OT Can we have a roll call.

I am still out here puttering around with beads and such. Nice to see some familiar names pop up on the roll call. Without meaning to come off as morbid or anything, but when I heard that Dona Anderson had passed away last week, I was reminded once again of the fragility of life and though of those of you that I have not seen post recently.

Hey Tina,

At one point, I had put together a big box of stuff to freecycle, then at the last minute couldn't part with it; I keep thinking "Maybe I can use this *some* how..." and the stash just keeps on growing :)

I've been working at the University of Illinois for over 20 years; for the past six as Office Administrator in an academic unit. (Read: secretary under too much pressure! ) And other than my pension, there aren't any assets to speak of anyway. I'll have to look for a part time job, and I'm hoping I can find something in one of the local bead shops or craft stores. If I *have* to work in an office, I want it to be something like file clerk or data entry. The main goal, though, is to actually make and sell beads and jewelry :)

Good to see you're still here :)

Cheers, Carla

Hey Maren :)

I've mostly been making a mess :) Seriously, bouncing around from project to project and not completing much of anything serious. Last weekend, I found a stash of earrings I'd made and totally forgot about so I cleaned them up with the idea of getting pictures and putting them on my etsy site. Then the workweek started again and the earrings are back in a box. I'm generally too wiped out after work to do much of anything.

I wish I enjoyed my job but the work-load is just way too much for one person. More often than not, it's frustrating and demanding and exhausting. Since I'm taking early retirement, I'll have to find a job after retirement (which will probably be difficult in the current job market), but it has to be something a lot less demanding.

You're a lucky woman, really :)

I definitely want to make more beads and jewelry, but I'd like to take some classes, too, like in precious metal clay (that stuff is too expensive to experiment with ), and art/design.

Say the word and I'm up for it :) I'd even go off the "healthy eating" for a day :) Last summer, my doc told me I was borderline diabetic (it's in my family) and needed to lose 15 pounds. Since then, I've lost

40 pounds, walk a couple of miles a day, and dropped my blood sugar about 30 points. But "death by chocolate"...that's special :)

Hugs, Carla

Hi Tina.......sorry to be so slow in answering, but have been paying for my dentist's Ferrari, I think. Root canal.......ptui!!

I live just outside Toronto and my daughter lives in Vancouver BC. I got her hooked on beading too, but she is a graphic artist and comes up with some amazing stuff.

I retired from real estate sales, which I detested after 14 years, lol. Used to work in criminal law and much preferred that. I am about a year or two younger than Shirley, so am officially retired...and I have to say that I much prefer retirement to working. I didn't really like

*bosses* much, so being on my own and beading is much better.

Sorry to hear about your depression. Is there nothing they can give you for it??

Cheers and a Happy Easter......Heather

What did you retire from? I often refer to myself as retired, but am actually disabled by Depression. My brain gets tired way too quickly. Now I could be unhappy about it, but it's bad enough to have the organic illness without compounding it with feeling melancholy. Ironically, I have better mental health now than before this specific illness raised it's ugly head.

I like seed-beading, but right now I just have so much bigger stuff that I just need to use some of this stuff up so I can find the little ones! The other problem with seed-beading is than if you hope to make some profits, seed beading takes an awful lot of time and it's very difficult to sell for a worthwhile price. Although just for the sake of satisfaction, I really enjoyed the intricacy of seed beading.

I had hoped to place some of my floral pieces at the local nursery, which also has a coffee shop, etc. I'll try again next month. I'd even like to barter with my nurseryman, but when I was in it was his manager I spoke to. Maybe next month.

Sorry to hear about your LBS. It's so much cheaper to shop on-line, but it's very important for us to have that store as a resource -- for selling or when we MUST have some item.

Tina

I hadn't heard anything about this. It must have been sudden. And yes, I also wonder about the ones I don't hear from. I'm especially concerned about Kathy NV. Any one hear from her?

Pete and I are both still disabled, still waiting for that engine to make us rich, and still happy none the less.

T> I am still out here puttering around with beads and such. Nice to see som e

Maren, I saw Sooz last March and she seemed to be doing pretty well. She always has a harder time (more pain) in winter with the damp and with the weather changes.

I hope things are OK for Kalera. I got the impression things got rough for her last year, but she didn't answer my email. I guess it's time to email again.

Tina

s.com/(and makes awesome stuff, IMHO)

You know, as I'm using my stash, I'm using some beads just for the sake of using them. But I just decided to pull out the stuff with wonky beads and bring them to the women's shelter rather trying to sell them.

It's funny that I'm hearing so much about retirement. I was in my

40's when I first posted here and am in my 60's now. That would be 11 or 12 years.

Tina

I'm jealous of all your flowers and blossoms. (Sigh).

It's pretty wild where we are, but we're only about five miles from town (ten from the hospital), and the native corporations have put money into hospital facilities, so we have good care for the size of town (about 60,00 in the greater/greatest Fairbanks area).

Glad things are good for you in DC. It's not a place it would occur to me to choose to live. But then, I only know what I hear on the news.

Tina

My husband was born here, I lived here from 2nd grade to high school graduation, so it's "home" for both of us. If you're not in the "local industry" (i.e., government) then you don't have to have anything to do with it. It's just a nice cultural town with great art and restaurants. :-)

Tina, that's good to hear. I know she has these health problems, and that's why I am/was worried.

Kalera has several email addresses, and I never know to which one she'll reply if any. I sent her email not too long ago, and when I sent her a PM and Lampwork Etc. a while later she said she didn't know I had

- but she replied to my PM. She usually does. - I had hoped that the would reply to the roll call, but she said she didn't remember how to get to Usenet. I know a bit more, but I'm not comfortable putting it out in public. Things have changed a bit for her, but she seems basically OK for all I can tell. - Tina, send me email.

-

Aloha, Maren HiloBeads: Beads - Bead> Maren, I saw Sooz last March and she seemed to be doing pretty well.

gns.com/(andmakes awesome stuff, IMHO)

In my case, if you interpreted my post as talking about retirement, it would be forced retirement. I love my job most of the time, even if it does sometimes get the better of me, but then I have fun things happen like today starting to talk to a device in a matter of an hour I didn't know whether it existed, and was connected or powered on. It obviously was all three, only it's a different device I have so far found any documentation for other than on-line. - Remote operations embedded system programmers' fun and games. -

While I'd love to have more time to do other stuff I don't want to retire for the next 20 or so years (mid 50s here), maybe cut hours. I'd love to have time to make more lampwork, cut down the junk trees in the yard and grow my own mgambo seeds as well as more food, hunt down all the coqui frogs (those are noisy buggers!) and crab spiders (I've been out with staph infections twice this year so far. They're somewhat poisonous but not like brown recluses or so, but they apparently carry staph. Didn't get MRSA, but I know it's around here, and the second one did require some flushing out type surgery in my doctor's office), finally fix the phone wiring in the house, it's been out for years, deal with the termites, get the lawn weed whacked if it ever stops raining (actually, it did for about 3 days), it's about a foot deep, more in places, and a lot of weeds in it. And, have time to take on more complex bead work. I have ideas but little time to follow up on them. E.g. something wire wrapped with coiled bead cages in it. I know I can do both because I've done it, but to make a single link per week or sometimes per month doesn't appeal to me. They will not turn out even if I space them by that much in time, I'm sure of that.

Now (Tina will understand this even if the rest of you maybe don't) going back to watching "Deadliest Catch".

Aloha, Maren HiloBeads: Beads - Beading Supplies - Hand-made Jewelry

Blog at: East Hawaii Cultural Center Aloha Sunday Fair, May 10, 10-3 and hopefully another Artists Fair at Hilo Art&Glass May 16.

Wishing Kathy NV all the best for a speedy recovery. Shirley

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