u/THROWAWAY-LEMONMENTO

I found this book in my bookshelf in my bedroom recently and I was confused because I’ve never heard of or seen this book in my life. It was after being gone for a week and having a cat sitter at my apartment daily so i thought maybe she left it for me. I asked her and she said she didn’t. I don’t really believe her but I decided to read it because it just felt strange that she said it wasn’t hers.

I’m only a few chapters in but it’s feeling a bit too pro-religion for me. I feel like i’m subtly being indoctrinated lol… It started with a bible verse about how being enlightened is good but spreading your knowledge is great. i don’t disagree with that but feels a bit culty or something. I never saw myself reading something that included a bible verse. and then the very first chapter talked about how relationships are failing or can’t last or something because both partners want to lead/ be catered to/ make decisions and they butt heads too much. i thought that was weird, it felt like they were implying something i don’t like.. i told my boyfriend about it and he told me to stop reading it because it sounds extremely pro-patriarchy. I decided to continue because honestly Im interested in seeing where this is going.

Then it started talking about how people as a whole are going to start realizing there’s something way bigger than all of us simply because of “coincidences” that aren’t actually coincidences. and other weird stuff like that. if i struggled with psychosis this book would have me off my rocker.

i’m going to keep reading but i need to know, is the author serious? i’m hoping that in the end it’s a criticism of religion because the characters in it sound.. unintentionally ignorant. they’re portrayed as very smart but they’re believing insane shit because a priest told them this and now they’re making connections that aren’t real all bc of a manuscript that affected their outlook ???

Honestly if this teaches me something then great, but I need to know, is this just religious propaganda ?

I have worked front desk at a hotel for 3 years. Ever since the beginning we have had an older man stay with us regularly, probably 4-6 days a week. I’ll call him Mr. Lemon. I have causal convo with him daily and I find him to be a very kind and normal guy. Just an innocent old man who knows his manners.

We have plenty of regulars who stay just as frequently as Mr. Lemon if not more, but something weird I’ve noticed is my manager is extra careful about making sure he gets the same room every time despite him stating he doesn’t mind being assigned to other rooms. She also instructs us not to assign anyone to his room unless absolutely necessary, even when we know he’ll be gone for a while. The few times we have accidentally put other guests in his room on weekends, my manager has just said “yuck”. every time. she says “yuck”. I never asked, i guess i thought maybe it was because he’s older and very overweight, maybe he had a certain smell to him, i don’t know.

Recently Mr. Lemon came by the front desk and asked me to pass a message onto the housekeepers. He said he’d like for them to stop putting “scent rings” near his box of tissues, as it triggers his allergies and he’s not able to use them anymore. I told him i’d let them know but this confused me because I have never heard of another guest having “scent rings” placed in their rooms. we do spray air fresheners and that’s it as far as i knew.

So I call my manager and ask her about it. “Why does Mr. Lemon say we put scent rings in his room?” “because he pisses all over the room, he has a weird piss kink or something and it fucking stinks.” I was genuinely flabbergasted.

She said it so casually. after collecting myself i asked her why she never has told me and why on earth she’d let him continue staying here. she said it’s not her decision and she doesn’t want to talk about it, but the second he stops booking with us we’re replacing everything in the room.

i couldn’t believe it. I vented to the assistant manager about this, it didn’t seem right. all she said was “yeah that bed is also literally formed to his body.”

honestly i’m flabbergasted and disgusted. I can’t see Mr. Lemon the same, i just feel uncomfortable now. Is this normal? after some thought I guess it makes sense it’s probably cheaper to keep renting it to him than to put the room out of order for reconstruction but omg.

p.s. this post was originally in an advice subreddit but got removed, a commenter suggested posting here.

I(23f) have worked front desk at a hotel for 3 years. Ever since the beginning we have had an older man stay with us regularly, probably 4-6 days a week. I’ll call him Mr. Lemon. I have causal convo with him daily and I find him to be a very kind and normal guy. Just an innocent old man who knows his manners.

We have plenty of regulars who stay just as frequently as Mr. Lemon if not more, but something weird I’ve noticed is my manager is extra careful about making sure he gets the same room every time despite him stating he doesn’t mind being assigned to other rooms. She also instructs us not to assign anyone to his room unless absolutely necessary, even when we know he’ll be gone for a while. The few times we have accidentally put other guests in his room on weekends, my manager has just said “yuck”. every time. she says “yuck”. I never asked, i guess i thought maybe it was because he’s older and very overweight, maybe he had a certain smell to him, i don’t know.

Recently Mr. Lemon came by the front desk and asked me to pass a message onto the housekeepers. He said he’d like for them to stop putting “scent rings” near his box of tissues, as it triggers his allergies and he’s not able to use them anymore. I told him i’d let them know but this confused me because I have never heard of another guest having “scent rings” placed in their rooms. we do spray air fresheners and that’s it as far as i knew.

So I call my manager and ask her about it. “Why does Mr. Lemon say we put scent rings in his room?” “because he pisses all over the room, he has a weird piss kink or something and it fucking stinks.” I was genuinely flabbergasted.

She said it so casually. after collecting myself i asked her why she never has told me and why on earth she’d let him continue staying here. she said it’s not her decision and she doesn’t want to talk about it, but the second he stops booking with us we’re replacing everything in the room.

i couldn’t believe it. I vented to the assistant manager about this, it didn’t seem right. all she said was “yeah that bed is also literally formed to his body.”

honestly i’m flabbergasted and disgusted. I can’t see Mr. Lemon the same, i just feel uncomfortable now. Is this normal? after some thought I guess it makes sense it’s probably cheaper to keep renting it to him than to put the room out of order for reconstruction but omg. i don’t know what i should do.

I work at a pet friendly hotel where we have a lot of high profile clients. Today a wealthy family checked in with a large golden retriever. He was beautiful and reminded me of my golden at home, until he ran up behind the counter and i started petting him.

This was the cleanest dog i’ve ever touched. His hair was extremely soft and fluffy, and he smelt like fresh laundry, it was like petting a giant cat. My uniform is all black and after stepping away from him there wasn’t a single hair on me.

my dog’s hair is a rougher texture, he smells like dog within a few days after the groomers and he sheds terribly despite a bi-weekly de shed. even directly after the groomers, he has never been fluffy or felt soft, he stays feeling somewhat oily always.

I asked the family how he’s so clean and they said they groom him extremely often. they didn’t have time for more questions so i didn’t pry. i would love for my dog to be that taken care of. i can’t really afford more than a grooming appointment every 2 weeks and i have a busy schedule. any tips or advice ?

I have four cats. i love them so much but they’re a lot. they like to eat wires like little mice. they’ve bitten through several lamps, our phone chargers, speakers, the tv, the automatic litter box wire, our air filters, headphone cords, the cord for our internet, the wifi box, my boyfriend’s PC, you name it. i’ve had to throw away countless electronics because of them. i tried rubbing citrus oil on all wires but it only lasts a day or 2 before the smell wears off and they go back to chomping.

they also like to attack and climb all curtains in the house, even the shower curtain. my shower curtain literally has tiny holes alll over it. every window curtain looks like we have a moth infestation. i placed window perches for them on all the windows, a cat tree in every single room, vertical spaces throughout the whole apartment. they like the stuff meant for them and play with it often but it doesn’t stop them from playing with the curtains too.

another thing is, every night they trash my apartment while i’m sleeping. we have to lock them out of our bedroom at night because my boyfriend moves his feet a lot while he’s sleeping and it triggers them to constantly attack his feet all night. also we were tired of plugging our phones in before bed and waking up to dead batteries and sliced phone chargers. it’s literally made us late to work because our alarms don’t go off.

so to set the scene, before bed our common areas are always organized. i’m a maximalist and i enjoy having a lot of knick knacks and decor. when i wake up, most everything will be pushed onto the floor, every bin is emptied, they even like to take our vinyl records and dvds out and spread them across the floor, i have no idea how. lamps will be pushed over, they also like to completely unravel our toilet paper. sometimes when they’re determined enough they will open our heavy lidded trash can and empty it out as well. i bought them toys that move around themselves like pray, i bought them one of those automatic toys on a string you hang on the wall and it goes up and down. i play with them for hours before bed every day. i take them outside in a mesh tent to give them some enrichment. it hasn’t helped.

lastly, they like to eat door corners. the bottom of most of our white doors are chomped till you see the brown underneath and corners are rounded.

i know they like living at the apartment and are happy. i can leave the door open all day for fresh air and they won’t even step foot outside. (they used to try to escape before i added all the cat furniture and prey toys).

what can i possibly do? i’ve started accepting this is my life because i love them, but my boyfriend is getting exhausted and i don’t blame him for it. where do i even start?

Today I randomly decided to look up how old the oldest cat in the world is and came across the oldest cat, cream puff, who lived to 38. I began to look into the owner and found that he had several cats, and they all made it to at least 30. he said his secret was their diet. it consisted of dry cat food, broccoli, eggs, turkey bacon, coffee with cream, and every 2 days, a dropper full of red wine to “circulate their arteries”. is it possible that this actually extended their lives ?? it can’t be a coincidence that all of his cats lived to such old ages. i know that science begs to differ, but maybe it truly did push them past their 30s. what do you think?

edit: his name was cream PUFF, not pie lmaoo

I have four cats, 2 who were just added to the family and i tested out a lot of kibble brands and flavors before i was able to find one they all liked. Anyways, now i have like 30 pounds of kibble they refuse to touch. what can i do with it so i dont waste it all?

i thought about grinding it into a powder and mixing it with broth or something so they might find it more appetizing, but what other uses could it have ? also, if i were to donate it, where would i go ?

my 4 year old cat had her second litter. i have grown to love her kittens and I want to keep them forever.

my momma cat, murphy, loves them dearly but i’m afraid for the weaning process to start. i kept 1 kitten from her last litter and once she turned 12 weeks old, murphy switched up on her and started attacking her for even being in the same room. it was so sad to watch. murphy was so upset i kept the kitten that she started using the bathroom on the floor despite adding multiple litter boxes. it took her a full year to accept her kitten and now they’re best friends.

is there any possible way i can help the weaning process and keep murphy happy? she’s scheduled to be spayed at the end of the month so i’m hoping it will help but my heart can’t take watching her attack her kids who love her so much. anything i can do to mitigate the aggression and help her accept them as fellow adult cats rather than baby enemies ?

edit to add: the kittens are currently 11 weeks and still nurse occasionally

struggling to create group blocks and delete them as well, cannot find instructions on this to save the life of me. please someone give me a step by step

I work front desk at a Marriott in a small oilfield town.
We’re not a vacation destination. The majority of our guests are long-term or repeat business travelers who stay with us constantly. Because of that, our guest mix is heavily skewed toward elite members. On a typical night, roughly: 70% are Gold, 10% are Platinum/Titanium Ambassador, and 20% are lower-tier or non-members.

Our regulars understand the reality of the property: we have limited housekeeping resources, only 10 suites, and a hotel that is often very full. They usually don’t expect miracles.

The interesting part is when newer guests arrive. They’ll request a suite upgrade or a late checkout, and when we say we can’t accommodate it, they’re shocked because “I’m Gold!” They’re often used to other Marriott properties where upgrades happen frequently.
The thing is, at our hotel, being Gold means you’re competing with a huge number of other Gold members for a very small number of suites. If we upgraded every Gold member who asked, all 10 suites would be gone almost immediately. If we granted every late checkout request, housekeeping would never get rooms turned for arrivals.
What makes these conversations difficult is that guests don’t see the competition behind the scenes.

They see: “I’ve stayed here five times and never received an upgrade.” We see: “Tonight there are dozens of elite members requesting the same limited inventory.”

I’m curious if other Marriott employees at oilfield, airport, government, or other business-heavy properties experience the same thing. Sometimes it feels like elite status at our hotel isn’t rare enough for guests to receive the treatment they’ve become accustomed to at leisure properties, even though we’re still following the program rules and honoring benefits when availability actually exists.

my boyfriend (25m) and i(23f) live together. have been together for 3 years. no kids. sometimes we have different work schedules so there are days he will go to bed a few hours earlier than me. i like to stay up pretty late.

2 nights ago i was getting into bed and he was lying on my side so i scooted him over. a few minutes later he woke up randomly and in an intense and frantic tone said “give me my phone! give me my phone”. i was startled and sat up to realize i had been lying on it. i handed it to him and he snatched it up and immediately rolled over and went back to sleep. phone in hand. didn’t even glance at it. this set off alarms in my head. he’s never done that before and i’ve slept near his phone a million times. it made me feel like there was something in it he was afraid of me seeing. for some reason instead of waking him i kind of just lied awake for a while overthinking. i decided to let it go and just ask him about it when he woke up.

i didn’t end up bringing it up until the next night. i asked him if he’s hiding anything and told him what had happened the night before that caused me to have suspicions. he hugged me and said i have nothing to worry about and he didn’t even remember saying that to me or snatching his phone. he said it was probably to charge it or from anxiety that he wouldn’t hear his alarm. he offered me his phone and i declined because he was a little drunk and honestly i was scared of finding something 😭

after that, he literally sat the phone next to me on the couch, told me it’s there if i change my mind and went to bed for the night. i stared at it for a long time trying to decide if i wanted to look or not. i came to the conclusion that if he’s leaving it to me so nonchalantly then he either already deleted everything or he’s simply telling the truth. i brought his phone to the bed without ever unlocking it.

but now it’s weighing on me. i’m not sure if i made the right decision when i decided not to look. even if he had deleted everything, people do slip up. i’m not sure. i want to do what is best for not only my relationship, but myself as well. given the opportunity in the future, is it better to look or not to look ?

I grew up in the catholic church and i remember being in bible school when i was around the age of 10 and my teacher told me “maybe one day you will be a nun” and i replied, “mmm no i’d rather be a priest” and then she explained to me that since i am a woman, i can never be a priest. this shattered my view on the church instantly. why would god not create men and women to be equal? what kind of just god is that? so after that i never took the religion seriously. why on earth would i ever follow something that literally tells me that since im a woman, i am not able to take on leadership roles over men or be a priest? i started questioning the whole thing after that.

then i went to a christian bible school with a friend, the type where everyone’s white and the priest is allowed to have a wife. (im hispanic) i thought maybe this would be better. but then we sung songs together at the end and kids my age were taking turns picking out the song and they’d stand at the front and lead the song. i asked if i could have a turn and i was told only boys can lead the songs !!! yeah i was done. i questioned it in front of everyone. “why is it only boys?” “because that’s how we’ve always done it, the men lead” “why” “because the bible says” “so the bible hates women” “you need to step outside”.

at 12 i told my parents i was an atheist. they were FURIOUS. my mom cried. it took years of trying to convince me but they got over it. why tf would anyone believe in a god that doesn’t hold you to the same regard as men. FUCK no. i don’t understand how anyone can support that?

I(23f) work at a hotel where most of our guests are older men on work trips, so we deal with a LOT of bullshit.

Today I was training a new employee who is brand new to customer service and very shy. A man who is notorious for being rude to our staff came to check in with her, so I kept an eye on their interaction just in case. Everything actually went perfectly fine, he got his room keys, and went up to his room.

About 10 minutes later he comes storming back down to the desk absolutely fuming. Like red in the face, pointing his finger at my new coworker. She looked completely terrified and honestly froze. So I stepped in and asked him what the issue was.

In the most dramatic fucking tone ever he goes, “She took my ID!”

Immediately in my head I knew for a FACT she gave it back because I had watched the entire interaction extra closely. But of course we both apologized, looked around the desk, checked everywhere, etc.

After not finding it I said, “I don’t think it’s here. Is there any chance you misplaced it?”

He starts shaking his head and says he KNOWS she took it and that he doesn’t understand why we’re “doing this to him.”

At this point I was honestly flabbergasted.

I said, “Okay, well we’re not able to locate it right now. Let me call my manager and we can review the cameras.”

This man literally loses his mind.

He starts practically yelling, “Um, no??? You have my ID. Are you calling me a liar?”

I said, “Sir, if we have it, then that means we somehow lost it. So we need to check the cameras regardless.”

He literally stomped over to a lobby chair like a child and announced that he was not leaving until he got his ID back. Grown man probably in his 60s.

I went to the back office and called my manager. Thankfully she was just as pissed as I was. She told me to inform him that we were cancelling his reservation and that he needed to leave the property. She also said to tell him that if he truly believed we stole his ID, he was welcome to call the police.

I was SO satisfied that he was finally going to face some consequences for the way he treats people.

But alas.

I walk back out and he had found his ID in his fucking pocket.

Suddenly he was apologizing profusely.

Out of the kindness of my heart, and because i wasn’t sure how to respond in the moment, I decided to let this old man go back to his room.

I regret it so much. Because people like this never learn. He got to accuse a young girl of stealing, scream at us, throw a tantrum in the lobby, and then simply say “sorry” when he realized he was wrong.

I should have made him leave.