Well, like the title says, how are you doing? Any cool coping strategies for additional stress that you might be under right now?

What's going on in your life right now? Work? School? Hobbies? Kids? Pets?

So I returned to school over the summer and had some unfortunate things happen (lost my job and got really really sick for a few weeks), and I was afraid that I wouldn't complete all of my classes by the end of my term. A couple weeks ago, I passed my CompTIA 901 exam. Today I passed my 902 exam, which means I'm A+ certified and I finished all of my classes before the end of the term. I'm still unemployed/broke, but man it feels good to at least have one thing going well.

How is life going for you all?

Halloween is my favorite holiday but so far I don't have any plans and so I haven't put together any costumes for this year. What fun stuff do you ladies have planned?

In the past, I've dressed as a zombie, a lumberjack, a greek goddess, and a fortune teller, just to name a few.

Tell us which women inspire you, whether they're well-known or not.

Tell us which women inspire you, whether they're well-known or not.

Im a 26 year old male who´s writing a screenplay about a mother/daughter relationship. And the thing is, I grew up with only a brother pluss my parents. Since Ive never been close to this special relationship you ladies have Im very interested in the dynamics of the mother and daughter deal. Specially in your teens and early twenties. So if some of you would be kind enough too share some of your highs and lows on this subject I would be so grateful! Sincerely, a young norwegian screenwriter. (And yes, Im going to work with a lot of women to get this thing right so its not just a male fantasy piece of shit garbage) Thanks!

Today, I went to go get a load of laundry out of the dryer. The laundry area is in our downstairs bathroom, which is also where our cat boxes are. My little stink beasts like to fling the litter everywhere, so I stopped to sweep the floor before getting the clothes. I picked up the bathmat and my thumb was suddenly knuckle deep in a smushed turd that was under the bathmat. One of these fuzzy jerks pooped outside the box and then pulled the bathmat over it. Who know how many times someone unknowingly stepped on it; it was smashed flat. My bathmat has a rubber bottom, so the stench was sealed in until I peeled the mat off the floor.

Not enough Lysol in this world...

Summer is upon us, do any of you have any plans? Awesome books that you hope to read? Movie or tv show marathons planned?

I've had a really great day and wanted to share!! Sorry for the length, I just wanted to get it out! There's a TL;DR at the end :)

I can't go into much detail but when I was 21, two years ago, I was an assistant manager in a retail company that was predominantly male. About 3% of the managers in the company were female, including me. My manager, "Tom", was a 33 year old man and engaged. He made a move on me in the back office and when I rejected him, he started poisoning my reputation by making up lies about me to our tyrannical regional manager and other managers (which I didn't find out about until it was waaay too late). Tom eventually forced me to resign and even then he applied me - without my knowledge or consent - for annual leave on days I should have been paid normally so I nearly lost $850+ but luckily I caught him because I was expecting that. Bear in mind, my company had just spend thousands of dollars paying for me to complete an extremely prestigious year long management programme - I left a week after graduating (Tom had made the move on me a couple of months prior) and I got a lot of shit for bailing on them because it looked like I used them. The company was furious. The CEO himself subtlely warned me to keep my mouth shut. I have no proof of this, but from the way he carefully phrased things I'm almost certain he knew about the sexual harassment. That really hurt because he and I and had been on fantastic terms beforehand, and he'd repeatedly called me the "stand out star" on the training programme, which I can't stress the prestigousness of enough. Even if I'd failed the programme I would have looked good for simply getting in, that's how good it is. I had worked really fucking hard for years and was really fucking proud of all that I had accomplished, especially at such a young age. And then it all came crashing down when I discovered that all of my hard work and dedication and thousands of hours spent working at the company had been because some miserable asshole wanted to root me.

Suing is NOT the way of life in my country but I was fucking ready to take Tom to court. I had to make a really tough choice then - I was hired for my dream job at a company that made stock for the retail company I had just left. My dream job would have involved visiting at least one of their stores every single day. I ended up not taking him to court because to do so would have fucked up my chances of getting that dream job (they obviously couldn't hire someone who would be trespassed from 1/4 of the stores they're meant to visit) and I didn't want to fuck up my future because I wanted to get revenge on some pathetic asshole. I took the dream job, and kept my head down. It was difficult at first because I was unofficially banned from several stores because the managers didn't want me (they were friends with Tom) which made me look bad to my new company, and the tyrannical regional manager was trying to stop me as well. Tom also tried to sabotage my job interview for my dream job, by telling the company looking to hire me that I wouldn't ever be welcomed back. They never asked his opinion, he contacted them to tell them that. I was genuinely scared of walking into a store and unexpectedly seeing one of those managers there because they would shift a lot.

Mid to late last year, I heard from staff that Tom had resigned to work for another retail company. Last week, I had a 17 year old girl from my old store contact me, asking if I could be her reference because she'd walked out on the job because Tom had been creeping her out too. I was like fuck yes.

Now Tom and I used to be very close best friends before he made the move on me so I knew he hated retail and that he was still working it. I was surprised that he was going from the frying pan into the fire but eh, whatever. Also, everyone loves Tom because he's a very passive and supportive guy. Unfortunately he's passive to the point of running from confrontation (including stopping staff from stealing and using the word "nigger" in front of customers... seriously). He's an absolute coward... but a fairly mild and pleasantly supportive one at that which is why everyone believed his lies. I'm pretty sure he half believed them himself. He wasn't intentionally malicious (excluding the annual leave and interview sabotage), just extraordinarily selfish and misguided. Judging from what he said to me during The Incident, I do honestly think he "loved" me which is why he reacted so badly when I turned him down. He even cried.

Last week, I heard rumors that Tom had resigned and was now back at my old company (the one I visit every day) as... wait for it... a floating manager. Yes. He was back, and the difficulty level had spiked by like 9000 because now I would be playing peek a boo blind and not know what store he was in until I was already in it. At least before I had known which suburbs to avoid. Truth be told... I was secretly excited to scare this guy because I knew he would shit a brick if he saw me waltz in since the rest of the staff loved me. I've spent the last two years working my dream job and finding my dream man. He'd spent the last two years in the same limbo relationship, hiding from shadows and hating his job. I knew he was scared of me revealing what he'd done.

Today, I walked into that store. I spotted him outside (he didnt see me until I was already in the store) which made me literally lol and I fucking STRUTTED in there, giddy with cocky happiness, because I knew there was jack shit that motherfucker could do because this store visit had been planned two months prior (not that he could have known) and I could prove it. I knew he was going to be shit scared of me because he would have been paranoid about me coming clean about what happened and getting him fired. He saw me and hid out the back of the store. While I was in there I realised the job I needed to do was bigger than I expected so I ended up staying instore for about three hours. The whole time he hid out the back, except for when the new non-tyrant regional manager who was unaware of everything forced him out for twenty minutes. He then ran back out to hide. Even my friend who worked in that store commented on how weird he was acting - he said he went out the back to get stock and Tom was standing there doing nothing and suddenly whipped his head around to check who it was. My friend said he'd never seen anyone move that fast. Later, I left the store to get something from my car and returned (which I guess Tom wasn't expecting) and I spotted Tom on the footpath, just leaving the store. We were about to walk past each other. The second he saw me approaching, he suddenly VEERED 90 degrees and walked straight onto the road before even checking for cars. I mean, I was expecting him to be a coward but holy shit hahaha. And the best thing.... I discovered that was his first day in that store and knowing him he'd been looking forward to a fresh start. He's going to be there for the next month and after that, who knows... we'll go back to playing peek a boo :) This could actually end badly for me if he is eventually left in charge of a large store that I need to get into but we'll see! Oh and my friend in that store texted me saying that after I left, he tried to talk to Tom about something completely normal and Tom outright ignored him. Which sounds about right, knowing how passive Tom is. He's even scared of talking to my friends :) Which is hilarious because that store is fairly incompetent and my friend is basically the only one who does his job well.

It feels so, so so so sososososososo good to finally have the power back. To be able to walk into a store that I know has staff that love me, perform my dream jobs duties, and see him there fucking hiding because he's so scared of me telling someone what he did. That he still hates his life. I cried for so long over how he had fucked up my career that I'd worked so hard for and I couldn't do a thing but now I'm over the moon because our positions have switched.

TL;DR my former manager, who was engaged, made a move on me and when I rejected him he did everything he could to destroy my career that I had worked very, very hard for and was on the verge of being recognised for. He trashed my name across two different companies which resulted in me getting trespassed from stores. I left to work for a company that still dealt with his, and today I walked in on him for the first time in two years and he was terrified of me and spent the whole time hiding because he thinks I'm going to report him.

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D I'm sorry, I can't stop typing like a 11 year olds FB status because I'm so happy at this little victory. I hope he's scared of next month when he moves stores again.

I signed myself up on okcupid about a month ago and I clicked the "only friends" interest button because I had a lot of shit go down in my life over the summer that I'm still working through, so I'm not really wanting anything super serious at the moment.

Anyway, the first day I'm on the site, this guy in my area messages me and we end up talking for a few hours. He's super nice, we have too much in common and he's pretty cute. His profile says he's looking for a girlfriend. He's 26, I'm 30.

We meet up that weekend for drinks and have an awesome time. We make plans to hang out the following weekend. We've hung out about 5 times now, every Saturday. Every single time we hang, we have a blast. We're both laughing constantly and just all around having a great time. We also text pretty much every day, with both of us initiating the convo.

I am starting to have a baby crush on this dude. I have no idea how he feels about me.

Last Saturday, he came over and cooked me dinner. We've only ever hugged. Twice. This last time we just kinda waved at each other when he left.

I do not want to make a move in fear that we're genuinely only friends. I don't know how to let him know that I kinda like him. My way of flirting is like 5th grade style where I sarcastically make fun of you... so... I have no idea what to do.

Is this guy into me? Do guys make friends that are girls and then cook them dinner? How can I subtly let him know that I'm kinda into him?

If yes, what kind? How many? What are their names? Will you share pictures?

So I told this story to a coworker this week and she laughed heartily at me, so I thought I'd tell it here too.

A few months ago, I changed jobs. During my very first week on the job, there was a three day long campus-wide management training. Our college has three campuses, so each day of training was held at a different campus to allow each campus to host and allow each campus one day of not driving long distance. So the first day was at a campus I'd been too, and I didn't really have any issues getting there. The second day was at my home campus. The third day was at a campus that I'd never been to.

I have a tendency to grab an energy drink when I get gas and drink it while I'm driving. The driving directions indicated it was only going to be 1hr 10min, but it took slightly longer. So the drive to the campus was uneventful, but I was rushed as I made the last turn into campus and didn't notice that I missed the turn for the building I was looking for.

Remember that energy drink I mentioned? I pulled into the parking lot and desperately needed to find a bathroom. I really didn't want to be late for my training and I was cutting it close. I didn't see the building I was looking for, but saw a bathroom on one building and decided to hurry up and use it before getting back on the road to go into the other entrance (the parking lots were not connected).

I rushed into the bathroom and only brought my car keys with me. I didn't have any pants pockets, so I set the keys on the back of the toilet while I did my business. I flushed, went to grab my car keys, and knocked them directly into the swirling toilet bowl.

I was going to be late for my training; I had no choice and no time to think. I plunged my hand into the flushing toilet and retrieved my keys.

I quickly washed my hands and keys at the sink, but had to race to my car and go. I arrived at my training at 8:03, and quickly found a seat.

So there I was, at my training, surrounded by a bunch of people who didn't know me that well. I had just had this serious adrenaline rush/panic because of this hilarious and stupid thing that happened and I could tell no one.

I know, I know, just because Starbucks has the pumpkin spice latte available doesn't mean it's fall yet, but let's be honest-- for a lot of us Labor Day marks the end of summer. So as children head back to school (and some of us too!) to cram their heads full of state mandated knowledge, let's discuss some things we personally learned this summer.

What are your five desert-island hygiene products, and what are your five desert-island recreation products?

Just curious since I became one about 4 months ago :)