I worked a precinct that was right next to a huge nursing home. One guy who was 98, came in and after getting his ballot fell down and was unresponsive. Luckily the home had their own staff join the groups that came to vote and resuscitated him and he continued exactly where he left off at tortoise pace.

Also lots of people who were not registered or at the wrong polling place but insist on voting anyways despite me patiently explaining and showing them how to solve the issue. They demand to “vote” so they get a provisional ballot that we dutifully process which likely will be rejected. All of them are certain we are stealing their ballot, or trying to keep them from voting. I always say to them, “you seem like you are someone who knows a lot about the election process and has the time, we need people like you to volunteer” while offering them the volunteering paperwork. They leave pretty quickly after that.

There was a weekend in 2006 where I had absolutely nothing to do despite a full schedule for months on either side. I stayed in my apartment and played video games and just existed happily without being molested for three whole days.

I have had children and received promotions and all of that, but all of those experiences are laced with a bit of anxiety. That weekend though was just pure, light joy for three days and it is something I revisit mentally, constantly. Make sure to enjoy those little times too.

As an counter example as something that you may not think of as therapeutically relevant, there are a whole class of Platinum based anti-cancer drugs.

Parenting (and childhood) is intense and unrelenting. You can’t expect parents to be on stage continuously and continue to be patient and kind. You also can’t expect a 7 year old to be happy listening to their parents talk about work for 45 minutes. Taking breaks or responsibly drinking a beer is perfectly fine and isn’t going to negatively impact the child any more than allowing them to watch some age appropriate media for the time before they eat.

Well I use mine every night and sleep fine. I could also be a robot as you suggest too.

Check out bone conduction headphones.

The audio quality is not the best but it more than enough for podcasts or youtube content. They are much more comfortable for me as long as the volume is relatively low or else the vibration starts to become annoying. I would recommend trying them out if you can from a friend or order some expecting to return them because they aren’t for everyone but if you are like me you won’t want to use anything else.

I went to a John Kerry Rally in 2004. I got there about 30 minutes late and for whatever reason was ushered up to the front corral of people. Inexplicably, Bon Jovi takes the stage and shouts, “You what George Bush’s financial policy is? Bad Medicine!” and launches into the song ‘Bad Medicine’. I started laughing my ass off because it was corny as shit and Bon Jovi and I made eye contact for a brief second.

YMMV

This adds a whole new dimension to the lore.

One day a coworker of mine was walking into our huge office building and thought he saw a mitten on the ground of the lobby. When he picked it up it was actually a pair of lacy women’s underwear. Ostensibly it fell out of someone’s gym bag or got caught in their pant leg in the laundry and dislodged there. He drops it immediately and comes into the office. He doesn’t mention this to anyone.

Two hours later the main receptionist comes in with the underwear in front of our whole group and says she saw him drop these this morning and she wants to return them. He’s denying the whole thing and at this point none of us have the previous context and all locked in to the conversation and silent laughing. She says, “We just want to give these back in case they have sentimental value!” and the the whole group is dying laughing now. He eventually convinces her he isn’t interested in a stranger’s underwear (which she bare handing) to which she says she’ll keep them in case he changes his mind (???).

It’s been 5 years and it gets brought up nearly daily

One of the chillest, good vibe albums I have ever listen to blind was Masayoshi Takanaka’s - All of me.

The youtube comment that was at the top of the video that I listened to years ago summed up the experience nicely, "No one searches for this album, it finds you when you need it.

I have two:

1. I was the main tank of a raiding guild in WoW during the Burning Crusade era. Our guild was the best on the server, but nothing too notable outside of that community. However, when a new quick raid encounter came out (Magtheridon’s Lair), we unintentionally completed the encounter in a novel way. I know that because the next week when we went to clear it, a developer whispered me and asked me if he and a few others could watch us because they noticed through some automated log to prevent cheating that we completed the encounter last week without engaging with a major mechanic of the fight. They let us know they were there, but you couldn’t see anyone and when you looked up the character name it wouldn’t show up if you searched the name. We showed them how we did it, they congratulated us for our ingenuity then told us they were changing the encounter for next week. It was really cool.

2. A few years ago I got into Enter the Gungeon. For those unaware it’s a bullet hell, rogue-like, dungeon crawler with a steep learning curve but great graphics and snappy controls so it is a great time. The first time I beat the game I posted a screenshot on Reddit and the entire community was convinced that it was fake because of my build and the lack of max health I had. At first I was annoyed then I realized that if they didn’t believe me then it meant I did something, literally, incredible.

I have worked in a CVS so I can answer this first hand. The main reason is every CVS is critically understaffed to the point of danger to patients.

Beyond that systemic problem that adds delay, actually dispensing the prescription is not the rate limiting step. When you get a prescription there’s a whole list of things you need to do before it can be dispensed. In no particular order:

1. Select the right drug which seems easy but the prescriber may have used an old brand name, or misspelled it, or put in something that doesn’t exist.
2. Calculate days supply (easy for pills, not so much for insulin, creams, eye drops, etc.)
3. Find the correct doctor in the system
4. Find the right patient’s profile and see if they really fill at your store
5. Transcribe the directions in a way that makes sense in less than ~200 characters to fit on the bottle.
6. Check to see if the patient already has another prescription on file they are in the middle of the refills for so you don’t have two active prescriptions.
7. Check to see the prescription has all the required information on it to be filled based on state requirements
8. Send the finalized prescription to the patient’s insurance which inevitably is rejected because of some minor issue with any of the above, or it is expired, or requires prior authorization, or they changed their name, or it is too soon, or it’s not the proper moon phase.
9. Actually fill the prescription which requires finding it on the shelf which is a mess because you fill ~500 prescriptions a day
10. Scan the bottle to make sure it’s the same as what you billed the insurance, but if you picked the wrong generic brand on the first step you get to start over.
11. Clean the counting tray
12. Count the pills
13. Get the right vial and label everything with the stickers, and if you need more you need to print more out but someone else has a 50 page print job ahead of you and it’s out of labels
14. Answer the phone
15. Answer the drive through
16. Answer the patient at consultation
17. Answer the patient at the cash register
18. Send it to the pharmacist for review which is a huge process on it’s own which requires looking for interactions, appropriate dosage, correct drug for the disease indication, and simply reviewing you got everything transcribed correctly which if it isn’t you get to start all over. Plus there are 50-100 prescriptions already waiting for review.
19. Process a vaccination patient
20. Add water to a reconstitutable (powder) medication
21. If Poseidon wills it, the prescription is approved and then you get to bag it, then put it in the right spot in the bins so it can be found.

If it’s a controlled substance you need the pharmacist to do about 50% of the steps above and access the safe which is a whole process. In the meantime they are on the phone with a doctor or some insurance trying to get something clarified or approved. Or compounding someone’s diaper cream. Or doing vaccinations. Or counseling someone on their antibiotic. Some drugs have mandatory monitoring programs you have to enter information from the doctor before they can be dispensed. Some drugs require a dosage syringe, or intramuscular syringes, or needle tips.

Suffice it to to say it is an involved process.