly customers were watching the tele while eating. There was only one udon option available, with free cabbage top-ups. We learnt that the shop had been around for 73 years.
• Batting Cage: I had never played baseball/softball and my home country doesn’t have a baseball culture. Yet I had seen batting cages in Japanese drama and always wanted to try. Loved it! My technique was probably pretty bad! I did well at first but as I tried faster balls, I tired out and failed to hit any haha. We ended the day eating ramen outdoors with a view of Mount Fuji.

Day 10 (Sat) - Kichijoji, Ghibli Museum, Kichijoji Jazz bar
Woke up before sunrise for a run and to attempt to catch a sunrise picture of Mount Fuji. Streets were completely empty. Even ran to the famous Kawaguchiko Lawson for a picture. Headed back for an onsen bathe (note: we never used the hotel bathroom, and always went for an onsen bath throughout our stay in Kawaguchiko). Took a 7am bus to return to Shinjuku.

• Kichijoji: Arrived at Kichijoji at about 10. Wife really loved the vibes there. We we tried the Tsukuba suisan fish cakes which were really tasty, and my wife was intrigued that a line had formed at the adjacent store named Ozasa. Apparently they sell traditional Japanese desserts and locals would go there as early as 5am to get a ticket. So we queued and managed to get three boxes worth of the snacks! Tried the Amane Teriyaki fish-shaped bean paste snacks, another traditional dessert.
• Ghibli Museum: Requires a long walk through Inokashira park. Ghibli was fantastic. Many people have been saying recently that it’s over-rated, and that it doesn’t cater to foreign crowds and most things are in Japanese. We similarly struggled with that at first. But we found out that if you asked the staff, they actually had English language exhibition booklets ready for every exhibition! That was a revelation. And we managed to understand almost all the exhibitions by asking the uniformed staff (except the short film, which had minimal dialogue anyway). I mentioned this to one foreign group and they were really grateful for that. But I saw that many other foreigners that probably came earlier were just bored or simply going crazy at the Ghibli shop. My wife bought the museum book (which also has English explanations of each exhibit), and we understood Miyazaki’s vision for the museum - to make it suitable for kids and adults, with no pre-determined route, allowing for play, exploration, to help people be inspired by the artists’ process. Through that, we saw that everything in the museum was intentionally designed, all of the exhibitions, cafe, shop, and garden. Reading that helped me appreciate and enjoy the museum much more.
• Roaming Kichijoji and Some Time Jazz bar: My wife and I split up to roam kichijoji. I checked out some sports shops and saw that their prices were lower than Ochanomizu. We reconvened for dinner at Sometime Jazz bar. I’m picking up Jazz piano but had never been to a jazz bar. Booked it one day before, but was sad that our table position only allowed us to see some of the drummer and the pianist’s expression. Still, it was a very cool place and we had a wonderful time. We only sat through the first half of the performance that night. Note that there are seating charges, so that + dinner added up to quite a lot. But we rationalised that this was akin to paying for a performance. Checked into our hotel in Tamachi.

Day 11 (Sun) - Tokyo Sky Tree, Shinjuku, Back to Kichijoji, Shibuya
It was a crazy day where we simply hit the places we wanted to revisit regardless of proximity. Headed to Tokyo Skytree in the morning to check out another Ghibli store. If you’re not going to the Ghibli museum, this is probably the best store available. Headed to Shinjuku to try curry udon, then to Kichijoji to try satou beef balls and to make some purchasing decisions on some sports equipment. Then we ended up at Shibuya (my favourite place!) to the mega Don Quijote and Tokyu Hands to shop for gifts for others. It was a lovely end to our trip!
Day 12 (Mon) - Back home
Best trip ever, says my wife.
Tips for travellers

• Spread out your itinerary: If I could I would have front-loaded all the must-see tourist stuff and left the remaining days for shopping. But in May, Ghibli Museum was closed for two weeks so we had no choice but to schedule it at the end of the trip. That was a better arrangement. It felt that each day was distinctly different, and we could remember the highlight of each day. Also, be specific about where you want to go. Don’t simply put locations like - Visit Harajuku, or visit Shibuya crossing.
• Plan your itinerary in consideration of weekend crowds: Places like Tsujiki market, Ghibli Museum, Fuji-Q Highlands and other stuff are likely going to be very crowded on weekends. If you want to shop in Harajuku or Shibuya, try to avoid weekends. I opted to put the cooking class and ‘less-exciting’ Museums on weekends.- Use your telco’s roaming or get an e-sim: My wife and I split up on several occasions, so we already knew the pocket wifi was out of teh question.
• Carry more cash than you think you need: In my experience, the cash-to-card ratio was about 40:60. Considering that all metro card top-ups require cash, you really need more cash that necessary. Sometimes even bigger restaurants are cash only.
• Bring packable tote bags, and use lockers where necessary: If you’re buying stuff, packing them in tote bags makes it easier. Bigger shops will charge you for bags. All stations likely have lockers and they are really affordable and convenient.
• Travel light by planning to do laundry: I only brought four sets of clothing, and we did laundry every 3-4 days or so. It’s really convenient, about 200 yen per 30m wash, and another 200 yen for a 1h dry. It’s worthwhile to check if your hotel has coin laundry available.
• Buy wisely: Many people say the kind of things available at places like Don Quijote or Uniqlo are mind-blowing. Fact is, most of them are made in China or elsewhere. Almost 95% of the items we saw in Daiso were made in China. In fact, many items in Kappabashi street were made in China. You’re more likely to get value for money by buying a made in Japan item. Sometimes the shop will highlight if a product is Japan made. But other times, you have to scrutinise the fine print. Learn to look out for these three words in Kanji: 日本製. This is where the camera function of Google translate is immensely helpful. This was not available or widely publicised when I last visited Japan years back in 2016, so use this tech to your advantage and scrutinise the fine print!
• Plan your toilet trips if possible: If you know you’re headed to low-rise areas like Tsujiki, Fabric town where it’s just shop after shop, it’s going to be hard to find a toilet. Make sure you relieve yourself beforehand at the train station. But if you still need to go, try to find a multi-storey building and chances are, there’ll be toilets available there.
• Avoid queuing for food by timing right: In general, I found that most popular food places that required queuing had queues mainly consisting of foreigners. I wonder if this is because of the reddit/youtube/google maps review effect (not a lot of Japanese review on Google I think). Simply put, almost all food places open at 11am, so be there at 11, or have early dinner at 5pm and perhaps you may avoid the queuing.
• Plan your toilet trips if possible: If you know you’re headed to low-rise areas like Tsujiki, Fabric town where it’s just shop after shop, it’s going to be hard to find a toilet. Make sure you relieve yourself beforehand at the train station. But if you still need to go, try to find a multi-storey building and chances are, there’ll be toilets available there.o
• Scrutinise Google maps to figure out the different train types: for daily travel, there are local, rapid, and express trains. Local trains stop at every station. Rapid skips a few, and express trains likely only stops at key location. They make a big difference to travel time, and to your comfort. When Google maps recommends a route, scrutinise the detail to ensure what kind of train they are recommending. It gets confusing at the station as the platforms on your left and right may end up at the same location, but one could be a local train and the other an express train.
• Learn just 2 essential phrases: I know it may feel weird to some, but just learn to say thank you in Japanese. The other essential word is - summimasen. Useful for if you need to exit a crowded train, or if you need to get someone’s attention. We survived with just these two phrases. As our cooking teacher told us - it’s better to say something in Japanese than say nothing at all. For the rest, you can use Google translate app’s picture function.
• Other misc tips: as mentioned, bring trash bags. Some shops explicitly tell you not to walk around and eat their food. So the solution is to finish the snack in front of the shop, and say, “summimasen, can you help me to throw this trash?” That helped us avoid carrying trash around a lot. As a traveller, you’re gonna get a lot of carbs (a bowl of udon + a bowl of rice....?) and fried food. Try to go to the basements of shopping centres and get yourself some fruits. Also, if you exercise regularly like me, you'd be concerned about getting some exercise. I did pre-trip research on pools/gyms/parks to visit. But visited none of them. I settled with a daily morning routine of 100 squats and 100 pushups. That and walking an average of 18k steps daily helped. I actually lost some weight somehow.

Observations

• Drinking culture in Japan: we saw quite a few drunk people in the streets. Some of them at the parks. I had never really seen drunkards much in my home country (it could be because I don’t stay out late). When we walked by a bar area with our cooking instructor, he told us some of the people in them had been there overnight.
• The Japanese sleep late: when we arrived, we were still on the train to our hotel at 11:50. But the train was still packed with salarymen in suits and many others. In fact, it seemed the later it was, the more crowded the trains.
• Foreigner influx and how they stick out: there were way more foreigners this time than the last I visited Japan. I tended to feel very uncomfortable when large groups of foreigners were around. I had to tell myself not to be hypocritical as I was a foreigner myself. But I suppose one reason is that there were many inconsiderate foreigners. Speaking loudly, making brash comments, and just not behaving like visitors. We saw a foreign couple snuggling each other on a picnic mat in a park full of families. And they chose a spot right next to the footpath. Many foreigners also leave unkind Google reviews for places just because it’s not up to their expectations. I get it, we worked for our holiday and are paying customers, and there is often an innate tendency to feel entitled or complain when something isn’t up to our expectations. But I think it helps to remember that we are like visitors in someone’s home. Be self-aware, don’t speak loudly, note the traffic customs, where to stand on the escalators, how to behave etc.
• Japanese men have great hair: the Japanese men’s hairstyle feels frozen in time. I didn’t see the typical Korean-inspired center-parted hairstyles in Asian guys nowadays. And balding men were a small minority somehow. As someone whose hairline is slowly receding, I was envious to see many Japanese men have wavy long hair deep into their 60-70s! My wife commented that the women's hairstyles were more or less the same - dyed, curled etc. But the men were rocking so many styles!
• Window shopping still matters: as the days went by, my wife and I began to covet the "made-in-Japan" label, we realised that we hadn't done such window shopping in years. Since online shopping became prevalent, we hadn't done any window shopping. I also recall people commenting that you could get these goods online anyway, so why bother shopping in Japan. Well, window shopping makes comparison easy, it allows you to ask for recommendations, and enables you to know the items's size, feel, and look on you (if buying fashion items). It also makes discovery of new items possible. I'm not a huge shopper or a foodie, but in Japan, it's worth it to be one. I suppose it's a blessing in disguise that our honeymoon got delayed 3 years, as we now know our post-marriage lifestyles and the items we'd need in the kitchen/around the house.

With the upcoming wipe I figured I’d do a social experiment within the game. Encountering a couple different players I put my hands up and waved. 2/3 times we went along our separate ways and one of those 2 times buddy let me have the building to myself to loot. The third encounter there was a team of two that rolled up and I tried to do the friendly hands up/wave. I was shot on sight. I just thought this was an interesting little experiment. Has anyone else tried anything like this?
This all being said, once wipe happens I think I will switch back to a kill or be killed mentality. I think this game is fantastic and can’t wait to see what new things the devs have in store for us.

I think it would be cool if the Dragonborn was able to challenge Hermaeus Mora in his own realm for control or thier freedom in ES6. My own head canon is that the Dragonborn/Player character grows so quickly due to Akatosh blessing them faster growth/learning. Assuming this could be applied naratively, Hermaeus Mora could have bitten off more than he could chew. Mara only knows what kind of forbidden knowledge Hermaes Mora could have gotten his tentacles on. With the Dragonborn taking in knowledge and skills seemingly instantly compared to others they could possibly become a threat to rival Deadric Lords quite easily. We could still have Hermaes Mora quest in the new game, but he would always seem to be under siege by the Dragonborn. Hemraeus could be looking for a new champion to spread his name and strenghen him, leading to better rewards in universe. He may even be looking for specific artifacts or stores or magicka to boost his power directly to better fight/ensnare the Dragonborn. This is not to say he should get another extended Deadric quest line, just that it could be imployed in a normal quest. I am also aware that the Deadric lords came together to fight Jyggalag in the past, but if the Dragonborn only wanted freedom they probably wouldn't interfere. This all assuming that Hermaes Mora's pride and greed wouldn't allow him to simply free the Dragonborn when they could no longer kill them. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think and sorry if it is to unorginized/unreadable.

Hi everyone I'm looking for some advice please. I have been with my partner for 8 months nearly 9 and love her a lot. However, I have been getting really anxious about being with her. My anxiety is telling me not to be with her when in-fact I do want to be with her. I wrote a list of all the reasons why I love her, how she makes me feel, what my anxiety is saying and why I might be feeling this way and reasons why I don't want to be with her (I couldn't think of any). So why am I feeling this way then? It's really frustrating me.
Possible reasons:
I have never been in a relationship prior to this so I have nothing to compare it to. For example, if it's right, if she's the one, are these fights we having normal? ect... I have been told a gut feeling is based on previous experience so I can't even trust my gut with this.
I am also going on holiday for a few months without her... it was planned before we met. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it? We booked a holiday. On the same day most of this anxiety began. (I am not anxious about going in holiday with herb though)
After not seeing her for a few days it gets worse...
Does anyone have any advice they could please share? :)

Context: I met a girl at a club in January, and we started seeing each other two or so weeks later. Where we live, it's normal to unofficially date for a while before one person (typically the man) asks their partner to officially date. Essentially we were "dating" for almost four months; I met her parents, spent a lot of time with her, and was about to officially ask her to date me before the incident in question. Our relationship was very stable up until this point with no big arguments, grudges, or other incidents of infidelity, and I was looking to introduce her to my family as well. We also go to the same uni where she is one semester below me and both our classes are quite large (90-100 students each). Additionally, our uni does not offer dorms, so both of us live with our parents in the same city since our families already live here.
First off, I'd like to start by saying that I understand that both in terms of the infidelity in question and the time my ex and I were together, this isn't as serious as some of the other posts related to infidelity. That being said, for reasons I'll explain later on, I don't have anyone in my life who knows the full context of the situation and I also need a place to get all of it off my chest, so here we go. This is my first-ever post, so I apologize in advance if this is too long or hard to read, and there's a TL;DR at the bottom.
The incident in question happened this past Friday (a couple of days after my birthday and a week before our final exams). She went to a bar with her friends before heading to a club where she got drunk and kissed a guy (who we'll call Steve) from her class at uni.
I know 'Steve' is, as she kissed him at a party we both went to right before we became monogamous; a moment I saw myself and nearly made me give up on pursuing the relationship further. She would have occasional run-ins with him between the party and last Friday, but they weren't close, and from what she told me they weren't flirtatious at all during these interactions (which were few and far between). She used to tease me with Steve because in her words he was the only person that affected me from her past and she wasn't interested in him whatsoever.
According to her, the kiss lasted only for a moment and wasn't hot or heavy. As soon as she kissed him she called me crying, told me what happened, and headed home. I was feeling kind of tired and since our exams are coming up this Thursday, I stayed home. I took a quick nap and woke up with her call. She was crying and frantic, so much so that I could barely make out what she was saying and thought someone had forced himself upon her.
I went over to her house where she told me what happened: she had kissed Steve, the same guy that nearly broke us apart before and all it took was for him to insist a little on the kiss for her to go for it. I couldn't wrap my head around it at first; I felt a mix of confusion, anger, and more notably pain and sadness. All I could make out at the time was "I'm going home, I don't know what to say right now. And you tell Steve that I better not see him anywhere outside of campus" That last part sounded very out of character for me, as most people who know me can attest to the fact that I'm very level-headed and kind. That being said, Steve was directly involved in two of the most hurtful moments of my life recently, and he knew that she was seeing someone (even who I was) when he approached her on Friday. My threat was not a sort of macho-esque need to assert myself over him, but rather a warning that I'm not sure I'd be able to control myself if I saw him because he embodies all the anger and pain I currently feel.
As I headed home I was bombarded with messages from her, apologizing and telling me she loves me (something I'd already felt, but that neither of us had mustered the courage to say to each other). I walked into my room and hit my wall several times, leaving bruises on my hands and waking up my dogs and my dad. He came into my room and as I told him what happened he consoled me as I cried and told me I can either forgive her and continue the relationship, or break up. I slept on it and decided that the logical move was to break up.
I went to her house and told her I couldn't forgive her, much less trust her after what had happened. We both cried and talked for about half an hour, and I went home completely broken. I then told my closest friends about it, and after a reinforcement class for one of my subjects, I called them separately. One told me that the situation sucks, but that I should focus my pain to fuel my workouts and that we could get girls if I came to visit him over the summer. Another told me that out of all the people cheating could happen to (including himself), he couldn't believe that it happened to me because in his eyes I'm one of the people who least deserves such a thing to happen to them. Both of them concluded that it wasn't as bad because the relationship wasn't too long and I can look forward to being single again.
As I mentioned previously, no one in my life knows the full context of the relationship; my house is undergoing renovations so I couldn't invite my gf to my house, and my parents wanted to meet with her for the first time without extended family, both of which never coincided in our time together. On top of that, I didn't talk about her much to my friends or family; my family respects my privacy and since all my friends were single during this period and I hadn't had any fights or problems with her, I didn't want to flaunt my relationship on them, as when I was single I'd feel a little bad about myself when my friends told me about how well their relationships were when I'd never had one.
My relationship with my ex was really good, as I mentioned we had no big arguments, but that wasn't because we hadn't encountered hardships, but rather that both of us were able to communicate openly and honestly. We were able to open up about our insecurities and share all sides of our personalities and our quirks. The only thing that bothered me slightly was that she sometimes hung out with a guy she'd kissed somewhat recently, as well as her interactions with Steve. That being said she wasn't close friends with either one of them, I didn't want to be possessive or toxic, and up until that point I had no prior reason to believe she'd be unfaithful so I chalked it up to my own insecurities, and kept it to myself. Since the incident, she's mostly respected my need for space, even if her friends haven't (supposedly not at her request).
Back to the present, I felt absolutely miserable from Friday night to Sunday morning, tossing and turning about what had happened. I woke up on Sunday to some messages from her saying she wrote me a card that I could pick up at her lobby or have a delivery boy bring to my house. I didn't mind heading over there so I picked it up with the doorman and went to a friend's house to study and finish up a final project. I didn't tell anyone about the card, neither did I open it until I headed home. I stayed for around 10 hours in my friend's house wrapping everything up, and while it was a necessary break from all the turmoil, the letter was gnawing at the back of my head the entire time.
As soon as I got home I opened and read the letter. I won't divulge what was said in it, as even though this is an anonymous post I'd still prefer to keep its contents private for me and her. Nevertheless, it was very moving, and it made me reevaluate my decision on top of my continued feelings for her.
All of that brings us to today: I just finished one of the best workouts of my life, listening to my saddest playlist throughout and passing bruise cream on my hands (they've started to hurt when I move them). I thanked her for the letter and told her that regardless of what happens between us, we should talk things out after the end of our exams, as right now we both need to focus on passing our classes.
I feel heartbroken, confused, and hurt, but at the same time I miss her and our time together. She was my first relationship and realistically the first time a girl truly cared for me besides my family and friends (I've never gone past one-night stands or hooking up at parties other than a couple dates). I'm worried that I'd be making a mistake by being with her again, as it goes against most of the advice I've received and I could just be head over heels because this is my first serious relationship. Furthermore, I'm also worried that because of what's happened I'll have trust issues - be it with her or someone else - that'll make things toxic. What should I do?
TL;DR: My girlfriend of four months kissed a guy at a bar. I broke up with her but I'm not sure it was the right decision because of how special our time together was. Should I give her another chance?

Hi all, there was a customer today who has Kaiser insurance and wanted his Moderna covid vaccine at my store. I asked my Pharmacist if we still do free vaccine. And he told me we aren't doing free anymore. Are you guys doing free at your store for uninsured people?
Also, i dropped it off immunization in store. But of course as we do not do free vaccine anymore, what would be the next step? It was giving me 2 options. 1- duplicate fill 2- therapy discontinued. Why it did not give me the option to put it on hold?? And i clicked on duplicate fill and it asked me to print out of stock label to which i had clicked NO.
Did i do right or i would have to click on therapy discontinued??
Thanks!

I've noticed this at nearly every job I've held you walk in the first day and the trainer expects you to know how to do the job. You ask for direction because you don't know what you're supposed to be doing and they just get pissy at you. Even if you have no experience with that type of work before. I'm scared because tomorrow I start working Gas Station, and I've never pumped gas before (Live in an attendant pumping state plus I've never owned an automobile). I'm scared they'll yell at me and publicly humiliate me in front of a customer like McDonald's did 15 minutes into my first day. I've worked Retail, Food, Housekeeping, Caregiving, Material Handling, and Various Roles in Tech Mfg, they're all the same. Trainers seem to be rude 9/10. Why? I quit three out of my 8 jobs within the first week over this very issue.

Hello, I just ran out of my setting spray and the UD She Hulk Setting Spray is almost half price for double the product in a store near me. Has anyone tried it? Does it have the same formula as the regular one? Thanks.

Hello, I just ran out of my setting spray and the UD She Hulk Setting Spray is almost half price for double the product in a store near me. Has anyone tried it? Does it have the same formula as the regular one? Thanks.