My special day.

This week has been one of chasing my tail, and today was no different. As you can see, I am making a huge mess. So rather than just show you a photo of a stack of beautiful, colorful rugs, I have to also show you a picture of the incredible mess I make preparing to make rugs, in this case, blue jeans. There is a whole lot of cutting and sewing and cutting going on, and so far this week, I have 50 lbs done. Whew.
When I get through the stack of jeans still waiting to be processed, I will clean up the mess.
Honest. I will.










Today was a VERY exciting day for me. Now I know it sounds hokey, and unless you are over 50, you may not appreciate it, but today my FIRST social security check was deposited into my checking account. WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!
I am still working one day a week as a nurse, and will give it up gradually this year. And of course I am still working at the studio.
But I don't really think of that as work, because I love it so much.
I never dreamed I would be so excited and pleased to be 62 years old. I don't feel 62 years old. Most of the time, I feel like I am about 12. Maybe because I quite often act like I am 12. My body does try to remind me quite a lot, and I do listen most of the time. OK, I try.
Getting to this stage of my life reminds me of where I have worked all these long years.
Age 17, as a nurse's aide, right out of school, as a waitress (I was lousy), as a dishwasher, off to college, then in a paper mill, my own furniture stripping business, then on to nursing school. As a nurse, I worked on a medical surgical unit, on an IV team, in dialysis, in the Emergency Room, in a maximum security prison (this for 20 years) with occasional stints in maternity, ICU, and most currently in Urgent Care, and then the county jail. I started working in 1964......... and that is a grand total of 45 years out in the work force. Working shift work, daycare, working overtime, in good weather, and in bad. I did get a few months off each time I had daughters, but other than that, I have been working. It seems impossible to me now, that I have worked for a living for this long. I should be rich, right?
So I am pleased to be here, finally. The word "freedom" keeps coming to mind. Free to get up when I please, even though I always get up early. Free to go to bed whenever I want, even though I am usually in bed by 10, 11 at the latest. I am a morning person at heart.
Free to do what I want, pretty much when I want. What a concept!!!



I guess my life has come full circle. I feel a lot like I felt when I was 12. Doing what I want to do.
I walk around smiling to myself, thinking that this "getting old" gig is quite the secret. Who knew?????

I am still that same person I was when I was 12, even 25, or 40. She is "in there" to coin a phrase. True, I don't look quite the same, but if I don't walk by a mirror, I forget that.
Just like some of the favorite things I have dragged around most of my life, like this picture..........the Hilary through the years comes with me wherever I go.

All my hopes and dreams throughout my life, and all my hard work, have brought me here.
My life is quiet, predictable, I laughingly say that it is "boring". But I love where I am, and who I am with, and what I do.
At the end of the day, here I am, Eddie on the couch next to me, my husband watching the Red Sox, in our own little world.
I am 62, and all is right in my world.
It doesn't get any better. In fact, it's priceless.