No. I have been a guest lecturer, and proposed and ran class projects, for two different departments (at Oberlin College). I am instead a proud multi-graduate of our community college, rated as the best in the nation, and I studied several unrelated things there at different times (art when I was young, and more recently sustainable agriculture and alternative energy/engineering). I am a host/ guest lecturer/ project supervisor now for the community college. All unpaid — but I get free labor and we have oodles of fun! I’m popular with the students at both colleges, so they keep asking me back, 😊The stuff I was learning this morning was just for my own interest. I was able to find out how many pounds of carbon my clothesline is saving and how much I will save if I replace the gasket on my refrigerator, things like that.

Humbled by it? I wouldn’t be! Lol. I’m not sure it is necessarily a good thing that I post as much as I do. Currently I am without paid work, and mostly at home alone. My mind is always restless. It is partly creative, but also partly consequence of brain changes that happened with trauma, a sort of “hyper alertness” is with me most days, and rather than let my mind focus on anxiety, I direct it to learning and doing and thinking positively, but it can be rather scattered. It is taken me a while to accept my self as I am. I know my behavior can sometimes get on the nerves of others, so I wish I could be a little less restless, a little less intense, and I keep working on it, but in the end, we are all imperfect and need to accept what is.. It is difficult for me to watch a movie, for example, and only watch the movie. Usually I have to also be reading or doing something with my hands while I watch or I start not to feel calm. Pinterest was a good match for me, because I have always loved learning about different things, and I use it to learn how to make things, find recipes, learn sustainable farming techniques, reach zero waste, find funny images, and to enjoy art and interior design and possibly pick up a few ideas. The photo above came as consequence of my searching for sparrow images the other week, and the Pinterest search engine provides some random images thinking they are similar and I might be interested in them. Many photos are not interesting to me, but this was one that caught my attention and I thought people here would enjoy. Today I am cleaning up the porch, putting more stuff in the trunk of my car to take to the collection center, and a number of other things and then checking back at my laptop when I need a little break to drink water or sit down. I did not sleep well last night so I’m a bit more scatterbrained today than usual, but still quite fine. It’s my normal.

I don’t know if Pinterest uses any A.I., but it will start reacting to your tastes, just as Facebook does. I prefer Pinterest, as it seems I can keep it positive. Today it is “feeding me” ideas for home made gifts, recipes for home made cheeses, dehydrator recipes, ways to reduce household waste, and random humor and images like this:.. nothing like a bee-bum to make my day.

Oh my gosh. First I laughed so hard when you described your phone adventure, and then you melted my heart when you asked, “How do I want to be remembered?” You are AWESOME, Alicia!

And yes, whistles rock. A metal whistle will work under any conditions and the sound carries far, as I learned hiking in Scotland with my husband. He said a whistle is indispensable emergency equipment. You don’t always have a cell phone signal… well, except in your case! LOL. 📱🔨🔨🔨🛶🤣

Thank you, Diane! I had a fabulous day. I got so much done and it feels good. I packed up the whole trunk of my car with items for Good Will and dropped them off, put a number of things into our scrap metal pile that can’t be reused as is, composted things, mended things, assembled a lamp, fed and pet the neighbor’s outdoor-only cat while my neighbor is away, picked out an anniversary card for my husband at a shop, made a “refrigerator surprise” sweet and sour stir fry that turned out quite well, cleaned the refrigerator, read, made brownies, and still had time to enjoy the beautiful sunshine! I hope you and everyone here had a great day, too. 😊

I agree. I have even been looking for imports to buy, but they are harder to find than ever because of the shipping crisis. But I did find some Aleppo soap on Amazon, and it is very lovely soap! Most refugees still have loved ones that were left behind in their home country.

I wish we could cut red tape and let refugees work, even if they were not released from camp yet. It seems to me that is the most accessible solution, because they would be very glad to help their own situation if we only provided them the means to do it. ❤