For Virginia: dashcam can be mounted on the windshield so long as it’s behind the rear view mirror. It can’t block the space between the mirror and the dash. I don’t think police will pull you, they never pulled me for it in the years mine was mounted that way (only a little below the mirror), but state inspector will move it to the side or tell you to move it. My current BlackVue is completely hidden by the mirror so no problem.
I was at work in Crystal City VA, less than a mile from the Pentagon, on 9/11.
If she’s been like this before she underwent all this, then she was already treating you very badly and recent events only made it worse. I’m not any kind of doctor so I won’t throw around diagnoses, but I recognize these behaviors from other people describing what they’ve experienced from people who were emotionally and physically abusing them. I’ve also experienced some myself from being emotionally abused and neglected.
This sounds like abuse to me. You are being abused and manipulated maliciously and therapy can help you get through this. I was diagnosed with cPTSD, complex post traumatic stress disorder, which is PTSD that happens after long term trauma (especially in childhood, which is mine). Years with an abusive partner could definitely affect you this way.
You deserve a life of happiness. The sooner you get into therapy, the sooner you can get to happiness, or at least away from abuse. You are not going to change her.
I went through menopause just a few years ago. It threw everything into an upheaval. Thank goodness I didn’t have a partner to be like this to, but therapy definitely helped. She is absolutely going through a lot, physically and mentally, and will be for years. I still have hot flash episodes for weeks at a time and it’s always different.
Your feelings are valid. You have every right to them. Just because someone is going through chemical changes in their body doesn’t mean they can abuse you like this. Telling you that you have no right to your feelings is emotional abuse and she has no right to do that to you. You both need help to get through this, whether separate or together, but this is all new and for you to be told to sit down and shut up is just heartbreaking. Everything happening to her is also happening to you because it seems to me that she’s taking it all out on you and yeah, that affects you.
You are not dumb or stupid. You are caring and sympathetic to what she’s going through, and she reacts to this with hostility and arrogance. I can’t imagine anyone is obligated to put up with that from anyone, for any reason. It might change in time, but not if she never acknowledges the validity of your feelings and your right to have them.
I’m so sorry this is happening to you.
This is a great one: https://youtu.be/hLHi3wiSuWc?si=jIksepNQ6Wh-OZHe
Add It Up by the Violent Femmes
Dr. Kendi is at the forefront of antiracism and many (if not most) American conservatives see antiracism as actual racism and propaganda to make white people feel bad. Having read these I can definitely say that’s not what Dr. Kendi is about. Your students are old enough to learn the truth about this and I’m so happy you are able to teach them about this subject. There are a couple of other books he has written and contributed to for younger people, too.
These are books that would be banned from many schools in conservative America. I’m so glad you may be able to offer them to your students!
These are probably too progressive for your school but I highly recommend them to anyone outside of school.
Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped From The Beginning and How To Be An Antiracist are incredible books.
Others have mentioned Caravaggio so I’ll add Fragonard. I love his style and I also love how mischievous his subjects can be. For instance, Progress of Love.
There’s a fantastic book series based on exactly this: The Change Series. This is a double storyline with the Emberverse series in which the present time beginning in March 1998 loses electricity and “most forms of high-energy-density technology” due to “The Change”, which occurs at 6:15 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, March 17, 1998.
The companion series, which was written first, is the Nantucket Series, in which the island of Nantucket is transported back in time to 1250 BC due to something called “The Event”, the same Event that caused The Change. But— they got to keep all their physics intact.
I bit the bullet in 2017 and got a Stearns and Foster mattress set. I think it was less than $2k for the set, queen size, at City Mattress, and they had a “zero percent interest for a year” thing going on. It’s one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.
You’ll find them for much higher prices online, it was going to the store that got me the deal. Find a mattress store near you that carries that brand and you may find a deal, too. It’ll save your back and you’ll sleep so much better.
How about a whole album? Billie Joe Armstrong: No Fun Mondays He recorded these and released them on several Mondays back in early lockdown. I love the hell out of this album.