That's Kimchi, short for Kim Chiara Oscura. Such a beauty in real life.

Agree except for July. July is tan.

I kinda wish we could see you. My guess is that you are much harder on yourself than anyone else would be, and people are responding to your lack of acceptance not just your looks - when someone is so self-critical we think they are also judging us harshly.

Remember also we all see our own flaws as magnified and assets as not important. Other people see us differently.

I am so sorry. Honestly I do sometimes wish my trans son had stayed a girl as she was so beautiful, but you know who I don't say that to? My son. My desires for my grown kids do not matter, why would they? It's my job to raise them to be themselves, right? So they can be happy and successful in whatever way they want. And courtesy costs nothing, I don't understand why people don't just address people however they prefer. I also don't know why parents think they can control kids like that, it's crazy. They did their part, you go on and live now, it's your world not theirs anymore. I hope you can find some way to relate to them without harming yourself, but if not, that's their loss, you will be fine.

I am so polite on my bike when in the sidewalk. Just today, waited first for a guy to walk by slowly, and went onto the grass (thankfully it was the part of my route with a grass strip between road and sidewalk) around another.

It's my understanding that the sidewalk is for pedestrians and I am supposed to ride in the road, but of course the road is dangerous. We are allowed the sidewalk with a speed limit of 10mph. So I yield always to anyone on foot.

And you HAVE to be careful. Monday night coming home in the dark there was someone sleeping on the sidewalk! If I had been going fast I'd have run them right over.

Maybe Australia needs the sidewalk speed limit? Or if your motorists aren't so aggressive, ban the bikes from the sidewalk?

Good luck to you. My husband sleeps, but he falls asleep easily at just about any time he wants to, so my guess is his sleep quality isn't great either.

I work a lot but in a lot of ways have an unusually pampered sort of life - like for the last 2 weeks it's been 9:30 to 20:00 but I wake up when I wake up, bike in and back from work, kids are grown, and husband helpful so I don't have to do much else on weekdays. I know not everyone has the luxury of that natural sleep cycle, but if you can get it, everything else feels better.

I do love a cocktail on the weekend (obviously) and occasionally wine with supper, though not lately since work goes so late.

Ugh, I can't sleep well after drinking. Husband manages like that, coffee upon waking and a beer in the evening but I have to wake up naturally, coffee after being up a few hours, any drinking before suppertime only so that I can go to bed dead sober. Like I even would have coffee before bed if I feel a migraine coming on, and can sleep, but not with alcohol.

Shove my husband and tell him to stop snoring.

I pay attention to my feet and feel that they are asleep, then my calves, and so on until I feel like my whole body is asleep.

Count backwards from 100 in Spanish in my head, or think about slowly descending through the color wheel from a bright loud red then orange, down through yellow, to green, blue, sleepy deep purple.

Also - don't get in bed until you are sleepy. Exercise during the day. Yin Yoga before bed.

Looks, or looks?

I mean, is it stuff they DO or something they are? I had a sort of duck-to-swan progression, your day may yet come, and if it's a styling, grooming, taking better care of themselves thing, and if you actually want to look more "beautiful" you likely can, by finding your style, taking care of yourself, and not worrying about looking good to anyone but yourself. If you were friends with you, would you call your friend ugly? I hope not. Be a friend to yourself.

There will always be someone better looking. There will always be someone smarter. There will always be someone richer, someone more magnetic, more outgoing and comfortable.

If you are really suffering, it's your mind doing that to you, not your looks, and please know that if you had supportive parents you had more than a lot of people do.

ETA: you don't have to look any better than acceptable to be attractive. Looks are a way to get in the door but they don't do more than that. You can likely meet that acceptable bar and from there everything else matters more. Looks don't make up for a crap personality.

Beans

The Bruderhof Christians are communist in the way I understand it. They live in community with all assets belonging to the community, and it works for them.

I don't think anyone really wants that as some universal scheme, mostly people just want to have way more worker-owned businesses and still have an economy based on money, just a fairer one.

Maybe 1/3 of straight women, 2/3 of bi women, and most gay & bi men is enough of a dating pool, though? I'm sure not near 1/3 of straight and bi guys would be into me personally.

And I can believe the 2/3 thing. I land in the 1/3 and it feels like a minority view.