Missouri night bird sounds

Hi everyone. First time poster here. I really hope someone can help I’m pretty freaked. So I’ve had my girl for about 4 years and we’re bffs. At bedtime, she either cuddles under my arm or sleeps on the pillow beside mine.
However, the last 3 nights she’s attacked me out of the blue. I’ll be just falling asleep and she’ll nip at my arm. I’ll correct her by making the “tst” sound. But then she’ll go at me even harder. Like hard. She’s never bitten me hard enough to draw blood until now. She acts totally normal during the day just at night she gets randomly violent. It’s really freaking me out. Anyone else experience this?

EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORY!]
[Verse 1: MatPat] Yo, it's the Game Theorist, I'm ready to play You're Stalin, but I'll take you down today Your reign of terror, it's all in the past I'm a YouTube star, my fame will last
[Chorus: MatPat] I'm MatPat, and I'm here to say I'll take down Stalin in a major way My theories are strong, my arguments sound I'll leave you in the dust, on the ground
[Verse 2: Stalin] I'm Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader My power and might, you can't defeat her I've fought wars and conquered lands You're just a YouTuber, with no real plans
[Chorus: Stalin] I'm Stalin, and I'm here to say You'll bow down to me, without delay My regime was strong, my power immense I'll crush you like an insect, with no defense
[Verse 3: MatPat] You talk big, but you're just a dictator Your policies caused suffering, you're a hater I'll use my logic, my wit, and my skill To take you down, and show you the real deal
[Chorus: MatPat] I'm MatPat, and I'm here to say I'll beat you down, in every way My theories are sound, my logic strong I'll take you down, all day long
[Verse 4: Stalin] You talk a lot, but you can't back it up You're just a YouTuber, who needs a makeup I'll crush your spirit, and break your will You'll fall to your knees, in defeat, still
[Chorus: Stalin] I'm Stalin, and I'm here to say You'll bow to me, without delay My strength is unmatched, my power supreme I'll destroy you, like a bad dream
[Verse 5: MatPat] I'll use my theories, and my intelligence To take you down, with no repentance Your crimes were many, your rule was flawed I'll expose you, like a fraud So there you have it, I've won this fight Stalin, you're wrong, I'm right I'll use my YouTube fame, to spread the word You'll be forgotten, like a song of a bird
Who won? Who's next? You decide! Epic Rap Battles of History!
I don’t know why it did the chorus thing I just kept it in .

EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORY!]
[Verse 1: MatPat] Yo, it's the Game Theorist, I'm ready to play You're Stalin, but I'll take you down today Your reign of terror, it's all in the past I'm a YouTube star, my fame will last
[Chorus: MatPat] I'm MatPat, and I'm here to say I'll take down Stalin in a major way My theories are strong, my arguments sound I'll leave you in the dust, on the ground
[Verse 2: Stalin] I'm Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader My power and might, you can't defeat her I've fought wars and conquered lands You're just a YouTuber, with no real plans
[Chorus: Stalin] I'm Stalin, and I'm here to say You'll bow down to me, without delay My regime was strong, my power immense I'll crush you like an insect, with no defense
[Verse 3: MatPat] You talk big, but you're just a dictator Your policies caused suffering, you're a hater I'll use my logic, my wit, and my skill To take you down, and show you the real deal
[Chorus: MatPat] I'm MatPat, and I'm here to say I'll beat you down, in every way My theories are sound, my logic strong I'll take you down, all day long
[Verse 4: Stalin] You talk a lot, but you can't back it up You're just a YouTuber, who needs a makeup I'll crush your spirit, and break your will You'll fall to your knees, in defeat, still
[Chorus: Stalin] I'm Stalin, and I'm here to say You'll bow to me, without delay My strength is unmatched, my power supreme I'll destroy you, like a bad dream
[Verse 5: MatPat] I'll use my theories, and my intelligence To take you down, with no repentance Your crimes were many, your rule was flawed I'll expose you, like a fraud So there you have it, I've won this fight Stalin, you're wrong, I'm right I'll use my YouTube fame, to spread the word You'll be forgotten, like a song of a bird
Who won? Who's next? You decide! Epic Rap Battles of History!
I don’t know why it did the chorus thing I just kept it in .

Hello. First of all English is not my mother language, so I apologize in advance for any typos or mistakes. I have seen a lot of tiktoks of Reddits posts and people actually got good advice from it so I hope it would be the same for me. For a little bit of context, I, 22 F, was born in Cuba and lived there my whole life until last year. I know a lot of people there but only consider a few my true friends. April of 2021, I left Cuba and moved to the united states with my dad and stepmom, leaving behind my mom, the rest of my life, my boyfriend of six years and my best friends. It was extremely hard to say the very least. I wasn't used to live with my dad at all, my mom and him got divorce when I was five and haven't live together since that time. We have similar personalities and that's the reason we don't fit at all. I had awful days, was depressed and nothing would cheer me up. Regarding everything, I kept in contact with all the people important to me and when I finally started working and make my own money, I helped my dad with the house bills, I started sending money to my mom and gifts to my friends, helping the rest of my family too. I definitely felt better, being able to help them was the exact moment when all the tears payed off. December last year, one of my closest friends, 20 F, which I adore got to the US but unfortunately she lives in Texas and I'm currently on Florida. Since none of us can't travel because of immigration issues, we haven't been able to see each other again. When she got here, she started feeling everything that I went through back when I first arrive. She was sad, crying every day, deeply missing everyone and her old life. I understood pretty good because I was in the exact same position months before. Since I knew the feeling well, I did everything on my power to make her feel better. She didn't have any money because she had just arrived at the country and wasn't even working yet, so I changed my Spotify plan to a premium duo one, which is more expensive than the single one I was paying before, so she could have it too because she loves music, I bought Disney plus and gave her one profile because she also loves Disney movies and shows, I bought her a concert ticket for one band that we absolutely adore from the early years of our life that is touring this year for the first time in 15 years and is the last tour as well, therefor our only chance to see them live and I really didn't want her to miss it, I stayed up until 3 in the morning just to watch something with her over rave and keep her company, I did a lot of things that no-one did for me back then but I would had loved. She definitely started to feeling better and I was really happy. A couple of months later, another of my best friends (besides the group of 4) passed away on the same day of my friend's birthday after giving birth. I was devastated. She was the first person I called when found out and she kept me going through it. I screamed and cried my soul out. However, like a month an a half ago, she found a job (which I was truly happy fro her, because I knew how she needed the money and how good it feels when you can afford your own things) but things slowly started to change. At first, she almost didn't had the time to talk to us in the group chat when we used to do that everyday, then she missed our movie night because she needed to woke up early in the morning for work (which I understand, but I stayed up for her a lot of my works nights), then she wasn't talking to us at all and every time I texted her, she also found an excuse to postpone the conversation. I honestly just wanted to know how she was doing, nothing more, because she is one of the most important person in my life and I missed her and was worried. The thing that made me feel worst is that she came to our group chat saying that we should stop texting her when she doesn't replies because she is very upset and sad lately and she needs space. However, she was talking to other friends and hanging out with a guy that she meet at work. My other friends an I, we are a group of four, were really upset too. she told me that I should respect that she is going through a lot of changes right now, meeting new people and adjusting. I wasn't against at all of her socializing, I was even the one that suggested on the first place, but it made me feel awful because when she went to the first emotional breakdown when she got here and didn't had no-one else, I tried everything in my hands to help, and now that she is going out and meeting new people, she is throwing us away, specially when I just lost one of my closest friends and was grieving her. We had a fight about it and haven't talked to each other since then.
This may sound like nothing for a lot of people and I admit that was a really heartbreaking time. I was hurting so much and maybe that made me said some things that I shouldn't, or maybe overreact to the situation, but she was and still is one of my dearest people and when she came to me to tell me that when I was in such a hard time, I simply snapped. My others friends in the group says I should talk to her, but im still hurt and can't do it. So AITA?

when the tinier things started to mean something for you alone and nothing for everyone else, you have entered the world of not being alone.
You can go to into places present up and down, make little noise, hear whispers and lie for lifelong rewards.
Even the long nights and brighter days are not long enough and bright enough, to crave to carve for moments to relive.
The nastier it is, the purer the quarrels are, but it is all okay for what looks to make sure no one steals you.
Wander off to the edge even to the unknown broken places, you will be safe and sound in each other's arms worrying about everything.
Let me enter you and stay under your skin to feel protected and proceed with life's progress!!!
-ATOM

I’m writing for a friend. I’ve worked in the industry for 10 years, partially in management and this situation is BIZARRE to me so I’m curious to hear what others say.
My friend works at a venue operated by a house-hold name corporation which I won’t name. Quick service drinks, turn and burn, while there is light food and servers. It’s a pulled house. Bar and servers pull, and other positions are paid a higher hourly and tipped out (food runners, etc) It seems the baservers average around $300-400 a night.
Then management decided to move positions around, change hourly pay to be lower for the server assistants and bar backs, now forcing the hourly staff (who earn $2.83 an hour) to come up with new tipping rules because they claim it is “illegal” for THEM (the management) to implement rules about tips. Which in turn has caused ultimate chaos, drama, fighting because no one can agree on an outcome. It’s so bad that my friend wants to quit.
putting hourly staff in charge of what other hourly staff will make is wild to me. Taking money from everyone’s pockets because they want to underpay the hourly positions.
I have NEVER heard of this…I’ve managed a house in the same city, and my operation had rules that we managers created and it was what it was. Illegal? To me it sounds like horrible management who doesn’t want to take accountability for trying to rip off their staff.
I’d love hear opinions on this!

this isnt gonna be a post about me self diagnosing and all that, im too broke to go anywhere to add another mental illness to my list.
i moved away from all my friends and family and now live with my partner and their family, their sister is diagnosed with bpd. Me and her started becoming friends and i havent had a friend in so long. We talk about our issues and smoke together and just hang out. if anyone's diagnosing its her lol she tells me all the time i have most traits and we help each other because we understand how each other feels. she would take me with her on arrands and just randomly come into our room and want to hang out.
about a week ago she had a really bad episode details arnt mine to discuss but i was with her the entire time for days, i got no sleep, we lived off weed and coffee and she dragged me out of the house to drive around im the middle of the night and I did it i stayed with her bc I knew she had nobody else. then the problem resolved so we hung out less.
now she barely talks to me, not in a malicious way she just doesn't come and ask if I wanna hang out or come check on me or anything. she told me yesterday than we could hang out when she got back from running around and she didn't even text me when she came home. she came home with her boyfriend and then blew me off. now she's hanging out with her half brother all the time and laughing and cutting up loud af and it just sounds like nails on a chalkboard because I want that to be me.
i cant talk to anyone because shes the only one that would get it. i was just watching tv with my partner and come out to see her hanging out with half brother. it set me off and idk what to do I told my partner I had to pee but now ive been in the bathroom for nearly 20mins crying and how am i supposed to tell them what's wrong they wont get it.
tldr i just want a friend

Part I - Part II
Whitewall House looked different this afternoon. Twelve hours had passed, and yet the property appeared ruinous — worse than two months prior when we first pulled onto the driveway.
My knees knocked together as I inched through the open front door. Silence greeted me, but that wasn’t a comfort. I thought of May’s comment when we’d first arrived. It’s too still.
“May?” I called.
I crept up the creaking stairs, grateful for the sunlight that poured through the windows, though the house still terrified me. I finally saw what my wife and children had seen for weeks. The true malice hidden in those walls.
And then I heard crying from the room at the end of the upstairs landing — our bedroom. I sprinted towards it, pushing the door open to find a sight that stilled my shaking body.
“May…” I whispered.
She was sitting on the edge of our bed, face drenched in tears, and she looked up at me.
“You came back,” She said, sniffling.
My weary wife rushed to her feet, and we embraced for a little while, bawling into each other’s shoulders. I felt a deep, unyielding guilt. I could’ve believe I’d left her there all night.
“I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “It tricked me. I thought it…”
“- Where are our children?” May anxiously interjected.
“They’re with Rachel. They’re safe. Come on, let’s get out of here,” I said, wrapping my arm around her.
My wife gently squeezed my hand and shook her head, looking up at me. She beamed, but it was a sad smile. Her sorrow filled me with a dreadful emptiness.
“I can’t,” May replied.
And before I could reply, the door to the guest room at the far end of the landing — the one which had revealed the long-necked lady the night before — swung open of its own accord. My wife stood still. She was shivering at the very sight of the guest room.
I sensed that she wanted me to go alone, so I motioned for her to stay in our bedroom as I walked across the landing. I trembled, fearing the thing with the slender, curved neck and lopsided head. I braced for whatever fate the entity would deal.
I didn’t find the sickly, shadowy demon in the guest room. I found something far more horrifying.
“I’m sorry,” May cried, standing behind me.
But she wasn’t standing behind me. She was lying on the carpet of the guest room, snapped into a twisted shape with a petrified look on her lifeless face. By the looks of it, she died hours before I arrived there. Alone.
“No…” I croaked, falling to my knees in tears.
“I… I didn’t know whether you’d believe me,” She sobbed. “Carl, I need you to-”
“- Did it happen whilst I was helping the children downstairs? I… I saw it in the doorway,” I murmured.
The spectral form of my wife placed her hands on my shoulders, consoling me as I mourned her. There’s something indescribably terrifying about having a conversation with someone whose corpse is lying before you.
“Carl,” May said softly. “I need you to listen to me. We have to protect our family. Where is the Lady?”
“At the hotel,” I replied. “But the kids are safe. They’re miles away.”
“She’s not at the hotel,” May whimpered.
“What?” I asked.
“She’s not at the hotel,” May repeated. “That thing could only leave this place by latching onto someone.”
“You,” I said.
May shook her head tearily. “No, sweetheart. You. Where you go, it goes.”
There was the sudden sound of a door slamming, and the light outside the windows dimmed — as if a cloud were hanging heavily over our house.
“She’s here,” May whispered, gripping my arm. “She took my necklace. The one you gave me. That’s how she assumed my form. You need to take it back so you can trap her here.”
A moan sounded from the lobby.
May gripped me tightly. “I can’t stay. She’s shutting me out.”
I turned to face my wife, but her spectral form had vanished. I was kneeling on the floor beside her cold, decaying corpse in the near-lightless Whitewall House. I rose to my feet and listened to the steps ascending the staircase.
Then I saw the thing that was pretending to be my wife.
It smiled at me and hissed. “What have you found, sweetheart?”
The necklace, sporting a pair of initials — M and C — swung tantalisingly on May’s soft skin. I had to remind myself that it wasn’t her. It was a trick — a demon’s deceit. And I also knew that it wouldn’t take long for the Lady, as May called her, to infer my intentions.
I lunged towards the abomination and grasped the necklace in my hand, curling my fingers around it. The smile on the Lady’s face faded, and she slowly shook her head at me.
“I wouldn’t do that,” She hissed.
But the thing didn’t raise a hand. It didn’t try to stop me. I wrenched the necklace from the frightful thing, and then I shoved it out of the way, rushing down the stairs to the lobby.
The front door slammed shut, enclosing me in the darkened space, and I spun around to find that my wife’s doppelgänger was gone. I was looking at the scarcely-visible form of the Lady. Long-necked, corpse-like, and inhuman. Its lopsided head bounced against its shoulder, and I shrieked.
I stared at the reaper’s unholy face as its janky body clomped downstairs. It reached the bottom of the stairs, and I pressed my back against the front door, fumbling with the lock that wouldn’t budge.
“Run!” A voice screamed.
May.
Her ghostly hand rose from the floorboards, clutching the Lady’s slender ankle and rooting it to the ground. The demon screeched, swiping a hand towards me as I slithered into the lounge. It continued to moan and shriek, realising I was about to slip away, as I picked up a dining chair and hurled it at the living room window.
The glass pane shattered, and I hauled my body through the window frame, landing on the driveway. I didn’t look back. I hopped into my car and drove away from Whitewall House for the last time.
X

Before I get started, I think most women would love the idea of their man entirely avoiding their ex… but here’s the deal.
He dated her years ago, I got out of a three year relationship myself not long ago. I’m to the point of no contact with my ex, we don’t follow each other on any social platforms, we do not talk. BUT, that being said, if I knew he was at a club I was at I would not avoid the entire club to avoid him. I have gotten over him, and if I ran into him I would smile and walk away. If he tried to talk to me I would ignore and walk away.
My man now dictates his entire night on avoiding his ex. He says, “shouldn’t you be happy I dont want to see her?”. I want to say yes, but if we are at a club and he finds out shes there too he wants to leave the bar entirely. If we are out and upstairs in a bar and he finds out shes downstairs he wont move. As much as I want to say “yeah I’m glad you avoid her!” in my mind its more of, why does she still bother you and your mood that much?
As someone who got out of a even longer relationship than theirs, like I said if I knew my ex was at the bar I would not engage in conversation but i’m not adjusting my entire night to avoid him. To me, it seems he is bothered by her and their break up. It might sound insecure, but I feel he feel’s something with her still and thats why he avoids it. Again, with my ex that I am entirely over its not that I want to run into him, but if I did I would walk away and feel nothing from it.
Why is he so set on never seeing her? If he says its in the past and he feels no way about it why cant we walk past her and go about our night? Why is she dictating what he does still?
Am I just insecure? Is it possible he feels nothing for her and just doesn’t want to see her? But why does it determine our whole night?
We aren’t dating, just talking. Probably wont even date because we have job opportunities leading us to different states, but I dont want to be lied to if he does care about her still. He has acted like I’m actually nuts from being upset and said I was making nothing into something.

It’s a red rump over a year old got it somewhere around 5 months ago( not sure but pretty much 5) she is very very very scared of me as in she starts screeching and flying around her cage when I put my hand in the cage ( I bought. New cage that has removable from the outside trays so she doesn’t get stressed) my cat he’s been an asshole to her , I try to minimize their contact but he screens outside my door all day and night , the people over at cats recomendé putting a towel on the birds cage at all times of day so he doesn’t notice her but I don’t think that’s very good, I tried giving her treats, and tried switching to chop ( 3 times ) the first two times she just didn’t eat it and on the third she got sick and the vet told me seeds, that was 1 week ago and without chop I don’t know how to feed her treats

Ok - before I tell my story, yes I realize now 14 years later I did some dumb shit when I was 18. The question is how I get it to stop, leave my family alone, as we want to have a normal life. All of this is true, no I don't think I have mental illness - I go to the VA and have been tested for all mental illnesses which doesn't check out. I was raised semi-Catholic (only been baptized, no other sacraments).
There is a preface to this story, but now that I'm older it makes a lot of sense.
I didn't sleep in my own bed until I was around 13 because I used to see things at night which scared the absolute dogshit. Like most parents they didn't believe anything I ever said:

1. One time playing hide and seek when I was kid (around 6/7), I was hiding under the covers of my bed looking at a shelf and a saw a bin full of Lego's get tugged like someone pushed down on it. Two minutes later the bin gets pulled out of the wall by itself and my dad runs in to see what happens to which I have no explanation. I was across the room by myself.
2. I used to see figures at night in my room. They never approached my bed, but would kind of look at me in my closet. They were real fuzzy around the edges and took on different forms. When I went to Yosemite on a camping trip, I remember being awake terrified in my bed next to my mom and there black figures walking around in hiking clothing, but no face or anything. They made no sound as they walked around our cabin at around 5:30 in the morning (I was the only one who was awake who saw it), and I can vaguely remember one standing next to my bed where my mom and I were asleep standing down looking at me.
3. The day after I turned 13 I started sleeping in my own bed because my dad had enough - I had a radio in my room I turned NPR on at night on at for white noise so I could try to sleep. I kept the lights on a low dim and the closet door closed so I wouldn't have things "looking" at me. None of these figures ever made noises.

Ok - real story time.
I joined the Marine Corps in the infantry in 2009 at 17 years old (I became a Mortarman/0341) - by 18 I went to my duty station in Kaneohe Bay Hawaii. Those who don't know Hawaiian folklore is that Kaneohe Bay used to be the "meeting place" for Native Hawaiian tribes to do battle. The movie "Paranormal Activity" also came out that year, and we all got drunk and went to the movies to see it. There's this stupid scene where they get a Ouija Board (yes I know this is where I got stupid), and leave it on the table, and then it moves by itself.
Drunk me asks on the drive home if that stuff actually works, and we go find one the next day in Spencer's Gifts in the Windward Mall in Kaneohe, HI. We take it back to our squad bay (we stayed in open bays when we first got there), and the person "on duty" (like RA or dorm security) who is Catholic/Hispanic turns white and says "get that shit out of here right now". We laugh and go to our bay on the top floor.
We pull couches around the table and start drinking (because we're Marines and dumb) and start reading the directions on how to do it. I text my girlfriend (now wife) and she also tells me to stop messing with this stuff. She Googles it and tells me to put Sterling Silver on the board, to which I magically have a St. Michael's Medallion my mother gives me before going to Bootcamp that I had, so I put it on the board.
​
Again I don't believe this, none of the people participating believe this, we put our hand on the pointer and start asking stupid things like "is there anyone who wants to talk to us tonight". This goes on for a while, until all of a sudden the pointer starts moving slowly. I look at the other people and say "Stop fucking around, I want to see if it works". Everyone claims that it's not them, and it slowly moves over to yes. So we start asking if it's anyone we know, and it goes to yes again. We ask who does it know, and it says it's our friend Nathan who is sitting on a couch across the bay with a beer in his hand not touching anything. He's drunk and says "very funny guys". He sits up and says "Ok, if you know who I am who are you", and the pointer spells out Grandma. He laughs again, and says, "OK Grandma, what is your first name". This board spells out his grandma's name correctly. We look at him and say "Ok, who did you tell your grandma's name to", to which he gets kind of quiet and says no one. He starts to ask the year she died (answered correctly), her husband's name (answered correctly), his mother's name (answered correctly). He gets extremely quiet after this, and asks if she has anything she wants to say and she says "I love you" and goes to Goodbye immediately. He looks freaked out after that and it's no longer fun.
​
We keep talking to different "entities", but it starts to get real weird, where the board starts naming people with birth and death dates from the 1800's which we google and are all 100% correct. Then I talk to an entity who says it was my mother's unborn child which was killed with an axe. I text my mom about what I'm doing and she tells me "You need to stop immediately" (she has her own story where something tried to contact her). At this point a Wiccan Marine walks in and he says "What the actual fuck are you guys doing? This is not a fucking toy or a game and you need to give this to me right now. I need to close this fucking board." He jumps on and starts doing some weird praying/rituals, saying we are talking to all sorts of things we shouldn't be.
The same Hispanic Duty walks up to our floor and says, "Hey can you guys please stop, there's a lot of weird stuff going on down stairs and everyone's freaked out. There's weird orbs of light at the ends of the bays, and things are getting knocked over by themselves. Please stop". I'm done messing with this at the end of this, but word got around that this was going on and around 20 more 18/19 year-old Marines show up wanting to talk to spirits on the board. One guy even asked to talk to Satan, and the Wiccan Marine got pissed because he sat there the whole rest of the night to essentially babysit the board.
The next day I felt kind of weird, like there was a pit in my stomach, and I went into the bathroom and kind of started dry-heaving until I felt something leave my mouth but there was no puke or anything. I thought it was too much drinking and ignored it. I went about my business.
There was one Marine who started acting weird for a week as he took the board into a closet by himself and tried to contact his grandfather, and people in his platoon said he started acting weird and distant, and I don't really know what happened after that. I don't remember what happened to the board, but I never touched one again after that, and when a co-worker brought to work as a joke on Halloween I immediately turned and left.
We were up on a mortar range on the Big Island at a training area called PTA - and we would get thick fogs that would roll in. This is on top of a remote volcano on top of the Big Island in Hawaii with nobody except military personnel training - and everyone would hear children laughing off in the distance in the morning. We'd always ask each other "Am I the only one hearing the children laughing?". We all agreed that we heard but no one ventured out into the fog to see what it was. It usually happened in the mornings. This was my last paranormal encounter in the Marines.
​
OK - Fast Forward 13 years, I am married and have 1.5 year-old who is walking and talking.
We moved into our new house with no issues - it's a new house and we bought it from the original owners who are all still alive, no deaths or anything we know of. I posted about this instance before, but just about what happened next. One day my daughter is running around the house bouncing around normally like she always does, and she points to the chair sitting against a desk in our downstairs guest room (the door was sitting open) and she says, "DADDY THERE'S A MAN IN THE CHAIR!" and runs over to me immediately. I pick her up, and she looks back in the room, starts shrieking and tries as hard as she can to press herself into me saying again, "There's a man in the chair!". The only thing she knows about ghosts are that they say "Boo", and she's super friendly with people she sees all the time, so I have no idea if there was an actual person in the chair why she'd be terrified. I have no idea what she saw but I believe that it wasn't nice. She's inconsolable with crying, shrieking, and I can't comfort her. All of my childhood experiences and the Marine Corps stuff comes back to me, and I tell my wife about it, and she actually believes me. We take her to my parents' house and go into town immediately to buy a feather, incense, and other stuff to do a smudging (was recommended on here by a user), and we proceed to do the smudging throughout the entire house, while I carry around my Catholic Bible commanding all spirits to get out of my house in the name of St. Michael, Jesus Christ, and the Lord Almighty God. I don't go outside, but we go in every closet, garage, etc. We bring my daughter back with no issues and life goes on for awhile. Every now and then before we put her to bed (she's now 2), she says "Daddy there's a bad man in the house". We always misdirect and read her stories and such and she goes to sleep with no issue.
​
We have a hot tub in our backyard, and I go sit out there at night before I go to bed some nights when I'm tired, but one particular night I had this horrible feeling that someone/something was watching me and not only that were glaring at me as if they were angry. I think I am empathic and can feel emotions/feelings, and whatever this was was furious/angry with me, and I could almost feel it staring down at me like I angered it somehow. When I walk into my house from the backyard at night I feel like I'm being watched by something. It doesn't go into the house, but somehow I can feel it looking at me inside the rear glass slider inside. Sometimes our Heeler puppy we brought home runs out the dog door at 2:00-3:00 in the morning and just starts growling and barking for no reason, and we go down to yell at him to go back inside.
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The final thing that I think because of this is I believe this entity (or entities) is tormenting me with disturbing thoughts that don't belong to me. They started about two months before my daughter was born, and up until the end of 2020 I didn't have these thoughts. I've been tested by the VA for Psychosis, Schizophrenia, Mania, Bi-polar and have absolutely none of those or any other medical disorder outside of PTSD. I have no hallucinations, seeing/hearing things that aren't there at all. I can't describe it but it feels like something has been putting these thoughts in my head and even sometimes my dreams - they definitely feel like they don't belong to me. I think whatever I contacted back in 2009 has been dormant for a long time and is now trying to come after me and my family. I am going to contact a bona-fide psychic (which is hard for Christians because the Bible strictly forbids us to do this kind of stuff) and see if they can see what's going on and hopefully do some energy management and get this things out of our lives once and for all.
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I'm honestly open for suggestions/prayers/advice - I want whatever this is to go away.

Alise woke up to the sound of her mother whimpering in fear. They slept in the same bed after she had started having these mightmares. "Look at my hands, I'm shaking, all my body is shaking..." Alise's mother whined fearfully. "It was only a dream, mommy." said Alise. She was fed up. This was the third time her mother had woken her. She started to say something, but her mother cut her off. "He was there... His car was parked there in the same gas station. All dressed in green, dark green. I couldn't move my head, but I was watching him in the mirror. Oh, it was horrible! His face was sort of erased, but I knew he was looking at me. Two invisible eyes, two invisible and monstrous eyes!" Alise was unsettled, to say the least. She had been dreaming of the same man. "Please stop, you're frightening me."
"I'm sorry butterfly, you shouldn't listen to mommy. Go back to sleep."
Alise's mom rolled over and closed her eyes. But at this point, Alise was wide awake. "I'm not tired anymore, I just want to get away from here."
"Mommy needs some sleep too, we've got a long way to go tomorrow. Go back to sleep angel, mom is gonna keep the devil away.
Alise's mom began singing a lullaby. Alise remembered it fondly.
now close your eyes, everything is fine
everything is light
Mom loves you more
than any Mom in the world
see you in the morning light
where the birds sing with the sun
"I love you, sweetie." Alise's mom kissed her on the cheek.
"I love you, mum..."

Y’know, the age old cure all of “eat more fiber!” Which for many of us only makes things worse.
Although I drink at the minimum of half my weight(lbs) in ounces of water a day, the veg and fruits I eat tend to make my symptoms worse. Foods like broccoli, spinach, raw cabbage, bananas, beets, asparagus, yada yada. I eat them because I love them and they’re good for me. I bear the consequences. Suddenly though today I got a huge hankering for apples. I never eat apples, but the anime I was watching was making them look reeeeally damn good. So I went to the store to get them. I also picked up some cotton candy grapes. Wild child I know! I of course went to town on them both, and I realized… these foods have more water than what I typically eat. After just finishing my nightly tummy soothing tea, I actually feel things kinda… moving. In my body. Like on their own. Like I’m hearing sounds n sh*t. Is this a thing? Does the water content in the fruits/veg we eat make a difference?
So yeah I just wanted to see if you guys have trigger foods or whatnot. A) to see if there are any consistencies and B) because I’m curious!

I have a GCC who is three years old, he has a large cage with lots of toys and gets veggie chop and sprouted seeds every morning as well as his normal seed and water. He can see out the window into the quiet street. I am gone from 7-5 everyday and he comes out from 5-8 at night. He has a large play area when he is out and sits with me for around an hour for scratches. I have a lot of one bird guilt. I am worried he is lonely and sad although he doesn’t seem unhappy. We cannot get another conure but have been considering kakariki, cockatiel, or lovebird. (In a seperate cage, with seperate area, water and food when out. Never left unsupervised while out) Will this improve his quality of life, being able to see and talk to another bird during the day? Or will I end up with two lonely birds? He has interacted with cockatiels before without being aggressive but will this change long term?

I (24F) moved to a different state for work back in 2021 and my sister (22F) decided to move out here as well last year. We got an apartment together, thinking it would be fine since we actually lived together fairly well growing up.
The thing is that she's taken up VR dancing and I had no clue what that entailed when we agreed to move in together. She takes over the entire living room 4-5 nights a week, meaning I'm relegated to my room. She often goes from 8pm-1am in the morning - either dancing or talking loudly with her friends. There's a lot of banging and we have thin walls. We also don't have a ground floor apartment, meaning there's downstairs neighbors who I know are hearing all of this! Also, I have anxiety issues that can make me pretty sensitive to noise. Living in a city already comes with a certain level of noise that I still haven't fully adjusted to, and having loud crashing sounds happen randomly during the evening doesn't help. I have noise cancelling headphones, but they only do so much and also I hate wearing headphones constantly in my own home.
And since this seems relevant - we aren't close. Never have been. I've been slowly getting better about intentionally initiating conversation or time together, but she spends almost all her time on her computer and dislikes being interrupted at all.
Long story short...I don't want to live with her anymore since we have different ideas of what we'd like from our living space. I really like our apartment and would prefer not to leave (especially since a lot of the bills are in my name), so I'd theoretically be asking her to find a different space to live. I'd be willing to help her with the whole process. Especially so she could find somewhere optimal for her preferred lifestyle.
But...she's my younger sister. And literally moved across the country to this city where I am one of the few connections she has. She had been wanting to move basically anywhere that wasn't our home state for a while, but I'm a large part of the reason she ended up in this specific city. I'm definitely not the perfect roommate either, but she hasn't asked me to leave.
Would I be the asshole for asking her to move out?

I have severe social anxiety. Since the moment I found out my favourite writer was going to be visiting my hometown, I started to mentally prepare for the event. I showed up 2 hours early so I didn’t have to “struggle” finding a seat. The big day came and I almost decided not to go but my boyfriend convinced me to, as he knew I’ve been waiting for this day for months.
When I got there, the place was already full and there was no chairs available. I finally managed to find a good standing spot and waited there for 2 hours before it began. When the event already started, some girls arrived late and positioned themselves right in front of me. I was so shocked and annoyed that I couldn’t speak. They got there late and got better spots than me and wasn’t able to say anything. It was devastating as I couldn’t see anything.
At the end of the event, I got in line to get an autograph from this author and she seemed super friendly and talked to everyone while signing books. During line I tried to rehearse what I was going to say to say to her, as I was very nervous.
Long story short, I couldn’t stop stuttering and ended up sounding really dumb. She didn’t talk to me at all and just asked my name to sign for. I felt really bad as she literally chit chatted with everyone but me.
It should have been a happy night but it was a sad one. I hate myself so much. Why can’t I be normal?

Hi all! Thanks in advance for any feedback.
I’ve had a Rebel T7 for years and have more recently started birding/bird photography. I use a 75-300mm EF lens and definitely have plenty of room for more reach and better quality.
Looking at a rough budget of ~$2000 (a little flexible). From reading a bunch of other recent posts mentioning birding, I’m thinking the R7 and RF 100-400mm could be a good choice. It sounds like the R7 sensor allows for cropping that would make the max focus seem a bit higher than 400mm? Other lens mentioned a lot around my budget is the sigma 150-600.
Am I missing anything, or would the R7 and 100-400mm be the best choice? I want to get better photos, further reach, and still have an easily portable set up for hiking and not using a tripod. Even though the Sigma would have further reach, I get the impression that the 100-400mm has better compatibility and would already feel like a big upgrade over my current gear.

Just wanted to share something that has happened to me recently, hope it's okay.
Brief introduction: I am 30yo and as a kid I drove my family crazy with irrational phobias and tantrums and oddities (like being unable to go to the bathroom alone and hating wearing clothes sometimes) . But I was hyperlexic and very school-smart (and very people-dumb too) and well-mannered other than that (I HATED being scolded but I didn't know what I was doing wrong or how to avoid it - I was locked in a room without my games when I "misbehaved" and remained quiet, if sad, for hours) . They took me to a lot of professionals and eventually I got an OCD diagnosis but SSRIs made me aggressive and so they ended up taking me to every church in the book and changing routines until I calmed down.
Needless to say, I grew up as a depressed teen who did a lot of research on Psychology and eventually ended up in a major and was bullied because I was TOO stereotypically autistic really. Like... too much, down to tiptoeing and hating friendly touches.
But I learned through pain, scolding, being locked up, grounded, bullying and breakdowns how to behave more or less like a NT person, to the point that when I went after my diagnosis as an adult I had my requests for a formal evaluation rejected by a lot of professionals.
And I thought of a metaphor these days: being an undiagnosed autistic person is like being blind except you don't know you are blind, other people don't know blindness is a thing, and for some reason you live in a world where everyone asks other people's opinions on pictures. You can't win. People ask you "what do you think of this picture?" so you go "what?" and they get annoyed. Some will leave you alone and hate you while others will bully you into "WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS FUCKING PICTURE?" until you reply "i-it's lovely" and next time someone asks you'll automatically reply "i-it's lovely" like a well-conditioned fearful white rat. And then people will get annoyed at you for giving always the same answer. And then you will ask someone who actually sees if the picture is actually lovely, find patterns in their descriptions (like "every lovely picture has a sky") but sometimes they will fail (because not every picture actually has a sky but you didn't know that) and through trial and error and fear you'll perfect your technique to the point of replying, when someone asks you "what do you think of this picture" something generically correct - "wow it's lovely, this artist's technique is great! Who are they? By the way, what's this detail here? I can't see very well but I probably need to change my glasses. You see, I went to the ophthalmologist the other day, and I was waiting for hours on queue, gosh I just hate doctors (talks for 3 hours so the picture is never mentioned again)" . And then people start believing that you are an ophthalmology expert because you think everyone is faking and no one told you that only you and a select few are fucking blind and it is not a choice. And no doctor wants to claim you're blind because they will sound like a fucking fraud when YOU are the fraud.
Anyway, introductions aside. Sorry, that was longwinded.
I am a Psych bachelor and am in Law school right now. I am clearly "Humanities inclined" but no one knows that's only because I ran away from college level Physics like a bitch and I also ran away from robotics class because I was the ONLY girl there. So I introduce myself as a specialist and people buy it.
Right now I am an intern at a small claims court. There my supervisor told me they had to tell me "something" about this other intern before she arrived. And he goes "you see, she is autistic and needs our help". Of course he knows I know what autism is because of my background. He does not know I managed to get formally diagnosed in my late 20s because that's not something I go around telling people, among other reasons because my neuropsychological evaluation had to be signed by a medical doctor to have any legal effects, and even my former psychiatrist avoided signing it. It's not that he disagreed - he agreed with it but he didn't want to SIGN it and I didn't want to push.
So for any legal effects I am neurotypical and not struggling. But I do have a few other formally diagnosed issues like migraines and malformations so that's what I tell people to explain why I am "weird" but unassisted. And anyway people don't know shit about autism and are generally ableist soo it's not an entirely bad thing that I grew up the hard way back when support was even less of a thing.
And of course I said "sure" but I had never worked with an "officially" autistic person before so I didn't know what to expect, other than get along well.
She is way younger than me (maybe 10 years) and behaves in a stereotypically autistic way. Honestly she is delightful to work with - polite, clear, very smart actually, and helps me a lot because my entire experience in Law school has been a huge "I don't know, at this point am afraid to ask and being poor doesn't help" so she helps me with those things because, well, guess she wasn't afraid to ask. On the other hand I know from theory and experience how to make autistic people feel safe and don't think much of her "quirky" ways (other than "relatable because some things don't change as we age") and can explain how the NT mind works like "pictures often have beautiful skies" . This much is going well!
On the other hand I do feel a bit "pffffft lol" on the inside whenever someone is ableist or whatever. People seem to assume we get along well because I am kind and gentle and a Psych expert ... for now. And that my occasional hardships stem from having been a lazy student (probably with a crazy nightlife, definitely not struggling with executive dysfunction, malnourished from not cooking nor playing gacha until late at night, noo) not because I was afraid to ask the obvious ... for now.
In other words I am waiting to see how long it takes for them to catch up. So far, nothing, apparently. And no don't plan on saying anything as for practical purposes I am just an undiagnosed autistic person with migraines and shit just like I was some years ago. But yeah just glad I can explain things like "by the way, autism isn't the same as intellectual disability but we as a society don't know this yet yadda yadda" as a pro lol. Fuck people who say self-advocacy can't be a thing. Take this.