Monica

I'm driving with my best friend from Houston to a city outside Portland in the summer. I haven't yet discussed with him what he thinks his limitations are as far as how far he can drive, but I personally am a highly tolerant person to long drives (I can do 6-7 hours feeling unfazed). Just wondering what a reasonable amount would be? Ideally I'd like to get there by the end of the second day, but is 16 hours in one day a crazy amount even when split among 2 people? Say 2 or 4 hour shifts?

I know the answers are obvious (improve diet, more exercise) but I have never in my life been able to lose weight. I am now very concerned about my rapid weight gain throughout high school. I am 5'8" female and 225 lbs. My ideal would be ~150 lbs but I don't know if I can do it. I'm about to start college and will probably have limited time to exercise. I don't know how I can manage around a college schedule to lose all this weight. I don't care about it being fast I just need a straightforward and realistic solution because it only hit me recently I am very concerned about my health and weight since I'm so young. Thanks

About 2 months ago, my mom was fired from a teaching job she had for about a week. The details are kinda sketchy, but basically I think the school didn t like how timid she is around kids these days (it s been about 10 years since she taught) and when she blamed it on her back hurting they used that excuse to fire her immediately. She s a very sweet woman but unfortunately kind of a pushover so that s probably what did it, I don t think she did anything wrong per say but they made her go home the same day and it completely humiliated her.

Since then she hasn t been looking for work. She keeps creating extremely long to-do lists and then just sits around at home all day doing nothing. She is extremely quiet which is unusual, even if you try to talk to her. She cries A LOT, like any kind of confrontation sets her off now. And to top it all off she keeps acting, lord knows I love her, vapid and irrationally. I caught her just now trying to order me a second cap and gown for my graduation. It scares me a lot seeing her acting like this. She just doesn t seem like herself anymore, and I would understand if this were for a week or two after she lost her job but it s been 2 months and my mom still isn t "back." She had a lot of issues with confidence before about getting back into teaching and when they fired her it had some kind of traumatizing effect. Please help, I can t stand to see her like this anymore. I feel like I m always walking on eggshells when I talk to her.

I want to get him some small houseplants for his birthday but I m not sure when I should actually get them. His birthday is on the 27th and I can t exactly get them the day of, but how far in advance is too long before plants start to age a little bit?

Neither of us are very social people, but honestly it bothers me deeply that it seems like my best friend never even wants to see me. We text each other endlessly (from the moment I wake up to when I fall asleep practically) when we aren't around each other and in school we're always together and make each other laugh until our stomach hurts or the teacher gives us a stern look. I would consider us to be very close and people have commented we're practically the same person. The thing is I never see him outside of school. NEVER. I'm almost at a breaking point, because he never even mentions seeing me or spending extra time together and I'm always hoping he'll ask. I know I should just ask him myself, and last night I did (this is kind of uncomfortable to talk about usually so I just avoid it hoping he'll come around eventually) and he just sort of brushed me off and said he doesn't like social situations, he wouldn't want me to be annoyed by his mom or sister (neither would be even remotely possible-- the couple times I have been at his house or around his family I've been perfectly comfortable), and etc. I'm baffled someone that considers us best friends never wants to see me (he's never told me that directly, honestly he's pretty bad with expressing how he feels about you-- someone else told me that's what he calls us when I'm not around). What do I do? It makes me lose confidence in our relationship and he's the closest person I have.

My dog is the sweetest dog I've ever known. She's incredibly loyal and loving and even tends to starve herself if we aren't around (ex. an extended vacation). But she tends to bite when you bully her. Mind you I know this traditionally isn't "acceptable" behavior but to me, what did you ******* expect if you kept taunting the dog? If you keep bullying and taunting our dog she. WILL. BITE.

So my sister, being the rotten kid that she is, kept taunting our dog, and eventually, you guessed it.... our dog bit her. My sister acted so stunned as if she didn't know what she did wrong (mind you she is 14, NOT a toddler) and when our dad caught wind of it he went into a blinding rage. Usually when my dog gets in trouble she scampers off and looks for me because I'm always sweet on her when she gets in trouble (she shakes a lot with her ears down and I can't help but feel bad and hold her and calm her down). So she's in my arms and my dad bursts in the room and my dog starts growling at him too because he's threatening her and he starts hitting her while she's still in my arms! I couldn't believe it. So only naturally... you guessed it... she bit him too. I tried keeping her away from him but it just happened because he kept coming at her. I don't know what to do. Is my dog lashing out a sign she is becoming malicious or is everybody setting her off to blame?

Can I get a major in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Marketing? How does that even work? Does that mean I have to take way more classes than usual? What is the difference in effort between the two?

I feel like I would really like Electrical Engineering out of all my possibilities to study in college (a close second being Business/Marketing) but I have no prior experience or knowledge. I take advanced math which I hear is good for that field of study but that's about it. Will I fail if I don't have any prior experience?

Yes, I get this from Breaking Bad... but on the BB soundtrack it's my favorite song (and episode basically) and it kind of sucks I have no idea how to say it. And you never know, maybe I'll want to bring up Native American reservations in conversation one day. I looked it up and there seem to be a million different contradicting answers to this question (people claiming it's of Spanish origin, not Navajo, vice versa, etc) so is there anyone out there that can speak with confidence and knowledge of the subject just how you say it?

In two weeks I have my school spring trip to Disney World. I can't recall when the last time I had my period was but I'm hoping it'll be pretty soon in order to avoid the debacle of getting it while I'm there. Is there anyway I can get it to come early? Unfortunately two years ago when we went on the same trip (Freshman year) I had the exact same problem and did in fact end up getting on the last day when we were coming back. It was just gross and it ruined my pants (but luckily no one saw). I'm concerned since I haven't been keeping track of it recently that, I might just end up getting at the very first day. Help?

Don't bother checking the website because it exclusively advertises their college internship program, but those I know that work at HP (including my dad) swear up and down a high school program exists. If so how can I apply and get in? I've heard something about needing a 3.0 gpa but that's about it as far as information about the supposed program.

I'm constantly freaking out and having panic attacks it seems... and I'm not trying to say that this question is an attempt at self-diagnosis. If it seems like something serious then I'll get professionally evaluated, but for now I am looking into natural and herbal remedies for stress/anxiety because it feels overwhelming at times.

Here are some of the reoccuring traits of my anxiety:

-Rapid heartbeat

-Hyperventalating/shortness of breath

-Shakiness

-Mood swings (crying and falling into deep depressions, being overly sensitive and prone to lashing out at people if they say the right thing)

-GI problems (gas, indigestion)

-Weird changes in temperature like my hands getting extremely cold or my entire body getting really hot

-Feeling like I'm going to die or just generally having "tunnel vision" (a short perception of what's really important, or an exaggerated and dramatic belief if I do something wrong it'll go catastrophically wrong)

-Surrealism

Well now that I put it all together it looks pretty bad. Do I have some kind of disorder? OCD, depression?

I'm only 16 but I have severe anxiety/panic attacks, and as desperate as I am to be relieved of this suffering I looked into benzodiazepines, but I don't want to get hooked on something like that. That would be horrible.

Would it be possible for me to have access to other (natural) anxiolytics? The thing is I already read up on herbs/plants like kava, valerian root, etc. but would it be impossible for me to show up in a vitamin store and just buy some? I mean it would make sense to me if the answer were 'no' because they have some kind of effect on the chemicals in your brain (and kava has been known to cause liver damage after long time use, but I'm not interested in using it every single day), but then again they are just vitamins.

I just want to drive to the store and discretely pick something up because I don't want my parents to get worried... and knowing my mom she'd probably try to put me into therapy. Thanks for the help

I've been outside a lot lately but I scraped my arm pretty badly a while ago. Is the scab going to form new skin as light as when I first got it or as dark as it is now? I tanned a LOT since getting the injury.

Starting tomorrow marching band begins summer camp, and I really want a sturdy hairstyle. Ponytails and buns just don't do it for me anymore- I want something with a little bit more flare. My hair comes down about 3 inches past my collarbone. What can I do with it? :)

My hands are clammy and my heart won't stop beating so fast. I hate being like this, but I have some important school stuff to do tomorrow and I can't calm down. Help?

AIC Level - 5.7

Total cholesterol - 186

Tryglyc. - 84

HDL - 126

LDL - 126

I'm 5'9" and 190 lbs

I had a package come to my home but no one was there at the time to sign for it, so now my package is at the post office. Am I allowed to show up to claim the package? It has my name on it and address, and I'm thinking if I show them my license that might be acceptable. Would it?

I have my driver's test in two days, and when I drove around the area of the DPS with my dad today I noticed the road was a little weirder than I expected. It's not like I've never seen this before, and normally I don't have any problems with laws but I thought really hard and realized I'm not 100% sure about what to do here, or rather what is actually legal. I've made a diagram of the area, because I'm not sure how else to describe it.

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r562/vivachuck...

I am concerned I will be on the side of the buildings and the test administrator will ask me to take a left. There are two lanes on either side, so do I have to wait for all 4 (or at least the first 3) to be clear and drive across, or can I wait in the turning lane with my car facing the left if only the first side is clear? Is that illegal? I tried looking it up but whatever I found seemed to be pretty ambiguous, and some sources stated I can get a citation for using the middle as a "rest stop" while waiting for the next to lines to be clear to enter. Help???