I Never Did Like Hash!

I had lunch with my beautiful friends, Bella and Renee the other day. Bella commented that I hadn't written on my blog for a few days. She said she checks it everyday, which was encouraging. She also told me that it didn't always have to be tied to the retiring thing; that my friends would be happy to get my general stream-of-consciousness. I've been thinking about that quite a bit since, and one of my thoughts has been that maybe I need to start worrying more about my friends! But, mostly I've been debating the whole thing in my mind. Should I keep it entirely about retiring? On the one hand, going rogue on it would be very freeing, easier, and maybe more real. On the other hand, part of why I wanted to do this blog was to get some focus and discipline to my writing. I definitely have fallen down in the discipline area, and while I still think about and talk about retirement every day, do you really want to hear me hash it over and over? For now, the little six-person (that's all I could fit) jury inside my brain is still hashing it out.

The Underwear Connection

I must confess that tonight when I was walking Elvis I had the thought that maybe I should work another year after this. The economy is soooooo scary right now. Later I was driving in my car and there was a segment on NPR about how improvement in the economy could be predicted based on the sales of men's underwear, and that since sales are going up, the economy must be improving. I guess I'll just keep an eye on men's underwear from now on so I'll know when it is a good time to retire. I wonder if teen-aged boys'underwear counts. I see lots of that at school everyday!

Shattered dreams

I just read that my last post was on November 1! I must have been out of the blogosphere . . . While I was out there I was awakened on night last week by an idea that suddenly (or so it seemed) flew into my head--"I should retire in December, instead of waiting until June." I decided that I should go into work and ask the Principal if he would hire me back full-time in January if I retired in December. I got really excited about the idea of getting both my annuity and my salary for five months. It would be like working two years at part-time. It sounded like a good plan. The human resources office had told me I would be able to come back right away, since I wouldn't be retiring from the Teacher Retirement. First I would need to check with the state retirement system to see how, if at all, it would affect my monthly annuity.

But, when I called the state office the next morning, my dreams were shattered. Apparently I would have to wait thirty days before going back to work, even though it was two different retirement systems. I'm not sure I could convince my Principal to do it if I had to be out a month. So, I'm back to June. I guess it was a nice dream while it lasted.

Anything for a day off!

I don't have to work tomorrow! Do you know how exciting that is? Especially since it is a school day. I don't have to go in because I am having a little "procedure" done. You know, the one that requires I not eat ALL DAY today. That's the bad part. And now I am drinking liquids like they are going out of style. However, it is scheduled for very early in the morning, so as soon as I am out of there we are going to Mimi's Cafe. Then I don't have to work the rest of the day!

There seems to be no limit to what I will do to get out of work. Next month I'm getting a gum graft--now that one won't be so pleasant. I guess I better get retired before I have them yanking out vital organs just so I can get a day off.

Close call

Whew! I thought I'd deleted this whole thing. I could see my whole retirement slipping away. Panic! Gasp! As soon as I can I'm going to save all my posts. I don't want a scare like that again.

It seems like I keep getting my information wires crossed at work lately. This has me worried for a number of reasons, but mostly because it makes me wonder if the information I think I have learned about retirement pay, etc. is correct. Especially since everyone seems skeptical when I tell them what I have found out about it. Of course I intend to double check all this with the school district and the state before I actually retire, but still it makes one a little nervous.

Ecstasy in the HEB

I spent my lunch hour today, as I do far too many lunch hours, running errands. One of my stops was the HEB to pick up a salad to take back to school to eat. All of a sudden I heard someone calling my name excitedly. It was the library assistant at one of the other schools--one that has year-round school. She was ecstatic because she was off for a week! She was very much enjoying herself. She didn't have to rush through the store like I did. She could get into the zen of the whole HEB experience, and I am sure everything else she did today. It was like getting a picture of just how joyful my life will be when I no longer have to go to a job forty hours a week!

Enlighten me--please!

I went to a Buddhist meditation this morning. She talked about emptying our minds so we can understand our interdependence with others. In this way we can become more accepting of others and ourselves and not be so distracted when they piss us off. Well, I guess what she was really saying was that if we can really achieve this emptiness, we won't really get upset and pissed off anymore. And I was thinking, I was getting this information a week too late. I could have really used it last week at work when I had to spend three days on my feet administering a test, while there were others who didn’t have to do any of it! If I'd only known how to empty all those thoughts about how physically exhausted I was, how much pain my lower body was experiencing, how my work was not getting done, how I was probably going to catch the H1N1 from one those sickly kids, or how badly I needed to go to the bathroom--if all those things hadn't been racing around in my mind, I probably could have really enjoyed that experience. Yea, and monkeys could have flown . . .

I think this emptying skill is going to take a great deal of practice on my part!