u/Traditional_Mind6947

My boyfriend and I have been together for several years and are about to go through a huge life transition together (moving, job changes, etc). We both absolutely want to get engaged and have talked about marriage for a long time, so this was never a question of commitment or love.

We’ve both been really stressed, exhausted, and not fully ourselves lately. We had a very draining past year with work, family stress, health stuff, and just trying to stay connected and romantic through all of it. But regardless, we love each other deeply and know we can weather hard things together.

Yesterday we spent the day together and I genuinely thought we were heading toward a really nice proposal moment. We got food for a picnic, talked about going to the beach, and I felt the romantic spark again. But instead of going to the beach he just…drove us home.

Then while we were walking the dog in the backyard, he suddenly said “I don’t want to keep waiting for the perfect moment” and pulled the ring out of his pocket. I literally had to remind him to get down on one knee. Meanwhile our dog was doing zoomies, chewing sticks beside us, and we were standing in the worst part of our yard beside dead grass and bushes behind the fire pit.

He asked if I was okay because I think my face showed disappointment. I told him I loved him, loved the ring, and absolutely wanted to marry him, but I had imagined the moment being a bit more intentional.

He took the ring back off my finger and tried again with a sweet speech while we sat on a little bench in the yard, but at that point I felt kind of out of body. The neighbours were mowing their lawn, the dog was still going crazy, and everything just felt emotionally scrambled and rushed.

Afterwards I thought maybe we’d go somewhere nice and sit together and take in the moment, but instead we just went inside and he made instant noodles. I couldn’t even properly look at the ring because it weirdly felt like I wasn’t supposed to have seen it yet.

Eventually he apologized and said he was too nervous and overwhelmed, and that he wants to redo it another time and make it special for both of us, so he took the ring back again.

Now I feel really conflicted. I love him deeply and absolutely still want to marry him, but I’m scared the “special first moment” is ruined now because I already saw the ring, already saw him on one knee, already technically said yes, etc. At the same time, I know he was overwhelmed too and genuinely trying his best. He’s never been great at surprises or romantic gestures, but he works hard to be a good partner and the best version of himself for us both.

Has anyone else had a messy or awkward proposal that eventually turned out okay? Did the redo still feel meaningful afterward?

My very sweet mother in law gifted me a bracelet for my 30th birthday. She texted me about it in advance to get my wrist size, and was so excited to give it to me. She’s quite simple/minimal in how she dresses so I’m thinking “cool it’ll probably be something I can wear every day”.

I open the box, and it’s a bracelet made of gold plated smiley faces. I just counted them, it’s actually 22 small gold smiley faces that are sitting side by side on a stretchy band. It literally looks like this:

…………..😃😃😃😃
………😃 😃
…….😃 😃
……😃 😃
……😃 😃
……..😃 😃
………..😃 😃
……………😃😃 😃😃

Terrifying.

I was stunned when I opened it because it was honestly the last thing I expected lol. I texted her to say thank you, and she replied saying “I saw it and thought of you immediately! I wanted to give you something to make you smile.”

I don’t want to be rude but this bracelet is quite literally something a 13 year old would wear. I also don’t wear a ton of jewelry so I’m not sure where she got the idea that I would like or even use this.

I’m usually great at declutterring gifts. On Christmas Day I put some gifts from family directly in the donation bin, I just knew they wouldn’t work for me but I appreciated the thought. This bracelet is a tough call because she’s a wonderful person, but because she’s not my mom or direct family I feel bad. When my own mom gets me something I don’t like, I tell her why it didn’t work out for me and there’s no hard feelings, but I don’t think on that same level with MIL. I’m contemplating even mentioning this to my partner because it’s his mom and he has a tendency to say “just keep it anyways” which doesn’t help. When I put the bracelet on he said “wow!” But idk if it was a positive or negative response lol.

I also hate hanging onto something out of fear. I want to let it go but I’m afraid of that one possible interaction where she asks about it and I don’t have it anymore to wear in front of her.

What would you do?

Which one are you? I use barely one napkin during a meal, and my boyfriend takes about 5 minimum.

I’ve recently learned that books are being “updated” to include modern pop culture references or language to make it more appealing to current readers. You may have seen the article about how a Pretty Little Liars book (2006) was “updated” to include a reference to TikTok….in place of a reference to the show Fear Factor, which is way more fitting for the time it was written.

I did a quick search on the r/books subreddit and found a post from 9 years ago expressing the same issue. So it’s been going on for longer than I realized. As an avid reader I feel embarrassed to say I didn’t know this, and it honestly crushes me thinking that books are no longer allowed to be frozen in time.

This whole thing just makes me so sad to think that we will no longer be able to read books and be immersed in the era it was written.

If you excuse me I’ll be scouring the internet and local used book stores to find old copies.

Edit for my personal context:

I sometimes feel burnout when using ChatGPT, similar to how I feel on social media. When it starts to distort my prompts or get too lengthy, it makes the entire process just annoying an unpleasant and I’ve considered deleting it at times.

Just curious if anyone else has felt the same and either considered deleting or have actually deleted it and what their experience was like.

This is a rant as I'm pretty sure I already know the answer. But I've only ever loved refill style products. Especially for face powders like blush and bronzer. To me it's the perfect set up because you can buy the empty palette, fill it with whatever colours you like, and really customize it to your needs.

MAC's magnetic palette used to be iconic and so practical, but it seems like they're getting phased out. I was on their site 5 months ago and while it wasn't as fully stocked as it used to be, they still had a short range of blush and eye colours, and a variety of palette sizes for the face and eyes. Today I checked and there's almost no evidence of refill palettes even existing, just a couple products that are marked "sold out".

I understand it's likely due to the fact that pre made palettes increase sales way more as the buyer has no choice but to waste colours they don't like, and repurchase. And with refill palettes there's no need to buy them again unless they break.

I'm just so bummed about this because it really feels like the customer experience and needs are no longer an important aspect of makeup. They just create whatever can go viral on TikTok and put less and less thought into formulations, or practical use.

Anyone else feel this way??

Firstly I love auntie Jen and I’ve been a long time Cheekbone fan since they started!

I always restock on their small eco refill powders. In the first couple years they made these black plastic refill palettes with 3 slots for small refill powders and a perfect sized mirror. I still have mine and still love using them.

Over the years I’ve seen them phase out the plastic packaging and move to the cardboard pallets. I bought one and I like it for travel because it’s light and I can store all the colours in one place, but I honestly don’t like it as much as the plastic palette because it wears down quicker and has to be replaced more often (maybe that’s the point?) The cardboard one also doesn’t have a mirror which I know is more eco friendly but I really enjoy having a mirror as it’s my daily use makeup.

I recently noticed their small eco refills are 81% off so I stocked up, but I’m wondering if that means they’re discontinuing the small eco refills altogether? It looks like any small eco refill product or pallet is on sale and they’re moving towards the larger size pans in the metal tins. Even the cardboard pallets are gone.

I feel like any company that does refill pallets eventually phases them out, maybe because the profit margins aren’t as good. I just want to choose my own colours and not be forced to buy a premade pallet with colours I won’t use.

I see lots of other products on the Cheekbone site are on sale as well so I’m hoping that means they’re just doing a formula or packaging revamp! If they go out of business I’ll be so sad. And I really hope they’re not tanking the small eco refills 😭🤞

I’ve been on a roll with decluttering books this past year. As an avid reader I love physical copies of books, and used to have a huge bookshelf. We’ve been moving a lot in the last couple years so I’ve been really good at keeping my personal library small, using iBooks and my local libraries wherever I am. Honestly the convenience of not lugging around books all the time is freeing, and I’m enjoying reading on my iPad.

My only two surviving sentimental books are: The Outsiders and The Princess Bride. I’ve had these books since childhood, they were printed in the early 2000’s as scholastic book orders. I just can’t seem to part with them. I read them both years ago as a kid but since then they’ve just travelled with me through different seasons of life.

I don’t even know if I want to declutter them or not, just thought I’d share. Anyone else have items like this that they can’t seem to part with?