Welcome to Hump Day!

For those of you who work, and I am not rubbing it in, it's Hump Day, and I used to love looking forward the end of the week. I loved my profession, teaching. With that position came lots of deadlines, record keeping, goal setting and planning - not to mention watching the minds of little kids explode with learning; a very gratifying experience. The weekend gave way to get those things done that needed to be attended to in your personal existence. When I retired, a good friend gave me a "Day Clock". I thought it was a cute idea, I hung it in my kitchen.

As time goes by, I find myself using it more and more. It's key. Some days, I don't know what day of the week it is. I don't live around anything that would remind me, due to the activity (or lack of) going on there. "What day is it?", we often ask each other. Don't get me wrong, I have goals and plans, it's just nice to do them when I choose to get them done.

I can see now, how retired people get into a routine and don't like it "upset". You look forward to each and every day, with no interruptions, no scheduled appointments, no itinerary. I think the only thing that slaps me upside the face, about what day it is, are 'bills'. The other thing I've noticed is that when you work - you spend money and acquire "stuff". When you are retired you don't spend money and you get rid of "stuff".

Why did I retire? Ya, I'm kinda young to retire...but I had soooo many friends and acquaintances who would retire one year, only to face severe illness or death, or their spouses would have this happen. I (we) thought, hey, we have some things we want to do, before that happens, let's do it while we can. And we are. That's also why we are living, where we are. It's been an adjustment. We both agree. But we have adjusted. We are very settled and doing what we want to do!

It takes awhile to get used to not being around those in the grind, but - they are in the grind - and you are not. It sort of separates you from them, that was hard. I found that those who really care, stay in touch, or read my blog and let me know they do - or leave a comment, or a hello in an email. The days of pining the loss of my previous life, are all but vanished. It is an adjustment, never-the-less (sorry to overuse this word, even that's an adjustment, I guess "change" would also be a word to use - a BIG change!). I met a man who was administrating the storage units we were using to store all our "stuff" before we moved. He was definitely retirement age. We were talking about his life 'before storage units', you could tell he was from the corporate world. He said he tried retirement for about a year and a half, and then for lack of better words - he freaked out and had to be doing something, like "employment". I have felt that way - for about a second.

I did have a short-lived part time job last year. It didn't work out. I realized I didn't have to take crap from those in charge and I didn't. I love being an artist, again! That's where I should have always been...in the meantime, I got a great education and hopefully helped 'shape' the lives of hundreds of children, parents and colleagues.

There are those where hubster worked (in the freight industry) that could retire years prior to now and haven't. We often wonder, what is going through their heads?? I think they are afraid of what will happen when they do, like they might 'kick' or get ill, or perhaps they have no outside interests or "things" they want to do. It's always strange when I meet a person, who obviously doesn't do anything but work. Don't ever get that way people. Life is short. You gotta get it all when you can.

Read a saying recently, "Life is far too precious for half-ways, maybes, and decaf."
There are many obstacles along life's path. I enjoy thinking to myself, like Scarlett says at the end of the movie "Oh I can't think about this now! I'll go crazy if I do! I'll think about it tomorrow." and that my friends is exactly what I do.

And now I think I will get back out to the studio, gotta paint the wall that was created with the building of the storage closet. Woohoo! I get to experiment with my rendition of 'faux' painting, something that I really love doing, but that technique wouldn't work on these ultra textured walls in this house. Looking forward to installing a "new and improved" media center, that beats all media centers! Satellite TV, XM radio and hooking up all the speakers that go with that! I may never come back to the house! Ha!

Happy Hump Day! If that's what day it is...