Retirement Report 2021
I've been around for a while, and I've learned a couple of things. One is that nothing goes the way you expect it to. But I'm a slow learner and I continue to have expectations for ... just about everything.
Many years ago, my husband worked in Boston for a year. All through the months we had to prepare for this adventure (my preferred term for anything out of the ordinary, good or bad), I always looked at it as a long vacation. I kept thinking of all the activities I was involved in that I wouldn't be doing for a year. Scout leader, volunteer work, lots of activities at church, and the non-stop driving, as in Mom's Taxi.
All those things were left behind, of course, but it turned out that real life followed me. I had to spend a lot of time finding my way around--the best places to shop--groceries, clothing (3 girls, remember), and where to get plain old stuff. It took a couple of months to find the closest K-Mart, nearly 40 minutes away. The girls found friends and activities so I was driving and hosting and helping just like before.
So the How To Quilt book that several of my friends had learned from and were now making gorgeous quilts, sat. The pretty box and cards that I'd purchased to organize my recipes, sat. Everything sat, except me.
Overall we had a great time getting to know another part of the country, but everyday life wasn't what I'd expected.
I've been thinking about that year a lot recently. Because, so far, retirement has been nothing like I or we expected. We see more of each other, which is great after all his time traveling for work, but that's pretty much it. We're happy and busy, just not doing what we thought we would.
You've heard more than enough about 2020, our first year if retirement.
And here we are in 2021. On the up side, instead of acting retired I found the time to write more. We're learning all about self-publishing. I've decided to go that route because standard publishing moves very slowly and now that I'm finally ready, I want to move it along.
So I'm not saying it's bad. I'm saying it's not what we expected. We're not planning our next trip, to Europe or across the US. Were still trying to make time to repaint and rearrange the basement after the water incident last summer. And take care of some other fixes we expected (there's that word again) to have done by now
It will all happen eventually. And as I said, we're not unhappy by any means. It's just not what I/we expected. Someday I hope to stop wasting time creating a fantasy of the future and just look forward to what comes.
Maybe in my dreams.
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