They tasted great!

I also have no problem taking time for myself; I take long coffee breaks to do the daily crossword, I play video games more than I did as a college student, I took a long lazy bath today while watching a TV show. Work pays the bills, my free time pays my soul.

I try to learn something new everyday. I subscribe to "History Facts" daily emails, I browse Wikipedia, I try to find new baking things I've never tried and check out books on them from the library. As long as there's new cool stuff to see and learn, I feel positive.

I don't know whatever you mean. ;-)

Yeah, this is very much your mother. Your found family tries to be more supportive. 😘

It's very nice that my colleagues have learned that I formulate ideas by speaking out loud, and don't take the first thing I say as "written in stone". Talking things out is the way to turn the swirl of internal abstraction into concrete ideas.

As someone with no inner monologue... doesn't that get exhausting sometimes? I really value times when I can go on a walk and just... experience, with no words in the way.

I literally had a panic attack when I discovered that "imagine a sandy beach" meant.... literally seeing a sandy beach. Everyone around me hallucinates, all the time!

Yeah, some authors with aphantasia I know of are John Green (The Fault in Our Stars) and Peter Watts (Blindsight).

I actually find it helpful as a chemistry instructor-- I *have* to draw things out on the board, so I don't inadvertently skip steps.

On a side-note, it doesn't interfere with memorization; I memorize a great deal, probably more than most.

It was as tasty as it looks! So glad you discovered your love of baking.

... and I'm grateful that my wife bakes amazing bread!