I’ve been vegetarian for 13 years now (I’m 19.)
I now live alone.
All I eat is various pastas and beyond burgers (fucking delightful, no complaints.)
I just want to have a nosey at what else people are making. Nothing too difficult, I can’t be fucked.
Everything I see is high effort or pasta, gimmie something new!
I had three dogs, first one was Dolly, a cockapoo I got when I was around 3-5 She was a puppy. So she’s old to say the least haha.
Second was Shirley, a terrified mix we can’t quite pinpoint, one eye, her other one appears to have been kicked back by someone, and about three teeth, pulled off a truck in Korea where she was going to be butchered and eaten. No idea what breed she is, no idea how old she was.
Third was Murdoch, a little fat sausage dog we rescued after his owner passed, he’s doing fine right now.
Shirley passed away recently, three months ago I think. She was having seizures, and we never figured out why, obviously not knowing her age and little about her after having her for years it was too risky, so eventually when she was having eight in one night, we put her down. She was so scared of the world but so excited to see it at the same time, she just never really fully regained her trust in people.
I remember on her last day we got her a big rotisserie chicken, I peeled it all off one by one and fed it to her, she got mixed up and occasionally started nibbling on my finger, but with her lack of teeth I didn’t mind.
When we put her down, it was weird to hold her, whenever you’d try she would freak out and throw herself out of your arms out of fear of people, but still wagging her tail. So to actually hold her when she passed on, it was the first time I did.
With Dolly, she’s *old*. You don’t realise how old your childhood dog has gotten until you look one day and they can barely go up the stairs, and you’re like “When did this happen?”.
I can’t cry in front of people, I just can’t, my body doesn’t let me and when I feel it coming on I run away, so when Shirley passed on I really didn’t move at all, I think I lay in my bed for two days straight with a full body sized towel to dry my eyes because I just couldn’t stop crying. Also did some temporary damage to my body, not getting in to that but you can guess.
The times come to have the conversation about Dolly and her lack of a quality of life, and it just sucks so much. I know there’s nothing anyone can do, I know it’s the best thing for her, but I selfishly just want her to hold on. You never get over losing a dog, but I still look at videos of Shirley and cry to myself at night. I don’t know when that’ll stop.
I don’t really talk about this stuff, I usually have something going on, I tell people about it sure, but I never go into detail, it’s more of a “hey by the way”. And I handle the rest on my own, It’s just how I’m wired I think.
I know there’s no point to this post, I just wanted to talk about them.
Hello! I posted this story on AIO, but comments got locked and I really need some more insight, so I’m gonna rewrite it here.
I, (F18), have been going to the gym consistently after work for about a year now, I usually finish at 8:30pm, sometimes later, so I just walk to the gym afterward, sometimes with my friends/coworkers, sometimes alone. It’s only 15 minutes and I always walk by busy roads, it makes my journey longer but it gives me peace of mind.
Now. I also used Hinge, I was checking my likes one day and saw I had a like from a guy, it read as follows (reworded because he might be illiterate.)
“Don’t worry, come to (my specific gym) at 8pm tomorrow, I’ve seen you there before.”
So, naturally, i’m like wtf? I think just a “we go to the same gym I think!” would have been fine, it’s the specific command of telling me to go at 8pm (I did not haha).
I tell some friends about this, and they’re all pretty worried, so I stopped going for a little while and then eventually went back. I always go straight to the women’s area, as I recognise too many men from work or my old highschool in the main area, so it’s just more peaceful in the women’s area, also lifting weights around men is always an invitation to them apparently. But there’s around 5/10 minutes of me getting a locker, getting water, etc, that is spent in the main area, so he probably saw me a couple times then and kept note that I’m usually there at 8pm onward.
I didn’t reply to the like, i removed it. Thought it’d be fine. But then he found my snapchat. Once again, easy to do, just search my pretty unusual first name that he got off hinge, and look for a bitmoji that vaguely resembles me. I didn’t add him back.
Cut forward now to yesterday, and I’m walking to the gym after work as usual, I accidentally cut off some guy, so I go “Oh sorry!” And continue walking.
Said guy goes “excuse me?” From behind me, so I turn around. My face DROPS as he starts speaking.
“Is your name (_)?”
I look this man dead in the eyes, and go “no!”. An obvious lie, as I had my tattoos out, they’re quite big and I’d like to think they’re unique, and they were visible on my profile (I’m presuming he took a screenshot of my profile.) So I’m pretty recognisable I guess.
I thought me obviously lying would send him enough of a hint to go “oh okay sorry!” But it did not work.
He continues: “Oh, I saw you on Hinge, I sent you a like?” (That I rejected weeks ago mind you!!)
I continue lying. “Oh no, that’s not me, I don’t use Hinge and I have a boyfriend.”
He then just.. Walks off. I went into the gym and called my friend to tell him what happened, and I tried to continue my work out, which was supposed to be a heavy lifting day, but I just couldn’t stop thinking about him, and “omg what if he’s outside? what if he came in?” So I didn’t get much done, and just left early out of defeat. Basically sprinted out of the place and got my Dad to pick me up from outside.
Now I know I’m asking what to do when the fear of him catching me at the gym already happened, but is there anything I should do or keep note of in case this happens again? I’m a big pushover, so I kinda need to mentally prepare before it happens again, because from the vibe I got, and how adamant he was after I rejected his hinge like (They time out after a while, so you can usually gauge a time estimate of if someone’s rejected you. I think.) I feel like if he sees me again he probably will say something.
Any advice? 🙏
Edit: Thank you for all the replies, I’m really overwhelmed with everyone being so caring about a random 18 year old girl on reddit, especially all the girl dads, please be my dad too!!!!! To the people who believe I’m overreacting, it’s the fear of any man I don’t know. One of them could have malicious intent, one of them could not, I really don’t want to take that risk. I’ve been too trusting with men before, and I think that fear is creeping back in. Which sucks, but whatever.