Tara

Lately i've been on edge to put it lightly. I cannot stop fighting with my boyfriend over dumb things. I pick fights with him and all i've wanted to do is leave him for no apparent reason.

I fume over everything. I yell and get irritated with my family very easily. The only living things that haven't frustrated me are my animals. I yelled at my step brother over being 15 minutes late for easter dinner when he had a legit excuse because he was working. When he left early to take care of his 2 year old daughter I got even more angry. Both are totally legit reasons, and i knew it, but I couldn't help but be upset.

I've had a serious diet change to about 2300 calories a day, I get a good amount of cardio in the morning, I do yoga and pilates and weight lifting in the morning and throughout the day. If you were to push all my exercising in one block it would probably be around 2 hours a day, thats just from working out. I also do physical activities. I went to this from sitting on my butt and doing nothing and eating horrible.

I was led to believe that making this lifestyle change would make you happier, but it just feels like since i've done this i'm much more angry. I'm losing a lot of weight which is good and its my goal, but i'm not happy. I want to rip everyones heads off and i keep picking fights with people.

Sometimes i'll just sit in the living room or in the study and fume. I cant bring myself to do anything other than sit there and be angry. Its being destructive on my life and i'm curious if its a biological thing because of the lifestyle change, or if its psychological and an issue i'm unaware of.

I'm not pregnant, i'm not PMSing, i've already ruled those situations out.

...if that person is just going to lose interest in you eventually? It just feels like most of the men I talk to who have been in committed relationships keep complaining that their wives or girlfriends aren't as appealing or something. That's why they have cheated. So what's the point of commiting? Why do people look down on others like me that would just rather screw around (safely of course)? Why do we follow the concept of romantic love being the ultimate love? Do you really think that excuses someone's heart being broken?

I understand its pricey, but I'm thinking it might be the only option I have.

I've done a lot of workshops but there aren't enough writers in my area. I'm considering paying the full amount to have an editor take a look at it and fix it up for me before I begin sending out query letters.

I was curious if anyone has ever been through the process? If you have, do you have any suggestions for me? This is essentially my third novel, but its the first I'm pushing to have published. I've been writing it for the past 6 years. I can use all the guidance I can get.

Sometimes i'll put something in the microwave or the toaster with the intention of actually eating it. Then i'll go do something while I wait for it to heat up. Over the course of the day my stomach will begin to growl and remind me that i haven't eaten anything all day and i've gone a long time without food. When I go to the kitchen to make some food, the food I already made is sitting in the microwave or toaster completely forgotten about. Sometimes the food has sat in there for a whole day and I dont find it until the day after.

This happens to me a lot. Does this happen to anyone else? Is it just because I get majorly distracted easy?

I had a key to the tack room in my horse trailer. I cannot for the life of me find it because its been a while. Is there a way I can get a new one? Has anyone had this happen to them?

If you do, do you have any sex scenes? If you've said yes to both, I need help.

I've been writing this book since I was 15 (i'm 21 now). I'm very close to having this novel ready to send out to potential agents and the people who have reviewed it say they like it. In fact, a lot say they love it. The romance isn't overbearing and its very natural and feels real (No "Oh baby I love you" "YES. WE WILL BE TOGETHER FOREVER. MAKE LOVE TO ME."). However...

During writing the sexual scenes, I have had a few people say my words for genitals are awkward. Depending on the point of view, I use different words. For him, since he's a lot more casual, more outgoing and a bit crude, I use slang terms for his "thingy". I never use penis, manhood, member etc. I go a little more raunchy. For her, I do it a little more conservative because she's so shy and sheltered. Thinking those smutty words makes her blush really hard. So she's more likely to think "manhood and member".

I've been criticized for changing them up. Some people like that I do it, others really hate it because its not organized and uniform. I need opinions. Is this an effective way of wordplay?

If not, what words do YOU use to describe human genitals in your books?

All horses are beautiful! Even if theres a horse that doesn't suit some people, they're still gorgeous. Like i've never been a fan of arabians or saddlebreds because they dont fit my style of riding, but I still find them drop dead gorgeous.

My favorite breed is the American Warmblood. I have worked with and ridden many warmbloods but I always go back to them. I've noticed that this type of warmblood is built a bit more stocky than other warmbloods and they're very curious. They make great companions as well as sport horses. I'm a grade 4 para-dressage rider and I jump against able bodied riders too, both my registered american warmbloods are bold but careful, scopy, gentle and good hearted. We actually are competitive against other riders.

Thats why I love them so much <3

I'm curious.

My biggest obstacle in my writing is endings. Ever since I began writing novels, i've been crazy about character design. So my dialogue and character formations are quite good and i'm very proud of them. I can even do most plot pieces pretty well. But when it comes to endings, it feels like mine are always abrupt. I build up and up and cant figure out how to end it. I can have a great climax but the ending could feel like a small pothole. You just kind of wonder "Where did this come from?".

When I have a chance to share my weaknesses, I believe it makes me a stronger writer. I'm hoping I can find good ways to wrap up novels seamlessly, but I believe I have a long way to go.

For our party, we're doing a haunted funhouse theme. I only have a few ideas and need more suggestions.

1. We're making the food extremely colorful.

2. We're getting multicolored christmas lights to string along the ceiling

3. We're having a "prize stand" decoration that consists of creepy looking items. Like stuffed animals that have been mutilated, creepy dolls etc.

Thats all we have and we have to decorate the entire apartment. I need more ideas. Throw them at me!

I was abused by my father for the first 9 years of my life. I have come to terms with what happened to me and i've made great steps to improve it.

I've been dating a man with a temper for the past year and a half. We live together. He's never hit me, but when he gets angry he shouts and screams so hard and loud at me. I have the same reaction I did when I was 5 years old and my dad yelled at me. I clam up, begin crying, and sometimes I even go as far as hiding in the closet. I'm 21 years old and when he gets this way i'm petrified of him.

I'm unsure what to do. I dont think he'll lay a hand on me, but I cant take the shouting and screaming because I keep thinking of my dad. When I told my family members about this, they told me to either leave him or "grow a pair". I do love him, and I do feel like a wimp. I tried talking to him about this but he just claims that yelling is how he deals with his anger.

What should I do?

I have a dog who was beaten by his past owner whenever he went potty in the house. As a result, whenever he feels he's about to pee, he begins dribbling urine, cowers, and crawls into his crate. If you get close to the crate while he's in there, he gets extremely scared and VERY aggressive.

When he feels as though he has to pee, he cant hold it in. I had the vet check him for a bladder infection but they found nothing and deemed it as a behavioral problem. I've talked with behaviorists about it, none of them are willing to give me solutions unless they meet the dog in person and the times i've taken him in he's been good so they tell me "He probably just had an accident" or "Dont stress too much about it, he's fine".

He usually leaves trails of pee that lead to his crate. After he begins peeing in the house he wont come out of the crate, not for toys or even treats. He pins his ears, backs into the corner, and acts downright scared. I want to help him work out of this but i'm at a loss. He goes out with the other dogs, the other dogs always run to the door and scratch or bark. But he hasn't learned any pack behaviors from them.

I tried ignoring him when it happens. When I see it happen, I dont say anything. I dont approach him, I dont talk to him, I just act like he's not there and clean it up. I want to teach him that nobody is going to beat him. But that doesn't seem to do ANYTHING. This peeing problem has been going on for more than a month with no results. I am reaching out to the dog community for help. He dribbles in the house almost once a day. I take him out very frequently but that doesn't seem to stop him. It feels like he doesn't respond to treats so its like I cant teach him good behaviors.

I'd like to find the person who did this to him and beat them for every accident they've ever made. It really bugs me. Any ideas?

There are a couple things that I consistently dream about.

1. No matter what the circumstance, 8/10 of my dreams seem to be about my boyfriend cheating on me. I dont understand why, because I trust him a lot. He's proved himself on more than one occasion but I still seem to have nightmares about him leaving me or really hurting me. He and I have been together about a year and a half now. I wonder if this is because my ex boyfriend had cheated on me multiple times? After him I took a couple year long break before dating my now boyfriend, and I thought I was over what had happened. Any ideas? Note: I am very insecure, i've struggled with my self esteem my whole life. I tend to be a bit isolated in my relationships, it takes a lot to bring me out to bond with someone (This includes relationships with friends, family members, professional partnerships etc.)

An example of one: I dreampt about him getting real chummy with this chick, he stopped spending time with me, and in the dream I slowly watched him slip away from me to be with this girl. It got to the point in my dream where they were having sex in the apartment with me in it helplessly watching. This was probably the most unique out of my dreams, the rest usually just pan out as me walking in on him screwing someone else.

2. Whenever i'm stressed or overloaded, I have dreams about this house. I've never seen it my entire life. Its on a lake, its big, it has this huge deck that looks over the water. My dreams are strange in this house because I go about normal things like cooking, cleaning dishes, drawing, tanning on the deck, studying on the beach etc. Its always the same house, and its gotten to the point where i've seen it so much that I can draw it with really good detail. What could this be a representation of?

This is kind of an odd story, but we've rescued a tadpole. My boyfriend works at a store and they had this tadpole accidentally get caught in with their shipment of fish. Because they didn't know anything about selling tadpoles/frogs/toads as pets, they couldn't just put it in with the gold fish or anything else. Instead they were going to throw it away.

My boyfriend is just like me, a lover of all living things. So he grabbed it and brought it home. We have no idea exactly whether he's going to be a frog or a toad so maybe someone can help us out. I'm trying to figure out what exactly they need in regards to space and food when they grow up. Also if he's going to be dangerous. We had no intention of getting an amphibian so he is sitting in the fish tank (There are no other fish in there). But I guess going to an unprepared home is better than getting tossed in the trash to rot.

Also we dont know what to name him. Our animals all have video game themed names (Riku and Spyro are two examples).

http://i55.tinypic.com/35887ys.jpg

http://i54.tinypic.com/tagaar.jpg

He has a white belly. He's super cute. If he's an illegal or dangerous frog/toad I have no qualms about releasing him into the wild. :) Any idea what he might be?

We got this kitty from a rescue and I love him so much. He's super adorable, super friendly, but he's also super bad. The person we rescued him from said someone brought him to them as a stray and he still has that stray mentality.

1. He eats way too much. He eats the other cats food, the dogs food, will steal the dog's treats and the worst of them all: he will bite holes in the bags of food like a rat and eat non-stop. He's gained a ton of weight since we got him. We've had to start feeding the other animals in the main room and separating him from everyone else. Also, i've had to stick the food bags in the closet because he figured out out to open the counters (We have no way of locking them).

2. He's incredibly lazy. I've run over him in the wheelchair multiple times. Mostly his tail and his paw. Due to the fact that he doesn't care, he doesn't even cry out or anything when I accidentally run him over. He continues to lay here. He lays right in front of the wheel chair so I cant move forward a lot without picking him up or nudging him out of the way with my foot. I like that he's incredibly laid back because he is really good with my nephews, but this is becoming a nuisance.

3. He gets into everything. He knocked over the garbage can last night and rummaged through it like a raccoon. He got into my study and knocked everything off my desk including breakable things. He's so sneaky, anything is fair game to him. We woke up one night and found him somehow way up top on the top counters.

4. Our other cat has been very stressed. At first the two got along, but now this new cat has been a little annoying to him. He will come up to our first cat and bite him on his back for no reason. I know it hurts him because I see the way he retaliates. Is this just a way of showing dominance? He does it a lot and now my other cat is licking all of his fur off probably due to stress.

At the end of the day, I dont know how to discipline him. Loud noises dont work. He's ignored us on multiple occassions when we've said "no!" really loudly at him. Spanking him has no effect because again, he's extremely laid back and sees a spank as no different from a pet. Considering we dont like spanking any animal, we didn't try that method more than two times. Then of course we tried water. This cat will sit and get sprayed in the face with water and not seem bothered by it. We've used just regular spray bottle and then upgraded to a water gun. He's STILL not effected by it. This is the kind of cat that will crawl in the shower with you. He just doesn't care.

Is there anything I can do? He's a super adorable kitty I love so much, I dont want to get rid of him but I dont want to live where every night he's getting into something. I'm going to lose a lot of sleep.

Is it normal to throw up water after a workout?

Its like 90 degrees up here and i'm not used to this heat. I worked out for about an hour then chugged a bottle of water. I threw it up minutes after doing so. I can do the same thing only with Gatorade and not throw that up.

If I seem stupid its because i'm new to the whole extreme daily working out thing. I know you shouldn't chug water in the first place but throwing it up seems extreme.

Just curious if anyone has done this in their wedding. How exactly does it work if you have the long gloves? Do you take it off or have your husband put the ring on over the glove? I feel like the latter would be easier but then you have to wonder if the ring needs to be a bit bigger.

Any suggestions?

For my 21st birthday, my family is getting me a new GPA helmet for when I compete in upper level para-dressage. I'm trying to figure out which style would look the best.

I saw someone last year at nationals with a speed air and a shadbelly. It looked really nice but I want to keep all my options opened. I've been riding with an IRH because I like the similar style, but I sort of want more of a fashion statement. Specially in international competition. Its kind of like a reward for all my hard work climbing through the levels.

And do you think the orphanage system would become overwhelmed? Would you rather pay for someone to be on birth control or pay higher taxes for orphanages? Are you on any kind of birth control?

Why or why not?

Why or why not?