Rudynate

I'm only guessing, but if the provider, when he sees a text from the client, says to himself, "Not him again, it's the third time this week" or some such, that could be a sign that a burdensome attachment is developing. And I imagine the determination would be fairly nuanced. Personal trainers and psychotherapists, for example, like certain clients better than they like others. Does that mean that the less popular client is being taken advantage of or that the provider should dump his less appealing clients? I don't know. In my entire career, I have fired three clients. To me that seems like a lot. My mentor, in his entire career, might have fired one client and that was only after a lot of soul-searching.

True. There are so many clients who want to "rescue" their providers. Never mind the fact that the provider may be making 6 figures. or is comfortably self-financing a graduate education, travels the world and enjoys an enviable degree of autonomy. There's a hypocrisy at work there, that escorting is something the provider needs to be rescued from. But if the provider needs rescuing, so does the client. Without clients, there wouldn't be escorts.

It's time for a re-frame. We keep using the word "crush" for this relationship. But, to me anyway, a crush is an infatuation. It's a distraction, but substantially harmless. But more and more, the conversation is drifting in the direction of an obsessive type of codependency in which you are looking for the provider to fix you or to complete you. If I were a provider, and I felt that sort of attachment developing with a client, for my own sanity, I would shut it down.

I first encountered it in a gay bar in Rochester in the 70s.

That's so true. Often, when people talk about being friends, what they really mean is being "friendly."

No.

Ahhhhhh- Jewish guys. They're such men.

There's an important "gotcha" with the premiums- they're means-based, so if you are on Medicare and still working, you may have to pay a higher premium. I feel like I'm paying three times for Medicare-I've been paying into it for my entire life, a portion of my self-employment tax goes to medicare and I pay an increased monthly premium because of my income.

Shutting it down means you do whatever it takes to end it, including leaving. There may be a heavy behavioral component in managing one's feelings. It isn't all an inside job.

There's so much at stake that you're stuck.

No. You can control your feelings. If you're developing a crush on him, it's because you're letting it happen. Having a crush on a provider isn't such a bad thing, but don't be a victim of your own feelings. If you don't want to have a crush on him, shut it down, now.

Having been a contestant, I think you would have a hard time making a hire. They are so focused on the contest and moderating their food and water intake, that working would be far from their minds. After the contest is over, they are focused on getting someting to eat and some rest.

And if your prescription drugs cost more than a few thousand dollars per year, which is common place in today's market, you WILL encounter the donut hole. I stay out of the donut hole by buying most of my prescription drugs off shore.

Denial is a wonderful thing. My mother was in her late 80s in a skilled nursing home in Mississippi, and spoke nearly every day about buying a car and moving to Florida.

I see a preventive cardiologist. His recommendation is a Mediterranean-style diet-fish, lean meat, olive oil, veggies, fruit, pasta, whole grains. I personally follow a bodybuilding diet- lean protein, whole grains, tubers legumes, eggs, whole milk, olive oil, peanut butter, nuts, green vegetables, a little fruit

I love deviled eggs. I make them for picnics, parties, starter at dinner parties. Grandma's right. You can't go wrong with them

Eritrea was once part of Ethiopia and I believe all of Ethiopia was an Italian colony. Addis Ababa is known for its Fascist-era architecture.

Years ago I lived in an apartment building and one of the apartments on my floor was occupied by a group of Eritrean students, among them a couple. The couple got married, and as was their custom, entertained for three days - they had an open house and people dropped in - they served food and guests toasted the newlyweds, etc. The first day, the food smelled wonderful - spicy, full of garlic - just great. The second day, I was getting a little tired of it. And the third day, I began to hope that I would never smell Eritrean/Ethiopean food ever again.

I'll keep my irrational blanket.

You think? Several years ago, I took an intensive German course of several weeks in Germany. One of our activities was a potluck dinner where we brought a dish that was characteristic of the country we were from. I was the only American in the class and I wracked my brain to come up with something that conveyed "mom and apple pie" that wasn't ordinary. I finally decided on scalloped potatoes with ham." Everybody liked it.

One of my all-time, bar-none favorite meals is bibimbap. I could really imagine it made with wagyu beef. A while ago, just around the corner, a restaurant opened that served nothing but shabu-shabu. The beef version was made with wagyu beef - fabulous I think they were a little to high-concept for this neighborhood - they only lasted a few months.

Nothing too exotic-venison, wild boar, bison, elk, squirrel, wild pheasant, wild duck

You seemed to want to talk about the mind and dismiss the body. And of course, one can try, but the mind and body are intimately related.