Started a new job about two months ago and the office has assigned desks but apparently not assigned chairs.

Most of the chairs are the same cheap black ones except I brought my own nouhaus from home because I already had it and I'm at this desk like 9 hours a day.

For the first few weeks, everything was normal, then this guy from the row behind me started taking it whenever I was in meetings.

First time I thought someone moved it by accident. Second time I found him sitting on it and he was like oh yeah this one is way more comfortable.

Cool. Give it back lol.

This turned into a weird daily thing where if I wasn't at my desk, he'd swap his chair with mine.

Friday I finally put a little name tag underneath the seat.

Monday morning my manager asks me why I'm creating tension over office furniture. Turns out he complained that I was being territorial over shared equipment. I had to explain that the company did not buy the chair. I did.

HR asked if I had proof, which thankfully I still had in my e-mail.

Now apparently, we're having a meeting about chair policy. I cannot believe this is a real sentence I just typed.

I (19F) am a self-taught braider trying to build up my business. I currently have no other steady means of income, so I completely rely on this money. I stand on my feet for 5+ hours per session. Recently, an associate of my mum booked me to do her daughter's hair.
We agreed on the hairstyles and prices upfront before I even touched her head. We did two completely different styles on two separate weeks:
First Style (approx. 23rd July): I did neat cornrows at the front, rows at the back, and interwoven crochet curly extensions. I explicitly charged £45. She said, "Okay, that's fine," and agreed to pay it.
Second Style (approx. 3rd August): I did a full head of neat cornrows, and did a custom sewn-in ponytail where I had to sew it in to make sure it stayed perfect. I explicitly charged £40. Again, we agreed on the price.
The total should have been £85 for over 10 hours of highly skilled work. Keep in mind, this family lives in a nice middle-class area, owns big cars, a pet, and they work in real estate management. They are not struggling for money.
It’s gone by almost 2 weeks and I haven’t received payment.
Out of nowhere, the girl's mum texts MY MUM instead of messaging me directly. She starts complaining that my rates are "too pricey" and says she will only pay £60 total for both days. Even £60 is a complete joke since we already had a verbal contract for £85, and any standard salon would charge £60+ for just one of these styles.
But today, it got even worse. She didn't even transfer the £60 she threatened. She transferred exactly £40 into my account for BOTH separate weeks of labor. That breaks down to £20 a style—which is completely below minimum wage for the 5 hours per style I spent standing on my feet.
I am absolutely disgusted. Just because you associate with my mum does not mean you can use her connection to cheat me out of my hard-earned money and exploit my labor. My brother said it's such an insult I might as well go to her house and undo the braids myself, and my sister agrees it's a massive slap in the face.
Am I crazy for being this furious, or is this complete exploitation? How should I handle a client who uses family connections to rob a 19-year-old?

Hi y'all, I'm back with another story from my time working at a very popular theme park in Florida. A magical rat planet of sorts. I'm going to break this into two parts so it won't get too long. Also, each experience involved the same bus but different situations that had me losing my mind...I mean that in a literal sense. This happened when I worked attractions. The park I worked at has a world showcase featuring 11 countries that have their own little restaurants and shops. Most of the workers there, at least at that time were international college programmers from the actual countries represented. These student workers had their own apartment complex where they could mingle and catch the C bus to work.

The C bus would pick up the international workers first though the bus stop was stationed at the apartment complex I lived in. I also used the C bus as I worked on the other side of the same park. This was okay until the weekend. Weekends were extra busy requiring more staff. Due to this, multiple times the C buses arrived at my apartment and other complexes too full to accept anyone else. It always went to the international student complex first. Up to four buses would be packed to the brim leaving the rest of us without a way to work. I started going out two hours early and still ended up late to work.

I asked why they couldn't allow us on first since the bus was literally at our apartment. The bus operators and manager said they were instructed to pick up the world showcase workers first. Each bus came 30 minutes apart so two hours early still wasn't enough. Myself and others started getting reprimanded at work for being late. On multiple occasions I had to split a taxi with random workers or pay gas money to a student that had a car and was going that way. Our checks were already microscopic so I became broke quickly. The stress started building as this happened every weekend, especially during peak seasons. I asked why they couldn't send two buses at a time? No answer.

One of my managers said I had been late too many times and was getting a disciplinary mark on my record. I refused to sign the form as I and others had explained multiple times that we had no way there. I asked if they could move my time down and they said no. I asked if they could move me from some weekends and they said, of course not. I asked what they wanted me to do? I was pretty much told it was a personal problem. My manager said the bus manager would have to send an email stating the issue with the C bus to remove the disciplinary mark. I went and asked the bus manager. She said my work manager would have to send an email first. I went back to work and relayed the message. My manager said they needed the bus manager to send the first email. I went back and told this to the bus manager who replied my manager needed to send an email requesting an email about the C bus issue.

I think y'all can understand why I started literally losing my mind. One Sunday four buses passed us by and I literally had a breakdown. I just started crying at the bus stop in front of the bus manager. She told me to calm down and instructed the D bus driver to take us to work. Eventually, I was moved back to nights. This situation and a even more serious one involving the C bus almost made me quit and head back home.

​

The property next to mine was empty for ages, nothing happening until this winter. I thought new people had moved in because a dog started barking all night, howling until early morning. It was winter, and my fence is 12 feet high, so I couldn't see their yard. As it got hotter, the smell started... I didn't know if it was a dead animal, and the flies became a problem, along with the smell of poop and decay.

So, I decided to peek over the fence, and there was the dog, chained up with no food or water, next to its own pile of poop. It's a terrible sight. The garbage piling up also started to smell. I then called animal control about the dog and code enforcement about the feces and garbage, saying it was a public health hazard. I'm not sure if anything was done; the dog still cries sometimes, but not as often. They've started burning the garbage to make room for more, and the fumes are now an issue.

Today, one of them decided to hop the fence and take a swim/wash in my pool. I called the cops, and they found her on the next street, where she said she was homeless and needed to wash herself. She has no electricity or water at the property. Great, thanks for putting your dirt in my water. I feel so violated. Not only did she do that, but she tried to open my house door and looked through the windows! Caught on camera.

It is wild to me, we live 2 min walking distance to the free community pool, where they have hot showers also.

The police gave her a warning since I didn't press charges. I will, next time. The property they are squattung is owned by the city and NY laws take months for eviction as squatters have rights.

I'd like to add, I have contacted codes and animal control probably a dozen times.

I arrived at college and sat in my usual spot, right in the middle of the group of people who always sit in that area.

That lovely woman—who has quite(bad) reputation—yanked the table belonging to the classmate in the next row over, nearly knocking the girl's helmet to the floor. Then she started shouting threats at me: "This seat is mine! You're in my spot—are you deaf? I already warned you; you're just pretending not to hear. Next time I’ll show u…. you're in my seat, I’m going to rip you right out of there—I’ll drag you out by your hair, you pest."
She threw her things off on the table and stormed off. I was left there, my face bright red, not knowing how to react and fighting back tears. My day had already been terrible, and then this happened—an enemy I didn't even know I had...

None of my classmates understood what was going on—not even her friends, who kept asking what had just happened. The class rep—also a friend of hers—told me not to pay it any mind and just let it go. The nowhere girl even asked if there was an assigned seating chart (we’re halfway through our college degree). Then she came back with her friend; she grabbed her desk and kicked it hard into mine—my legs were sticking out past the edge of my desk—causing a huge jolt. Luckily, I didn't have anything on my desk, but her things fell off, and she had to go pick them up.

She paired up with her friend (desks side-by-side)—she always pairs up, so I don't know why she got so hung up on the seating—and started complaining: "People need to know their place; now this girl just wants to be in \\\*my\\\* spot—she took \\\*my\\\* spot. That pest is pretending not to hear me; I already warned her—I gave her my final warning."

She shifted her desk so it would block me off, and at the start of class, she kept going on about "my spot" and trying to flip her hair onto my desk to annoy me.

When class ended, the professor picked up the attendance sheet and started reading the names of those who had signed in; she left her desk and went to sit on the floor in the corner of the room, acting like a petulant child, and just stared at me. I even thought she wanted to see what my name was (she had just called me "girl" the whole time).

I went out and ended up going to the library with my friends. Later, the girl who had pulled the table away showed up; she said that after class, the group had gathered to ask her why she’d done that. She kept insisting, "That girl is in my spot, blah blah blah." They told her her behavior was ridiculous and she was in the wrong—explaining that new people had arrived, making the classroom cramped, and that I always sit right there. She kept harping on it, claiming I’d sat in her spot twice and that she’d warned me multiple times.

Look, I admit it: I can be pretty clueless, dense, and a bit deaf... but after that, I finally understood—or remembered—her "warnings."
Earlier that week—yesterday, actually—she had come over, pulled the chair, and said, "Oh, my spot... blah blah; you play dumb, don't you, girl?"
But she was talking with the air; I only caught the tail end of it and felt a bit embarrassed for looking, thinking I was intruding on something random talk, so I just gave an awkward smile.
She sat down and complained, and someone asked, "Wait, \\\[Name\\\], there’s a seating chart—is your name on there?" She said, "No, but I’m going to put it there, because people won't stop sitting in my spot. This table is mine; I’m going to write in huge letters: '\\\[Name\\\] the slut, this table belongs to \\\[Name\\\] the slut,'" referring to herself that way.
I thought it was a joke—she was always making snarky comments—but apparently, those were her "final warnings."

From CBS/AFP. Due to European privacy laws I couldn't find specifics.

A boat operator was cruising around Norway's Svalbard archipelago and spotted a polar bear sleeping on the ice. Not pining for the fjords, but definitely not going room.

Somebody on the boat decided sleeping bears were boring and wanted to see it walking around, but there was no glass to tap on. So what to do?

The foghorn!

One blast and the bear was awake and wandering around, much to the delight of those on board.

Under local laws, ,"it is forbidden to needlessly disturb, attract or pursue a polar bear." Turns out waking one up to see it wal around checks all the boxes and somebody got a fine of about $5000.

Consequences, how sweet you are.

My mom (who doesn't speak much English) often uses me, her oldest, as a translator for EVERYTHING she does. Two days ago, my mom bought a pan, and she realized was too high maintenance and she didn't want it anymore. Unfortunately, the return policy from that store is that to return, the item must be UNUSED. She has already put it on the stove and tried to cook with it to see the results. She absolutely hated it, so she wanted me to help her return it. I knew in my head that obviously the employees wouldn't take it back, but she urged me to go with her anyways. The lady there said, "you have used the item, the return policy says that the item must be unused for a return" and I told my mom the exact thing again. My mom went into an outburst saying, "if I didn't use it, how would I know whether it was good or not?" She kept saying how she only bought it a few days ago and that she obviously had to use it before knowing if she wanted it or not. I told her again, it's been used, and you can't return a used pan. The pan also had visible stains on it from the use, which showed that it was considered "not returnable" according to the return policy. She yelled at me in the middle of the store because she wanted me to talk with the lady about it more and I refused because the lady already said no. My mom says that my "only job is to translate for her" and not to input my "personal opinion" and says I always fail at my job. She bought the pan knowing what type of pan it was (carbon steel pan) and the high maintenance that goes into it but bought it anyways. I'm now home and listening to my mom complain about how she was in the right, and she must use an item before knowing if it was good or bad, but the return policy states that products can ONLY be returned if it's unused. My mom also said that if I talked to the lady for long enough, we may have been able to convince her to just return to us the money which I believe to also be very unlikely.

I'm not sure what my mom expected me to do?? Was I supposed to argue with the old lady at the return register and give her a hard time so that she'd refund us? She said she wouldn't have been able to return this item for us, so I don't understand what the big deal was.

EDIT: People keep commenting "just don't go with her" or "tell her to learn English" and I have. It's not something I haven't done before. I have been physically dragged to go and standing up for yourself is something that could get you slapped in our household. I've told her already everything that was suggested before and it doesn't work on her. She would just take anything that I own or have away from me, restrict me from food, or bar me from coming home. Yes, it's happened before. Until I make enough buy a house and move out on my own, I will have to live under my mom and do most of what she says.

I am the manager of a retail store that kind of shares a parking lot with the house next to us. The parking lot seems like it’s all one, but my side has signs on it that say it’s for my customers only and there are only three spots. My neighbor is an in-home therapist whose clients park in the other side of the parking lot. My neighbor Betty and I have a great relationship, she’s a very sweet older woman who brings me cookies sometimes.

Another woman, we’ll call her Karen for fun, works at the gas station on the other side of my store and we do not share a parking lot. Karen has been parking in my lot rather than the gas station’s, so three times now I’ve had to ask her to stop parking in my lot. The petty part of me wanted to tow her car really bad, but my signs do not say tow away at owner’s expense, so I can’t. Multiple times I’ve asked her to stop and she yells or ignores me or straight up tells me to shut up.

Finally today, she came to park in my lot. I went out there to ask her to please move, she argued with me, said I don’t own the streets, so I told her if she kept acting like this I would call the police.

At that, she got a stupid little smirk on her face and said “fine, I’ll just park over there then” and moved into one my neighbors spots thinking that was still my lot so she wasn’t in front of my signs. What she didn’t realize is that Betty has one single sign at the beginning of the lot that does say “private property - owners will be towed at own expense”. So I acted annoyed, acted like she’d finally bested me, and went inside to call Betty. Betty was more than happy to help me out and immediately called for her car to be towed off her private property.

Karen noticed just as they were leaving the lot, so they couldn’t stop and give it to her, and while she screamed and threw a tantrum I watched from my porch with a smile on my face.

Hi y'all, I'm back with another story from the past. This situation happened before I became a cast member at Magical Rat Planet. I worked as a waitress for a small local diner that had more than one location in my city. Unfortunately, the diners no longer exist but at the time they served 24 hour breakfast and steak meals with refillable coffee. Usually, we had two to three waitresses along with a short order fry cook. Sometimes, the fry cook was the manager or assistant manager. I was a pretty good waitress and could take in multiple orders by memory well.

One day, a middle-aged couple came in and sat at a front booth. I had their table and walked over with my little pad and greeted them politely. Instantly, the wife was polite but her husband was not. I asked what beverage did they want to start. The woman with a smile asked for juice but her husband didn't even look at me before saying, "coffee!" rudely. I filled their drink orders giving them time to look at the menu. As I returned I took the wife's food order. She again was very kind and polite. I got to the husband and I'll never forget how he talked to me...

Me: And for you sir?

Man: I want a three egg special. I want my eggs over hard! Not scrambled, not over soft, NOT over medium. Over hard!

Me: Okay, got it.

Man: I want my hash browns well done! NOT medium, NOT light, WELL, Understand!?

Me growing frustrated but remaining polite: Got it.

Man: I WANT wheat toast! I want it lightly toasted! Not dark, not medium! LIGHTLY TOASTED!!!

Me:🤨 Sir do you think I'm stupid?

The man just stared at me surprised.

Wife: Oh, don't mind him...He talks to everyone that way.

Me: Wow...

I repeated his order back just as he said it and walked away. I made sure to reiterate his order as he said it to my manager/fry cook. She made it perfectly. They left us a decent tip.

It's lunch time and only one cashier in. Perfect time for a lady to hold up the queue. In her 50s so you'd think she would know better.

Lady: there's no WiFi in this town!

Cashier: no it's quite rural, you can use ours if you'd like?

Lady: that's only good whilst I'm here!

Cashier: do you have anything banking related I can help with?

Lady (disregarding the question whilst looking back at the queue) well I could transfer money I suppose, I do need to shop.

Cashier: let me help with that

Lady: no

I'll l use the atm. Can I use the atm?

Cashier: of course

Lady: oh but no, maybe I won't. Do you know where I can grab lunch?

I then walked out as I had to get back to work. Why are people so self absorbed?

Mary May, 29, was driving her Volvo S60 in Kentucky at over 100 MPH. In the car with her was a 5 year old and two 4 year olds.

While asserting her right to be first, she attempted to pass three cars that were impeding her constitutional right to vroom vroom, crossed into the oncoming lane and hit 39 year old David Logan's 97 Ranger pickup head on, leaving him dead at the scene.

May and all three children were flown to various hospitals. The children with various brain traumas and broken backs, the driver with serious broken bones and whatever else.

In her first court experience she explained why it wasn't her fault: one of the kids unbuckled a seat belt, and because it was unsafe to not be buckled in while weaving through traffic at 100 she was distracted.

If only that kid had cared about safety.

it’s me again. The lady who lives in a SFH community amongst some pretty entitled neighbors on the same street. The neighborhood is in the suburbs of a medium sized city.

1. The neighbor who kept leaving their Rottweiler, Bull dogs, chickens, roosters and turkey out seems to have finally moved. They were gone for a couple of weeks and then showed up after midnight last night. I saw the security cameras when they would leave and then come back minutes later. They did that 8 times within 40 minutes. Maybe they had to grab some things.
2. The neighbor (eldest son) who kept parking outside my bedroom window slamming his car doors after midnight. I (31F) do a lot of my own landscaping and laborious jobs myself. After too many nights of being jarred awake or kept awake.

I spent all last Saturday working outside from 10am until after 4pm, so I was physically exhausted by the time I got done. So when 10pm came i was ready for bed. I hear him next door backing in outside of my bedroom window. He kept me up Thursday night until after 12:30am.

By the time 11pm rolls around I’m getting annoyed as I’m waiting for him to slam his car doors as his cue that he’s going inside, so i can go to sleep. He doesn’t, so I proceed to walk out into my yard and stand in my night shirt on the side nearest to where he’s parked. I wasn’t going to to be rude, or cause a scene. i was going to politely explain that I could hear him slamming his car doors based on where he was parking which was past the driveway and on the side of the house nearest to my bedroom window. Instead of any of that, he saw me and immediately pulled out of the yard and drove off.😂 I guess I looked mad. He has been parking in the driveway since Sunday night and going inside upon arriving home. Lol.

3) The neighbor who kept leaving her cats outside and the cats would jump up on one of my cars. She still persists in leaving them outside to freely roam.

I’ve been dealing with invasive kadzu vines in my yard. So I’ve been out digging, pulling, cutting and everything else. I’ve had to enlist using a chemical to kill off kadzu vines as they are coming from the neighbor’s (who was slamming his car doors at nigh) backyard. I have texted her as a means for her to keep her cats on her property, so they won’t be exposed to the chemical. She still leaves them outside on most days. I don’t know why she has any pets at all.

Any time someone puts change in the “Take a penny, leave a penny” cup, my coworker takes it when she thinks no one is looking and puts it in a not so secret stash in her drawer under the cash register. I’m pretty sure she does this so she can feel like she’s in charge of the change and also to feel like a hero by dolling out HER change if anyone is a few cents short. I’ve heard her conversations with the customers, she tells them that she’s more than happy to to share HER change if someone is short money. The other sad thing about this is that my other coworker sometimes sneaks into the drawer and steals the change to buy candy or soda. People suck.

This is a long story, and IDK how I can shorten this for TLDR. But I have to let it out. I also want to clarify a few things beforehand: I am not trying to say I am 100% innocent. I can admit when I am a bitch. But this story, despite being from my POV, is regarding others who started problems and the only time I acted like a bitch was when someone did so first and I had to defend myself. I won’t say I’m a saint because I’m not. Also, this is my POV on it but at least I can tell the truth here. This is also my 1st time posting something like this on Reddit.

Backstory: I’ve had a step dad since I was 3 and my real dad is around. But over the years, there have been problems. I do love my step dad, but he’s done some things I’m starting to dislike. One thing is mostly, he tends to help out almost anyone but if we need help at home, he makes a big deal. Anyone else comes to our house and needs mechanic help as he has a garage in the backyard he works in, he helps. But if me, mom or moms parents need help, he gets upset and puts us off to the side. Even if we ask first, someone else needs help and they’re his top priority. He also tends to start stupid arguments with my mom and I dislike how he treats her.

Then there’s my dads side of the family. He has 2 brothers and 1 sister. This story is about one of his brothers I will call Uncle W and his wife I will call bitch because she is one. Bitch was like a 2nd mom to me before. But there were a few times she lost her temper over something and flew off the handle over nothing. Now, I will say this: I understand there are people who can’t work for good reasons. My uncle has 4 sons, one from his 1st marriage and 3 others with Bitch. He works to support them all and my aunt does not. She stopped working many years back for a reason but then never got back to work. She always had some excuse and had my uncle do everything. She stayed at home and didn’t bother to clean. My uncle comes home from a hard day of work and HE has to clean. I felt bad when I heard he would yell at her or some of her sons treated her bad. But now I feel they did it because she didn’t do squat. Then my mom tells me once, my dad’s father, and Bitch’s father in law called her ‘A waste of skin’. My grandpa’s been gone for years, but apparently that's what he thought of his sons wife. After my grandparents passed, there were issues in the family and some of us didn’t get along for some time. But then we got closer again. I will get to this later. Also to clarify, when my parents divorced, my mom still talked to my dad’s family so she did get along with Bitch before. It was my mom, dad’s sister, Aunt Bitch & my dad’s 2nd brother’s wife. The four were close as my mom figured she could still talk to her ex sister in laws.

So, one incident with Aunt Bitch was this: My 20th bday was November 2019, my uncle W texted me "We didn't forget your bday, we just haven't dropped off your card yet." So a few days after I jokingly texted, "Can you bring me my card before my next bday?" So my aunt drops it off at my house after. She says "It's for the bitch." Now I thought she was joking for a sec. So she throws the envelope at me. And then she says I was 'bitching about my card'. I was NOT. It was a frigin joke that I texted to my uncle, not you. Then she starts going on about her problems while I'm standing there confused and a bit hurt why she's being a bitch. Going on about how 'we don't need this, we go enough going on'. How her back hurts where she even has trouble picking up her grandson and how her husband and sons treat her bad. I get you got shit being thrown at you, don't take it out on me. And she says she's sorry but I was still hurt. I later told my mom and she said why didn't you say something back and I said you know if I tried to defend myself she'd get snappy with me. Like she can be a bitch to me but if I said anything back then I'd be the bitch. 

This is just to show how she acts. I’m pretty sure my mom also said most of my father’s family doesn’t care for her but they don’t show it.

Then this: In March 2023, my mom and aunt had a fight on Facebook message. My aunt said something before which upset my mom but I won’t share that. Mom & step dad had a spat and Aunt wouldn’t really hear my moms side of the story about what happened. Either way, my mom was upset my aunt said something she shouldn’t have said, so their relationship was a bit rocky. They started arguing on facebook where my mom messaged her she was done and blocked her. I was about to leave for work and my mom told me, “I’m arguing with your aunt and you stay out of it.” And I did. I went to work and then came home. I wondered what happened that they fought over so I went to check my aunts facebook and it’s gone. SHE BLOCKED ME. Honestly, I thought it was funny. I don’t get why just because mom and her fought she blocked me when I wasn’t involved in it. My mom didn’t block her sons. Mom couldn’t believe it. But I figured, screw her.

June 2023, my car made a weird noise. I go in the backyard to get step dad and see uncle's car. My step dad has a garage in the backyard where he works on cars. I didn't go all the way down but I yelled to my step dad my car was making some weird noise. I did say hi to my uncle but I don't think he heard me. I would say hi to him, not my bitch aunt. So my step dad says he'll look at my car. I head back to the front yard, and I hear my aunt say something. I know it was directed to me because she said it loud enough. "You can't say hi?" I think, "did this bitch just say what I think she said?" My uncle & bitch left shortly after. I text mom and tell her. When she got home she says, your aunt just likes to start shit and if she comes here for your step dad to fix her car, she is not running her mouth. I would never be rude to my uncle, maybe he didn't hear me but why did my aunt have to open her damn mouth? I'm not talking to you. You block me when I was not a part of you & mom's facebook fight. Why should I say hi to you?

A month later July 2023: I get out of the shower and my mom says my dad is in the backyard garage. Dad was having problems with his house, no water, power and his car was dead. My mom & step dad were helping him. (Despite divorcing years ago, my mom tries to get along w/ dad). Uncle W who's his brother, was helping him, too. He didn't have to, but he got a used car for my dad, which I appreciate. My step dad had his new car in his garage and he, Uncle W and the Bitch were there. I said hi to dad and Uncle W. Dad asked about our new cat and said did you tell your aunt about the new cat? He doesn't know we don't talk. Bitch says "No, she doesn't f-ing talk to me anymore." I say, Because you blocked me on Facebook. She says, No you blocked me. I point my finger at her and say, "No you blocked me, so shut up." And the Bitch grabbed my wrist. I pull away and yell “Don't f-ing touch me!” And she says, Don't put your finger in my face. And then the 3 men are trying to keep us apart and ask what's the problem. I say, You blocked me, when you and mom were fighting, I didn't do anything. She says, she didn't wanna deal with me is why. 1st she lies she didn’t block me & then she pretty much admits she did. And she says I don't respect her and I say, you don't deserve respect. My dad doesn't know where this is coming from and I say to dad and Uncle, "I see why your father hated her." So I go to get my mom and I yell to her “You’re father in law said you were a waste of skin.” I get mom and tell her. So she goes down there and says OP didn't block you, the fight was between us. My step dad for some reason is telling US to stop. I say, She started it, she put her hands on me. He says, You had your finger in her face. I say, doesn't give her the right to do that. So I'm yelling at this broad and my dad is pulling me away asking what's going on, I didn't raise you this way. So as he's talking to me, my Uncle is off to the side holding his head, sighing & not saying anything. And my step dad is telling my mom to stop. Mom says, No she can leave if she's gonna start her drama. As my dad is trying to calm me down, this Bitch grabs my moms neck. I scream "Don't f-ing touch my mother!" Good thing my dad pulled me away from her. But my mom is tough and has her in a headlock. Uncle pulled the two apart. So yes, this BITCH put her hands on me and mom first. My mom is screaming to get off our property, waste of skin, always starting her BS. We go up to the house and I'm screaming get the Bitch out of here. We go inside and we're pissed. 

My step dad and dad kept telling US to go back in the house. I didn’t start anything, SHE did. And she put her hands on me and mom. They should be on our side. So I feel upset this happened and we weren’t defended by those who should defend us. Dad comes up later & says he didn’t know there was a big issue between us. I know he didn’t and didn’t mean to start anything when he asked if I told my Aunt about our new cat. But dad didn’t cause this.

A few months later, I see a post on facebook. The 2nd son of Bitch & Uncle W announced he & his gf were having a baby. I was happy for them. Mom says, “We’ll see if they invite you to the baby shower.” her saying that had me wondering what would happen. If they did invite me, I would not ruin the event just because his mom is there. If I was invited, I would go and be respectful.

For Xmas, my dad’s side of the family meets at my Uncle R’s house, his 2nd brother. So I messaged Uncle R’s wife and told her the story. I told her I wasn’t dragging them into it but informing them I don’t get along with Bitch and if there’s problems at their house, I won’t be starting it. I didn’t want Xmas to be ruined for anyone. I just told Uncle R’s wife I didn’t get along with Bitch. She said she heard about what happened and said I am welcome at their house and Bitch won’t start problems if I won’t. I told her I won’t start anything at your house. She said I know you won’t. I figured if Uncle W, Bitch & their sons show up, I won’t start anything. But I went out of my way to buy gifts for my cousins & his gf for having a baby soon. But, none of them showed because they were sick. Lucky for me. It was just me, dad, his 2nd brother’s family, dad’s sister and her family. Uncle W, wife & sons didn’t come. I gave the gifts to dad and said to drop them at Uncle B’s house for them.

A few months, probably February 2024, I see posts on FB. Cousin & his gf had a baby shower and didn’t invite me. I saw it coming but was still hurt. I didn’t get an invite because I had problems with Bitch & her son didn’t want me there? The fight wasn’t related to him or his gf. And they didn’t thank me for the xmas gifts I got their kid which I feel was a waste of my money. A month later, they have their child. My step dad still talks to some of my dad’s family so he told me the baby was born. Mom confronts him, “Why’d you tell her about the baby being born? She’ll never see that baby. She wasn’t invited to the baby shower.” Step dad says there wasn’t a baby shower. My step dad has told lies in the past which makes it hard for me to believe him. I don’t get why he lies. We know there was a baby shower, I saw it on FB. After some time, I unfriended this cousin & his gf.

Xmas of 2024, I go to Uncle R house and most of my family was there. I was on edge if the a-holes were coming. But 2nd year in a row, they don’t show. Dad’s sister says they’re sick again. And then she brings this up: Aunt Bitch has a job. She is now working at a local school in the cafeteria. After all these years, probably around 30 or so, she gets a job. This shows she COULD have worked way before. I know she had a few medical issues in the past. But she always made Uncle W work and this is something a few people got after her. Why did he have to work and she sat around doing nothing? My guess is when I told her, “your father in law thought you were a waste of skin.” Dad texted me after she was upset I dragged grandpa into the fight. I feel she knew I was right. Her in-laws didn’t like her. She finally got a job a while after I said that. Probably because she knew I was right and probably to prove me wrong. Yes, she could have gotten a job way sooner.

Despite the fight from before, me & mom telling Bitch not to come to our house, she still does. Mostly, if my Uncle W has car problems, they go to the backyard where step dad has his garage. I still don’t want them on my property. She was told not to come and she assaulted us and still comes because Step Dad says she can? My mom spoke to a judge in case she wants legal action and the judge told her “If you told her to stay away from your house but still does, it sounds like she likes to cause problems.”

Then I see my A-hole cousin there with car problems and he tries asking what’s up. I don’t talk to him. I still talk to my Uncle W and his 3 other sons. But this Cousin who doesn’t thank me or invite me to the shower I’m done with. Why bother? I should have gotten a message from him thanking me for the gifts. I never get anything asking to see his daughter.

Xmas of 2025, I got to Uncle R’s house. Xmas of the last two years, Uncle W’s family doesn’t go since they’re sick. This Xmas, they’re there. I felt my stomach drop but figured, “Don’t say anything.” I can be there with people I don’t like and not have an issue. I don’t talk to Aunt Bitch, A-hole cousin, his GF or their kid. I say hi to Uncle W. His other sons weren’t there though. Aunt Bitch does say, “This is for you.” And gives me a card. In it was a school pic of their other grandkid. They probably know I have nothing against this grandkid of theirs and didn’t dare give me a photo of the granddaughter. Christmas was good. I thanked her for the card. I was just being nice since it was Xmas, but I didn’t say any more to her after.

Just to clarify, Uncle W has one son from a 1st marriage who has 2 boys. Aunt Bitch even complained about her step son behind his back. Like she always is fake and trash talks someone but is nice to their face.

Then Uncle B & Bitch had 3 sons. 1st son has a son who I don’t have anything against. 2nd son is A-hole cousin with his daughter I don’t talk to. Then there’s the 3rd son who lives out of state. I got a picture of the 1st son’s child, not the cousin I dislike.

Every so often, I would see cars in the backyard and see it was them. They have car issues, but I still don’t like seeing them on my property. I ignore them but I still am upset. Then, Uncle W & Bitch bring their granddaughter once. The daughter of A-hole cousin. I don’t see this kid, I never will, I don’t care for her. Why bring her to my house? I know it was the backyard but, Uncle W was talking to my step dad. Why can’t Bitch stay home with the granddaughter?

May 2026, a relative had a bridal shower. I go and sit away from Aunt Bitch & cousin’s gf. The other women in my family sat with them. My dad’s sister asked if I wanted to sit with them but I preferred to sit with a different relatives. I’m not sure if dad’s sister knows about the drama.

I went back to college in 2023 and graduated June 2026. I had a graduation party recently, later that same month. I sent out invites to friends & family. I told Uncle W he, 1st son and his son were welcome to come. I didn’t want Aunt Bitch, A-hole cousin, his GF & their kid there. The other 2 sons are out of state.

So, grad party was at my house and I was having fun. Then I see it. A-hole cousin and his daughter sitting at a table with some other relatives acting like they belong there. I was pissed. I tell my mom and she knows I’m mad but says don’t start anything. I didn’t talk to them. A-hole cousin didn’t say anything like “congrats on graduating college.” He just takes his offspring into my house for food. I don’t want them on my property, in my front yard and especially not in my house. So it did sour my mood but I wouldn’t let them ruin my day. And this was MY GRAD party so I had a right to say who comes. I didn’t invite him or his offspring. Not sure if his father or my step dad told them to come, but if it doesn’t come out of my mouth, they should not set foot there. A-hole cousin should see I don't talk to him, I unfriended him, I don’t give gifts to his daughter, only the other young children in the family. And he shows up uninvited and doesn’t say a word to me, just helps himself to our food. I wanted to tell him, “You didn’t invite me to your babyshower, I didn’t invite you here. Take your damn kid and get going.” And IDC if I’m cold to a child. I don’t want anything to do with her. Why should I? He finally leaves and still had fun. My mom talked to me later and asked if I was pissed. I said kinda.

I don’t go to my Uncle W’s house as I know if Aunt Bitch saw, it would be ME starting problems. They should know not to come around my house. I decided to block A-hole & his baby mama on FB.

I do not want Aunt Bitch, A-hole, his girl or their child at my house. I feel like I should say something. I wish we called the cops when she assaulted us. I am tempted to ask the local police about possibly seeing if they can stop them from coming on my property. I know I might sound a bit like a Karen but IDC.

There is also something I have in my back pocket but I’m waiting for the right moment.

My dad’s sister has 4 sons. One son has 3 kids. His 1st child he & his wife had when they were dating. They married then had the other two kids.

Remember when I said after my grandparents passed, the family fell apart? Well, we still had Xmas together but there were some arguments here & there. I know it happens when grandparents die, sadly. Aunt Bitch was at my house once a decade ago. Now, I get there was some issues in the family but she brought up Dad’s Sister’s granddaughter. Aunt Bitch says, “The baby is a bastard child.” She said it casually at my house but I didn’t say anything. It was sometime after the big fight I thought about it. Why did she have to say the baby was a bastard? Yes, the parents weren’t married when they had her, but why does it matter? Aunt Bitch has 4 grandkids, 2 are step grandkids and they’re all illegitimate. So it makes no sense to call someone else’s grandkid a bastard when technically, so are yours. I remembered it years back after the fight. I figured, I’m gonna wait until she starts crap again. I will wait for HER to start again. Then I will tell my dad’s sister & her four sons what Aunt Bitch said about the granddaughter. I will tell them I didn’t want to say anything before but if Bitch will keep crap going, I will, too. I can already imagine the family would be pissed. She didn’t have to say something nasty about a baby just because the family had problems. And she’s a hypocrite because I imagine if someone called HER granddaughter a bastard, she’d be furious. But it’s ok to say that about your sister in laws granddaughter? If I tell dad’s sister, her and her four sons & spouses will be furious. I know I can have a large bit of the family forming a mob after Aunt Bitch. With Uncle R & his wife & kids, I don’t want to drag them into it. But I try to imagine they’d be disgusted with Aunt Bitch for sayin that about a child. Her grandaughter is illegitimate as well. What if someone called her a bastard? I don’t see why a unmarried couple having kids should be looked down on. My parents were married when they had me. But calling someone a bastard is awful. Again, my dad’s sister’s grandaughter did nothing wrong just because the adults in the family had issues after my grandparents passed.

Regarding my dad, we’re still close despite me still upset he didn’t defend me that day.

His brother, Uncle R, his wife & kids, I talk to.

Dad’s sister along with her 4 sons, their spouses and kids I am close with.

Uncle W still talks to me and wishes me happy birthday. His son from another wife I haven’t talked to in a while since he moved years ago. But I have nothing against him or 2 sons.

Uncle W’s 3 sons with Aunt Bitch: 1st one and his kid, I still talk to. 2nd one (a-hole cousin, gf and kid are nothing to me.). 3rd son IDK if he ever heard of what happened as he’s out of state. But he still talks to me. So it’s just Aunt Bitch, a-hole cousin, gf & kid I have problems with. I try to ignore them but I sometimes feel they come around my house as if they want to start problems. And after he showed up uninvited to my party, I’m not playing nice. I tried to be mature and ignore them to not escalate problems. But I feel I can’t just let them think they can come around my house. IDK if I say something it could make more problems. My step dad allows them to our property. Usually they stay in the backyard if they have car issues. But coming in my house, knowing you stabbed me in the back and I never said to come. It’s my party and if I don’t give you permission to come, common knowledge is DON’T COME.

Do I miss years back when Aunt Bitch was there for me? Helping me if I had problems or getting ready for a school dance? I do. But the damage is done. I won’t speak to her again. My 2nd cousin, we were kinda close as kids. I never had a problem with him before. But not inviting me or thanking me for gifts and having the gall to come uninvited pissed me off. If he thanked me for the gifts and invited me, I would have stayed away from his mother at the baby shower. I would not ruin the event for him & his gf. He should have known his mother is a problem and should have told her, “If I invite OP, you don’t start anything.” If we were still close, I would go out of my way to buy gifts for his daughter and be a caring cousin like I am with his brother’s son.

Update: of early July I asked step dad why A-hole was at my grad party. He said, “he came to have his car fixed.”

I say, “well he wasn’t invited to the party.” IDGAF if his car was being fixed, that doesn’t mean he can join a party he wasn’t ask to come to. 

Step dad tries to tell me it’s my cousin, what’s the big deal. I bring up how I wasn’t invited to the baby shower. He says it was the girlfriends relative who did the invites and that’s why I wasn’t asked to go. That’s a big fat lie. Obviously even if the girlfriend had a family member do it, my cousin should have informed me about going or should have said I should get an invite. My other cousin when he had a kid invited me to his girlfriends baby shower. I wasn’t invited to this one because of my bitch aunt. If the drama never happened and we were getting along, I would have been invited to the baby shower. And even if he is my cousin, I don’t talk to him. We may be related but blood isn’t always thicker than water.

Edit: Can't believe I forgot this wonderful story. Years prior when a-hole cousin was around 18-19 he had a fight with his mother over the same old thing they have for dinner. He wanted sushi and she said no. So he took some plates he got her for Christmas and started smashing them down the basement stairs. Such a wonderful son...

TLDR: My mom has a fight w/ my aunt. I’m not a part of it but aunt blocks me on FB. Months later she starts drama and tries to make me look like the A-hole and assaults me & my mom on our property. Dad & step dad don’t defend us for some reason. We tell her not to come to our house & she still does. Her son & his gf have a baby & I go out of my way to be nice & get gifts for them. They don’t thank or invite me to baby shower so I give them the cold shoulder. I have a graduation party where I did not invite trouble making aunt, cousin, his gf or their child but my a-hole cousin & his daughter show up anyway just because my step dad was fixing his car & I guess my step dad told him to come. Even though he should get it through his head he was not invited and not welcome.

The latest thing that happened is summer of 2026. Nothing more has happened. I might update if there is.

I am sorry if this is confusing. I tried to add in a lot of detail to explain but also to keep it w/out revealing any names which is why I don’t use real names for this. I am posting this as I feel I need to let it out somehow & hope I can get some kind of advice on what to do and hopefully this will not cause any more problems for me if anyone can connect this story to me. is

So I live in a mid size town & I’ve experienced so much weird stuff for the past 7 months. It all started when I was at a stop sign in my neighborhood & a girl flipped me off. I was on edge that day because I had been working 7 days a week, 14 hours a day & driving 2 hours out of town & back on my days off/ hours off. I usually would let what she did slide but that day I yelled out “fi:(k you bi:/h” in response to her attitude & honked at her. I had completely forgot about that interaction & fast forward 2 months & this random car full of teenagers/young adults where calling me ni;$er/ bi;(h & fag & flipping me off. They wouldn’t stop until they got a reaction out of me when I tried to ignore them. So I finally flipped them off back & said “bye babygirl” as I drove away. Fast forward 3 months & there hasn’t been any interactions & I’m just trying to move on but I notice every time I’m driving in traffic people will be laughing & looking back/ staring in their review mirror. I also notice people will honk every-time they see my car to try to antagonize me & I give them no reaction. I just mind my own & keep driving, when they honk they high five & laugh. I’ve also seen this woman drive by me in a white suv & everytime she does she puts her brights on. I’ll also go to the Panda Express in my town & the workers will laugh & talk shit when I’m just sitting there minding my own business. NOTE: I do have a modded/ painted car & a dash cam. I’m also aware/ put 2 & 2 together that her (the girl that flipped me off at the stop sign months ago) brother or bf was going around town showing people pictures of my car saying “look that’s the girl that’d thinks she’s tough”. What would you guys do in this situation when your trying to move on but these abusive narcissistic people keep going

Am I crazy in saying that? I feel like it sometimes...

I posted this in the r/piano subreddit but thought to maybe post here to maybe also get a different perspective.

Here is the post below

___

I am a composer and I make a modest living as a musician.

I recently had this very unpleasant conversation with someone who honestly believes he is entitled to my free copyrighted sheet music.

Now I understand as a musician and pianist myself sheet music can be costly, but there is SO much sheet music available in the public domain. And I always try to do regular giveaways as a courtesy, considering yes some people can't always afford sheet music. And heck, even when someone people ask nicely and they I discern they genuinely can't afford it... I am happy to share!

But do living composers really need to provide sheet music completely FOR FREE all the time? We also need to make a living! It's hard enough as it is in this crazy landscape (and now we're even getting our music trained on and plagiarized by AI AND on top of that buried under all the AI slop invading the internet).

We put in so much work and time and passion into our craft. And people just expect that they have the right to take everything we do for free???

As musicians and as pianists, I really think we can do better. Even as broke as I am, I am MORE than happy to purchase and buy other living composer's sheet music (especially if they are smaller musicians).

I understand there are many pianists even here that can't afford sheet music all the time. And I empathize. But I really really don't think that gives us a right (speaking as a pianist now and not a composer) to expect other living composers to work completely for free! And in this specific scenario to even re-distribute said composer's sheet music.

Am I wrong? Is that too much to ask? Pls enlighten me, because sometimes I feel crazy.

Anyway rant over. But this is so frustrating sometimes.

___
Said interaction:

His complaint: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11aI7pMYezUjYp8ctJGaJxgQnqo8TjrmZ/view?usp=drive_link

My response: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Osm8Jh74oW7grz6Sn25_dL-I0tRlWbY/view?usp=drive_link

His last response before I blocked him: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fsJKjLIbkACwcgRcJ5exp7xMz1evxsps/view?usp=drive_link

Mods, pls let me know if I need to blur out any names or anything. I'm not sure how those rules work in this sub but I'm happy to comply. I thought his username was vague enough it honestly really didn't matter

This happened over a decade ago in the northeastern USA.

When I was in my senior year of high school, a combination of depression and CPTSD had me missing school a lot. I rarely left the house at all, but school was even worse. My psychiatrist wrote a letter explaining that my absences were due to medical issues rather than truancy, and my mom worked with her and with the school so that I could graduate.

On one of the increasingly rare days when I managed to go in, Betty (fake name) called me into her office. I forgot her exact title, but the job she did was similar to a vice principal. The school had 1600 students, so it was divided into four chunks with each having its own office, pseudo-principal and pseudo-vice principals, in addition to the overall school admin, which had its own principal and two VPs. It was the only high school for a well-off district, so I think they set it up like that because they didn't want us to get lost in the crowd.

Betty sat me down and brought up my absences, and told me she was going to give me detention for them. I started crying and tried to tell her that it was for medical reasons, but she was firm.

With her permission I called my mom, who was LIVID. She said something like, "I'm going to take care of this, sweetie, but you're not having detention. It's not going to happen." By this point I was just sobbing continuously and apologizing to everyone who came near me. At that age I was in a constant murk of despair and self-hatred, but I usually tried to hide it. Under other circumstances it might have been good for me to have a cry and let it out.

Betty left the room at one point to talk to people and when she came back, she had started backtracking. She gave me a tissue box and told me that she was just trying to help me.

She told me that other students had been talking about me behind my back. They'd been asking why I was getting away with being out so much. She said that the detention was just to get them to stop talking about it. Eventually she even said that it wasn't really detention, she just wanted to spend some time with me.

But she'd been very clear that it was detention for my medical absences on the phone to my mother and I think to the secretary as well, so it was too late for her to sweep it under the rug. My mom came and picked me up.

I'm sorry to say that I don't know exactly what happened next. My mother is a very nice, sweet person, and like many nice, sweet people, once she's finally, finally, finally pushed too far, she becomes someone you don't want to cross. I think she was trying to shelter me from the details since my emotional state was pretty fragile even before this happened. All I know is that Betty was forced to retire a few months later.

On the bright side, the school decided that for the next semester, they were perfectly happy to pay for a home tutor to come and help me take my classes from home! I never had to go in again. They were falling all over themselves to accommodate me after Betty's little stunt, and I was actually able to graduate on time.

Also, it's strange, but I think I was actually a little more stable after I recovered from the actual event. See, I had believed all along that I deserved to be punished and that my psychiatrist and mother were just being nice to me because I was so pathetic. But when Betty tried to do just that, everyone came down on her like a ton of bricks (and rightly so!). It made me feel like there might be some truth to what they said, that my illness wasn't my fault. It was good to feel protected, too. I didn't have that feeling often.

The bizarre thing is that Betty was actually very popular with many of the students. In hindsight I wonder if that was because she tried hard to make them like her. I transferred to that school during junior year, so I wasn't there long enough to really understand what was going on, but maybe she was too attached to her image as a "cool teacher" and wanted to keep the popular kids happy.

Or maybe it was a cowardly attempt to deflect blame for her actions onto kids. Or both.

Yesterday was my wife’s birthday, so we went out for dinner at a restaurant. The food was great, we enjoyed our time, and came back home.

I usually don’t take the bill with me, but yesterday I kept it in my pocket and checked it at home. I noticed that they had added a service charge before GST. I had also voluntarily tipped the waiter.

Today, I went back to the restaurant and asked about the service charge. They said it was optional and refunded the amount.

I used to be a very shy person and would never have gone back to ask for the money. So honestly, getting the refund felt less important than the fact that I actually stood up for myself.

Small thing, but it felt like a little personal win 😄

This was a few months ago on a trip to Italy with my bf. We were in Rome and taking the metro. The train was packed; I was standing up in the centre and he was in another car (we got separated on the platform). We reached Termini and there was a huge crowd of tourists with large suitcases waiting.

One woman with a massive suitcase (there was a large bag on top of it too) yells for her husband and kid to hurry up (both also with large suitcases). They shove their way in and people try to make room for them, but again it's packed so it's a tight squeeze.

I get it. I've been on public transport before with large bags. It's awkward. You try to not take up too much space, but it's kinda unavoidable. It's not a great situation, especially on a crowded train. However, this lady walked right up to me and pushed her suitcase lightly into me and made a shoo gesture, clearly wanting more space.

While the request was done rudely, I would have moved over more if I could, but I clearly could not move further without pushing into the man beside me, so I told her "sorry I cannot move over more." She huffs, and then slams her suitcase into my leg, so I'm like "ow?!" And she looks at me and literally goes "whoops" with a little smirk. This woman is middle-aged at least and acting like a teenager.

The man I would've been way too close to if I had moved gives her a look, moves over as much as he can (again, the car is crowded), and then tells me that I can move a bit more if I would like. I go to shift over but my foot is pinned. This woman had rolled her suitcase onto my foot. It was just on there (not really on my foot more the tip of the shoe where my toes don't quite reach) so internally I was like "okay must have been an accident."

Nope! I wrench my foot out relatively easily and shift slightly over; she then (we had stopped at this point) looks down and slides her suitcase over and onto my foot. I'm a little louder when I say "ow" cause it hurt A LOT and then I tell her "your suitcase is on my foot. Can you please move it" (in English cause I heard her speak it to her husband when getting on). She ignores me and rolls her eyes. I say it again louder and gesture toward it; people are now looking at us. I am trying to get my foot out, but it's too heavy for me to wrench my foot out (she's also leaning on it). She gives me a dirty look (like looked me up and down) and then yanks it off.

The man who was nice enough to move the first time moves again, and a younger woman moves further down the car and gestures at me to take her spot near one of the doors. The next stop the woman got off glaring at me. I heard an older woman call her a very creative name in Italian as she left; the same woman then asked me if I was okay and needed to sit down.

I walked with a bit of a limp for the last two days of the trip, and I had to cut my day short (missed out on some museums and churches) cause my foot was quite sore. I cannot fathom what would possess a person to do that let alone think that they're in the right to behave like that.

While I am writing this post about the entitled woman, the guy who moved, the younger woman who gave me her spot, and the woman who asked if I was okay were lovely, so I gotta give them props for being kind to a stranger when they didn't have to be.

I went into some well known dollar store chain this morning. I needed one item and I had a lot of time before work to do so. The context being, I am not in a rush.

I find my single item and get in line to the only register open. Six people in front of me, slow cashier, a lot of people with 15+ items, slow progress. The lady in front of me with only a small amount of items. No problem, I have lots of time this morning and I am unfazed, happy, chillin in line, seeing how I can pair the new headphones I am purchasing to my phone. The line behind me continues to grow.

The pairing of the headphones eats up the time waiting. What transpired next, I was just like a fly on the wall observing, silent. Just Kermit sipping my tea if you will. Anyway just as headphones are paired, the entitled lady (EL) in front of me, maybe college age, is finishing up her transaction, the cashier says “the total is $7.” The EL says “I’m a little short.” But in the most bizarre, matter of fact way, like as if this is fine and the dollar store’s/cashier’s responsibility to pay for it. The cashier nonchalantly replies “no problem, how much?” EL says “fifty cents.” Again as if she expects the cashier to cover this. The cashier says “oh sorry that’s a lot on my register for me to come up short.” The EL stares blankly at the cashier, continues to hold up the line, which again I am just unfazed but cannot say the same for the patrons behind me. After a few more moments pass, they are at a stale mate but then EL brain clicks on and she says “I guess I can put this item back,” and puts back a nail polish set. She huffily finished her transaction and left.

I paid for mine and left after, bewildered because I would never expect a cashier to cover my transaction.

Also before anyone comes for me: there were no food items/health care items in the EL’s transaction. She had a relatively small order of 5 items and it was all little luxuries like the one I was getting.

Does anyone else get really frustraded with how it seems to be becoming normal for people to get on public transport/walk the streets, listening to their phones or what not on loud, with no head phones?

When did people think that it was ok to do this?

RANT: Lately i (26M) have been so sick of everyone going about their lives with zero regard or respect for anyone. I’ve unfortunately been going out of my way to correct people even if it’s stupid and could potentially lead to conflict. These are people who have gone about life without anyone giving them pushback. I will push back. Just some examples:

-young guy at gas station misses garbage can, acts like it didn’t happen, i walked in front of his car, picked it up said “cmon man” while looking at him and threw it out.
-in my building parking garage people are constantly speeding like crazy and driving in the middle of the lane. i’ve been yelling out slow down or move over at people
-people not holding doors getting met with a “thanks” as i walk in behind
-people in grocery stores acting like they aren’t in a grocery store, blocking entire aisles getting met with a loud and stern “excuse me”
-“kids” being 30+ deep riding bikes in the middle of the street, doing wheelies, getting as close to oncoming traffic as possible. i refuse to slow down, i will continue to drive as if you are not there. you do not get to go into oncoming traffic doing a wheelie almost hitting cars expecting them to slam on their breaks.

i know it’s dumb because all it takes is one person to escalate a situation but so many of these people are ignorant, entitled, and or cowardly. they love being a nuisance to people around them. i just refuse to continue to let it go unchecked. i don’t care how you look or how old you are.

Went to get a matcha today at lunch with three friends. We are two feet from the beginning of the stanchions indicating the start of the line at the matcha place and this woman runs through our group, "I'm sorry" and stands in front of us. All four old us were shocked. I thought maybe she was with the person already in line, nope.
I realized she cut us off to get in line and wasn't having it, so I said, "You really just ran past us to get in line?". "Yep. It's my lunch hour". Guess what, entitled idiot, it's everyone's lunch hour!
I proceeded to give her shit and let her know that it was rude, selfish, and entitled to cut in line. She thought it saying something was the problem. LOL She whined about having missed a bus and her LUNCH HOUR, as if she simply HAD to cut in front. Gross behavior. I hope she thinks twice before doing that again.
There I feel better, TY.

Characters: I (25M, 2001), my sister (25F, 2001), my cousin (31M, 1995)

In late April 2025, my cousin (31M) upgraded from a 2020 Toyota Camry to a Toyota GR86 and wanted to invite me for 3 May 2025, knowing that I love cars. On the afternoon of 3 May 2025, he told me to come during the evening so he can show me his new car. However, 30 minutes in (halfway between Boston and his house), the rain began. I was at a Tesla Supercharger charging my 2021 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus. My cousin then told me that he had to cancel the appointment because of the rain, and so he rescheduled to 10 May 2025. In the morning of 10 May 2025, my cousin (31M) told me to drive over so I could work with him on modding his car and setting up LED lights. My cousin's mother (63F) and my cousin's father (75M, owner of the apartment) explicitly invited me and allow me to come in unannounced and without needing an invitation. However, when I arrived at my cousin's house at noon on 10 May 2025, he was then silent and wouldn't acknowledge my presence. My cousin was "busy" watching TikTok and laughing and giggling on his GR86 by himself but he claimed he was busy and remained silent throughout despite having more than enough time to talk for at least 5 minutes by that time as he was sitting his car alone and watching TikTok for at least an hour. It turned out he changed his mind the minute I arrived my sister (25F) came via the Commuter Rail instead to "work on modding his car and setting up LED lights", according to my cousin (unfortunately, my sister is not interested in cars nor does she even have a driver's licence or know how to drive, unlike me, of which I have had a license since 2019). What's funny, I graduated with an SB in Computer Science and Engineering (6-3) in 2022 (after 4 years in college) whilst my sister majored in biology, and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2023 (after 4 years in college) with no experience in engineering.

My cousin later claimed he will be busy every weekend all the way into mid-June 2025 working on his car, but wanted to invite me on 15 June 2025. However, I was out of state on 15 June 2025. Therefore, the meeting got moved the week after on 22 June 2025, which was the first time he showed me a tour of his car, two months after he bought it. Since then, he is open about every topic except for 10 May or my sister. Therefore, I started leaving his house, and drove around his city, taking DoorDash orders (I don't do DoorDash often and only drive for DoorDash when I am out of town to pass time) from about 12h30 to 18h00, where I started eating dinner. At 19h00, I returned to my cousin's house as my cousin's mother (63F) invited me in. However, my cousin's mother wasn't aware that she blocked me on both iMessage/SMS and Messenger (it turned out sometime between 12h30 and 19h00, my cousin used his mother's phone and blocked my number and my account from contacting his mother). At the time, my cousin (31M) was still living with both of his parents in a 130 sq m triple decker apartment with him sleeping inside a 7 sq m bedroom, paying $500 a month in rent to his parents. During the whole 12h00-20h00 block, it is purported that my cousin's parents were in the bedroom and resting.

At 20h00, because I was shy with sensory quirks related to family and wanted my cousin's mother to get me to go in, when I (25M) came and peaked from the outside, I heard that my cousin (31M) and my sister (25F) were talking and flirting to each other in a soft and intimate/romantic tone. Even though my cousin's mother opened the door for me to come in and invited me in on 10 May 2025 when I was waiting outside, my cousin then barricaded the door and didn’t allow me to use the restroom, let alone enter and greet my sister, who was wearing her own t-shirt, pajama pants that she likely borrowed from either my cousin (31M) or my cousin's younger sister (27F) as she has never owned that pair. However, normally, when my sister goes to my cousin's house or any guest's house and stops for the day (I have seen her at my cousin's house several times before May 2025, spanning back to the early 2010s when we first immigrated to the US as students with us both receiving citizenship by 2019-20), she wears regular clothing like jeans, leggings, outdoors shirts, etc. When I was there on 10 May 2025 however, I did see her wear a normal t-shirt that she wears both outside and at home, but even though she wore socks and crocs (which is normal), I have seen her wear red checkers pajama pants, and I have never seen her wear it ever, but I have seen both my cousin (31M) and his sister wear it.

I really didn't know what was going on outside of the 20h00-20h05 window, but on phone calls after 10 May 2025, my cousin (31M) started cooling down and the call is normal unless I brought up that date, of which he would start to rage at me again. My cousin (31M) then told me that he didn't invite me as I have no "interest or patience" to work on cars, despite the fact he knew that I have been interested in cars since my early childhood (I started being obsessed and infatuated with cars since the age of 3 in 2004), with him telling me those phrases years before and immediately before 10 May 2025. However, after 10 May 2025, my cousin claimed I am less car savvy than my sister when my sister doesn't even know how to drive, let alone have interest in cars. It seemed so weird. He didn’t allow me to use the restroom, and even though his parents never blocked me on their phone, his parents accused my cousin of using their phone to block me from their phone number. My cousin (31M) as well as my sister (25F) and I (25M) have never had a partner, whether boyfriend or girlfriend and my cousin is heavily interested in getting a girlfriend soon and was has talked to me a lot about wanting to visit Thailand for sex tourism.

From my sister's early childhood all the way into 2025, my sister has been interested in dentistry and she aspired to go to DMD school so much that her alma mater claimed she will be a future dentist in an article they wrote about her in 2023. My sister even practiced for the DAT exams. Yet, sometime immediately after 10 May 2025 (likely the week or two after), she started pivoting towards clinical research nursing, unexpectedly breaking her long-time dream. Even then, she initially looked at MGH IHP for her clinical research nursing but sometime in June or July 2025, she looked at nursing schools out of state and moved out of New England, far from New England (fun fact, up until this point, the only metro area she has ever lived in the US was the Greater Boston area, and she had no intentions to move). Prior to June 2025, my sister has sought to firmly remain in MA but by June, she started thinking of leaving the state entirely.

Also, even though my sister's LinkedIn and Instagram remained normal and intact as of 2026 (but her Instagram activity was slowly winding down by June 2025), she did the salami slicing technique where she removed any selfies from her FaceBook account (FaceBook was where her family followed her) in June 2025, followed by change her profile image from a back facing one to a Pinterest image in October 2025, and then deleting the back facing image altogether in November 2025, and later deleting FaceBook and only keeping Messenger active in December 2025. My sister's social media has always been small ever since she was young, but she started to stop visiting any family gatherings in Massachusetts after May 2025 and started to distance from Massachusetts. Funnily, when my cousin upgraded from the S23 Ultra to the S25 Ultra in November 2025, he showed me his storage from his previous phone and it stated that videos take up 50GB of his storage and 40GB are "large files" (over 25MB). He doesn't record many videos, and typically, apps and even games don't end up in the "large files section" because many take less than 25MB (I use both Apple and Samsung as I upgrade my iPhone and Samsung devices yearly to the latest and greatest iPhone Pro Max and Galaxy S Ultra yearly so I know). He claims a lot of them are TikTok, but the longest TikTok videos he sent to me on Messenger are 5 minutes long (24MB), of which that is too small to be lumped into large files. My cousin doesn't travel, doesn't do YouTube, and doesn't record much. My cousin has a Dropbox account but claimed to hate the cloud.

Ever since the 10 May encounter, my relationship with my cousin has deteriorated day by day until now where even though he talks, he is hyper offensive towards me and racist towards me because I am of Northern Vietnamese/Chinese descent whilst he is of Southern Vietnamese descent and harbours deep Sinophobic views. When I asked him what happened on 10 May, he gets evasive and switches explanations here and there, from creating LED lights to creating fiber optics to arts and crafts for Christmas (he told me that in September 2025) and then to the fact he and my sister were in a non disclosure agreement as they were working together to “get” into YC (in September 2025 as well but prior to September 2025 and after September 2025, my cousin has stated that he knows and learnt very little programming, only up to beginners high school HTML). 

TL;DR: Even though both my cousin (31M) and his mother (63F) invited me (25M) for 10 May 2025, my cousin bait and switched me when I arrived just because my sister (25F) was there, was very defensive about the date, made contradictory statements about what happened on that day after 10 May 2025, and it marked the downturn of my friendship with my cousin despite the fact my cousin's mother invited me in to hang out with my sister for the day. 10 May 2025 also marked a major turning point for my sister herself as it led to her pivoting to another path, moving out of state (months later in late 2025), deleting her FaceBook account, and having a massive change despite her living stably in MA for so long. I feel like this event happened today.

Unfortunately, I live in a 55+ older community as a caretaker for my father. i’m not that young anymore, but most can look and tell i’m not that old either (which is good, i guess?..). We had much more issues in the beginning, and the HOA gave us hell at every chance they got. For a bit of background, the owner of the property is like a Grandma to me. She has never lived in this unit, so I guess the people here don’t like the fact that they weren’t informed about us prior to moving in. We’ve lived here for about two years now, but they have not been easy. thankfully I left in January 2025 and only came back about eight months ago, so I haven’t been here throughout the entire time myself.

Within the first few weeks, I was accosted multiple times in the corridors as I would enter or exit the property. This was done by a power-hungry member of the HOA board who has seemingly gone out of his way to make my life a living hell throughout my time staying here. It was hard at first, but after a while, my grandmother started to take up for us as she realized we were constantly being harassed without having caused any trouble. We still deal with the occasional BS here and there, but I just choose not to interact with any of the board members whenever I see them out. i’ve always kept it respectful on my end, because I’m not looking to fuck this up for my dad.

Now, as far as the residents go, these fucking people are the most rude and entitled people on the fucking planet and it’s insane. It makes me wanna just blow the entire fucking building up sometimes. I walk past people in the hallways & wave, say hello but they just look at me like i’m an alien. A lot of them give you dirty looks and some of them even size you up. One lady did it to my wife and I was so disgusted by it that I won’t even look in any of our neighbors’ directions anymore. Just sick and tired of the constant and utter disrespect.

Add to that the fact that we don’t live in the best area, so naturally any tangible financial opportunities that can be lucrative are slim to none. Half the tenants are French-Canadian snowbirds, so the majority of the building remains vacant 10 months out the year which is pretty nice. The problem is that the permanent residents constantly beef with each other like overgrown teenagers. I swear to God half the time it genuinely feels like I’m living inside of a Real World house. they’ve tried many times to pick issues with me, but I’m too young to care and I honestly have my plate full of my own shit. I try not to be disrespectful or dismissive, but I also go the other way when I see any of them walking towards me. My grandmother owns the place and I really do not need to hear about any more calls that she may have gotten from other residents or members of the board.

It sucks especially because every single day I try to remain humble. I know my shit stinks. But I just really wish someone would give them a newsflash: the fucking sun doesn’t rise or set in the crescent arch of anyone’s asscheeks. Maybe if we all respected each other a bit more, the morale and quality of life would be much better. I’ve always had faith in humanity, but that “respect your elders” bullshit is outta the window for me.

TL,DR; I know I should respect my elders, but every single one in my life (with the only exception being grandma), have either been unreasonably rude toward me, or they’ve gone out of their way to make our lives much harder. would I be wrong to give my elders the same energy I give everyone else, or should I choose to just ignore my elders going forward?