u/ekando

My birthday is coming up this weekend, and a group of six people will be gathering to celebrate. Originally, the plan was to have dinner, play some games, take some mushrooms, then wander out to the bonfire with our playlists. However, it's storming all week and supposed to storm over the weekend, too. Which means we'll all be inside.

We might just end up sitting around and talking, but what are some interesting activities we can engage in while tripping? Ages range feom 30 to 67.

So, I'm a pretty decent singer. I'm not, like, American Idol good, but good enough that many people have told me I have a great singing voice, and I used to do competitive karaoke.

My husband likes music, but he only likes hearing songs sung by the original artists, not lay people singing. He also doesn't like the vast majority of the genres I like to sing.

I sing all the time, sometimes just little ditties while I'm walking from room to room, sometimes full on belting it out while I cook. I especially like to sing Chinese pop and folk songs in the shower (he doesn't like the sound of Chinese, but I spent five years there, speak the language, and some of my favorite songs are Chinese.)

My husband is getting really annoyed with me. I already never play my guitar anymore because it would grate his soul, but now I'm starting to feel guilty for singing around the house when he's around. Especially because my 4 year old son has started singing all the time, too. Just to be clear, my husband has not outright asked me to stop singing, but I can tell how he feels by the look on his face. (He did put a ban on John Denver, though, because he said he truly hates John Denver and whenever I sing it, the songs get stuck in his head for days.)

WIBTA if I don't stop singing?

My daughter and I are both overweight. She is currently 4'7" and weighs 110lbs. Our pediatrician has always said not to worry about it because she is very active, always chooses to play outside, etc. She had an abdominal scan recently, and they said she has a fatty liver. I probably have a fatty liver, too. So last week, I started working with a dietician to help with working on nutrition for both fatty livers and mental health (I'm bipolar and recently learned how big of a role nutrition plays in mood balance.)

My daughter doesn't like to eat breakfast. She says it makes her tummy hurt. I encourage her to eat before school, or at least have a school breakfast, but she isn't consistent and I don't feel comfortable forcing her to eat. I have my own major issues surrounding food, and she currently still loves her own body. About a month ago, I asked her what she eats for school lunches, and she said she hardly ever eats the main dish or vegetables, just breads/muffins and fruit, and she usually gets an "extra" like ice cream. I didn’t even know the school had ice cream available for purchase! She asked if she could start bringing her lunch, and I said definitely. I've been making them thinking I've been giving her healthier food.

But tonight, I was adding up the calories and everything, and it just seems so high. She eats some basic variation of the same lunch everyday, upon request. Here's an example with calories.

- PBJ made with whole wheat bread (110 per slice), sugar-free almond butter (220 per 2 tbsp), apple jelly (50 per tbsp)

- 2 turkey sticks (35 per stick) and 2 homemade beef jerky slices (calories unknown)

- 1 cup vanilla greek yogurt (130) and 2/3rd cup frozen blueberries (50); note, this is usually more yogurt than I give her. Usually it's more like 2/3rd a cup. Fruit also changes regularly.

1 oz sweet potato chips (150); this is a new addition, and I normally don't give her any chips.

That's almost 900 calories total! I feel like that's way too much, like that's worse than a happy meal! I thought I was doing good by her, but now I'm second-guessing everything.

Dinners have now switched from being carb-heavy to being protein-heavy, focusing on more fish and chicken, and a moreso Mediterranean-style diet. So far (we're only four days in) she hasn't liked most things, but she's trying. I don't know how many calories she's getting for dinner.

An example dinner was baked salmon (ate 3 bites), riced veggies (ate about 1/3 cup), mixed berries (ate 1/3 cup), and whole-wheat macaroni with a little olive oil, parmesan cheese, and basil (ate 1/2 cup).

Where am I going wrong?

I'm just here to vent. I ended a friendship last week, and I know it was the right thing to do... she hurt my feelings real bad, and when I told her as much, she immediately weaponized my daughter against me... but unfortunately I still have to see this person every weekday. And my daughter loves her. I haven't fought with someone like this since high school. I'm too damn old for this.

On top of that, one of my books received two 2-star reviews this week with zero feedback left. My second book also launched today, and I asked my husband if we could celebrate, and long story short he said no.

I've been rapid cycling since the fallout of the friendship. Today just has me really, really depressed. SI abounds. I can't find nice things to say about myself. I think I'm a burden to all of society and don't deserve to feel happy. I wish I could just be normally sad instead of feeling everything so intensely like this. I hate this disorder, and I hate myself.

And of course, I'll probably wake up tomorrow hypomanic AF and ready to conquer the world. I hope.

I can map the city I often visit in my dreams. It's a bastardization of two Chinese cities I used to live in, Jinan and Xining. For literal years, I've been dreaming about finding a specific restaurant in my dream city with my favorite steamed mini dumplings. I knew it's approximate location, but not the actual street.

Last night, I dreamed that I won a million dollars, and decided that to celebrate, I would finally find this restaurant. Usually when I go out searching, I'm pulled away by a side quest that turns into a main quest usually fraught with danger. But this time? I found the restaurant. And there was plenty for me to grab some takeaway before the shop closed.

I went back to my apartment and ate them while crying happy tears. Then I woke up.

Can anyone help interpret? I wonder if I'll ever go back to that restaurant...