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this is the money dog, repost in the next 24 hours and money will come your way!!

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The next time they tell you Americans are “happy” with their employer provided health insurance remember that that “happiness” is fueled by willful ignorance of what the alternatives are really like and fear of losing what little crappy health care they currently have.

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That is a freaking awesome bookshop! ❤❤

Barnes and Nobles is gonna start serving food and alcohol.

Everybody’s cracking jokes about how it’s a desperate attempt to stay relevant in the age of Amazon.

But you know what? Props to them. This is exactly what Blockbuster didn’t do. At no point was Blockbuster like “Hey, movie rentals aren’t the lucrative enterprise they once were. Perhaps it’s time we become known for our cheesy garlic bread.”

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just because someone can articulate their point better doesn’t make them right, it makes them articulated. 

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In between appointments, I took advantage and went hiking at Devil's Icebox, one of my absolute favorite places. Actually, it was more climbing lots of stairs, very carefully, rather than hiking. Oh well, I still got to enjoy some time outside in the beautiful weather! ☀️🍁 #optoutside #outsideisfree #hiking #rockbridgememorialstatepark #sunshinetherapy (at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrTJz9Gl2a71B_OV2IAzPjpRT5qQqMOZ7vZuiI0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=n680vwi9996h

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I explored a bit in Lawrence today. It's always lovely, and I always find new places I love. Today it was the European market! 😍😍 #lfk #lawrenceadventures #europeanmarketsmakemesoveryhappy (at Downtown Lawrence) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrMKTL_FoDDLsHzqwOV_i1K8OOyD_b1PGDi3QM0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ln5i3yhj7cim

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Ending the day with a nice glass of wine. This chardonel from Baltimore Bend is a beautiful evening sip. 😁 @willowspringmercantile @baltimorebendvineyard #wine #missouriwines https://www.instagram.com/p/BrJ0I1QFYqPe05huDy5Tf1M7HSAebfl3rxhO900/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1odv9amoks17x

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Fun holiday performance at Santa's Wonderland! ☃️❄ The Starlight STARS of Tomorrow did a fantastic job, and the fire pits lent some much needed warmth! 🔥 @kcstarlight #starlighttheatre #christmastime #holidayshows #dramalife (at Penguin Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrJguBYFfBHMlmWxquMpFBde6khdl95RU_TX8c0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ctlavkv7zr29

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End of the year stats are so much fun! I totally nerd out every year with data. 😁 #music #spotify #yearinmusic #chvrches https://www.instagram.com/p/BrD2G9LlXbxU1eTV8M728TosucQyIAokXVB41M0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ssncruzpbf1r

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Reblogging for all important job-related information. I am currently on leave for recovery from knee surgery, and unfortunately for me, have exhausted FMLA. My options now are limited, so they have caused an increased amount of stress in my life, making it harder to recover properly. Know your rights when it comes to salary and job security, it will save you many times.

When the Boss Says, ‘Don’t Tell Your Coworkers How Much You Get Paid’

The HR manager tried to convince me that the offer was competitive. She told me that she couldn’t offer more because it would be unfair to other paralegals. She said that if we did not agree to a salary that day, then she would have to suspend me because I would be working past the allowed temp phase. I insisted that she look into a higher offer and she agreed that we could meet again later. Before I left, she had something to add.

“Make sure you don’t talk about your salary with anyone,” she said sweetly, as if she was giving advice to her own son. “It causes conflict and people can be let go for doing it.” (This is to the best of my recollection, not verbatim.)

It wasn’t all that surprising to hear this from a corporate HR manager. What was surprising was the déjà vu.

Just three months earlier, some of my coworkers at the coffee shop told me that our bosses, who worked in the office on salaries, and even the owner, got a higher cut of the tips than we did. One barista told me that when she complained about it, the managers reduced her hours.

When you make minimum wage and have to fight for more than 30 hours per week, tips are pretty important, so I sat down with my managers to discuss the controversy. That’s when they told me not to talk about it with the other baristas. The owner “hates it when people talk about money,” my manager added, and “would fire people for it if he could.” I sulked back to the espresso machine, making my lattes at half speed and failing to do side work.

In both workplaces, my bosses were breaking the law.

Under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA), all workers have the right to engage “concerted activity for mutual aid or protection” and “organize a union to negotiate with [their] employer concerning [their] wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.” In six states, including my home state of Illinois, the law even more explicitly protects the rights of workers to discuss their pay.

This is true whether the employers make their threats verbally or on paper and whether the consequences are firing or merely some sort of cold shoulder from management. My managers at the coffee shop seemed to understand that they weren’t allowed to fire me solely for talking about pay, but they may not have known that it is also illegal to discourage employees from discussing their pay with each other. As NYU law professor Cynthia Estlund explained to NPR, the law “means that you and your co-workers get to talk together about things that matter to you at work.” Even “a nudge from the boss saying ‘we don’t do that around here’ … is also unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act,” Estlund added.

And yet, gag rules thrive in workplaces across the country. In a report updated this year, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that about half of American employees in all sectors are either explicitly prohibited or strongly discouraged from discussing pay with their coworkers. In the private sector, the number is higher, at 61 percent.

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Soulmates are not your ~other half~, that’s just nonsense. You are a whole person already, not half a person. A soulmate isn’t even inherently romantic. A soulmate is just the other sock in a matched set. You’re still a whole, complete sock on your own, you are perfectly functional paired with any other sock, it’s just that it’s even better when you match. A soulmate is literally just the person who makes your soul go “!!! Same hat!!!” and wave excitedly.

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My wife and I were were talking the other day and, I don’t remember what we were even talking about, but the idea came up that we would need an oreo for. I joked about getting one from my secret stash. This is where she made her mistake. She said “oh right, like you could have an Oreo stash without me knowing about it.”

I’m sorry?

That’s a challenge.

Oreos aquired.

I’m going to hide them in a super simple place at first

But be sure to follow this post while I chronicle all the ways and places I hide them and also how I plan on taunting her with cookies while she can’t find the package

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Health insurance is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client who can’t afford to see me.  Housing is a mental health issue. I can’t use therapy to help a client whose depression and anxiety come directly from sleeping in the streets.  Food insecurity is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client who isn’t taking their medication because their pills say “take with food” and they have nothing to eat. Healthcare is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client whose “depression” is actually a thyroid condition they can’t afford to get treated.  Wages are a mental health issue. I can’t help a client whose anxiety comes from the fact that they are one missed shift away from not being able to make rent.

Child care is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client who works 80 hours per week to afford daycare, and doesn’t have the time or energy left to come see me. 

Drug policing is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client who ended up in prison because they got caught self-medicating with illegal substances. 

Police brutality is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client whose ‘anxiety’ is a very real and justified fear of ending up as a hashtag. 

If you’re going to make a stand for improving mental health, you have to understand that addressing mental health goes way beyond hiring more therapists and talking about mental health on social media. If we’re really serious about tackling this mental health problem as a country, it means rolling up our sleeves and taking down the barriers that prevent people from getting the help they need - even if those people are different than us, lead different lives, and make choices we don’t agree with.  We aren’t “fixing” mental health unless we’re fixing it for everybody. 

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I got a new decoration. 😁🚴‍♀️❤ #ridebikesbehappy #cycling #cyclinglife https://www.instagram.com/p/BpIiQp8lSURNx76NVfqEhgGiDsiFr7Ms4h4aTs0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1wxuykhxmpy2x

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Mute this. The music is annoying.

Follow @brattylikestoeat for more.

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Watch: It’s your right to share your salary, not doing so could be holding you back.

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One of the most useful things I’ve learned about recovering from trauma is that my decisions need to be judged according to the incomplete information that was available to me at the time.

So, say I’m deciding whether to eat chicken at a restaurant. All evidence is that it’s a good idea. I’m hungry for chicken, and I usually feel good after eating it.

I eat the chicken, and I get food poisoning. The resulting illness causes me to fall short of responsibilities, and creates numerous problems for me and the people who depend on me.

What happened?

Trauma brain says: “This happened because I am Bad At Making Decisions. If I had made The Right Decision and not eaten chicken, everything would have been fine.”

Recovery brain says, “According to the information that was available to me, the chicken was unlikely to make me sick. Eating chicken was a Good Decision with Bad Consequences. This happened to me because I had incomplete information.”

The “trauma brain” response makes all decisions really hard, because each decision involves the prospect of being judged by a future self that has more information.

“Should I buy the $2 mouse pad or the $3 mouse pad? If I buy the cheaper one and it doesn’t work well, it will be my own fault for not buying a better quality one…”

(Then I might end up paying myself $1-per-hour to agonize over which mouse pad to buy, which is probably an ACTUAL unwise course of action.)

But if I foster the “recovery brain” response, I can start to trust that my future self will judge my decisions kindly.

“If I buy the cheap mouse pad and it doesn’t work, then I only gambled $2 on it. If I buy the $3 one and even it doesn’t work, then I’ll have more closely guessed how much I need to pay for a mousepad of sufficient quality.”

And then later when the mousepad doesn’t work: “Well, that didn’t work. At least I made a decision. The outcome has given me more information about the options available to me going forward.”

(Meta level: Decisions you made prior to reading this post about how to treat yourself were probably good given the information you had access to about trauma and recovery!)

tl;dr: Bad results are not always evidence of bad decisions. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt about why you do what you do.