Hey, this is Marjorie Alexander, host of A Sustainable Mind. Thanks for joining me for yet another

episode. So today is going to be a little bit different than what you guys are used to hearing from me.

If you are an avid listener, you probably notice that I've not released any episodes for a couple

months now. Actually, it's been over three months. And instead of doing an interview today,

I wanted to talk a little bit about what I've been up to for the last few months and also

introduce some new and exciting things coming up for the show moving forward. So as you might

recall from episode zero, I actually mentioned that this podcast was the result of a master's thesis project of mine.

And good news, I finished my project.

I finished my thesis paper.

I'm completely done.

Thank goodness, because I don't think that I could have taken much more of that.

And I also had a pretty big opportunity, a fellowship, specifically for

environmentally related projects and companies. And that was actually a pretty big opportunity for me,

and I needed to give that my full attention. So my intention was to take a couple weeks off,

get those done and out of the way,

and then after that, just resume recording and releasing episodes twice a week after that.

And life happens, and things change. So my grandfather passed away, actually, in early November. I still had my thesis to do. I still have the fellowship to apply for. I did get those things done. It took quite a bit more effort than I thought that it would. So I was intending to take two weeks off, and then after that resume recording and releasing episodes, just like I had been

twice a week, from then on out. And there were a couple weeks in there where, you know,

there were funeral arrangements and dates being moved around and a lot of phone calls with family.

And I did get those things done.

I got my thesis done. I got my application off. You know, up until now, I've been very lucky to have all four of my grandparents with me. And it's been, it's been a long time since anyone close to me has passed away and I think

I really just completely underestimated the amount of time for grieving and emotional capacity

...