First plane, ocean, and other country were all before age 1. We flew from the PNW to So Cal to visit grandparents when I was an infant (ocean, check) and went up to Canada before my 1st birthday.
But the first time I left North America was in college.
We do $1, except for the time our kid lost her second tooth on a weekend trip and we couldn't find cash. That time, we put a little plastic animal that we found in the parking lot under her pillow and she thought it was super cool. 🤪
On your #5, we not only sat on our asses, we actively made it worse. The rise of fast fashion is the first example that comes to mind, but in so many areas we're buying more stuff at a higher environmental cost for less money.
Which makes me think of a friend who's an interior designer. She sources furniture and home goods made locally with local materials. But as you can imagine, it's $$$ and her clients are loaded. At the other end of the economic spectrum, adding tariffs on goods made with lower environmental standards will mainly hurt people with less buying power. Unless we can somehow increase wages.
Tackling climate change feels like taking on a hydra, because there's always more heads.
That's a tough one! I would use it as an example of how to do internet research.
If you put in a phrase like "summer cabin poems" you'll get a ton of random results. But you could help her sort through the search results to look at the website name, the author of the poem, the publication date/info. She might notice the names of poets she recognizes, like Robert Frost, and then search for collections by those poets. Or try adding things to the search like "summer cabin poems by famous poets."
I think that will be easier than the library route, and it teaches a really important skill.
Mom? Is that you? I'm having flashbacks to the time she suggested splitting a rental by person instead of by family, when my family of three shared one room (and one of the three was a baby).
It's crazy to expect your friends to pitch in on car rental costs based on the "savings" when they paid for Ubers and even tried to rent a car but couldn't. Especially when you're dropping $2,500 on groceries. I'm guessing you'd save more than the $100-$200 they might chip in on the car rental simply by leaving your H out of the alcohol bill calculation since he didn't drink.
Instead of a coffee for someone who doesn't like coffee I recommend a London Fog. I enjoy coffee and sometimes need it, but my favorite thing at Starbucks is the London Fog.
I also hate beer and coffee, and I also started my wine journey with Reisling, lol. Beer and coffee are just way too bitter for me. If you don't want to force it with coffee, there's always tea! I also felt like I had nothing to order at coffee shops (hot cocoa hits the spot but sometimes you want something more refined)––so now I get a London Fog (earl gray with steamed milk).
Ok, I just did an audit of the literal boxes of skincare and make up I have in my bathroom thanks to beauty box subscriptions, marketing freebies and impulse buying, and I've found an alarming number of things, including full size Elemis enzyme peel, Murad multi-peel acid, Murad Youth renewal serum, a crop of Sunday Riley samples,some moisture liposome, full size Vitabrid vitamin c cleansing calm and a DCH collagen all in one moisturizer, not to mention a month's worth of masks, so maybe this is a shop my closet situation, though I didn't turn up any C serum or just retinol.
It’s always fun to shop your closet! FYI, the Murad youth renewal serum is a retinol and the Sunday Riley samples might include the CEO serum, which is vitamin C (and smells really good). I use and like both of these!
If your skin is sensitive at all, you might want to look into skin cycling. You do the same AM routine but cycle through exfoliate, retinol, recover x2 for PM. I was over exfoliating (love all those acids!) and under retinoling (I’d remember less than once a week) and the routine has made a big difference for my skin.
I thought we were doing okay until I checked the FEMA recommendations. They suggest one gallon per person, per day, and say it’s best if you have a 14-day supply. That much water would weigh like 450 pounds. 😳
But we have a lot of other emergency supplies. So, I’m voting “sorta.”
This is a huge issue for freelancers, too. I signed a noncompete agreement with one of my clients that's very narrow. Recently the client suddenly went on a "brief hiatus" (i.e. stopped giving freelancers work), and I spent a lot of time reviewing the noncompete when looking for new clients.
Turns out the agreement isn't enforceable in my state (WA), which sets thresholds for how much employees/independent contractors need to earn before you can enforce a non-compete (along with other restrictions). But that doesn't stop clients from potentially suing anyway. It would be a major step in the right direction to ban noncompete agreements.
I'm so sorry. We just said goodbye to our dog of 12 years last week, and it's so hard.
Our 6 and 8 year old kids knew our dog was declining, and after we scheduled a vet to come out, we let the kids know that they needed to say goodbye. We kept the process vague because we didn't want them to misunderstand euthanasia. We also let their teachers know.
Here's a resource from our vet that really helped:
Seven to nine-year-old children often know that death is final and that it is irreversible. They are very perceptive of how adults react to the death and will often ask very morbid and direct questions about it. This is normal, and they should be answered in a frank and honest way. They don’t often think of death as something that can happen to them, but they may fear that it could happen to their parents. These children may show grief by having problems in school, exhibiting aggression, or lashing out, and even experience some withdrawal. They can also become overly dependent and clingy. As with other age groups, it is important to provide frequent reassurance to these kids. Encouraging them to draw pictures can also provide benefit when they are not able to express their feeling verbally.
We we were zero car (before kids) and one car (after kids) for about 10 years. Here's what helped: I walked to work; Mr. Smock took the bus to work (or drove sometimes); our hobbies didn't require a car (running/biking); and we were walking distance to daycare.
Saving $1k a month is a HUGE benefit, so it sounds like it's worth trying!
I also just got an iPhone 14 Pro! And I also switched to a MagSafe charger after using one on vacation. I have an Apple Watch, so it's super nice to have a little stand next to my bed for my phone and watch to charge overnight. I don't have a pop socket, but I think you might need a special one to work with MagSafe?
When the tickets for Elton John went on sale here, Ticketfuckers had "dynamic pricing" which shot the price for the cheapest tickets up to $250+.
That definitely happened for the Taylor Swift tickets, too. I grabbed a floor seat during the Capital One sale yesterday and the price was $100+ over the very top of the price range for non-VIP tickets. PLUS over $100 of fees on top of that. 😳
I didn't go to the Rep tour, but it sounds like she used a system where fans got points for watching videos, listening to music, and other actual fan stuff. And then everyone got timed slots to pick out seats based on their points.
Lots of people are saying it was a great way to make sure actual fans got tickets. But I read somewhere that Ticketmaster won't let any artists use boost systems like that anymore because it costs them money––less from scalpers, less from resale (where they get to charge double fees). Which is exactly why monopolies like Ticketmaster shouldn't exist!
I'm really hoping that Ticketmaster will eventually put more tickets on sale. "Insufficient inventory" doesn't mean "no inventory." And apparently some artists have asked Ticketmaster to cancel scalped tickets? I read something about Ed Sheeran doing that.
I read that 3.5 million people signed up for the verified fan presale, and 1.5 million got codes. And Ticketmaster said they sold over 2 million tickets on the first day of presale. Which is insane.