4 hours of work 5 days a week. 5 weeks off per year.

Enough money to not worry about money.

A short run in the morning, short weightlifting after work, yoga in the evening. Two non consecutive rest days with just stretching and walking. To feel good enough to do that so I can keep feeling good enough to do that.

Going out on one weekend night to do something, staying in the other nights.

Pet cats, and maybe one dog.

Traveling somewhere every year.

And having enough money also to get the house in the shape we want.

Basically I want a well funded partial retirement.

Some written stuff I love, erotica, stories. Video no, I’ve not found much I like at all.

I don’t think you can get THAT rich without ripping off someone. Like, if I started a business and it was raking in the cash in some actual not harmful way, I would pay myself a healthy salary but raise everyone’s pay, why would I need more than I need? Nobody needs a billion dollars. Nobody.

The guy who said he doesn’t fear the cops anymore, I don’t feel that. But I do agree money insulates you from a lot of stresses.

I still think it’s akin to hoarding. Billionaires are like those people in the houses they can’t move around in because they can’t stop accumulating.

We get a real one from our neighbor, he does yardwork & sod most of the year but at Christmas he gets some trees to sell from some guy he knows in N Carolina and they are always amazing all of them. Yes it costs a lot, we have a large family who come for Christmas and it’s nice, I categorize the expense as entertaining.

When I was poor, I would just make a “tree” each year out of something. One year the coat rack, one year on the wall in construction paper, one year I found a inflatable one like a beach ball, one year my ex cut the top off a bush & hedged it into a cone - that went on for almost 20 years, always something different. My kids didn’t mind at all, nobody ever said “you need a tree” only “cool”. You don’t need a tree. Don’t feel obligated at all.

At work I have a wee artificial one.

Same here. I wash my pans with soap if they need it, dry them well and hang them up. Occasionally will rub a little oil in once they are all the way dry. Have been going for about 30 years, most of them. I did have to train my husband, he was soaking them overnight and that does mess with the seasoning. Now he either cleans immediately and dries it or throws it in the oven dirty to do later.

IME they are nearly indestructible and you don’t need to be so careful. The cast iron is my daily driver and I am not a gentle fussy cook. Just don’t soak them in hot soapy water for hours.

For me, cast iron are by far my most used pans. You know how flannel starts out sort of awful but gets better and better as it gets older? That’s cast iron. Starts out sticky PITA but over time becomes satisfying satiny nonstick surface. I’ve always used them a lot so that’s how my cooking style evolved.

We also have one steel pan we call the Stick pan, sometimes you want food to stick so you can deglaze. My kids use it for potsticker dumplings, and they like it also because it’s lighter, cast iron is heavy. And of course a rice and pasta pot, those are steel.

I don’t buy “nonstick” pans, they don’t last and I’m not convinced they are safe.

No, my kids call me mom and yes I’d think it kinda rude if they first named me.

But

My step-kids call me by my first name, and my kids call my husband by his first name, and that is fine with both of us somehow.

When kids are small here, they usually call adults Mr. or Ms. First Name. Older kids to teachers Mr. or Ms. Last Name, but my kids friends who are older still called me Ms. First Name. Not much Sir and Ma’am anymore but I still hear it sometimes.

I dunno, they have the same ones in grocery stores here, still. Toledo No Springs. I haven’t been back lately, they may still have it. And yes it was in a sort of lobby where the line for the tellers waited.

No. I have had dreams that happened later in real life, precognitive (I used to set an alarm early, jot them down, and go back to sleep.) Not big, predictable events. I’d dream of someone I hadn’t seen in years, seeing them in a location, and then see them. Sometimes comically. Never in any way that was helpful.

Most notable example, I dreamed that I went to the local bank, they had a scale to weigh people. I got on the scale but it went backwards! I turned around and saw this girl Joann who I’d not seen since middle school. Wrote that down in my dream journal.

Couple weeks later - I am at the bank I dreamed about. I get on the scale, but it’s broken. Tells me I weigh 30lb. I turned around and who did I see? Joann, who I hadn’t seen since middle school.

I do not say this to convince anyone. It’s my own evidence, and I personally know the dreams were precognitive, only because I wrote them down and often wonder if everyone does this, are we all dreaming the future? It really pissed me off when it happened because it made me feel like the future had essentially already happened and we had no free will.

I guard my sleep more now and don’t do the dream journal, but do still have them somewhere. If I hadn’t written it down when I dreamed it I would have just thought I had deja vous.

One day as I was leaving for work, my penultimate daughter said “mom, that fit shreds” and I was like, excuse me, WHAT did you call me?

“Your clothes are great!”

My outfit, it shreds. Apparently.

I don’t hate it but don’t remember being very slangy as a teenager.

Exactly like you - restaurants and grocery I can do local small business. Also services, haircut and such, I don’t use chain places. And I try to pay very local people for anything we get done to the house, the pets, the yard.

But the “corner convenience store” that has the household stuff is Walgreens, there isn’t a local equivalent nearby and yes buying stuff 'on the ground ’ sometimes costs so very much more than ordering online.

Same. My husband “tell the kids to stop turning down the thermostat” have never heard anyone say to turn the AC down meaning to make it warmer. I do agree that I would not infer that someone saying to turn down the AC wanted it colder, I would ask.

Heater yes. “Turn up the heat!” means make it warmer. Though I hate the heater as much as I hate the cold so never say that either.

Oh, and speaking of Charley we were lucky enough to have the Charley Crockett/Leon Bridges show come through, holy crap, I’d seen both of them live before but getting TWO great performers in one night, wow. And that intersection between county and R&B is such pleasant music.

I saw Joshua Ray Walker open for Marcus King and didn’t even like his show but looked him up and found his recorded work to be incredible, THEN he found out he had cancer and that was part of why the live show was weak, nothing to do with his music, and says he is recovering now, but I felt so uncharitable thinking the show sucked when he was dealing with something so awful.

But anyway - I do use streaming but like you find bands other ways, opening acts, radio, sometimes Brooklyn Vegan, that site posts about bands I’ve never heard of, I listen and find stuff I like (and a lot I don’t).

That’s a very odd looking 2 nearly 3 year old.

Leftover turkey, blue cheese, pickled onions and fresh sliced thin sweet onions, with mayonnaise on homemade sourdough.

I had been joking with my husband, said we needed cheese for sandwiches because all we had left was blue cheese and Parmesan, but then decided blue cheese and turkey didn’t sound bad at all, and it wasn’t.

I am an enthusiast but not a musician. So somewhere in the middle I guess? I try to go to several live shows every year, I’m aware of when someone I like puts out new music, I seek out unknown artists because I do love live performances more than recordings.

I care enough about sound to buy Klipsch Bluetooth speakers on sale for the portable ones, all wired earbuds sound fine to me, as do the Google speakers we have paired to do stereo in the living room. I don’t have the sort of ears that can tell great from good speakers, but can’t listen to music on my phone speaker like my kids & husband can, those are so bad it bothers me.

Music to me is art and entertainment, I don’t think I’d call it content.

I am similar, everyone said Oh just wait till your 30s, oh just wait till you have kids, oh just wait till your 40s but it was my 50s that the weight really did stick, and like you I am not fat by any real standard, smack dab in the middle of healthy by BMI, and probably more conventionally attractive body type with a little bit of T & A but was so attached to being skinny it is disorienting. Logically I know this size is probably healthier for my bones and I feel good and am active, but I feel like I lost part of my identity, and don’t like it.

I am in my mid-50s and surprised by a few things. I’m not jaded, small things still delight me. I’m not nostalgic, find so much good new music every year, new authors and books, still figure out different ways to approach problems at my work - I thought I’d be more stuck or settled by now, and for sure thought I’d be bored and jaded.

And I am constantly surprised nothing really hurts yet, thought I’d be less together physically than I am. Sometimes surprised I can still cartwheel.

I am unhappily surprised to see society going backwards and hope I live long enough to see it turn back around and progress.

When we had 6 kids living with us, 2500 sq feet felt luxurious. Two kids in each bedroom upstairs, and we had a bedroom downstairs, there were 6 bathrooms in that house (5 full one just a toilet and sink) and it did feel big.

When we had 4 kids in a 1300 sq foot house, it was plenty enough room but there was only one bathroom and that made it more difficult.

We had 2 in a 1300 with 2 bathrooms AND a garage for storage and workout room, that worked fine, but the bedrooms were big and living room tiny, that is not ideal, it needed to be arranged differently.

Now we have 2 kids in an 1800 sq feet house and I would say this is ideal, it’s arranged so the kids have their own living room/gaming room outside of their small bedrooms, and we have a bedroom on the other side of the house where the kitchen and main living room are. Also a great big back deck that can be accessed from our bedroom and that main living room, which adds enough capacity we can have big parties. 2.5 bathrooms, 3.5 would be better. When these last 2 kids move out it will STILL be ideal, an office, a guest room or workout room, a den, we could even move the TV out of the living room then if we wanted.

So I think how it’s arranged makes a difference but family of 4 in 1800sq ft feels like we have a big house to me.