Notices by Valerie Roney (vlrny@disabled.social)

In case anybody needs a brief blast o silliness. Turns out C-span RAWKS yo.

Steve Carell Dance Break During Northwestern University Commencement...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5Qb3A7Vlr7U

@dillyd bloom anyway

Sigh... Remember that movie Awakenings? Where Robin Williams is that doc who figures out how to temporarily revive a bunch of post encephalitis catatonic ppl. Where they "wake up," can access their brains, get some kind of life back, and then [spoiler] slide back into the fog?

Yeah that's pretty much how it's going for me, over and over again. It's very hopeful that there is brain function I can occasionally access and feel like a person, but yeesh, having it slide away again is...hard.

☝️at least this is what I tell myself to comfort me as existence drags me all over over the place. 'tis a mighty mindfuck, I tell ya, but it is generating some mental flexibility about expectations.

It's hard to word, but "this too shall pass." also has a layer of: "...and come again, and leave, and return."

Like being aware yer on a beach with waves crashing and receding, instead of being mad every time the world shifts from wet to dry.

☝️The thing that's interesting though, is it is training some non-attachment (not that don't still grumble).

The constant flips between such different states of being: one managing a suffering creature through a hard day, the other has personhood and hope with the ability to interact with others and solve problems, are effective lessons in impermanence.

It helps me feel less like things are being snatched away from me, and more like I am oscillating between states on the cusp of change.

My small non-grumpy moment! We can #sitTogether

In related news, one of my special interests is watching other people nerd out about their special interests.
#actuallyAutistic

I am watching an archeology doc and they just introduced:

"Dr Hugo Anderson Warlock"

And if I was making up posh professor names, this would be top o the list. 🧐

Today I learned my autofill does not have "apeshit" in its repository.

2) after that we'll need people to seek out connections to NGO's, gov't orgs, and similar resources. And/or ppl with the skills to start up a Turtle Bower non-profit to run this place.
We'll need something akin to the Habitat for Humanity model of an interest free loan, and/or orgs like #CAEH (Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness) who want to support novel housing concepts (especially re disabled and marginalized ppl). #longCovid #MEcfs orgs may be good overlap.
🧵

To expound:
1) we need to pull together a website to get this stuff out of my brain and out into the world. We'll need help with content creation - especially anybody with executive function and writing skills to take my braindumps and display them with structure so people know what we're doing and how they can engage.

This may be the mutual aid of brain spoons where we cobble a bunch of small resources together to get what we need done.

So if this calls to you in any way, boop me.
🧵

My executive function is shot so I don't have access to the community facilitation skills I used to have, but I am hoping I still have the connector skills to draw the right people in. We're gonna need:
1) to build a website to showcase what we have here and what we're aiming for.
2) either a collaboration with a non-profit to manage this place, or to start our own.
3) fill this place with spoonies and community builders to zhuzh up the culture here.
4) hire a dorm-mom vibe house manager.
🧵

Ok so... Horrible news, potentially awesome news.
The building with this nascent intentional community is being sold, we've had a very wobbly start, and the owner is burned out.

But... It occurs to me I have been trying to build #turtleBower for years, and I thought finding a good facility would be the hardest part, but the building and location here are perfect.

So basically we need to find a way to buy this place, and turn it into a spoonie haven.

I'm gonna need a tonne of help though.
🧵

☝️so that's the gist of it. There's a lot to do, and I can't do it alone. But there's huge potential to pull something amazing off and demonstrate a whole different way of living and caring for each other. Something that could seed similar projects if we can show proof of concept here.
If any of this speaks to you, or you have other resources I haven't even thought to ask for hit me up.
Let's do this!
#spoonies #coliving #intentionalCommunity #housing #disabilityJustice #Ontario #Canada

4) our nascent intentional community isn't intentionally yet, it's a collection of good-hearted people plopped together via circumstances and mostly fending for ourselves.

This place needs structure and love to get a groove going.

Something steered by a grounded, firm, systems thinking, consensus building, kitchen loving human.

So there's potential for a PT job here (ideally live-in when a unit becomes available) - the summer of spoonie visits might be a good way to find the right fit.
🧵

☝️ continuing on 3) ...the short stays allow for spoonies to try the place out before committing to living here.
And also if you are in a situation where immigrating to Canada is suddenly important to you, there's potential (again in the couch surfing driveway camping) to have a landing place here while you get other things set up.
#Guelph is a small city but very progressive and a good place to put down new roots.
Heck, we can just fill this whole lil area and turn it into #spoonieTown irl
🧵

3) fill the place with spoonies and commy builders! Right now I am the only disability culture informed person here, everyone else here is kind-hearted, but new to community living and lost re some of my needs.
So just upping the saturation of spoonies, and folks skilled in navigating group dynamics is a powerful lever.
Things are highly in flux here, but I think there's room for couch surfers, and driveway campers to gather this summer and stir things up.
🧵

☝️ I've set a new fundraising goal on my ko-fi to help cover the costs of getting this going. Especially as a lot of this will be by spoonies for spoonies, I'd like to be offer honorariums n such to some of the people providing content.
https://ko-fi.com/valerie7173/goal?g=0
I absolutely can't bootstrap this all by myself, but maybe if enough people all grab each other's boots we can lift this up and create a model of shared-support restful living and change some lives for the better.
#turtleBower #coliving

Ya know, it's dead obvious, but it just occurred to me:

When you lift somebody up, you also lift up their capacity to lift up others.

"Hi, I think I'm newly dead?"
"You are. Welcome! Heart please."
"Oh sure."
"Hrm.. it's intact."
"Is that not good?"
"You were supposed to crack it open."
"Crack it open?"
"Wide open."
" . . . "
"Yah know.. like a pinata."

#microFiction #weeStories