Thursday, June 30, 2011

I'm not very fond of New Jersey...

Things have changed a little since I now have a few followers.  When I was just blabbing out to the internet nothingness, it didn't cross my mind to keep things in check.  Now that the potential for people who don't know me will read what I write, I feel I must act more in a way one would when you are in a social setting with people you don't know.  Even with my very polite social self on, I have to say I do not like New Jersey!  Sorry if that offends anyone.  I recently drove by myself from North Carolina where I now live to Rhode Island where I am now spending some much needed vacation time.  This 16 hour trip took me through New Jersey and I could tell the difference just as soon as I crossed the state line.  Their roads are the pits-full of bumps and holes and patches of ill attempts to fix worn out areas.  Drivers seem more aggressive and everyone moves together in a pack going well over the speed limit.  If you aren't in a pack you feel like you will literally get run over.  My immediate thought when I crossed the state line was-they obviously don't put their tax dollars into their highways.  I grit my teeth, got in a pack and shot on through the state.  Coincidentally, when I got to RI, a relative of mine was talking about his trip here and he also mentioned NJ.  He actually received an electronic speeding ticket that he received in the mail about 3 weeks after he went through.  I had never heard of such a thing.  Evidentally, this form of a speeding ticket is common in NJ.  Cameras are attached to poles on the side of the road and BINGO, you have a speeding ticket with no human involvement.  He was lamenting that he was going exactly as fast as "the pack" yet he just happened to be snapped to receive an electronic ticket.  Something just feels so wrong about this to me.  Having a machine giving speeding tickets that you receive 3 weeks after your crime seems like such a trap.  His wife asked him if he knew when it happened and he said "oh, yes-I saw the flashing light".  And then I remembered an odd flashing light that I had also experienced....So, I would imagine I'll have at least one electronic ticket from New Jersey arriving in my mail several weeks after I get home from my lovely vacation.  And they don't even use the proceeds for their roads.  Nope, I don't like anything about New Jersey-their roads, their computerized speeding ticket machines, Jersey Shore....

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Having the time...

Blogging is quite foreign to me.  I am sure I will adapt to it, but right now I feel like I am just rambling on to a big vast internet nothing.  I am not yet old enough to talk loudly to myself and blogging feels a little bit like that to me right now.  I will adapt.  So, why have I decided to learn how to set up a blog?  Obviously, to promote my Etsy shop, but also I am doing it now because I have the time.  I am currently on vacation on a little island in Narragansett Bay, RI called Prudence Island.  My family has been coming here for years and it is truly the only place I totally relax and let go of the mainland and all the stresses associated with it.  There is virtually no commercialism, everyone is friendly, no one cares what you do for a living or what you are wearing.  It takes a couple of days to really sink into the peace of the Island and right now I am totally there.  Teaching myself to set up a blog was my only self appointed task for my time on Prudence.  Not having a zillion things to do and a too long mental list of "what I would like to accomplish today" is difficult for me.  But, I am now wrapped in the peace of the Island and doing ok with having to decide whether to read a little or swim off of the majestic RI rocky shore.  I am here....









Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Here I go again...

So, here I am attempting to create a blog for my Etsy business and yes, it is something I never thought I would do.  But, my journey with Boomer Babies Upcycles has taken me down many unknown paths and so far I have managed to learn many new things even if I am a Baby Boomer.  I've opened a shop on Etsy, I've joined teams and forums, I've created a facebook business page and managed to get followers, I've studied SEO (search engine optimization) to increase my shop's exposure, I've learned how to read and use google analytics and have kept my sense of humor through all of it.  Not bad for someone "my age"....