A Most Memorable Year 2016

This year was a memorable one for many reasons. It is also the year I turned 65. Let me share some of the lighlights with you.

Dec. 2016

I started this year by completing my autobiobraphy which was started at the end of last year. It turned out to be longer than I expected. It was 24 chapters in length and it took me on a different journey. I joined a writer's group at a local library to help me with my writing. As it turned out, it was one of the best moves I made. Not only did it help me complete my autobiography, it opened my horizon to the whole world of writing and publishing for fun. I've met a variety of people with different backgrounds and we share the love for writing and we support each other with our comments and critique. It also exposed me to the world of writing other genres such as poetry and fiction and memoirs.

It was also a year of many vacation trips both overseas and domestic. We joined a tour to China in the Spring and a family trip to Taiwan in the Fall. In between, we visited my daughter in Irvine CA twice and spent a weekend in Rhode Island. I ended up writing about our experiences in a few hubs. To my surprise, thry received very good traffic on HubPages

On HubPages, I am very glad about my progress. I am approaching my 300th published hubs. I've also decided to sign up for payout. I made the decision to donate all my earnings to some worthy charity. It is not much money but it is better than nothing. It is an added benefit for online publishing. This is also the year of changes at HubPages. They've decided to create numerous niche sites by topic. This was a response to improve their presence with Google search engine. So far, 9 of my hubs have been chosen to be moved and as a result, have experiencd some increases in traffic.

This year, I also came up with the idea of organizing a reunion dinner in 2017 with my IBM colleagues. I've reached out to numerous colleague using Linkedin and Facebook and have gathered almost 50 former colleagues. We have arranged for the dinner to take place in Aug. of 2017. It will be great to see them after 15 years and catch up. Many have moved on to other very interesting careers. This is something I am looking forward to next year.

I am continuing my volunteer work at the Westchester County Archives. So far, I have helped them digitize over 15,000 photographs. I also got inspired, as part of my plans to downsize, to start to digitize my own photo albums. Over the past 45 years, I've accumulated over 30 albums of family photos. My original plan was to use a table top scanner. However, that would take too long to complete, estimated 5 minutes per scan. Instead, I found modern technology came to my rescue. I discovered an app for the iPhone that will do the trick much faster and with good quality. I hope to complete the over 8000 photos in about 3 months.

I signed up for Medicare in September. Turning 65, it is a right of passage. It was not as bad as I thought. The process was simple and straight forward at least for me. Since I am healthy and do not require any medication, my cost of coverage was also minimal.

Finally, it has come to my attention that the CCNY fencing team could use some help. I decided to make this my project for the coming year. To help make awareness and raise funding to support a fully fledged CCNY Women's Fencing Team. As a beginning, I have written a draft proposal and hope to discuss this with City officials and staff. This was my alma mater and it has done so much for my career that I felt the need to give back.

Like the Frank Sinatra song, this was a very good year for me. Hope next year will be even better. Making plans for new places to travel and experience. More stories to write and publish... More life and living. What a wonderful world...