Quick Notes about Being Retired ..... Comfort is Queen

Smokey Rose helps me knit non-fashionable things

Did you happen to hear the NPR interview with Tim Gunn or maybe read the newspaper article on which it was based? It's all about how the fashion industry has abandoned plus sized women, which Mr. Gunn called disgraceful. Thank you, Mr. Gunn for saying it so eloquently.

I do recognize that whether I want it or not, the fashion industry does effect my clothing life in many ways. Like how the Meryl Streep character explained in the film "The Devil Wears Prada"..... for example, I can only buy certain colors at any given time because the powers that be have decided something or another about colors.

I Really AM Retired Now

Photo by my friend Marian K.

One thing I have learned about retirement is that I no longer have much of a schedule that matters. Most things can be done tomorrow, or another tomorrow, or when I get around to it. Like writing a new blog post. It's been on the list of things to do one day soon, But, as you can see, soon did not come around real quickly.

The other thing I have found is that retirement is looking to be good for my health. One thing that tended to keep me from doing things like exercising and eating well while I was working, was time.  Time that I either did not have at all or that I did not want to spend on doing things like exercising or eating well.

The Blue Lady Is Feeling It

I AM FEELING LIKE I AM RETIRED!

Technically I am not yet there. The official day is June 30. There are still a few chores to do. Last week at this time I was not yet there emotionally. I wrote a draft blog that was nothing more than a  list of chores accomplished and chores yet to be done.

I stil have to take all the boxes home from my office.

But today, right now? Yes, ma'm. I am a retired lady now.

Retirement Planning - Part III - Places

 I am pretty sure I will not stay in SLC as my winter home for more than a couple of years after I quit working. But if I were to move away, where would I go? What am I looking for in a new place?

I need some criteria!

The Blue Lady Contemplates What the Next Couple of Years Year Will Hold

Jul is over, and soon New Year's will old hat. I performed taiko again at the Salt Palace on New Years Eve, and on New Years Day I joined some friends for knitting. I'm already tired of the whole Christmas thing....sooooo glad it is over for another year.

Dream Week

Art from France

Of course I dream. Everyone does, but most of the time I don't recall at all the content of my dreams. If I do remember a bit, I know it was just going over things that I saw heard or did that day in some kind of randomness. Laying down (or not) memories, I'm sure. I also don't put much into trying to interpret dreams. They mostly seem to me to be meaningless neuro-biology at work...not worth spending time with the next day.

This week, however I had TWO very clear and long dreams that had narratives. My friend M says I should share them. So here goes.

Dream #1 ..... the working out of anxieties dream ..... I think

Scene one - the hospital

I was at "the hospital" although it was like no real hospital I have ever been in. It had old fashioned wards and a maze like quality to it. There were people there, but none of them were real people that I could ever recall meeting. But it was the maternity section.

This and That - May 24, 2105

I'm kind of stuck about what to write at the moment so I'll just send you some pretty pictures from Red Butte Garden so far this year and maybe some random thoughts and call it good. We have had a LOT of rain this month and so the flowers are looking great. Right now it's the irises that are stealing the show.

At the moment, these peach colored ones are my favorites

Planning to Be Retired - Part Deux - Where to Live Lists

Should I stay or should I go?

Another Thing you may or may not know exists is lists about good & bad places to live when you are retired. Of course the world is full of lists of all kinds; I guess we love to read them, so why not? I read them all the time. None of them ever prove to be really helpful, I must say, but still I can't help but click on the latest list by someone about something. They are good, clean entertainment.....and food for conversation or blog posts.

Planning to be Retired - Part One, MONEY

This is ON THE LIST

The Planning for Retirement Industry - it's a thing you know, as Sally, the Unbrave Girl would say. There is NO SHORTAGE of advice and other things you may or may not have any interest in. After awhile you just kind of tune it all out and say "Enough already! Leave me alone." But I keep going back to it, just to see if there is something important I have missed.

Travel My Way

I love to travel. There are so many places in the world that I want to visit. I am looking forward to being retired so that I will be able to have the time to go places I want to go. But I intend to travel the way I want to travel. I'm kind of set in my ways about this. I want to be able to fully enjoy my trips and that means I need to do them my way.

There is some news

Look what I got this summer. And I intend to make good use of it.

Now that I am back at work again, I'm working really hard this year. I have a bigger assignment that I have ever had at this job. I am handling it. About 3 months ago various supervisors at work were thanking me up one side and down the other for agreeing to rescue them from a situation by agreeing to work as hard as I am working. They're not thanking me any more because I think they have forgotten about the situation that I did rescue them from. They have moved on to new problems and issues.

But before too much longer people will realize that they may have an even bigger problem because I have made a huge decision. I'm going to retire after the end of the school year in 2016. That's like a year and 3/4 now. I only have one more July, August, September and October to work now.

Traveling After Retirement

Another myth of retirement - you say you want to travel but you won't.

Recently at Red Butte I met a couple from PA who were traveling the continent as they had wanted to after retirement. They still had a large house on a lot of acreage in a rural area where they had lived many years and raised their family. They had owned a travel home of some kind for several years and said until the husband retired, they had used it for annual vacations to here and there, but nothing really far away from their home because they didn't have that much time for travel.

The husband retired in 2010, and they said the intended to take off on their dream long trip, but things happened, including illnesses in other family members, and they just didn't do it. The myth in action, right?

The World is Looking Better

The weather is getting better every day. Soon it will be hot, hot, hot, but right now things are just about perfect. I am feeling much better too. I no longer have cold symptoms, although I am still a bit low on energy. I've been driving around town for short errands more than I really should primarily because I just don't have the energy to do a lot of walking. I still take a nap nearly every day with Smokey Rose.

School has almost finished up for the year. I have just one student taking an incomplete, and I was given no summer school assignment this year (yeah!) so I'm pretty much free to do whatever the heck I want right now. I'll be leaving for the summer home in a couple of weeks. I'm staying in town in order to get in some hours working at Red Butte and to take part in a couple of taiko performances.

I am back to planning for the future. The next myth of retirement to consider is the one that says "your money will last as long as you need it."

Chief Life Officer

"Chief Life Officer" is a phrase from a company that I can't remember (failure of the advertising effort) who sponsors NPR a lot lately. I like that idea so I'm going to make it my own. I am now my own CLO. Not that I have been otherwise in the past, but I have renewed my intention to be responsible and accountable for my life.

As I wrote before I have been pondering that article about myths of retirement, thinking about what kind of actions I need to take to help insure that my life generally moves in directions that I prefer. the first idea that I have thought a lot about is the "myth" that "you will keep your health."

Four More Years

I'm not quite there, but in six weeks or so this school year will be over. We'll be having our annual faculty retirement party....this year for the dean and I'm not sure who else. Four school years later, it will be my turn. My plan is that in April 2017, I'll be cleaning out my office, and part of the party will be for me.

I've been thinking about this actively for several years, but now that this event is only 4 years away (LESS THAN 5!!!!!!!!!) I'm actively studying about it. I am looking forward to this next phase of my life, and I want to do it well.