@ikea_femme yeah, it sucks every time

sometimes they offer to pay my way but i find it very hard to say yes to that. even have trouble accepting help from my (much better off) partner atm

@alyx The worst is when they invite you out to something that sounds reasonable, and then it just gets spendier and spendier.

Recently in my life
"Let's go out to this river tubing place on the hudson!" - Great, agreed!

"And then we'll do a barbecue with a bonfire. Throw in for beer?" - I guess I can

"Now that we're already driving there and need to rent a space to cook anyway, let's sleep there. Get a tent and sleeping bag before we leave next week" - Wait, what?

And it's really hard to say no after saying yes several times. Especially for me, since I barely kept any friendships going in my dysphoric pre-transition haze.

@alyx Also, every time you go out to eat and they decide to split the bill evenly but everyone else orders cocktails and fancy sushi and shit.

@ikea_femme YESSSSS FUCK I HATE THAT

i'll order one item and water, easily lowest cost of the bunch, but feel like i'd be somehow bad if i objected to the "even" split

$10 cocktails aren't even on my radar. what a waste of scarce capitalism points

that said, the other day a techie i'm close to told me that they make $125/hr, and not even working for a lot of it. they were buying a plane ticket to korea and it was quite a revelation to me that they could afford that with not even a day's wages.

@alyx

non-optimal because they offered to pay so you could be there?

If that's the case I know the feeling... and it took me a while to learn that it's okay to accept such generosity because it's my presence that's desired.

But if it's something else, sorry to hear, and you can hang with us still

*hug*

@ThatDamnCat i mentioned the non-optimal aspects in the original post. money mainly.

but thanks yo.

the one time i was in austin (for ion storm!) i had a one-of-a-kind duck quesadilla (place was iron cactus or something?) and i think there was a bridge that bats lived under?

@alyx

Ah, I missed the original post I guess

Yeah, Iron Cactus has the duck quesadilla and there's like 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats under the Congress Avenue Bridge, making it one of the largest urban bat colonies

They're neat to watch

Hope you visit again someday

@ThatDamnCat i totally mentioned the quesadilla to you before 😣

@alyx

Yup

It's okay. I tell stories again and again sometimes.

If you ever visit we'll hit some new places that neither of us has been. Then we'll both have cool stories we can tell others

I'll be in Oakland on the 26th, I think, though I doubt I'm going to get any chance to hang out. It's mainly to see relatives before I help Sara pack all her stuff.

@ThatDamnCat haha. i'm trying not to be a stereotypical old quite yet.

oh that's cool. lmk if that changes.

@alyx

Heh, even youngin's do it

I will totally let you know if it changes or time becomes available

@ThatDamnCat there's still time to be in the second masto person i meet in RL!

@alyx

If we meet, then you'd be my 2nd, too

I don't count Sara since I knew her before I knew Masto

@alyx I'd do it for the free food. 😝

@fjthom that's a valid strat for sure

i have a really hard time letting people cover for me because i technically DO have money on hand. it's just that if i kept spending it like them i eventually wouldn't.