Back in the '70s, I taught US history and I -- it was one of the first or second years that I taught and I'd assigned a project to the kids, and it was a group project and they were working with a partner. And these two boys decided to build a model of the Alamo. And so they built it out of sand, and they brought it in on a wooden board and it looked really great. It looked exactly like the Alamo. They had done a wonderful job sculpting it out of sand. And, they did a great job, they did their presentation, they talked about it, they explained how big it was, they talked about the battle, they did just a wonderful job on their, on their project. I was very pleased with them and they got a good grade and they were really happy with the way their sculpture of the fort had turned out. So the next morning before school, when I got to the classroom, and I went to the back to kind of look over the projects just one more time before the kids took 'em home, I realized that their sand had been put together with water and the water had dried up overnight and the whole thing was just a pile of sand on board. And I thought to myself, well it's a good thing I graded them yesterday. And about that minute, the two boys and some friends of theirs came in and they said, "Oh Mrs. [Name], we came, we wanna show our friends the, the Alamo that we made." And I said, "Oh, dear." And they said, "Why, what happened?" And I said, "I didn't touch it. I want you to know, I did not touch your project." And the boys said, "Why, what's wrong with it?" I said, "Come on. You gotta look at this." I said, "You made it out of sand and you could -- before I had it, it was all wet sand, right?" They went, "Yeah." And I said, "Look what happened when it dried out." And they went, "Oh my gosh, we're gonna fail." I said, "No, you're not gonna fail. You did a wonderful job on your project and I graded it yesterday, you're fine. But," I said, "You do have to do one thing for me," and they said "What?"…

We went yesterday to, um, Maybury State Park in Northville, there. And they have a track chair there for like disabled and otherly abled folks. And we took that out, although it was cold on June 1st! It was like 57 degrees, and then on the trails, you're completely covered by the trees now that they're fully grown in, so there is no sun, really, back on those trails except for a couple little areas. So really, it was, it was colder than 57 back on those trails, and even with a hoodie on and full length leggings on and, you know, sneakers and socks, I still couldn't do it. I mean, don't get me wrong. I did do it. We went down one of the paths and then just kind of did the shorter length and looped around and came back. There was kind of a weird gentleman, talking to himself, a-walking around, but hey, he didn't hurt nobody and he was just enjoying talking to his bendy straw. But that did put me on edge a little bit, just because, you know, I'm disabled and I can't really defend myself the way like other people can. Don't get me wrong, my wife was there and she would try to defend me life and limb, I'm sure, if she could. But, um, just made me a little bit on edge.  But we were fine and there was lots of other people around and everything went well, and it was still nice to get out there and just listen to the birds, and be in the trees, and smell all the smells, and feel the feels and hear all the birdies. I got two new lifers, and I wish I could look at my phone and see what they are right now, but it would take me off of this thing. Lifers on my Merlin app, the Merlin Bird ID app. Um, it's run by Cornell University and we just love it. We love figuring out what we've been hearing and then like some -- and then, you know, figuring out what they look like and then looking for them and trying to spot them like that. And while we were there, we saw the most adorable thing there at Maybury State Park. Right where we came back around to bring the track chair back to the garages, there's like…

Oh gosh, do I have a story for you. So, I think -- yeah, I was three years old and we were staying in a hotel because our house had flooded. And because we were staying in a hotel, we were living in such close proximity, I watched my parents iron every morning. And I was very fascinated with the iron. I watched them, like, iron their clothes to get ready for work. And there was one day where we were in this hotel where my sister was crying in the hotel bathroom and they were both in there helping her with something, not really sure. She's younger than me, so she was, she was two at the time of this. And because I was so interested in the iron and it had been out, since they had been ironing their clothes that morning, I walked over to it and I plugged it in and I just started ironing the ironing board. But the thing is, is that I saw them iron clothes and I didn't have any clothes to iron, so I figured that my hand would do just fine. So I ironed my hand. Immediately upon touching that iron I knew that I had made a mistake, because oh my gosh, did that burn. It was a such horrible pain and I just shrieked. My parents came running out, and they saw what I had done. My dad grabbed corn out of our hotel mini freezer, put it on my hand as an ice pack, and rushed me to the ER. They told me that I might never be able to open my hand again all the way, which, thankfully that did not happen. But yeah. I regretted touching that iron, but I didn't know that it was hot because I was stupid and I was three. And I think it taught me a very important life lesson about heat sources and what not to do. So, now I'm just extremely careful around everything.

So, my mom gave me this credit card for like, gas, you know, and like school-related -- like to pay for school-related stuff or really whatever I need to get, and I just -- like, if I need something. And I can just use it, use that card to get something. Well, after the IB exams, after the very last one, I didn't have enough money in my debit card because my paycheck was like, still like a week away. So I used the credit card to pay for that boba, which I was not supposed to do. But I did pay that -- pay it back later. She just didn't know that I used it or that I paid it back. But yeah. Like, that was really risky. 'Cause she can see what I do. So she sees, you know, like, gas station, gas station, gas station, and then like, boba place, like she would like freak out. And then I remember like months later, she did see it and she was like, "What is this?" I was like, "Oh, I paid you back." And she was like, "Oh, okay," but that was terrifying. It was terrifying.