Toyota highlander new car dealerships

Need to replace a broken door handle on a 2014 Camry , passenger front.
Looks to be a relatively easy job that can be done without removing the door panel.
My question is....is it worth it to pay ~double the price for a a new OEM (Toyota part) vs getting one at Napa/Autozone vs an Amazon special?

I hate buying cars from a dealership. I always feel like I get screwed. Is it fair to assume that, with the high demand, paying the MSRP on the sticker is going to be the going rate with no wiggle room? I do not want all the dealer add ons that are a big money maker for the dealer.

I am going to keep some of the information sparse in order to invoke some sense of mystery, and not because I'm not good at selling myself *wink*
24M from CST timezone (USA). I have a new job, but the problem? There is no one around my age. There goes that tried and true method of friendship! While I like to drink sometimes, it is definitely not enough to encourage me to find a bar tonight to make friends that way, so you're stuck with me muahahaha. I am down to make some friends or even new best ones, but all I ask is that you are not a dry texter and 20+
I like to read books and sometimes watch anime. I have a bad habit of wanting to be a cheapstakes so you can often find me fixing my own car because I was too stubborn to take it to a mech. I learn something each time so while I am not some sort of bonafide expert, I do have some shallow knowledge. I like to walk down trails and drive backroads with the windows down. No one can hear me blast taylor swift that way! An ideal weekend for me would be to drive down some backroads with some people, find a nice spot to hang out in for the day, find some cheap food or shakes and then hang out by the bonfire at night.
I have been growing my hair out for the last two years, but I am inching closer and closer to getting the chop. I have my nose pierced and want some tattoos in the future when I have the extra money to afford a decent artist. I like to listen to a whole bunch of different music genres, but I feel that a lot my knowledge is shallow because of this. I would love to get some decent recs to add to my playlist. I have been in a country mood lately with the great weather. Some genres I like: R&B, Pop Punk, Metalcore, Rock, HipHop, OSTs, etc
I plan on doing a lot this summer. I want to get into actual hiking rather than what I currently do, which is walking down some easy trails. I want to get into fishing and relax on the weekend with a nice audiobook or podcast. I think archery is a cool thing to get into (non-hunting) but it depends on the extra money I have left to fund that sort of thing. It would be awesome to drive out to some nice places and camp/ fish but I am undecided. I plan to drive around more and try new things, new foods, and more! I am not that much of a gamer but I am willing to try out some games if we happen to click too.
Phew. I meant for this to be a lot shorter. So much for mystery, huh?
If you've read this far, hmu! I finished most of the errands I had planned today aka menards and other mother's day shopping. I should be good to hang out for the rest of the day.

Warning - very long post. TLDR: I’m struggling to find a way to address certain challenges involving my employee, Jason, that I believe will lead to him leaving if left unresolved. This includes some negative changes in his attitude caused by bad experiences on his old team and asking more a promotion/more resources. I’m asking, a bit desperately if I’m being honest, for this community’s feedback on what I might be doing wrong as a manager and what I can do to fix the situation before it gets worse.
I need to offer some back story on Jason for all this to make sense.
Jason was hired back in 2022, not by me, but by a department colleague of mine named Evelyn who brought him on to support her marketing team by overseeing ad deployment (I explain later how Jason ends up on my team). For the sake of brevity and not with the intention of downplaying his workload, the essence of his job is to collect creative from others in the department, place it in an ad and ensure it got properly published. He follows this workflow for each of the 2 ads that get published every week. The role also came with the responsibility of managing an offshore team of 3 meant to help with the more technical/IT-level aspect of his deployment duties including programming and knowledge of business intelligence systems.
Issues with some of Jason's more high-visibility ad deployments began around 3-4 month mark following his start while under Evelyn. Jason was tasked around this time with ensuring his offshore team successfully managed the upload of a new customer ad group into the department’s ad distribution system. After the project had been completed, Jason discovered that his offshore team had uploaded the wrong group of customers in the system resulting in customers receiving ads by mistake. Our department head, Craig, looped me in to assist Jason with purging the customers from the system which we ended up resolving, however, re-uploading the correct customer list in the ad system was put on hold.
The second issue, now about 8 months in Jason’s start, was a published weekend ad with a major price typo. Part of the creative review process before an ad is published includes an ad price/item check by a designated employee (not Jason) as well as a final comb-through of the ad by 8-10 members in our department (including Jason and Evelyn)—the incorrect price wasn’t caught at any of these stages. A company exec saw the misprinted price on the ad on a Sunday and immediately reached out to the department head, Craig, to get it fixed. Timing couldn’t have been worse as Jason had been hiking all day and his mobile reception was bad and no one from his off-shore team was available either to address the issue because of time zone differences. The typo was ultimately not fixed, and despite sales impacts from the incorrectly-priced item being minimal, executive leadership saw this is a very big mishap and directed blame towards Craig as the department lead for failing to have his team catch it. This also put pressure on Jason as the lead for ad deployment.
By this point, Jason’s work-relationship with Evelyn had become contentious. Jason had felt Evelyn and other members of her team were throwing him under the bus for mistakes made during the ad deployment process that he believes weren’t his fault. Evelyn and others on her team believed Jason was not living up to his expectations managing ad deployment and critiqued his quality of work and worth ethic, often sighting Jason’s arrival to the office at 10AM and departure at 4:30PM as a lack of dedication (Jason lives about an hour to an hour a half away from the office). Jason eventually went to Craig and requested to be switched to a different team in our department. Craig honored his request and, with my boss Diana’s approval, had him begin reporting to me in early 2023 but was still required to uphold his existing role and responsibilities, that is, continuing to support Evelyn with ad deployment and managing the ad deployment system with his off-shore team.
I’d like to believe I made a conscious effort to set up Jason for success in the initial months of him joining my team as I suspected maybe he hadn’t been given adequate support, guidance or resources with his previous team. I made sure any mistakes he made were met with feedback that was more constructive than critical or that if he was accused of making mistakes by others that I felt were unjustified, I would step in and back him. I shadowed him on certain projects either offering to split some of the duties with him if I felt the project was too big for him to handle alone or simply as a second set of eyes and stepping in with a little bit of guidance when I considered it necessary. I was lenient with his work schedule allowing him to come in after most people typically arrived and leaving earlier that most even after my boss Diana expressed to me some concerns about optics (I told her he was getting his work done which was true). He was initially only allowed 1 day a week to work from home (an old agreement between him and Evelyn) and I got approval on changing it to 2 after a year on my team to match the rest of the department. This all appeared to benefit Jason as major assignments were getting completed (with few or no issues). I no longer had to keep a bird’s eye view on his work as often. He was much more well-equipped at handling certain situations than he had previously been. My boss Diana even mentioned to me that our department lead, Craig, noted that “Jason was thriving”.
With all that backstory out of the way, now I can get into the challenges from my TDLR.
Challenge #1 – Jason’s history with his former boss Evelyn is making him disgruntled, affecting his attitude.
To re-iterate, Jason’s job is still to support Evelyn with ad deployment even though he now currently. reports to me. Since the beginning, Jason’s always had major gripes with his limited role in respects to creation of the ad which is strictly gathering content and piecing the ad together and has very little input on the actual content, which is predominantly Evelyn’s function and has been since before he started at the company. Jason and Evelyn are just two of the 8-10 people involved in putting together the ad.
Even though he was never promised it, Jason believes that he should own creative control of the ad over Evelyn and has made some rather alarming comments to me recently on this topic—one time in person saying “Why did I move teams if I don’t own the ad?” and the second time in an email just to me, in a sort of demanding tone, asking we cut and/or limit Evelyn’s input on ad content. Both times I had to remind him our role was specifically tied to ad deployment.
I don’t doubt that his animosity stems from his negative experience working on Evelyn’s team and the issues they had with one another that led to him reporting to me. Jason has a right to feel that way on some level (Evelyn and her team are sometimes very difficult to work with, can be duplicitous, etc.) but, as his manager, I’ve also noted that Evelyn’s criticism about Jason have some validity as I’ve seen them for myself (not holding himself accountable, not project managing things appropriately, etc.). I’m having a hard time getting Jason to hold himself accountable for situations where he is the cause as he simply attributes the issues back to Evelyn or the process with the ad overall. And though he's not always vocal about it, I know for a fact he still fully believes he should own the content portion of the ad over Evelyn.
Challenge #2 – Jason has asked for a promotion as well as more resources
Earlier this year was our annual job performance review. I though Jason did an exceptional job going above and beyond to deliver on certain key assignments and showed lots of promise in terms of his professional growth. There were still a few items I rated him at average that I felt he could work on but gave him a high overall rating.
When I conducted one-on-one with him, he asked for a title change and justified the work he did this year warranted it. He wanted to add 1 of or all of “CRM”, “Developer”, “Artificial Intelligence” to his existing title, “Manager of Ads Deployment”. Jason does indeed use a CRM tool for ad deployment and he had also been actively doing some dev-level work for a 1-time integration project on this CRM tool so from this angle he certainly has a point. However, my boss Diana and I initially sought to hire a temporary off-shore developer resource to handle the dev integration project before Jason took the project on himself. We consulted Jason on this possible temporary hire and he advised us he would be more well equipped to handle it himself and that we should not move forward with the acquiring this resource. He did not inquire to us at that time if this would merit a title change. Lastly, Jason has shown a keen interest in AI though he doesn’t possess a background in this (no degrees or past work experience) nor is it expected of him to know anything in this area to carry out his core responsibilities. I know he uses ChatGPT a lot for his programming projects (it’s not required of him to know any programming) to help him learn and apply to his job, but that’s about it as far as I’m aware.
I told him I would speak to my boss, Diana, and Craig, our department head, to see what I could do for him but advised I couldn’t make any promises. I spoke with Diana the next day about the change request (she basically scoffed) and told me she’d speak to Craig about it at some point in the following days. I week transpired and Jason asked me to for any updates on his title change and pay rise. I asked for clarity as I did not recall him mentioning pay rise at all, only title change. He responded saying “I said during my performance eval pay would come later”. I took him at his word assuming I simply didn’t hear him during our one-on-one and told him I would speak again with Diana to share he was also expecting a pay increase. Later that week I was told by Diana that Craig couldn’t approve either.
I messaged him on Slack on Friday while he worked from home at about 1:15PM asking if he could spare some time for us to discuss his title change/pay raise request. No response for an hour. I knew he was working that day because I saw emails from him in the morning that same day. At around 2:30PM, I texted him (not messaged on Slack) saying “Hey, not sure if you saw my Slack message but wanted to see if you could get on a call for us to discuss your title change/pay rise request”. Another hour went by without a response. Finally around 3:30PM that day, he responds on Slack saying he was running errands and didn’t see my messages. Now look, I get taking it easy sometimes when working from home—I do it too—but disappearing in the middle of a work day for hours while your boss is trying to contact you about your requests for a title change/pay rise is not a good look in my opinion.
We got on a Slack call (it sounded like he was still in his car) and essentially told him I couldn’t get approval for a pay raise. The best we (meaning myself and my boss Diana) could do is try to make a case for him at some undisclosed point in the future to leadership to possibly get him paid more, but that the title changes were still out of the picture. He pushed back, referring to developer work he was doing that was out of his job description to which I reminded him that Diana and I initially wanted to hire someone to do it so he wouldn’t have to and that this dev work was a one-time integration, not an recurring business need. Jason ultimately accepted that his requests had been denied.
The promotion discussion was earlier in the year but sort of resurfaced this week. Jason will begin handling deployment for 2 more ads in the upcoming weeks. This increase in workload was anticipated and normally Jason could tap into his off-shore team to help manage the workload. Diana and I realize that there are some disadvantages with relying on the off-shore team and floated the idea of possibly replacing them with a single on-site resource that might be better able to assist Jason. We let Jason know would run this by Craig so he could run it by the company CEO for approval but never made any promises it would happen.
The company is now really struggling financially and pay raises and additional resources are essentially no longer getting approved. Many of us, including me, have had take on additional duties, work more hours, etc. Jason messaged me on Slack saying he sensed Craig was not willing to replace his off-shore team with an on-site resource and that continuing to work with his current off-shore team would cause more headaches than solutions. He finished it off by saying “No pay rise and no resource feels like a slap in the face tbh”. I told him I needed to discuss the matter further with Diana, but if that need be, I would gladly step up and have him train me to be his back up/split some of the workload if in case we can't secure that on-site resource.
This is where I need some feedback. Sometimes I feel like Jason is out of line but sometimes I feel like he's justified. I want to be able to help him as much as I can but I'm limited in what I can do and I fear his dissatisfaction with work is going to cause him to leave. At this time, I don't have enough knowledge/expertise over what he does so that I could easily take over his role if he decided to leave. I'd really appreciate any advice here.

Is $30,700 plus TT&L a good offer for a New 2024 Mazda CX-5 Preferred ? The MSRP was $32,385 i got them down to $30,700 should i buy the car ? This is my first time purchasing with a dealer and I want to know if i got a good deal.

I recently got a 2023 SXT Charger and highly dislike the cross that Dodge still puts in the SXT Chargers. Am I able to swap the front bumper out for something like a Scatpack front bumper or just a GT bumper? I have no clue if it'll match the trim of the car or if its a stupid decision. I really dislike the cross in the front and it makes the cars look so much sillier. Am I able to front bumper swap it or should I just leave it? (New to the car scene)

I have a 2010 Range Rover HSE, with a new battery and newer alternator. I replace the battery every 3 years.
I find that if I have the vehicle parked, with the engine off, I only get about 20 minutes of the car “on” while the engine is off before I get a “low battery” signal on the instrument cluster. I know these cars run a lot of complicated electrical systems, but was wondering if this is normal, or if perhaps I’m draining faster unnecessarily for some reason.
I’m not blasting music, climate control, or running any aftermarket systems.
This can become particularly problematic when loading up for big trips, when it takes a good bit of time to load up the car and the interior lights are on (though I know there’s a way to disengage the interior lights).
If a battery drain is suspected, I’d love to learn how to test for it, though I would be a novice in that regard.
This car is used daily, so it’s not like it’s sitting for long periods of time.
Is what I’m experiencing normal?

As the title says, I recently managed to rocket my way from Bronze to Gold in like a month and I makes me very motivated to keep playing and improving. I spammed Sett and Mundo top and current hold a 57% wr there over the season. Overall, an understanding of these things helped me win lane and games. Also real elo people please correct me where I’m wrong, this post serves to get my own knowledge of the game as well

1. Pick a champ or two and stick to them, don’t attempt to jump around champs just because of a statistical advantage

You could pick Jax into Yone since he counters him according to the data, but if that Yone is 500 games deep and you barely know how to pilot Jax you’re going to get stomped. Personally I found myself much more comfortable even into “bad” matchups on my main since I feel I understand the limits of what I can and can’t do without inting. This is probably the most important thing I’ve taken away from climbing so far and applies to my other points.
It’s also good to know how to play your counters since it helps you identify where your champ and skills are weak. I can now consistently win or go even with the dreaded Vayne or Teemo because I know how to play into them. I find banning who stops you from having fun the most important rather than your worst statistical matchup(malphite does not exist in my version of league)

1. If you mess up, lose gracefully

In top you’re going to fuck up and even die early in a stupid trade from time to time, it’s just how it goes. However, when it does, it’s important to not give the enemy more than what he’s already taken from you. So many of my early leads were widened because people just keep running at me and dying cuz they wanna fight so bad. Wait for them to crash the wave and freeze near your turret as best you can, worst case scenario they freeze on you and you soak from a safe distance or roam to look for plays/objectives. In low elo people are cocky and will try to push in and greed for plates or dive you, use this to your advantage and try to get as many tower shots as possible on them and look for a chance to kill them, or wait for a gank. It’s easier said than done but if you die once, just don’t put yourself in the position to die again if possible.

1. Build based on the lane state

A good rule thumb i’ve followed building my items is: ahead = defense, behind = offense. If you have a level and item lead over your enemy building defensively will make you even harder to do meaningful damage to than you already are. For instance into Garen i’ll rush tabis and phage if I kill him early and now he tickles me with autos while I chunk him with mine and can run him down. The opposite is true for being behind, offense helps you do surprising damage and “outplay” someone who has a lead. If you build defensive from behind you’re not going to do anything(this probably applies more to bruisers than other classes). This doesn’t mean change your core btw, it just means purchase your components in a different order.

1. Abuse the enemy’s game knowledge

This applies to low elo mainly, but people have absolutely horrible macro knowledge and top you can get away with split pushing very heavily. For example, I like to ping my team to pressure but not fight around dragon while the enemy has 5 so I can split top. Mid-late I do this all the time and usually run away with an extra turret or two or an inhib if they’re really blind, in some hilarious cases I end the game because no one noticed I was chunking nexus turrets until it’s too late.
You don’t need crazy knowledge for this either, just know where the enemies are and respond accordingly based on your champ’s limits. For example, I see 3 bot, and 2 mid being pressured by my team. I know I can take at least one down if they both come but it’ll cost a turret mid even if I die, if they don’t respond I push down T2 and further. Regardless of my death, the team net gains map pressure in the end.
This also applies to match ups. I usually check to see my opponent’s mastery scores as a vague estimate of how well THEY know their champs. If it’s a 500k Darius it’s gonna be a skill matchup and there is no room for mistake but if the Darius is brand new I know I can abuse his weaknesses hard due to his lack of knowledge on his champion. Knowing your limits while the opponent doesn’t is a crazy advantage that you should always push(unless it’s a fresh account no mastery lee sin or riven which in that case you’re going to die.)

1. How to snowball

Once you get a lead and punch down T1, you have a lot of options at your disposal, here’s what I learned I should usually do. 1. shove to T2 or if the enemy top has abandoned lane, try to push for T2 turret. After I get it, do it again bot side until no side lane turrets are left standing. 2. roam mid and look for a kill and turret 3. roam to objectives last minute and surprise engage for your team. Showing up late to dragon or herald with full health and ult up is usually all you need to do as a fed top to win a fight, peel properly, focus priority targets etc and walk away with a net gain for your team. 3. make your opponent suffer. Maybe a bit of dirty fighting but if I see my lane opponent desperately trying to farm up waves and get turret I like to show up and beat them to death while emoting on them to make sure they’re useless for the rest of the game. Eventually they’re worth like 150 gold but it helps make the game into a 4v5 in your favour. I know I’ve truly won lane when they suddenly surrender and I see “leaver, penalty applied” in the post game lobby.

1. It only game and always learn

Most of all I find approaching league with the mindset of trying to #havefunandbeyourself is the best way to get good, every game, even a losing one, is an opportunity to learn. I remember beginning to play ranked I was legit *stressed,* like I had the same feeling of anxiety I had when I first started driving a car or coming home after an angry text from ma. This made me fuck up so much and get emotional at a video game, resulting in a positive feedback loop that put me on a losing streak.
Realising it was just that, a game, made it so much easier. Now I queue up ranked to unwind after a long day, drinking tea and reclining in my shitty office chair ready to have fun regardless of if I lose because I’m gonna learn *something.* The other day I lost but learned 1. fiddle can ult me by T1 turret and kill me 2. my burst is not enough to kill a fed adc even with ult if I’m behind 3. pantheon does too much damage in lane so play safe. Taking away these little things every game has helped me dramatically improve over the last month.
You play video games to have fun, and once you log off in low elo none of it actually matters at all, your life is gonna go on the same whether or won or lost your last game. If you’re legit stressed out, and league is affecting your mood long after the game is over, maybe reconsider whether it’s good to keep playing it.

I just put in a reservation for a 2024 Wilderness. It’s scheduled to arrive near the end of May.
I’m so excited. I’ve been driving a 2012 Rav4 for 10 years, and I’ve loved that car. It’s taken me safely to some super sketchy places in the mountains and has handled everything that I’ve thrown at it. Everything that I’ve ever thought “I wish I had that”—this new Forester has. I’m going to drive it into the ground.
The math maths, it has everything that I wanted in my next car, and it’s PRETTY.
Just wanted to share!

Not sure if anyone has a similar experience, but I took my 23 EN to the dealership for a diagnosis on a strange vibration on the driver side and learned that both of my front rims are bent (most likely due to hitting potholes).
The two rims alone costs 1800+ USD according to the dealership (way more expansive then I expected) and I'm not sure if I should buy new ones or take them to repairs.
Has anyone taken the EN wheels to repairs before? How did it go?

Hi! I'm a gal in my early 20s who knows very little about cars, so please bear with me! I purchased a 2014 Mazda6 back in October, and it's been great with the exception of the infotainment system. The bluetooth has been especially problematic—1-2 minute boot-up time, shuffle doesn't work except with voice commands, 3-5 second delay after skipping a song, and the bluetooth stopped connecting for 2 weeks (fixed with jump start when car battery died). From what I've read, these issues are common with my model year.
I went to the dealership today for unrelated maintenance and asked if my infotainment system could be upgraded. They informed me that I have the TomTom version, which is incompatible with the official software updates. They also said I could install software updates by following instructions on the TomTom website. But after looking into this, it seems like these updates are only for the navigation software (which I don't really use).
I've read some older posts on this sub about third-party head unit replacements, but I don't know how to approach this in 2024. There are many options and I'd appreciate any advice about which to choose. I have an iPhone, so CarPlay would be nice. I really don't want the backup camera to be impacted. I can live without the command knob, but I'd prefer for it to work. I am also about to graduate college and don't have a ton of money, so options under $500 would be great.
What would you guys recommend?

One would’ve thought I’d be used to this by now – typing with one arm. It takes time to get used to; especially when you’ve spent most of your life in front of a keyboard. Muscle memory digs deep.
A few years ago, I was in a car accident. I was going 60 down an empty road, coming home from a long day of overtime, when some kind of animal came charging out of the woods. Trying to avoid a collision, I swerved off the road. My front left wheel got caught in a ditch, sending the entire vehicle careening off the road; only to smash into the trunk of an ill-placed black walnut tree, driver’s side first.
I have this vague memory of blinking lights and vague shapes in the distance. I was so cold. But at the same time, it was so unreal. I couldn’t even understand what had happened.

I was brought into emergency surgery. My left arm was, literally, hanging by the thread of my jacket. It had come off clean by the socket.
According to the surgeons, I was lucky. Most of my shoulder was intact, so it became a matter of salvaging what they could. The cut had been clean. I did suffer some whiplash damage to my neck and lower back, but considering I could’ve easily died or gotten paralyzed, losing an arm was considered “mild”.
Looking back at it, I am inclined to agree. Considering what could’ve gone down, I was damn lucky. Still, in that luck, I wished I could’ve gotten just a tiny bit luckier. See, I had this gold ring that I’d been given by my later mother. A simple thing with the engraving of a musical note on the inside – a memento of our shared love of music. We played Louis Armstrong at her funeral.
That ring disappeared in the accident. Somehow, that’s what bothered me the most. My arm could be reattached. It could heal. But that little memento was just gone.

What followed was a long period of intense physical therapy, medication, and painful readjustments. It took weeks before I could even move my fingers again, and when I did, it felt like pushing your nerves through an unwashed garlic press. It was this stunning chemical-level kind of pain. The kind where your body just shuts down, begging you to stop.
But over time, I started to get over it. Small movements started to get better. I could tie my shoes. Press the space bar. Hold a knife. I wasn’t about to juggle anytime soon, or play the piano, but I could get by.
Soon enough, I got back to work.

People were glad to see me. I wasn’t gonna be able to work at full capacity in my usual role, but I could still sit in on meetings. I won’t bore you with the details, but most of my work relies on answering e-mails, proofreading, and translation. It’s pretty technical stuff that requires a lot of pitter-patter on keyboards.
At one point, I was stuck in a particularly drawn-out meeting between two clients that we were facilitating. I was there mostly as an observer (to fill the seats), but I was supposed to weigh in if something related to my department came up. Of course, it didn’t, but I still had to act interested. My colleague was trying to draw up a compromise between the two parties, laying out terms and conditions. Meanwhile, I was nursing a cup of coffee and waiting for the day to be over.
Looking over to my side, I noticed something odd. I wasn’t just holding the coffee cup with my left hand; I was stroking it with my index finger. Sort of like how you’d scratch a wary cat under its chin.

It was a strange sensation. I was looking at my own arm, my own hand, and I couldn’t feel what was happening. I couldn’t feel the ceramics tapping against my finger, or the twitch of the nerve as it contracted and extended. It was just happening. An involuntary twitch, perhaps.
But it didn’t feel like it. It felt intended, somehow.
A few similar events took place that day. Grabbing the bathroom door for a little too long. Knocking over desktop decorations. Suddenly letting go of my jacket as I was about to head home. It was just little things. I was still having trouble even using my arm in the first place, so these quirks didn’t bother me too much.
A friend of mine was giving me a ride home. I wasn’t at 100% yet and sitting behind the steering wheel felt like inviting disaster. Instead, I sat in the passenger seat, nodding off as the trees passed me by with a steady rhythm; causing me to blink.

A noise pulled me back. The driver said something, but I wasn’t paying attention. Turning to him, I excused myself.
“Sorry, what was that?” I asked.
“What are you doing?” the driver repeated.
I looked over. My left hand was wrapped around the parking brake, as if ready to pull. I forced myself to let go.
“Nothing,” I said. “Sorry, I don’t… it’s nothing.”
“Right,” he nodded. “Just… don’t do that.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Yeah, no. Sorry.”

That night, I was exhausted. It felt like my lungs had been robbed of breath. I felt weak and trembling. I was cold, yet feverish. Famished, but without an appetite. I went to bed early, faceplanting into the pillow.
I had horrible nightmares, none of which I can remember. I kept waking up over and over, not being able to discern dream from reality. My bed was soaked with cold sweat, sending shiver after shiver up my spine.
By the early hours of the morning, a stray ray of sunshine burned my eyes open. I was lying on my side, looking towards the window, leaning on my left shoulder.
The fingers of my left hand were moving on their own. And not just moving, but bent in every which way; as if lacking bones. They were vibrating, shuddering, like wounded worms fearing a predator.

I grabbed my hand, and my fingers were back to normal. I could move them as usual. For a moment, I was doubting what I’d seen. It was one thing to experience oddities, but that was unreal. I must’ve laid there for half an hour, just expanding and contracting my hand, begging my body to work with me.
“Enough of this,” I begged. “Please. Enough. Please.”
I clapped my hands, cracked my fingers, and ran them through my hair. It was fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. Right?

A couple of weeks passed without any serious peculiarities. I could even work a little. There were a few of oddities, like unknowingly grasping a warm cup, or my fingers pointing in all directions when in contact with cold water. Just strange little things that I could easily get control of.
That was, until one morning at work. We were out of coffee, so I was making myself a cup of tea instead. As the water came to a boiling point, I accidentally spilled some on my arm.
The reaction was immediate.

My arm whipped out to the side, throwing the pot across the room. For a moment, my arm looked like it didn’t have any bones; rippling like a skin-covered liquid. It made me think of it not as a part of me, but as an alien thing attached to my shoulder.
And for a brief moment, in the blink of a heartbeat, I could see my fingers grow and shrink. Fingernails throbbing, like a cat throwing up a hair ball.
Suddenly, it stopped. Looking back, I could see one of my co-workers watching me from the other side of the room. She must’ve heard the crash.
“You alright?” she asked.
“Yeah, just got a burn,” I sighed. “I’ll, uh… I’ll be fine.”
She side-eyed the broken pot on the other side of the room and nodded. Not entirely convinced.

As soon as she left, I looked down on my hand as if shying away from a wild animal. It was alien to me. It was something… other. A twitch was one thing, but this was downright unnatural.
Coming home that night, I had a weekend ahead of me. I ran my symptoms through a couple of online services. While there are a few ways the human body can trick itself, like the alien hand syndrome, or phantom pains, this was different. Physical properties do not rapidly change. Then again, maybe I was imagining it?
I decided to do something crazy. An experiment. I wanted to recreate what’d happened in the break room.

I boiled up some water and poured it into a cup. I held my left hand over my sink, grabbing the cup with my right. I stood there, trying to calm myself. I wasn’t insane. This was a rational thought that I had to play out in order to eliminate an outlandish possibility.
I prepped a cold pack and ran the tap. Then, taking a deep breath, I poured some of the boiling water on my left hand.

Twelve fingers.
My hand split into twelve fingers, lined with raw, open wounds. My wrist rolled, like a cobra fixing its eyes on a prey animal. This was no longer an arm – it was a nest of flesh-colored snakes.
My mind blanked. I fell backwards, smacking at my arm as if trying to kill it. I couldn’t feel a thing. It’s as if all sense of touch ended at my shoulder. I crawled backwards on the floor, trying to wave my arm away, but it clung to me like a parasite fixed on my shoulder.
Seconds later, a searing pain ran up my arm. Looking down on my hand, it looked as it always had. It was just a hand with a burn. I could barely feel it through the pounding in my chest. Every noise in the room was overshadowed by my pulse.
I ran my hand under a tap and wrapped a cold pack around the wrist. It wasn’t a bad burn, but it wasn’t nothing.

I did some research, looking up news from around the time my accident took place. There were a couple of reports, but nothing out of the ordinary. A domestic call, a brawl at a local restaurant, a couple of missing pets. There were a couple of other reports, but they were short and didn’t lead anywhere. A mention of a couple disturbances. Some idiot blasting music in a parking lot.
But there was one more thing I noticed. In one of the reports covering my accident, there was a picture of the car. There was spatter of the blood on the hood, with something meaty stuck in the grille – as if I’d hit an animal.
That caught my interest. I couldn’t remember hitting anything, so what the hell was that about?

The next day, my arm was acting up even worse. It kept going cold, as if circulation was cutting in and out. Before heading out, I wrapped it up in bandages. Partly because of the cold sensation and partly because I just didn’t trust it. There was no way to tell what could happen, or why.
I managed to get a hold of the owner of the junkyard where my trashed car had been towed. I went over there early in the day, just before the fog cleared.
Now, this was long after the car had been crushed and stored, but it was the only lead I had. An older woman greeted me at the gates, letting me in. We had a short chat about the accident as she showed me around, ending up at a stack of metal that could hardly be recognized as anything. The only thing to even hint at my car being in that pile was a thin slice of colored metal from one of the doors.

I dug around there for about 20 minutes; all while being observed by this old woman.
“Yeah, won’t find much,” she said. “If the police didn’t get it, the insurance folks did.”
“Been a lot of people digging around?”
“Not a lot, nah,” she said, shaking her head. “But you ain’t the first.”
And she was right. There wasn’t a drop of blood, or bone, or anything. It was just scrap metal in a pile of even more scrap metal. I was wasting my time.

But as I was about to leave, I noticed something. I hadn’t thought about it, but I could see the old woman was wearing a ring. It looked like a wedding ring at first, but she was wearing it on the wrong finger. I pointed to it.
"You found that?"
"What about it?" she asked.
"It’s got a tune engraved on the inside, right? Like, a, uh… music note?”
There was no response. She just looked at me and sighed. Turns out, I was right. She gave it back.

She’d found it near the hood of the car the night they brought it in. Grabbing it was just a spur of the moment thing, and since no one had come asking for it, she’d kept it. I was a bit annoyed, but mostly relieved that I got it back. But the question remained, how had that ended up at the hood of the car?
“There was all kinds of gunk just kinda hanging there,” she said. “Figured it was an animal.”
“And you’re sure that’s where you found it?”
“Sure as sure can be, yeah.”
I stood there for a moment, feeling an uncomfortable thought forming in the back of my head. There was no way for that ring to go from my broken arm on the driver’s side to a pile of meat stuck in the grille of the car.

But the proof of it had been in front of me all along. I had worn that ring for 12 years. There was a permanent indent on my finger.
Looking down at my left hand, there was no such indent.
This wasn’t my arm.

As soon as that thought settled in my mind, I could feel the arm twist and turn. Hadn’t it been for the bandages, there’s no way to tell what it would’ve done. It squirmed and pulled against me, thrashing like a dying fish on land. The old woman just looked at me.
“You alright? Want me to call someone?” she asked.
“I-I… I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know.”
I had to get to the bottom of this. I hurried out of there as fast as I could.

It was getting late in the afternoon when I got back home. Grabbing an old backpack and a couple of painkillers, I was about to head right back out. But a thought hit me. Maybe it wasn’t as abstract as I thought. Maybe it wasn’t just a feeling – maybe something was really there.
Looking down at my arm, I could feel it stirring, just within my control. Something sleeping, waiting to spring into action. With my right hand on the front door, I stopped, and spoke out loud.
“Whatever you want, just… don’t,” I asked. “Don’t.”
There was no response. No stirring. On a spur-of-the-moment whim, I packed one more thing into my backpack. Just in case. A hail Mary.

Making my way to the scene of the accident, it was impossible to tell anything had ever happened there. I could barely even make out the place where I swerved, or where my wheel got caught in the ditch. I found the general area in the field where my car had spun out of control, and from there it was easy to find the tree I’d smashed into. It was still there.
I spent hours going over it all. Following the path the car had taken, starting from that tree, and working my way back. There was nothing there. Nothing new. It was all just gravel, weeds, and pavement. What had I expected? A signed confession?
As the sun dipped behind the clouds, I could feel a cold wind coming on. I’d lost track of time.

As I turned back, there was a sudden cramp in my arm. A shock of pain crept up my spine, spreading throughout my body like a spider’s web. I could feel my left arm throbbing against the bandage wrap. Something was wrong.
I was in the middle of the field. I could see for miles in every direction. Cars passing by in the distance. Wet grass staining my pants all the way up to my knees. And this one cold wind, cutting straight through my clothes. I shivered, but my left arm didn’t.
Taking a step back towards where I came from, another shot of pain struck me. This one tripped me, sending me face first into the grass. It knocked the air out of my lungs.
I rolled over on my back, gasping for breath. My left hand was creeping up my stomach like a spider with a meaty tail. It stopped over my face, tapping the bridge of my nose with the index finger. I couldn’t feel a thing. Moving to push it off, it instead struck back; grasping my right hand in return.
“Stop,” I wheezed as I sat back up. “Just stop. Stop this.”
But it didn’t. I just sat there. A wounded man holding his arms.

I struggled back and forth for well over half an hour. Getting back on my feet, only to get knocked back down. By the time I’d made my way back to the road, I looked like I’d been hiking for miles. My hair was a mess, and my clothes were covered in grass and mud. I had a handprint across my face, like I’d smacked myself.
I’d trusted myself with a short drive to get there, but I wasn’t sure about going back. It felt reckless to get behind a wheel in my state. Still, I couldn’t just walk all the way back home, and having it towed would be a pain in the ass.
I got back in my car while I thought about it, wiping myself off with a towel from my backpack.

It’d gotten dark outside. The overcast didn’t help, I could almost taste the rain. I contemplated my options and figured that if I kept it slow and only used my right arm, I could carefully make my way home. I put the keys in and turned on the headlights.
There was an elk standing in front of my car.
It sniffed the hood of my car curiously, then proceeded to stare me down. I was just surprised. I got a good look at it. There was something wrong with one of its hind legs – it lacked fur, and there was a sort of spreading baldness reaching halfway up the side of the body.
My arm was slowly rising on its own, as if looking over the dashboard. The elk recoiled, as if in pain, and set off in a troubled three-legged gallop. It disappeared into the woods.

Looking down at my arm, a stray thought hit me.
Was this spreading too?

I painstakingly made my way back home. I dropped my backpack in the hallway, locked my front door, and collapsed into the shower. I was exhausted.
I stood in the shower for about half an hour, looking down at my mother’s ring. I was wearing it on my right hand now, but it just didn’t feel the same. That wasn’t where it was meant to be. Still, it was nice to have it back. Whenever I turned the ring a little, I could feel the engraving against my skin. It was a little gesture I did when I was anxious, as a reminder that it was still there.
I got dressed and ready for a slow evening at home without any further drama. My arm wasn’t acting up. But as I passed through the hallway, something didn’t feel right.

At first, I couldn’t say what it was. Maybe the hum of an old lamp, or some air duct acting up. I wasn’t sure, but it was something. It had to be. I stepped up to the front door.
There used to be a light coming from the hallway outside. That light was always on, and there should be a little light coming in through the peephole. But there wasn’t. Had a fuse blown? I had a closer look.
There was someone just outside my door.

A click.
My left hand had unlocked the door.

The door flung open, knocking me back. A tall silhouette, close to seven feet tall, pushed its way into my apartment. It was dressed in a sort of black poncho, covering its face with layers of bandages. A single frog-like eye stared me down as it pushed forward.
I scrambled backwards on the floor. It was fast. Damn fast. It stepped forward and reached for one of my legs, but I managed to pull away in time. I got back on my feet, barely managing to pull my left arm along. It was trying to grab a hold of something, as if to slow me down.
In a spur-of-the-moment decision I grabbed a lamp from the windowsill, throwing it across the room. The intruder ducked, then came at me again. I ducked under, just in time, and headed for the door.

As I reached the front door, my left arm tried to force it shut. I fought against myself to get out, but it was useless. The door was shut and locked, and my left hand refused to budge. The seven-foot-tall shape came around the corner, slowly approaching. I had to think of something. Anything.
My backpack. It was right there.

I had packed a couple of things earlier. A towel, some bandages, painkillers, and a water bottle. But I’d also packed some lighter fluid. Seeing as how my left arm had reacted so violently to boiling water, I had this stupid idea that the prospect of a straight-up fire would do something even worse to it.
It didn’t seem so stupid anymore.
I grabbed the lighter fluid and sprinkled it on my left arm. The tall shape stopped, seemingly reacting to the smell of it.
I wanted to say something, but all that came out were empty breaths. We were like animals, circling each other, waiting for one to make the first move. I emptied the lighter fluid, grabbing a box of matches. I held the box with my mouth, and a triplicate of matches in my hand. I spilled the rest on the floor.

For a moment, we just looked at one another. A single inhuman eye peeking through the bandage wraps. The vague shape of four, maybe five extremities at its side. How many arms did this thing hide under the poncho?
A flash of realization came to me. This is what I had almost hit with my car.

And with that, I lit the matches. It leapt at me, but it was too late.
The moment the open flame touched the skin on my left arm, it detached. The open nerves just let go of me, and the thing fell off my body. It squirmed on the floor like a dying animal, grasping at whatever its fingers could reach.
Adrenaline forced me out the door. A heartbeat behind me, the seven-foot-tall figure scooped up my burning arm and pushed past me. Within seconds, it was gone – leaving me with an open wound in the stairwell, smelling of lighter fluid.

One of the neighbors called for help. I didn’t even notice how much blood I was losing, but it was bad. They sent me back into emergency surgery; this time without an arm to reattach.
It was deemed that the wound was self-inflicted. A result of some stress-induced psychosis. I wanted to agree, but I saw what I saw. I’ve been trying to convince myself otherwise, but I lived this. This wasn’t any other life but mine.
I’ve since learned to live with a full prosthetic. It’s not much, but I can trust it, and I can wear my mother’s ring the way it was supposed to be. It’s starting to make an indent on the synthetic skin.

I don’t like to think about what would’ve happened if I’d let that thing stay on. But just a couple of weeks ago, I got an answer. I was stuck in traffic, looking out over the fields, when I saw a group of elks in the distance.
One of them had no fur.
None at all.

This is a throwaway account. I understand how privileged I am to be asking this question. I'm hoping someone can validate, offer perspective, tell me I'm crazy, or all of the above. My wife and I met when we were barely 20 years old. At the time we were poor college kids. Long story short, I started a business in our first year of dating, and I quickly became very successful. I worked a lot the first 7 years and she did too. Work and school was all we knew and we had an amazing relationship. She was so supportive and believed in me when nobody else did. I love her so much for that.
But then the business got to a point where it ran itself. Our relationship went to a whole new level in the most amazing ways. I was making $500k+ per year and working maybe 10-20 hours per week from home. She didn't work at all, maybe part-time occassionally. We spent the next 5-6 years living like rock stars honestly. Traveling, going out, fancy cars, big house, etc. We've lived a truly incredible life. We would joke how we've been together for 100 years because we get to spend 16 hours per day together compared to the few hours per day that working couples spend together.
Fast forward to recently. I make over $1 million per year, and I took an opportunity to really accelerate the growth of the company. This requires me to work more but not crazy. Probably 40 hours per week, still working 2 days from home, still enjoy breakfast at home, home by 5 when I do go to the office, flexibility to travel, etc. Within a few months of my new work load, my wife says she is bored at home, which I understand. She is a card carrying extrovert, and we don't have kids or anything. I told her she should work part-time, join a club, volunteer, etc.
Well she went out and got an intense full-time job. Her salary is a drop in the bucket so it's not for the money. She is already gone to work when I wake up in the morning. I don't see her until 7 or 8pm at night Monday through Friday. She's working harder and more hours than I am for money we don't need. She does seem happy though.
This is why I'm sad and conflicted. For the last 5-6 years, our life and relationship has been this incredible thing and the center of our universe. Everything else, including work, was background noise. We built an incredible life.
Now I feel like she is living a different, primary life separate from the one we share. After all, she spends WAY more time at work than with me or at home. I miss breakfast together every morning. I miss mid-day walks. I miss seeing her all the time. It makes me sad that she doesn't miss it or feel the same way.
She says it's just until we have kids, at which point she wants to quit her job and raise our kids. I wouldn't say I'm unhappy right now, but I definitely miss our old life. The one we were so lucky to have and that I worked so hard to build. I don't see trying for kids under these circumstances. Quick fuck after work, wake up and she's gone in the morning? No thanks.
I miss my wife. I've brought this up to her a dozen times and she basically says I have the wrong mindset and it's just a means to an end when we have kids. She asks "What am I going to do, sit at home all day by myself?" Of course I don't want that, but I also argue that it's not like I'm gone all day every day. I just think she could work part-time and that she way over corrected. She says there are limited alternative options, and yes, this is her dream job. But I miss her and I don't know if I'm OK with her working this much. Am I crazy?

Mega stupid question but does this sound right, timeline-wise?
Current lease expires 8/1 which means I need to vacate the weekend before, approx 7/27. I need to give 30 days notice before leaving, so I need to give notice by 6/27. It would be a good idea to have a new place lined up when I give notice.
I've heard I can ask my landlord to use my security deposit as last month's rent? So security deposit would cover July rent at current place, my normal rent payment for July would become my deposit on a new place if the lease starts 8/1?
How much do I need to save up for the start of each month?
I save about $600 each paycheck if I don't get hit with unforseen expenses (like a $4,000 car bill). I've had some unwanted expenses since signing this lease due to supporting an unemployed family member, vet bills, car bill, etc.

• May rent is paid already
• June rent will be out of my paycheck as normal
• Give notice 6/27 for 7/27 move out
• July rent at current place is from security deposit? (Hopefully)
• July rent I'd normally pay goes towards deposits at new place

So that means I can't sign a lease and put down deposits on the new place until I get the paycheck that would correspond with my July rent payment, right?
This all hinges on my landlords allowing my security deposit to be used for July rent.
If they won't allow that and I have to pay July rent plus deposits at new place, my plan b is to extend the lease a couple months until I can save the upfront moving costs.

• Pet deposits could be up to $1,000
• Planning on security deposit being $2,000 Estimated up front cost: $3,000

Paychecks between now and 6/27: 4 total (with first paycheck of each month covering rent, more spending money mid-month)
What am I missing? Need to talk this out so I don't end up homeless because I'm an idiot.

9% feels a bit too high and she was hoping to refinance it at a lower rate
Total price: 20,500 with taxes and fees
Down payment: $9000
Time period is 72 months
Her credit score is 730
Dealership offered 9% and we took the car. Would it be a good idea to go to a credit union to try a lower rate?
Im not entirely sure how it works

Hello, new to this sub, not sure where else to ask. If there is a better place to ask, please let me know.
I am 25 years old, living at home with parents. My parents have never been good at setting boundaries or communicating, and this has left me extremely confused and not sure where I stand in life or if I am doing the right thing.
My question is in regards to rent. My parents do not agree on this or have any particularly clear stance. My mother does not believe I should pay rent, my father has suggested it a few times, but never formally asked.
As it stands, I do not pay monthly rent, but I have helped them out with a lot of things. My mother works part time, and my father is retired now, although he is now making more money from his social security and distributions from his retirement savings than he was when he was working. I have a sister who is 21 that does not pay rent, but has not been able to keep a steady job. My brother moved out a few years ago, and he never paid rent.
My sister has mental health issues and was in and out of a facility multiple times for treatment. I paid for her bills, which was about $4K at the time. My parents would have had to put this on a credit card had I not paid. This was in 2022.
Later that year, our water heater broke down and plumbing issues in the bathroom had to be fixed, and I helped them out with about $5.5K of the costs on that. Later that year, our oven broke down, and I bought a new one for about $800.
Again, later that year, my sister’s and my parent’s cars broke down, and I helped them with about $4.4K of it. All of this happened while I was working full time and paying for part time community college classes. I do pretty decently for my age.
The last year and a half has not been as crazy and dramatic as 2022, but I still help my parents out with a lot of things. This entire time, I have paid for most of my own groceries. Sometimes, the groceries my parents need are unavailable at the store on the weekend, and I go out later in the week to get them, and I often pay for them. There were a couple instances where we were all too sick or busy to get groceries for the week, and I completely covered the cost of the groceries and the delivery. If I am too tired to cook, I am usually the one to pay for the four of us to eat out or get delivery. I have also paid for large vet bills for our family dog.
I run a lot of errands for them to save them time and gas, and I do some chores around the house, mostly cooking, vacuuming, and some yard work. I work from home, and I have offered to pay a large portion of the electric since I am here all the time and probably use up a decent amount of electric to power my laptop, but my father dismisses my offers.
Chores around the house are kind of a complex issue. My father has a type-a personality and, I think, undiagnosed OCD. He seems to have a bit of a superiority complex when it comes to chores. He constantly boasts that he is better than everybody else and complains when others in the house do chores and do not do things his way.
He is kind of territorial with the washer and dryer and insists on doing a lot of the laundry because the rest of us in the house do not pre-treat it correctly, use the correct amount of soap, or use the right settings on the washer (according to him). When we ask how to do it right, he is in disbelief we don’t know how to do it his way. This is the same for other chores around the house as well and is the tip of the iceberg. Any discussion about this with him results in screaming and guilt-tripping.
I apologize for the long post. This has been bottled up for a long time and I’m finally getting the courage to ask.
In the midst of all of this, I am trying to save up to go to grad school and buy a house so I can move away and improve my job prospects. I do not like living at home and desperately want to be independent. In the meantime, I sincerely want to do my part and not be a freeloader.
Any perspective on this would be much appreciated.

I’m buying a new HANS and was looking at a Simpson Hybrid, but idk if it’s the right choice, I’ve heard things about the hybrid like you can’t move your head to look and they’re really uncomfortable, was wondering if some people could give their opinions and help me out a bit thanks
In case you were wondering I drive US legend cars and head movement is kind of something I like to have

Ive got my project car coming back from getting a new paint job in a few days. It sits in the garage 90% of the time and i would like to keep dust off of it. I have an outdoor car cover which id rather not use because the inside of it feels a bit rough. Is it safe to put a plastic cover over it from like Home depot that home painters use? Or what else would you recommend?

So I (28F) recently got the opportunity to purchase a house that has been in the family for quite awhile (80+ years). I have been staying at home with my parents rent free for nearly my entire life. I occasionally contribute with groceries, dinners, household chores, and yardwork, but they have never charged me rent despite me offering. I work in public education and don't make great money so it has been very helpful to save up. I started the purchase process and have locked in an interest rate and have nearly everything ready.
The closing date is set for a month from now. I have asked my parents not to say anything to my sister (26F) until I close and start to move because we don't get along well and I don't want to deal with the fallout I believe will come. She has also been living at home, but instead of saving money she spends quite a bit. 2 new cars within 3 years, large tattoos, vacations, etc. She has a large storage unit filled with stuff she claims she has bought for when she buys a house. I don't care how she spends her money, but she makes significantly more than me and has wiped most of her savings out by living like this.
Instead of them waiting like I asked, they went ahead and told her. They claimed it was "too difficult" to keep it a secret and that she "knew something was going on". Now she is basically throwing a tantrum saying that it isn't fair I get to buy a house and she doesn't, claiming that they never helped her with anything, etc. Every time she sees me she is pissed off and starts a fight. I told them that this was what was going to happen and they claim that they couldn't have known/didn't think she was going to act like this. I feel like I am rightfully upset about this, but they say I am acting like a child and need to just get over it. AITA?

I’ve (f24) had 4 serious relationships. The first was in high school, I dated a guy for 9 months but just realized I didn’t have any feelings and wasn’t attracted to him. He was my best friend but I was new to dating and just didn’t see him that way. I never regretted that decision, but he was such a sweet person. I dated a guy after him who was cold. He would disappear during the weekends and I’d get so anxious when he was gone. He wasn’t very kind to my family and I got really depressed. I ended up breaking with him after talking to my family about it and regretting it/ hating myself for months. I took a break for 2 years and then started dating someone awesome. We were like twins. He always made me laugh so hard and got along better with my family than I did. Everyone loved him and so did I. Slowly over time he started getting annoyed with me over little dumb things and I started to hold on to some resentment. Then he began telling me things his family didn’t like about me (no depth, weird personality, yes girl, etc). I got really hurt by this and after trying to talk about my feelings with him ended up breaking up with him because I felt insecure and like he was choosing not to understand. I’ve regretted this also. That breakup happened almost 2 years ago and I still obsess over it from time to time. It hurt so much. I regret not trying harder to keep us together. I dated 2 people since him (not longer than 3 months) one freaked out when he learned I was on antidepressants which threw him into a rage, he swerved in the car and yelled at me for two hours, the other one was sweet but we agreed we just didn’t have feelings for each other (he has reached out since to get back together). Now I am dating someone who is sweet and kind (m23) for 4/5ish months, but just more quirky and quiet. I have never been the loud person in the relationship so this has been weird for me. He does so many things that make me cringe, but I know he loves me so much. He is pretty awkward but I can be too so I'm just hanging on, but it is getting harder. I sometimes just get this super annoyed feeling where I can't stand him periodically, but I know I'm not seeing things for how they really are. Now I'm considering breaking up with him. I feel like a narcissist. I hate dating. People are getting on me for being too picky, and maybe I am. I've gone to therapy, I've gotten on medication, I go to church, I feel like I'm still messed up in the head, and can’t trust myself anymore. I always end up throwing away good guys. How do I break this cycle? I hate dating.

Hey, I’m considering buying a new GLE 450. This will be my first German car and the reputation is that the reliability is awful. I just want an honest opinion on the reliability of the vehicle, I typically drive around 1-2k miles a month and it’s about 60% city and 40% interstate.
I’m willing to commit to regular maintenance but I don’t have the tools to do much DIY stuff beyond basic wipebattery replacement.
What’s your experience with newer MB cars and your average annual maintenance costs?
I’m stuck between that car and a Lexus GX 550 for $500 more and it’s a tough decision between going for luxury or ruggedness.