"Retirement!" (and SBQ, 4/12/2006)

Last night marked my last shift EVER as a lifeguard!! Wheeeee!!!! I'm sooooo thrilled....and after almost 14 years, it was definitely time to hang up the whistle. I've been certified to guard since I was 16, although it wasn't until I was 19 that I actually got a job guarding. (I worked two summers at a camp in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State.) How fondly I remember those days....polar bear swims at 6:30 am, mosquitoes, 8 year-olds in canoes..... Then when I started graduate school, I found that picking up a few hours a week at the local YMCA got me a little extra money - which ALL grad students need! - and a free gym membership. Those "few hours" slowly snowballed into an average 15-20 hours per week. And when I moved on to my first professional job, I just couldn't face paying for a gym membership - so I kept guarding. This time there was no way I'd work more than one scheduled shift - and having a full-time job pretty much guaranteed that no one called me to cover their hours that often. And so, for the past 5 years, I've been the reliable Wednesday night lifeguard at the YMCA. But no more! My certifications expire next week - the day after my 30th birthday, in fact, and I decided a few months ago that 30 was a good age to stop lifeguarding. (When it is biologically possible for you to be the mother of a majority of your coworkers.....and they're all 16-ish....ack. I felt very out of place at staff meetings.) So happy birthday and happy retirement to me!!!!

The SBQ is really easy for me to answer this week:
For those of you that stitch while riding in the car or on the train, how do you cope with the bumps and the motion? Do you have any tips for others?

I don't stitch in the car!! My only "travel stitching" usually occurs on airplanes...and if there is a lot of turbulence and the plane starts dipping and rolling, I have to put my stitching away (because you can't stitch while your eyes are closed and you're praying!! LOL).