General Anxiety

Secondary Social Studies and English teacher, middle-aged, in love and married, pro-choice, long-time reader & writer. I live in PA. I blog about my dogs a LOT. My friends are no longer having babies.

[general-anxiety]

Kiddo will be 5 months old on Tuesday. If I think about the fact that we made this tiny person, I birthed him into this world, I get freaked out.

He has a cold currently, is super snotty. He hates getting his nose suctioned.

Daycare is okay. I'm not in love with his daycare, but there really aren't many better options around here. He is safe, fed, and cleaned so I guess I just deal with it for now.

We started tasting solids in the last couple weeks. He loves mashed potatoes, is okay on green beans, and likes butternut squash.

He is so happy all the time. He rarely cries. Thanks to wonderful sleep advice I got from fellow eduparents, he sleeps really well, even for naps (at home, at daycare he tells them to go to hell lol).

[general-anxiety]

He turned 10 months today.

You guys... I fucking love this kid.

[general-anxiety]

This kid is now 7.

His brother is 2.

His brother does not sleep, despite all the great advice and tricks and tips I learned.

Anyway, I still fucking love these kids. They drive me bonkers, but they are just so cool to hang out with. They are the funniest little shits I know, with impeccable comedic timing and devilish smiles.

[general-anxiety]

I don't even know how long it's been since I logged onto tumblr. I'm pretty sure it was before my second child was born. Oops.

Anywhozzals, I logged in to change my password because of course my regular password was sold online somewhere and now I have to go and change all of them.

[ytphobia-deactivated20210908]

corporations are actively convincing us the reason behind global warming is that you, personally, aren’t reusing your pasta water to make tea and eating the teabag for lunch #vegan and we just let them

[ytphobia-deactivated20210908]

no seriously the amount of ppl I see who are genuinely trying to do the right thing and who think global warming is their fault because they have a car or turn the fan on in the summer or eat a goddamn buger is astounding. people are truly brainwashed into thinking anything we do as citizens has an effect on the environment that’s somehow more important than the actions of corporations.

in 2020, when everyone was isolated at home, fossil co2 emissions in the US only dropped by 11%. think about how insane it is that when almost every person living in the second largest GEG emitter was at home for months, the effect they had was a reduction of barely 11%. and yet that fucking carbon footprint calculator is shoved down our throat all day long. a whole 4 years ago when that article came out saying only 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions, everybody just blinked and went “no, thank you. now have you bought enough metal straws?”

and i’m not even addressing the blatant racism, ableism and classism that coats every single one of these “personal responsibility” arguments.

[mysharona1987]

[viddying]

me as reductress headlines

[ladydrace]

Has anyone else noticed how, when you have a chronic condition of some kind, that there’s always the basic assumption from people around you that you’re not already doing everything you can?

[squidsqueen]

It’s all about the illusion of control. People who are healthy like to believe they can always keep being healthy if they do the right things. They don’t want to think about how good people get struck with terrible circumstances for no reason. So they keep assuming that if they got sick, they could do something to make it better. And if you’re still sick, that must mean you’ve done something wrong or not done enough.

[atalantapendrag]

Nail. Head. The same attitude can be seen in how a lot of people talk about poverty.

[tiktoks-for-dead-pope]

[shencomix]

[justnoodlefishthings]

I wish there was less of a push for organic animal products and more of a push for humanely raised

[justnoodlefishthings]

like I could care less if the animal had to have antibiotics at some point

I care more if chickens had access to pasture and if a cow had access to enrichment

[justnoodlefishthings]

[general-anxiety]

I think I've settled on why MLMs leave such a sour taste in my mouth (outside of the predatory practices and usually shitty product).

A few of my friends have REAL small businesses. One friend takes orders and makes custom clothing. Another sells their amazing teaching ideas. Some are making masks....

These people deserve my money. Not some weird cult about how my nails beong pit together will solve my life problems, or I NEED this special lube. It's really great, that's why it is marked up 300%.

Anyway...

[nonbinary-hawke-deactivated2021]

For anyone who doesn't live with children or watch cartoons on a regular basis, Nickelodeon went off the air for 8 minutes and 46 seconds today. During that time, instead of playing shows or commercials, there was a Nickelodeon orange background with scrolling and repeating messages about racial equality, the right to education, and the right to be safe from harm and hatred.

For those who aren't aware, as I wasn't until I googled it, 8 minutes and 46 seconds was the exact amount of time that George Floyd was pinned on the ground.

There's nothing subtle about this and I'm just. Shocked. In a good way of course, I've just never seen this sort of rallying behind a race-based social movement.

[al-mayriti]

The other day I learned on Twitter about a girl that was nearlly named after the river on her town. So, reblog with what your name would be if it was based on the river on your town (or the closest river)

[general-anxiety]

Nice things about a meal service:

1. Took away the pressure to meal plan. I don't even look at my options. They send the meal and I make it.

2. Opened me up to meals outside of the ones I grew up with. Meatloaf? Spaghetti? Sure, I can do those. But tonight I'm making balsamic fig chicken. C'mon.

3. The ingredients are measured out. Do you know how hard it is to buy 1 or 2 servings of anything? I can't just buy 2 carrots where I live. I have to buy a whole bag. I can't buy less than a whole lb of potatoes. But the meal service gives me just enough.

4. Two servings is actually more like 2 1/2. My husband and I both eat and there is enough to give the toddler a decent share too. Which means he is trying all sorts of foods.

5. Because I go to all the trouble of actually cooking, we make it a point to sit at the table and eat dinner as a family. Which is something I really wanted our family to do as much as possible.

6. My kitchen actually stays cleaner. Because I need the space to prep and cook, I keep the counters cleared off.

7. Bouncing off of 5 and 6, my dining table stays cleared. Can't pile shit up on it if I need to eat there every other day.

[quasi-normalcy]

Elon Musk's only real act of genius was casting himself into a fictional archetype (the Tom Swift / John Galt / Tony Stark-style billionaire inventor) that so many people want to believe in so badly that they will overlook the mounting evidence that he's actually just an unstable idiot with enough money to hire better engineers than himself.

[quasi-normalcy]

And in some ways, clever people *have* to believe in it. If it's real, then they're living in a meritocracy; the world is fundamentally just, Everyone Can Become Rich in America, and all social problems can be solved through visionary engineering and rugged individualism. If it's a lie, on the other hand--if he only bought his way into his position using the proceeds of a stolen emerald mine worked by stolen labour--then how will *you* ever become a genius-billionaire-playboy philanthropist with *your* engineering degree? And worse, if the system is unjust enough to promote someone like that, and if electric cars and underground tunnels and colonising Mars aren't going to solve the problems that capitalism creates--then don't you have a moral obligation and practical obligation to change the system?

No, it doesn't bear thinking about.

[arianod]

[general-anxiety]

Sometimes being a parent is really rage inducing and it is only my self control that keeps me from yelling at my kid.

[general-anxiety]

Sometimes I miss that rush. You know, when you are first dating someone and every move you make is calculated for the result you want, and you are on the edge of your seat to see how they react to everything.

But also, I like this. Knowing exactly how my husband will respond to a specific joke or quote, knowing when to side step to avoid a playful butt swat if I want to. Watching him bring a tower of pb&j sandwiches into the living room for the three of us to share.

I can see why some people get swept up in the drama of seeking that rush... needing to look at the unknown and try things. But I really like knowing the person beside me each night. Knowing what each sigh means or watching his hair get grey.

[the-feeeling-is-mutual]

Hozier singing Toxic by Britney Spears. It happened!