u/dawnandlilies

Hi everyone, my grandmother is an 82 year old woman who has been working as a server in a restaurant for the past decade. She is Japanese and works in a japanese restaurant and has little to no english skills. Her husband passed away years ago and she currently lives with her daughter (I’ll call Lena) in a very small rural town in the midwest. She drives over an hour 4x a week to go work in the restaurant because it is her only form of social interaction but She has come to the realization that she cannot work forever and her body is starting to give out on her.

She is miserable at home, has a elementary school education, can’t speak english, and never learned to really use technology (no iphone, no computers). She has no hobbies and no friends outside of work. Her friends from work are all too busy to see her outside of shifts and can’t make the hour long commute to see her. The area she lives in doesn’t have any asian people at all pretty much and she is extremely shy about meeting new people who aren’t japanese.

She has 3 kids: Lena who is a shutin and although lives with my grandma, comes home super late at night and eats takeout in her bedroom with the door locked. my uncle (Sam) who lives 5 min away from them but has bad relations with everyone in the family Nd talks to no one. and lastly my dad (Victor) who is nomadic and is a world traveler with no permanent residence…. I on the other hand am a broke recent graduate living on the otherside of the country a several hour plane flight away in a cramped urban city apartment. There is no other family and I am the only person under 60.

She has no community and nothing to do. She can’t go back to Japan because no one in the family can afford to secure her an apartment and her only family member there has a spouse who is a chainsmoker and my grandma can’t stand it. the part japan my grandma is from has a unique culture/dialect from mainland japan (Okinawa) and also drives on the left side and my grandma only knows how to drive on the right side. Okinawa doesn’t have good public transport and isn’t very walkable aka she can’t get groceries or do basic things even if we somehow managed an apartment for her.

No one in the family cares or knows how to help her so the plan is for her to retire, sit in front of a tv for 5-10 years and then probably die. I’m not close to her but the idea just saddens me a lot I want to find some way to help her…

Hi I am a beginner adult figure skater around the highest level basic and had been contemplating getting butt/hip pads. I asked my coach about it since it’s a little expensive and she told me that it is pointless and detrimental to buy unless you’re already jumping axles or doubles. Her reason being that wearing it changes your posture/adds weight and also makes it harder for coaches to see what you are doing wrong I.e. If u stick your butt out the coach can’t tell cuz you have butt pads on. I was kinda shocked at her response and I am friends with many other skaters similar level to me whose coaches recommended/encouraged them to buy pads since adults fall “harder” and are more to injury.

Not sure if it's relevant but I very very rarely actually fall while skating. I think I fell one time ever since starting. I’m 21 and relatively athletic and I’ve never sustained an injury in any sport I’ve played. My coach is aware of this so maybe she just felt like I’m not an injury risk? IDK

Hi everyone I am a beginner adult figure skater and lately I’ve been feeling kind of unproductive in the practice. Anything beyond 45min or so I just feel like I’m doing a lot of well… nothing? I skate 2x a week 30-45 minutes each time and keep seeing people recommending like 4 hours of ice time a week. Fellow beginners are you doing like 2hrs 2x a week or how are you splitting your ice time.

Also what do you actually do in that time? I usually warmup for about 5min, spins for 10, edgework for 10, waltz jump 10min. I’m pretty tired after that so I am not really sure what else to do. I’ve tried longer sessions but feel I repeat the same 4-5 exercises till I am not productive. Help!!