Goals

I have always been a goal-orientated person. Even when I was young, Then, I had two vague goals -- to go to college and to go to Europe. I have done both, and both more than once. I am finished with degrees but as time goes on, I do think I will take some courses -- for fun. I have been thinking about an astronomy course. Look toward the skies. I wonder what is out there? Since I am so close to NASA, I need to take a drive to the East Coast and look around. I know it is nothing like what I am interested in, but I still think I should go. What I need to do is to find a great observatory and watch the stars. I do have a telescope (Al gave it to me for Christmas one year), and I need to learn all the components to get the most out of it.

But for now. I want to create craft projects, write, and travel. That was my purpose to move into an active adult community -- to find liked-mind people. I have found those people.

Craft Projects --
As I have mentioned before, the first club I joined was ceramics. I have been in the club for a little over a year, and have painted a number of pieces. And I have learned it is way more expensive than when I painted ceramics when I was young. Just to do it, I don't think it is worth it; but, if the pieces are going to be different, I think I will continue in this for a while longer. Right now, I am honing my painting techniques, but I really want to do the hand building. After I learn that and do it for awhile, I will decide whether to keep ceramics in my life.

When I arrived in Florida, I came with a few small furniture pieces, namely tables, so I decided to paint the tables white (I like white). So, I learned all I could about chalk paint and painted until the pieces were complete. And I have gathered small pieces to do other projects with wood, like applying napkin designs to wood or wicker, but I have not tried this yet. And I want to make a broken china tabletop for my guest bedroom.

The final craft that I want to master is stain glass. Actually, I like fused glass better, but I had to learn stain glass before I could take the fused glass class. I have made a few stain glass pieces and will make a few more, and I have taken the fused glass class and have made one piece. The stain glass technique intimidates me. It is so foreign to what I am familiar with; I get nervous with all the small pieces that have to be cut, foiled and soldered. But fused glass -- oh, I am going to like this craft.

Writing --
I started a blog Miswords on word press, and although I do not blog here often, I do think about the phrases and need to return to that blog as well as be consistent with this blog. Miswords  is a play on words, especially idioms and worn-out phrases like "son of a gun" or "a dime a dozen". And there is this blog, my chapter 14, that I will write on until this chapter of my life is over. I have no idea how it will end, but I do know that looking back on my life. it has been divided into chapters, like a book that I am writing.This chapter is all about moving on, growing, fulfilling every dream I have ever wanted to do, and reaching goals.

One of my goals and dreams was to write a book, but a novel has always seemed like a huge undertaking. I am a trained journalist, I can interview and write short pieces but 40,000+ words in one setting seemed daunting to me. So, I decided that I would write a collection of short stories. I started that in Illinois and was mostly complete until I went to a writer's conference at Ball State in Indiana and the person I talked with said my short stories were good but they needed to have a common thread. I went back home, looked at my stories and some of them had "mother" as a common thread, so I decided I would salvage those stories and continue writing. I am proud to say that today, even with the move, I have one story to write and my editor has the beginning of the shorts. I am on my way....

From one of the stories (the one I am going to write) will be the formation of a series of books.

Another idea that is rolling around in my head is to write historical pieces. My sister and I started genealogy in the 80s at the Library of Congress, and since she was older than me, she did finish one line. And I am going to work on the next line. What stories there are!

Travel --
I arrived in Florida in September 2014, so 2014 does not count as far as traveling is concerned unless if I wanted to count driving to Florida a number of time. But, I have been blessed to travel in 2015 -- to Hilton Head, SC; Illinois (to finish business); Montana and Yellowstone National Park (I would recommend this trip to any and every one); a 4-night Bahamas cruise; a 17-day trip to Barcelona and cruise to Malaga, Spain; Madeira, Portugal; Gibraltar,UK; and the transatlantic cruise to Tampa; then to South Carolina for Christmas.

These three goals are what I will be writing about as time goes on, as well as changing, growing, and moving on after so much loss. And I will write about loss because on some days that loss still consumes me, but days are getting better.  I want everyone to know that we can all go on, we can all move on, even if it one step at a time. And we must. Life is for the living is my motto, and I am sticking to that!

Take care, and tomorrow Chapter 14 starts.