My Condo

     I moved into my new home, my condo, 18 December 1989. The job at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics allowed me to buy a condo close to I-380. It would make my commute to Iowa City easier.
     I had possession the week before I moved in. New silver gray hi-low carpeting was installed.  Several friends helped me paint where it was needed.
     On moving day a number of single friends and family helped me - making several trips across town. My son-in-law told me whenever I sold the condo, I needed to sell the piano with the condo because no one was going to be able to move it down one flight of stairs.  It had been difficult enough to get it upstairs!
     The condo had a large living room and master bedroom with a smaller second bedroom, a full bath, nice dining area, and a narrow galley kitchen. It had a wonderful airy feeling.
     I loved the fireplace and used it often. The chinmey cleaner took care of it annually. Big brother Bill warned me not to put the hot ashes in anything and never set them out on the deck!
     Every piece of furniture, with the exception of three pieces, I chose and bought. There was one dresser that I painted black, my piano that I brought with me. The third piece was a beautiful pyramid chest of drawers that was a gift.

     Things that made it home were the clown poster, the lighted glass curio cabinet, photos of family, a beautiful stained glass butterfly that son Tony made for me and my piano.

     A later addition was the beautiful painting titled "Looking Forward" painted by a local artist, my friend Barbara Jones Prall.  I call the  painting simply "The Lady."

March/April Jewelry

This is what I do when I am not blogging.  I love to make jewelry.  I usually find a design I like and then use the beads I have on hand.  The final project looks different than the photo in the magazine - and that's fine.
The above bracelet was made based on a pattern in the Dec.2011/Jan.2012 Beadword magazine. The bracelet is designed by Barbara Falkowitz. It is reversible with the slide clasp.
 
The above is the first bracelet I made using Barbara's design.  I didn't have the gold pearls so I just made it a flat, reversible bracelet using seed beads with a right-angle-weave base (for all you beaders out there.)
 
The earrings are a design by Alice Kharon in Feb/March 2012 Beadwork magazine.  They are fun to make and take only about an hour per earing.  The main color in the left pair of earrings is Tanzanite.  The right one has a center bead that is white opal with Fern Green around the edge.  I've made six different pairs of earrings, using different colors and different sizes for the large center bead.  I am really pleased with the final results.

Divorce, Revisited

I love to read fiction - suspense, mystery, romance - but at the beginning of this new path, I quit reading any fiction. Every book I read was positive and/or self-help. The best book on divorce I ever read was Jim Smoke's "Growing Through Divorce." It is no longer in print but probably can be found somewhere online. Smoke's contention is that we have a choice - we can grow through divorce or go through it. We can make the choice to be a victim and go through it or we can become strong and grow through it.  I chose growth.

At the beginning of this path, Life was from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m (work) and Existence was from 4:01 p.m. to 7:29 a.m. It wasn't much fun. Fortunately I didn't stay in that place very long.  Life took over for Existence.

I read books by Leo Buscaglia, Peter Marshall, Wayne Dwyer, Doug Manning, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Bernie Siegel, John Powell, and a wonderful book by Marie Chapian titled "Discovering Joy." It is out of print, too.  These books combined with lots of loving people, who walked beside me, helped me grow.

I will tell you I do not believe in divorce but sometimes it is necessary. I struggle with the Bible verses regarding divorce but I know Jesus loves me and forgave me.  I know that He used me and what I experienced in many ways and many times.  I am truly blessed.

My Chevrolet Beretta

The first year Chevrolet produced the Beretta they had a print ad in Parade Magazine. I fell in love with the car right then and there. It was a nice sporty-looking car. So I started shopping. I wanted a red Beretta with A/C, radio-tape deck.  I found one at Aronson's Chevrolet dealership near Cedar Rapids, got the financing and took it home. 

On day 20 of ownership of the Beretta, I left LeFebure's parking lot to drive home. About a block from the LeFebure entrance is a "road" that is more like an alley. As I came even with it, this car pulled out and hit the Beretta on the rear quarter panel and knocked the hubcap off. I was in shock. I hadn't had the car even three weeks and it got smacked! I took it to a local mechanic.  He told me the quarter panel was only scuffed and he could fix it up to "look like new."  I told him the car was new and I wanted a brand new quarter panel.  That's what I got.

There was another interesting adventure.  Several years later, I had it in for service at the dealership. Another lady in the customer service area asked me if the red Beretta was mine.  Then she pointed out a white Beretta. She told me she had driven it into a Casey's parking lot. She opened the door and the hinges sheared and the door fell off the car.  She said it was very heavy to pick up that door and put it back on the car.  I think she had adrenalin working for her!

Some time passed. One Saturday evening I parked in front of our church, opened the door, reached for the music on the seat - I was accompanying Tony as he sang a solo that evening. I started to push the door open and noticed the space between the door and the frame looked strange. I was on a one-way street and parked with the driver's side near the curb. I remembered the white Beretta! The top hinge had sheared. So I crawled over the console to get out the passenger door. I walked around the car, grabbed the bottom of the mirror and the door handle, and used my hip to help me get the door closed. I locked the door.

After the church service, I crawled over the console, looked the driver's side door and drove home.  When I got there, I crawled over the console to get out the passenger's side again.

The following Monday I drove to work, called the service department to tell them about the door. The service manager gold me it was impossible for the hinge to shear.  That really made me angry because I knew what had happened - and the dealership had fixed the white Beretta so the guys in the service department would have known about it. I hung up and called back to talk to the sales managed.  I knew him and related the story. He assured me he would send a "loaner" for me and the driver would drive the Beretta to the dealership and they would fix it with new hinges.  The driver started to open the driver's side door but I stopped him, explained he would have to crawl over the console and that he should not open that door under any circumstances.  They fixed the door.

Several months later there was a recall notice due to a bad batch of hinges.  Impossible to happen???? It must have happened more than once or there would not have been a recall. So the hinges had to be exchanged again so Chevrolet would be happy with the dealership.

I did enjoy driving that car for about ten years. The photo of the car below is the only one I can find.

An Ego Boost

One of the side lights of the job at U.I.H.C. was meeting so many interesting people; docs, interns, nurses, support personnel, a prof who taught American Sign language and worked with Social Services. the head of campus security and the campus fire chief.





The fire chief stopped by the communictions center pretty often - enough so that the telephone operators teased me about him. He was nice looking and pleasant.





We had lunch several times. When I discovered he was 16 years younger than I, the idea of dating him was really an ego boost. Ladies do enjoy an ego boost - and I did enjoy the attention. However, for me, sixteen years was just too great an age difference. So that was the end of that. May and December relationships didn't interest me - especially when I was the "December" part!

Fallout from Divorce

This photo was taken by a friend I worked with in the early 80s. It is one of my favorites.

I discovered early on in the divorce proceedings that I had no credit rating and it was a real shock. While I paid the bills and signed the checks, my spouse got the credit rating and I got zilch!

I decided to remedy the situation. I got an Armstrongs credit card. Armstrongs was a wonderful four-story deparment store where I loved to shop.

I didn't shop there much when I was married because I made 90% of my clothes. I decided after the divorce that I would no longer make my clothes - I would buy them!

It took just over a year for the divorce to become final. During that time I received a monthly check from my not-soon-enough-to-be-ex. I used those checks to buy myself a new wardrobe.

And a wonderful wardrobe it was!

There was a neat lady at Armstrongs who became my personal saleslady. She would call me when something "interesting" came into the store. Then I would go in and try on clothes. She would ask me to try on something that no one had tried on up to that time and she and the other ladies wanted to see how it looked. I would try the item on and very often someone would buy the same item because she saw me "modeling" it.

I loved Susan Hutton blouses, Kaspar suits, Levi BendOver slacks and jackets. There were other brands that I liked, too, but these were my very favorites. The jacket and blouse in the above photo came from Armstrongs.

Patti and I sometimes shopped together. Later, after Jessica was born, we took her in the stroller and we all three "shopped til we dropped!"

I did learn that, when buying clothes, it was either "yes" or "no" because a "maybe" was usually a mistake. I can think of one particular jacket that was a mistake and it had been a "maybe." So I really did learn that lesson - and the hard way!

Newest Earrings

I am still trying to learn how to take good photos of the jewelry I make. Sometimes I have better luck than others. The photo of three pairs of earrings is made from a design by Alice Kharon in Beadwork Magazine. The center large beads are vintage crystals. The central stone in the two blue pairs of earrings came from a crystal choker I wore in the 70s. The other is from a yard sale buy that my jewelry teacher came upon.

The earrings made with the silver heart and various Swarovski crystals were gifts for the kitchen crew for Food Court at our church on Wednesday evenings. We always give them beaded gifts (usually earrings) at Christmastime.