u/StandardGoatPerson

I suffer from anxdep (anxiety & depression) and multiple chronic health issues, and recently my family and I were discussing whether getting a pet would help me. In particular, we’ve been looking into service animals due to the amount of stress managing stuff on my own gives me. However, we’ve learned how much service animals cost and how long the process can be, both non-profit and privately. We’ve also seen how many different things service animals can help with, which could be beneficial for me in the future. However, for now we’re considering saving up for an ESA to help with my mental health first, then moving onto training a service animal when we can afford one more. My therapist believes I can overcome these obstacles in my mental health without medication (I don’t react well to them), and it’s made me think of whether I could have one dog to help with my mental health and another who can medically alert. Has anyone ever done this?

Also, my anxiety is pretty bad where it’s hard to go outside much and do things. I can usually handle people fairly well, same with certain tasks like shopping, but my flair ups are part of what’s caused my anxiety to get so bad. We’re thinking if I’m more accompanied, I’ll be more comforted. Especially for any future travel.

Now that I say this, maybe one PSA and one medical alert service animal would work… thoughts on everything? 😅

Thank you in advance!

I suffer from anxdep (anxiety & depression) and multiple chronic health issues, and recently my family and I were discussing whether getting a pet would help me. In particular, we’ve been looking into service animals due to the amount of stress managing stuff on my own gives me. However, we’ve learned how much service animals cost and how long the process can be, both non-profit and privately. We’ve also seen how many different things service animals can help with, which could be beneficial for me in the future. However, for now we’re considering saving up for an ESA to help with my mental health first, then moving onto training a service animal when we can afford one more. My therapist believes I can overcome these obstacles in my mental health without medication (I don’t react well to them), and it’s made me think of whether I could have one dog to help with my mental health and another who can medically alert. Has anyone ever done this?

Also, my anxiety is pretty bad where it’s hard to go outside much and do things. I can usually handle people fairly well, same with certain tasks like shopping, but my flair ups are part of what’s caused my anxiety to get so bad. We’re thinking if I’m more accompanied, I’ll be more comforted. Especially for any future travel.

Now that I say this, maybe one PSA and one medical alert service animal would work… thoughts on everything? 😅

Thank you in advance!

I’ve been researching remote roles for a while as an individual who would be considered entry-level for the most part. However, I’ve been seeing recently some discourse regarding entry-level remote work with some saying it’s unrealistic, scams, etc… When it comes to actual remote work, I’d like to know, what advice would you give someone who’s considering putting their foot in the door? Like, advice you would give if you weren’t afraid to hurt them.

A few questions I suppose to help clarify could be:
— How much experience someone should have for most remote roles in your industry?
— If someone can’t work in-person due to their circumstances and aren’t sure if they can afford a degree right now, how could they build up their experience in your field?
— Do online courses like with Google and Coursera actually make a difference in getting a remote job?
— If your industry is network heavy, how did you expand your network both in-person and online?

Maybe for fun… I see people often post on social media that they can get you a remote job within 3-6 months, even entry-level. If someone came to you saying they need a remote job within that time frame and in-person is absolutely off the table, what would you tell them? What direction would you point them in?

To be honest for this last one, I’m not exactly biting with today’s market, but it’s an interesting concept all the same. I think it would be enriching and eye opening learning your guys’ perspective on that claim.

Thank you in advance!

There was a book I’ve read a long time ago that I’ve been searching for, for years since losing it. I’d like to read it again, but this is all I can remember:

— The cover is a girl in overalls who looks over a creek towards a prince. He may be dressed in white.
— The MC is a girl who lives with her aunt in a rural area after the death of her grandmother.
— The MC is disabled and has trouble communicating, something that her family and the town treats her badly for.
— The MC receives a gift of a paper dolls, including a prince and a girl with blonde hair. They come to life and act as her friends.
— Her aunt tries marrying her off to a local bully.
— The prince saves the MC at the end of the book and they fly away on a bird (or something similar to this).
— It’s a few decades old, at least.

I don’t remember much else besides this, but if any of this is familiar to you, I’d love to know what book you’re reminded of! Thank you in advance and happy reading!

Hi, I’m currently making a list of remote work to apply to in the future and saw that Automattic is hiring for a “Happiness Engineer” position that’s fully remote and for a pretty good range of cash USD$40-60k a year (compared to my current situation). However, I’m seeing some conflicting notes about it… In the description, it sounds like a customer service role, but in some comments, it sounds like a software engineer role… For those familiar with this position, what do you actually do?

Also, I don’t have much experience with Wordpress, but have been considering studying it for a few months now after seeing Coursera offers a free course/project for it. I do have experience in customer facing roles, though, in office spaces. So, I’m sort of there..?

If you have anything more you think I should know about the position or company, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thank you in advance!

So, my mom and I were peeling sweet potatoes earlier to make some bread and paused to eat some leftovers, where we ended up watching some movies. We forgot entirely about them and they were out for around 4 hours maybe before I remembered them and put them in the fridge.

I know that cooked food has to be stored properly within 2 hours to avoid trouble, but does the same apply to peeled vegetables? They’re still whole and weren’t submerged (we peeled around 5). When I looked online, the answers are either Google’s overview saying to toss them or links explaining how to properly store them without much mention of time — I haven’t found any scientific reports about it. However, I’m no regular cook, so I figured I’d reach out to you all here who have more experience. What would you all do in this case? Should we toss them or are they alright? Do they need to be peeled a second time?

Thank you in advance and have a wonderful day!

Hello! My mom and I are thinking about moving to California around the end of the year if possible. It’s been over 20 years since we last lived there, only ever visiting for a few days in the in between, so we know a lot has changed. We have a few questions about what we should plan for if we decide to.

For context, we were originally planning on moving to be with our family in Argentina, but due to my current health, it’s come into question whether I’ll be able to make such a trip by the end of the year. I’m a 23-year-old student who has been primarily doing classes online and unable to work since mid-2024 due to various chronic health issues that have been requiring treatment that is taking longer than expected due to waitlists and lack of coverage of certain services. For instance, I have the state’s medicaid, but I didn’t learn until my doctor made a referral last year that they stop covering allergist visits when you turn 21, along with dental and vision. It’s incredibly important for part of my treatment that I go to one, but it’s too expensive to pay out of pocket. My mom is in a similar position with her insurance copays. It’s also hard here due to the near 120 F heat we deal with in the summer that stunts my progress and makes even my mom’s conditions flare up.

This all has caused a lot of stress on myself and my family. However, in a recent conversation, my mom and I learned that both of California’s health insurance (MediCal and Covered California) covers allergists, dental, and vision (although CC’s dental and vision are separate plans). Learning this and knowing the added benefit of the area’s climate on physical and mental health, we’re sincerely considering moving there so we both can get the proper medical attention we need that we can’t get here. However, we do know that it’s a good lot more expensive there than here. I’ve also been reading up on different neighborhoods there.

So, the question is, what should we prepare for?

My mom works in an Amazon warehouse and may be able to transfer to one there and she has a background in education up to an Associates. I have an Associates in theatre (not acting) with more than ten years experience in video production, writing, and art and am currently taking classes to become an educator. We’ll be selling enough of our things to probably be able to fit in a studio apartment. Neither of us have personal transportation, but we’ll be renting a car to move there.

We’d like to know more about how much we should save to live somewhere near LA and Orange County, what is looks like finding jobs in our fields, if the health insurance really as good as it looks, and anything more you believe would be beneficial to know.

Thank you in advance and have a wonderful day!

I’ve posted here a few times already, I believe, about some other things related to moving out of the country; which I’d like to thank you all for responding previously. I feel as though I have to ask one more since this has been weighing on me a bit. How did you tell your friends you were moving?

Most of my family and a few friends from the new country know that we’re moving at some point, but I haven’t really told any of my friends here yet. For the most part, my therapist and I have agreed to wait to tell my friends from here until we have everything set to go and it’s a few months beforehand. The thing, though, is that I’m going to be asking one of my friends for help going to some offices in-person to get documents ready and maybe to come with me to sell some things in stores. I’m not sure how to tell them and ask for this large favor (which, of course, I’ll pay them back for), aside from inviting them over for lunch. If any of you have been through this situation, how did you manage it? Do you have any suggestions on things I could say or how to approach it?

I almost forgot to add, my friends here don’t have the money to visit me where we’re moving, so it could be years before our next meeting…

Thank you in advance and have a great day!

I feel a bit rude with how I worded my question… But I would like to know: when you guys were preparing to move, how did you get through the stage of getting rid of some of your belongings?

For context, my family and I are planning to move to Argentina to be with family at some point and due to the costs of sending boxes (ex. USD$1000 per bankers box-size), we have to get rid of almost 90% of our things. We’re looking to donate, sell, and gift what we won’t be taking. I have some questions about this though, if you don’t mind.

**1) How do you deal with needing to let go of some things you used to treasure?**

I’ve come to terms with quite a few of my things, but I’m having trouble with others. Like childhood toys, some books, etc… No one we know here is able to keep these things for us and no one can send it over since they don’t earn enough money to do so. Quite a few of these things, particularly most of my childhood plushies, they don’t make anymore. I’d like to take as many of them, along with my books, some special dishes, and other things, but I don’t know if they’ll all add too much weight to the extra baggage we’ll be taking with us on our flight. They spark too much joy to give away and I have too much belief that any of them can be cleaned if they got poop on it (iykyk the cleaning methods). How do you deal with this emotional aspect?

**2) Where have you gone to sell your things, online and in-person?**

I’ve heard of Facebook Marketplace, eBay, OfferUp, Depop, Vinted, and Whatnot, but I’ve only ever tried the first two to not much luck. What are your experiences with those platforms? Are there others to consider? Also, I’m going to sell at some in-person locations too, but the negotiation part is kind of intimidating… any advice for that would be much appreciated too…

**3) What are some good organizations to donate to in the US?**

We’ve been talking about donating what we can, but are unfamiliar with how that process works — aside from the boxes outside of some grocery chains for clothes. We want to make sure that any clothes, shoes, toys, etc. go to organizations that will actually deliver them to the people who need them most. We also have furniture that we’re unsure whether we’ll sell or donate, so any information related to that too would be wonderful.

Thank you in advance!

My family and I are planning on moving to Argentina at some point and it can be anywhere from a 17 to 20+ hour trip depending on the circumstances, with connecting flights. I, unfortunately, suffer from different allergies and intolerances (ex. Nuts, Rice, granola, protein bars, among other foods) so it would be more in my best interest to pack something rather than to buy something from the airport or in-flight food. I’ve read that people have been able to bring sandwiches, cheeses, fruit, vegetables, etc., but that Argentina doesn’t allow cheese nor produce unless it’s packaged by a manufacturer and that you can’t bring homemade food. My initial idea was to bring aged cheddar or parmesan cheese with apples, mandarins, crackers, maybe some dry cereal, and salami to name a few and possibly sandwiches. My family will most likely eat at the airport, so I’ll probably just carry enough for myself. However, as I stated earlier about Argentina’s restrictions, I’m rethinking my plan. Our family in Argentina will have food ready for us, so I mostly just need something to get me through the travel portion…

Have any of you gone through restrictions like this as well, both in allergies and customs? How did you manage it? What foods have you brought to eat?

Also, I have read too that some people eat instant ramen on the plane. While I like instant ramen, I’ve heard too many times that the machine with the boiling water is almost never cleaned unless it’s broke… so, I’m most likely going to avoid this option.

Thank you in advance!

My family and I are planning on moving to Argentina at some point and it can be anywhere from a 17 to 20+ hour trip depending on the circumstances, with connecting flights. I, unfortunately, suffer from different allergies and intolerances (ex. Nuts, Rice, granola, protein bars, among other foods) so it would be more in my best interest to pack something rather than to buy something from the airport or in-flight food. I’ve read that people have been able to bring sandwiches, cheeses, fruit, vegetables, etc., but that Argentina doesn’t allow cheese nor produce unless it’s packaged by a manufacturer and that you can’t bring homemade food. My initial idea was to bring aged cheddar or parmesan cheese with apples, mandarins, crackers, maybe some dry cereal, and salami to name a few and possibly sandwiches. My family will most likely eat at the airport, so I’ll probably just carry enough for myself. However, as I stated earlier about Argentina’s restrictions, I’m rethinking my plan. Our family in Argentina will have food ready for us, so I mostly just need something to get me through the travel portion…

Have any of you gone through restrictions like this as well, both in allergies and customs? How did you manage it? What foods have you brought to eat?

Also, I have read too that some people eat instant ramen on the plane. While I like instant ramen, I’ve heard too many times that the machine with the boiling water is almost never cleaned unless it’s broke… so, I’m most likely going to avoid this option.

Thank you in advance!

My family and I are planning on moving to Argentina at some point and it can be anywhere from a 17 to 20+ hour trip depending on the circumstances, with connecting flights. I, unfortunately, suffer from different allergies and intolerances (ex. Nuts, Rice, granola, protein bars, among other foods) so it would be more in my best interest to pack something rather than to buy something from the airport or in-flight food. I’ve read that people have been able to bring sandwiches, cheeses, fruit, vegetables, etc., but that Argentina doesn’t allow cheese nor produce unless it’s packaged by a manufacturer and that you can’t bring homemade food. My initial idea was to bring aged cheddar or parmesan cheese with apples, mandarins, crackers, maybe some dry cereal, and salami to name a few and possibly sandwiches. My family will most likely eat at the airport, so I’ll probably just carry enough for myself. However, as I stated earlier about Argentina’s restrictions, I’m rethinking my plan. Our family in Argentina will have food ready for us, so I mostly just need something to get me through the travel portion…

Have any of you gone through restrictions like this as well, both in allergies and customs? How did you manage it? What foods have you brought to eat?

Also, I have read too that some people eat instant ramen on the plane. While I like instant ramen, I’ve heard too many times that the machine with the boiling water is almost never cleaned unless it’s broke… so, I’m most likely going to avoid this option.

Thank you in advance!

My mother and I are planning to move to her home country to be with our family, which will be easier for both them and us. I’ve been wanting to move there since 2022 and I love it when we visit. I’ve only been there twice, for a month each time. We decided we would move at some point after 2024, but finances and my health got in the way. Changes in the country where we live right now is driving us to go sooner than later.

As I said, I’ve been looking forward to going and love it there, yet for some reason I’m starting to feel weird about it. We’ve been organizing our stuff to see what we’ll bring and get rid of (either donate or sell), revising finances, checking out moving requirements, and planning out what else we need to do. What I know so far is:

- We still have a lot to save. I’m not currently working due to still recovering both physically and mentally, but I’m researching what I can do to help get some income in. My mother is the only one bringing in any money. Recently, we’ve been hit with back to back financial complications from both taxes and educational expenses.

- Sending boxes over is too expensive. We’ve been searching for a good moving company for boxes and books, but they either don’t work with her home country or want USD$1000 per box, even if it’s banker’s size. So, we have to sell most of our things and bring as much as we can using checked bags. We’re going to need help moving the checked bags, but asking a relative to come help is pretty expensive too, as much as having someone around would help not aggravate issues with our physical health (she has health issues too).

- I need to be cleared by my doctors before I can go. I have different health conditions that could make travel difficult where I would need accommodations; such as with allergies and intolerances (I’ll have to most likely bring my own food on a nearly 20hr travel). While they told me I would be fine traveling before, a health event a few months ago has left me still recovering both physically and mentally. Before that, though, I was prepping to move, was in the process of returning to job searching, and had already gotten some documents I need to request to be apostilled (albeit not all). I haven’t been able to continue any processes with my documents since then.

- Getting all of my documents finished and stamped will take more than 3 months to complete, at the fastest. Some of the documents I have to order from another state and we don’t have the means to go in person.

It’s complicated to say the least. Part of me is excited to go because I’ll be with my family, see friends, and have access to healthcare my insurance here won’t cover. Another part of me wonders if we’ll be able to go when we would like to due to finances, my health, and when I will be able to finish getting my documents in order. Logically, if we need to wait, it would probably be best to ensure security. But, on the other hand… my grandfather’s health is getting worse and he’s already been to the hospital twice this year. If something happens and we don’t get there in time, I don’t know what we’ll do; especially my mom…

Looking at our old things has also left me feeling very bittersweet. So many things didn’t go to plan, even what we had for where we live currently. Revising everything is like reading a book of our lives here. I feel loved and heartbroken at the same time. And part of it is leaking out into us moving. Although I couldn’t control what happened, I’m struggling to not feel guilty for us not being able to move sooner. I sometimes wonder if we’ll actually be able to go with everything that happened. I have faith that we’ll be able to someday - I just don’t know if it’ll be when we want it to be. I’d like to make things easier for us, especially as my mom deserves it. I don’t know… I just feel overwhelmed and complicated… My mom says it’s because I’ve lived here all my life and may not want to leave, but I’m not sure… Do I feel like there’s still more to do? To wrap up too?

Has anyone else gone through this or something similar? How did you feel when you started getting closer to actually moving?

Before anyone asks, yes, I’m going to therapy. I’m also doing other things to improve my physical and mental health; including implementing tools to help me more in the moment (ex. Cane when needed, DARE app, cold water bottle, meds). I’m also working on a plan to make travel smoother when the time comes, such as talking with the airline as another thread mentioned for health accommodations. If you have any tips for this too, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance and have a wonderful day!

Hola, tod@s! Mi mama y yo estamos viendo de mudar a BsAs en este tiempo que viene para estar con la familia. Pero estamos teniendo algunas problemas buscando un servicio para mandar cajas hasta Argentina de manera segura y económico. Los que encontramos no mandan hasta Argentina y los otros quieren alrededor de USD$1000 cada caja… Hay algunas recomendaciones que ustedes pueden dar para esto? Gracias de antemano y que tengan un muy lindo día!