Retirement

For a lot of reasons, I haven’t given a lot of thought to life beyond my working years (other than diligently saving for retirement).  I’m still fairly young.  I don’t particularly like to think about having unstructured time!  (I’m all about structure.)  With my health issues, I haven’t always pictured myself living long enough or living with good enough health to really enjoy (or have choices about living during) my retirement.  But, I also had a hard time imagining very far into the future when I clung so tightly to old dreams for my life.  If I married and raised children, my entire future would be different from what I could ever imagine now, so those dreams required a “planning for all contingencies with total unknowns” mindset that is puzzling to deal with.

But lately, I’ve played around a lot with painting a picture of what life looks like if another path unfolds for me.  And that imagining has extended into retirement, which is 30 or more years away.  That’s a long time to dream ahead for!  But I thought…let’s just suppose I don’t marry and don’t have children, and I’m healthy enough to have a fair amount of choice in what retirement looks like for me.  What would I do?

At the same time as I’m imagining forward, I also had the recent experience of feeling so sad leaving Disney World.  As we drove home from Disney World, I was actively trying to figure out a way to arrange life so that I could spend more time in Florida.  And then these two ideas collided!  Why had I never thought of this before?  Especially given that I’ve had many relatives take this route.  I could retire to Florida — at least for winters, if not year round.  My grandfather did that!  Several of my grandmother’s sisters did that.  Mom’s cousin did that.  My parents won’t be doing it, but I could!  Why not?!  I can’t imagine who would need me to stay in Michigan year-round 30 years from now.

So, I’ve got Plan B of life all planned out now, ending with retirement to Disney World.  That just sounds like entirely too much fun. 

Spring cleaning

My work schedule is lighter than normal this spring and I’m not taking or teaching any classes right now, so I’ve had a lot more time at home lately.  During the first week of this schedule, I’d get home at 5 or 6 p.m., eat some dinner, and then wonder, “Now what?”  It would occur to me to watch a movie…and when that ended at 8 o’clock, I was back to the same question, “Now what?!!”  I wasn’ t sure what to do with myself!

This week, I got my groove on though!  I was having problems with my computer that I thought might be due to the somewhat overcrowded workspace on the table that I use it on.  So I took the piles of papers off the table and put them in the middle of my living area, on the floor.  And my answer to my “now what” question became apparent, at least for that evening — go through all these papers!  When I got done with the papers and catalogs that night (most of which were recycled), I went through old bills the next night, and then started on the magazines.

And so, I have recycled 27 pounds of stuff in the last few days.  And there is more to come!  When I finish with papers, I plan to go through my closet and work on getting some clothes out of there.  And there are always empty bottles that need rinsing and recycling.  My aim is that my apartment will be 100 pounds lighter by June 1st.

It’s very nice to have this time to clean and to have the spirit to do it!  I felt like I was overdue for a cleansing activity of some sort, and this is surely fitting the bill.  All the piles of stuff drive me nuts when I’m crazy busy and really don’t have the blocks of time needed to do this kind of cleaning.  They will drive me nuts no more!  And thankfully (I guess…), the newspapers will not pile up again since we don’t have a daily paper here anymore, and I no longer subscribe to any magazines.  So some of this work will get rid of a problem permanently.  If only the rest of life’s problems were that easy to get rid of forever, eh?!

Disney Dreams

My Mom and I returned from Disney World on Saturday!  It was a fabulous trip.  I soooooo love Disney World!  I have great childhood memories of being there, and it’s a place that suits my personality with all the music and joyfulness.  It’s just plain fun!

We went to all four Disney parks, and I went to the Magic Kingdom a second time by myself as well.  I took over 200 photos and had fun putting them into an album tonight.  Photos of big events (the Disney street party and the Beauty and the Beast performance) make me smile, but photos of little moments do as well (me grinning ear to ear with my sorbet at the Plaza restaurant, and my Mom drinking apple juice from a Big Bird juice box!).  The weather was mostly sunny and hot — it was great to be outdoors and be warm!  And I couldn’t get over how green everything is.  Spring (indeed, summer!) has sprung in the south.  (Spring is delayed here at home!  It feels like winter.)

It was great to be away.  For days and days, I didn’t even think about work.  I generally keep a better schedule on vacation without all the other distractions of life — medicines and bedtimes are on schedule, and rest is more restful.  And Disney is a place that makes me feel so happy.  I see pure joy in my photos!  It was a joy to just be there.  And it was hard to leave.