u/Kittenwho21

So… I don’t have friend**s**, but I do have *a* friend. A *best* friend. She’s basically the most amazing person on this planet and somehow she accepts me?? I have a track record of having horrid relationships with friends. In one way or another I eventually get used, abused, made fun of, mistreated some way, and it generally never fails… idk what it is about me, but I’ve always felt like I’m a beacon for bad people, despite how much genuine good I try to do, and regardless of how good I try to be. It makes me want to never make friends again, and I know so many of you understand bc I’ve seen so many saying as much.

But.. this woman is my therapists favorite tool against my all or nothing thinking, because I’ve known her since I was 16 and I’m turning 38 next week (22 years?), she’s my longest nonfamilial relationship, but she’s basically my family at this point. She’s seen me through some pretty awful shit, she was, quite literally, there for me, as in immediately came over and was right next to me, when I had some really awful trauma memories come through.

I’ve had dozens of “friends” come and go over the years, and this amazing woman has listened to me whine and complain to her about how I have no friends and everyone is awful to me 😭 (I apologized for this recently and this angel doesn’t even remember me ever saying anything like that, she said something like “well, thanks for apologizing but I never knew you felt that way” 🥴😅 I said she did, but I guess she just never internalized it and has always known she’s an exception to my bitching lol)

It’s not just one sided either, tho for a long time when I was young it was, but she’s called me for advice and confidence, especially once she left the church (we met in the lds church) bc I’d been out for a while. And when she had all her life milestones she’s contacted me, in some cases before her own family! Meeting to marrying her husband (and all the in between), pregnancies and births, life changes and all that.. we lift each other up, support each other, love each other.

There was almost 20 years of our 22 year friendship where we didn’t even see each other in person!!! Our relationship still was so strong throughout all those years!

Well.. anyways, TLDR part of the story. This screenshot so perfectly encapsulates my beautiful angel of a friend. She is so loving, and supportive of me no matter how weird I get. I sent her a 10 minute video showing off my seashells and corals (the end of the video I said “as a kid I was never obsessed with mermaids bc who needs to be obsessed with what you already are lol” and that’s why she finished her message that way) and then another like 7 minute long rambling voice memo about something completely unrelated. And she **thanks** me for sharing with her?!!

How the hell did I get so lucky??!

Sometimes I’m convinced that the reason I can’t find a partner or have multiple friends is because the universe gave me such perfection wrapped up as her.

Anyways, thanks for listening, I just wanted to share because.. well.. I think yall understand how beautiful it is (or would be) to find a person in the world like her.

This is something I picked up at Ross in the clearance section, it’s plant based, quite literally ready to eat (but I heated mine up at the gas station since it only needed a few seconds in the microwave) anyways, the noodles come in a package, and the sauce separately packaged. It’s also probably healthier than many quick noodles.

It is a fair amount of plastic waste, if that’s something folks try to avoid, but for a meal that doesn’t *need* to be heated and can be prepped/eaten easily in a car without any additional anything’s, I thought it might be something to share here.

I don’t, however, know how easy these are to find. I’ve never seen them outside the Ross before..

So, I’ve heard people talk about the electric lunchboxes before, but I honestly thought they were basically for northerners who have cold weather and can’t really keep food warm. I got one anyways (I do travel up north sometimes and like to be prepared)

Fast forward

I decided I wanted to cook but also wanted to go see my favorite sea turtles and if I didn’t get there soon it would be busy (I try to stay out of crowds), so I thought maybe the lunchbox might come in handy so I don’t have to sit at a pot for even a few minutes longer than prep.

I used all pre-made individual packed food (I know it’s wasteful, but look where we’re at 😵‍💫😮‍💨) a package of barbacoa beef, a container of microwave cilantro/lime rice, and a mini can of green beans. Add seasonings, mixy-mixy, close it up, plug it in, and voila!

I went to the sea turtle sanctuary thing, hung out with my besties for a little bit, and when I got back to the van it was *hot* like the whole inside of the van. So I’d def suggest venting the windows (as I’ll be doing next time) but the food was soooo good! All I had to do was mix it around and it was completely hassle free.

One with variable temp might be nice, this doesn’t have that feature, but this is definitely gonna save me in time/energy since I can cook a full meal (basically) while driving since I can connect to the car and power station. Currently I’m parked in a parking garage and can’t stop stuffing my face before I go in the library. Idk if I’ll use my electric pot or induction stove anymore 😅

Honestly, this was such a good thing to have with me, if you struggle putting meals together that aren’t just fast food or completely non perishable, this is a handy helper. Idk how much it cost, I got it a long time ago but only just pulled it out of storage.

Anyways, that is all. I hope yall are doing well out there!