Immediately after graduating from Cornell, I headed for Alaska for the summer. Returning to Rockland for a few months, I worked as a short order cook at a seedy motel coffee shop in West Nyack. Used my earnings to get to Mexico where I perfected my Spanish at a language school. (Use it or lose it is more than an old adage.) Once out of funds, I came back to Orangeburg and got a real job in the trust department of a no longer existing bank. From there I joined a training program at Merrill Lynch and became a COBOL programmer. Last stop — my current employer where I’ve been an asset services product manager for 38 years. I recently took a step back to a lower position that I view as my pre-retirement gig while I try to get my head around the notion of no longer getting a steady paycheck.
I’ve been very fortunate to have the work life balance and funds to feed my love of travel and various craft related hobbies. Travel highlights include bicycling the garden route in South Africa, hiking on a glacier in New Zealand, snorkeling in the Galapagos Islands and hiking in Death Valley and many other beautiful places in the US and abroad.
I wanted to take shop in high school, but they didn’t allow girls to do so back then, so I made up for it by taking ceramics classes as an adult. I threw pots on the wheel for years and then accidentally got interested in glass. Glassblowing wasn’t for me so I settled on making lampworked beads and jewelry. I’ve taken many classes and workshops including at the Corning Museum of Glass, Urban Glass in Brooklyn and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine.
More recently I’ve returned to my love of music. I joined the Hunter College Choir and have been taking a sight singing class at a music school. I’m hoping to re-learn how to play the oboe so I can join an orchestra as well. There’s nothing like the joy of making music with others.
Living in Manhattan all these years has been a gift — the culture, the restaurants, the people and the people watching. I realize it’s not for everyone, but I definitely got the brass ring.