Mrs Duell

Mrs Duell was a woman I hardly knew but who deeply impacted my life.

Back in my California days I was a temp and my agent used to sell me as a 'troubleshooter' so I got some interesting jobs, the most of which were working for companies who built theme parks. The Duell Corporation is one such company and they built/build theme parks around the world. Mr Duell was riding the ferris wheel in the sky but Mrs Duell was still with us.

At 92 she would still drive herself into the office once or twice a week, where she would go to her office and work on her computor (and this is 20 years ago). She would always be dressed very smartly, spend time chatting with people and was always interested in what everyone was working on and able to ask good questions and give informed answers.

My 'troubleshooter' job this time was to organize the chief architect who had now spilled out of his SECOND office.  Boy...talk about unorganized, I filed things that went back 10 years....and he is why I never feel too bad about my mess.  They had booked me for a couple of months as they figured that was how long it would take but three weeks later I was done. They liked that, they liked me, so they gave me more areas of the business to 'troubleshoot and organize'. One of those things was the library which only could be called that due to books and shelves...zero organization! So, I Dewey Decimalized it.

When I finished doing the library, Mrs Duell came up to me and asked

"Is there a class I can take to learn how to do this?"

And at that moment she taught me a huge life lesson....if you keep learning you will stay young...well, your brain will. I believe if you stop learning you will grow old and wither away. I believe that the Font of Knowledge is also the Fountain of Youth...and Mrs Duell taught me that.

I have a lot of things to learn in the near future if I'm going to do what I want to do. I need to learn how to work a video camera, how to take good videos of myself....(no I'm not starting video dating), how to edit and create good videos. Because the new year will hopefully see some how-to videos for my beading projects.  It's a daunting challenge and why my thoughts are of Mrs Duell right now....she inspires me....still!

Now....if you're looking to learn something new here are a couple of suggestions:

You could pick up the latest issue of Beadwork and turn to page 76 and learn how to  make my Gothic Butterfly/Urchin Wings bracelet...and once all the delayed beads get here I will even have some kits available for them.

You could go over to NEDbeads and purchase Nancy Dale's very pretty Trellis Necklace Tutorial

Or over to GoodQuillHunting and buy Christina's stunning Venus Necklace Tutorial

Or how about trying a Net Options Bracelet by Jewelry Tales?

So....there you have some options to fill your Font of Knowledge.

Keep learning and stay young :)