What amazes me is that just a couple years ago, retiring was not on my radar at all. I planned to w*rk
another ten years. One evening at a school function, the husband of one my library volunteers told me how much he liked retirement and how he wished he had retired 2-3 years earlier. He said he hoped I didn't stay too focused on money when retiring was so great. At the time, i figured that was because he was a high school principal - i don't have that kind of work stress at all. Well, before too long, these "signs" kept coming along and the more i thought about retirement and how cool it would be, the better and better it sounded until it was about ALL i thought about.
...and, i am one of those folks who really likes my job. But, i have been doing this for 30 years and somebody younger and hipper can come in and do much more than I am. I'm not coasting exactly (just sorta), but the vim and vigor and excitement is not there anymore.
DH and i hope to travel as much as off-season, cheaper rates will allow us. We want to get involved in prison ministry. I hope to read more books, get more exercise, including zumba and yoga (both of which i enjoy quite a bit), learn to play the guitar, garden more, grow herbs, go crystal hunting one time, volunteer (I was a hospice volunteer for years but gave that up a few months ago because i was too lazy to go get the required yearly TB test), visit my parents and brother more, cook healthier meals and cut processed stuff out of our diets. That's all i can remember right now, but i have lists in a notebook somewhere around here. (
Another reason to retire - i lose stuff!!!!--today i sat down to do our taxes and cannot find my W-2!). Once i retire, all my memory surely will come back.
During this next year, DH has agreed to get our house ready to sell. We may move to Hot Springs Village, AR - maybe Massachusetts (his home state)...and we may rent in a really cool area of North Little Rock for a year while deciding between those two places....visiting them each a couple times to check out housing, etc. DH was really set on retiring to MA, but has been re-thinking that lately. (Two of our kids are down here; the third is planning a move to Maine this next August).
The NLR area is right next to the Arkansas Travelers baseball field - another idea from DH.
DH and i both teach and marvel at how much younger and rested our retired colleagues look when we see them a few months/years later. Add that to my list of things to do: look younger.
