The hurrieder I go....................

...........the farther behind I get. Does that happen to you? It's really sort of rediculous in my case. I'm single, my son is grown, unfortunately at the moment I have no pets to care for, just me. So why can't I keep up with myself? Well, here's the culprit. I was layed off from a good job several months ago like so many folks now. And for the past 25 years or so, I've worked in manufacturing. Doing what you may well ask. Well, sewing of course. For 10 years I worked for a company that made pollution air filtration bags from fiberglass fabric. These bags were huge and used for filtering "waste" air in large industrial plants. Great job! It moved to China. Then I landed another good job for Everlast Fitness Manufacturing. Guess what I made. Go on, guess. You won't believe it. I made professional leather boxing gloves. MY gloves were even on TV (The Contender series) and big movies (Cinderella Man) just to name a couple. And if you have ever seen the tv series, "Made In America" my little glove making department was featured on one of the shows. You can actually see me sewing for about 2 seconds if you look really closely.


John Ratzenberger, host of Made in American doing an exibition match for Everlast workers while filming for the show.


John, autographing gloves for us.



And yes, I was layed off that job, they also sent my job to China. Thennnnnnnnnnn I went to work for a small company that put together fancy Hallmark Greeting cards. Ok, not sewing but it was a fun job. Everyday, we got to play with new cards and see the newest designs. We glued and folded and added jewels, buttons and ribbons. Just downright crafty, I tell ya. It was great and we got paid for it, too. But alas, they decided they didn't like America either and guess where they went? No, silly, not China, they went to Taiwan. So then, I went to work for a large company that makes good office furniture, you may have heard of them, Hon Industries, they've made Hon desks and file cabinets and other funiture for decades. I got to sew again, leather office chairs. I wasn't there 6 months and our ever exciting economy took a nose dive. Where did my job go? Well, nowhere yet, it just evaporated I guess. So, with great frustration, I thought, well our manufacturing is going elsewhere, not much more of those left that this old lady can do anyway so I'd better make a career change, right? Well, to make this not so long of a story, I decided to go back to school. Ok, so I'm 55 years old, I can still learn, can't I?
Just because my memory ran off to China or someplace far away, I should still be able to learn something new.

What do I want to be when I grow up, you ask? I decided a medical billing transcriptionist would be interesting. Ok, not really interesting but they get paid fairly well and if I'm lucky, those jobs won't get outsourced so much. They are actually, did you know that? Somebody in another country might be figuring up your medical bills even as we speak. Anyhow, I applied for admission and started two of the necessary classes this summer to get my feet wet. I'm taking two of my required prerequisites before the Fall session begins and begins in earnest. I signed up for 5 classes in the Fall, thinking since I'm not officially working, that shouldn't be to much of hardship. I could be very wrong. It's happened before, you know? The two classes I'm taking right now and have to have before I proceed is a business math/Excel class and of all things, Chemistry. You heard it, chemistry. Does that rattle your cage at the thought? Well, think how I feel. It's a foreign language, I swear. Shouldn't the really hard classes come last? Shouldn't I take the easy classes first to get used to going back to school after so many years? Oh, you think the following classes might be harder yet? Ya, that horrifying thought crossed my mind a time or two, also. But, I digress. What I was getting to is, I'm spending most of my waking hours just studying those two classes. How in the world am I going to be able to handle five classes at a time? Should I forgo sleep? I may very well have to.

But I did say, I spend MOST of my time on classes. For fun and relaxation, I'm working on two large quilts for my sewing/blogging buddy, Pam. She and her DH have bought an old house and just starting to fix it up so they won't be moving into it soon. That's another story for her if she ever finds time to visit with you. Here's a pic of some blocks made so far. We're using up some of Pam's Civil War reproduction fabrics for them and railfence is Pam's pattern of choice.



And I've also finally started putting together some of my quilt patterns. I have several that need instructions written for but a few are ready for sale and you can find them in our etsy shop, http://madcreekdesigns.etsy.com Oh yes, I forgot, there's etsy to take care of, too. Here's a few paper piece patterns ready for sale.










So, I hope everyone is enjoying Spring. I love the weather, the cool temps are just perfect in my opinion. My flowers are growing, my tomato plants are blooming already, can't wait for those tomatoes! I will be back, hopefully sooner than later.
Chris