Backtracking to 50

I just noticed that I should have started when I turned 50 or 51 since I entitled this as the second half of a century blog. I would have, but not much happened. My life pretty much kept to its own status quo and went on day after day. That is why I was bound to do something in the second half of my century of life.

So far it has been working out. In November, 2009 I bought a new sewing machine in order to pick up on my quilting and crafts. It wasn't a big sewing machine but what I could afford. I am happy with it. I might not be as happy if I had one of the super duper fantastic long arm quilting machines but this is fine with me for now. I bought a Singer Confidence (the line of sewing machine) Quilter. Sometimes I wonder why I chose that one. It was not the one I had walked into the store to buy. No salesperson came up to me to give me a sales shpeel. After thinking it over, I am sure I bought it because a) it was in my price range, b) I liked the "confidence" part and c) I liked putting the "confdence" with the "Quilter" part. I needed that little boost for my quilting. I have not yet been sorry that I bought it.

The next achievement that I wanted to do in the second half of life was to get my Bachelor's degree from Northern Illinois University. I have been working there on and off for over 20 years and they paid for my education. Thanks to waiting for what seemed like forever, I received my Bachelor's of General Studies degree from NIU this May. I also achieved this without incurring any educational debt. That is a very good thing since there is enough debt hanging over me although not as much as when I first left my ex.

As a treat, I wanted to make sure I celebrated getting my degree. Years ago I wanted to go overseas and visit my European gaming and crafting friends. That was out of the question due to finances so instead I looked into going to visit some gaming and crafting friends in the United States. I had already met a friend and his family in California when I went out (my first time riding in an airplane) to a work conference. I guess my first time meeting non local gaming friends was at GenCon in 2003 though. That was my treat for leaving a doomed relationship. Up to now, all my meetings with my online gaming friends have been wonderful and I have grown because of it. Now I am scheduled to go to Utah (North Ogden) to visit friends. This is a great time because I have to sets of friends who live there AND I also found out that somebody from my Quilting Board lives about 15 minutes from there. I wonder if I can manage to meet up with everybody.

As usual, my train of thought blogging/journal style has me of topic a little bit. There is only one way I could afford this trip is due to my marvelous boss. Yes, I really DO have a wonderful boss. My graduation present from him was the air fare for this trip. The costs for the trip had gone up so I ended up having to put in $50 of my own money, but WOW, my gift certificate from him covered the rest. The other thanks I have to dish out is to John and his wife Shelley (and their kids) for putting me up while I stay in Utah for two weeks. I also have to thank George and Michele who moved there so I get a chance to see them also. Michele and Shel both to crafts and they all game. This should be fun. Now all I need to do is to not spend all my money before I go.

One of the women at work will be taking me to the airport...Thanks EV!... and I have already paid for that so I don't have to worry. That means that all of my transportation costs have been met. Not bad Bon!

Oh, a note for anybody who reads my blog. It is my blog which means if I don't feel like spell checking it, I won't. I will still try my best to make it readable but there will be days when I just ramble. I ramble quite well.