Tomorrow I start back to school. Wednesday is the final day of semester with no students, but it still requires I get out of bed and get dressed and try not to sound as sick as I was before the Christmas break. Truth be told, I'm still really down. I get so tired so quickly -- and every day is a new congested symptom.
But the clothes have been washed. The garbage has been cleared from the kitchen -- all that stuff that one finds left over at the end of the year. All the travel bags have been unpacked except for the carton of gifts we brought home from Houston. Plus sister-in-law found that we had left a number of things behind that she is now forced to mail forward.
Over the holidays, but after Christmas, I met for lunch with a dear friend from Sprint. We sat in the local barbecue joint and shared family stories and remembrances of days past. It was a sweet time -- and I'm so glad that we have actually both made the effort to reconnect after several years silence between us. We had always said that ours was friendship that could withstand separation and time apart and, luckily, that has proved true. She is, frankly, one of the dearest and most interesting people I've ever known.
On Monday morning we met our "concert - going" friends for breakfast and a chance to catch up. For the last seven plus years we have been attending area classical concerts together, usually preceded by a nice dinner together. We have tried to meet up at least once a month, but lately life has been cutting us all off at the knees. One couple is caretaker to the husband's mother, who is 93 and suffering from some serious medical complications that required hospitalization throughout most of December. The other couple has children here in town, the wife is going through a job transition, and the husband, though retired, also has some health complications that sometimes means he is not able to join us for the get-togethers. In fact, he has gotten the winter "virus" and was was home in bed for the Monday breakfast.
Tomorrow I'm attending workshops in the morning and expected to work in the high school building during the afternoon. I scuffled around this afternoon and found the laptop and have it charging in preparation for tomorrow. I have hopes that my second semester will be less taxing than the first one -- I'm working more with the sophomores than the badly behaved juniors, so I hope that my frustration level will decrease.
At some point during the second semester I'll start attending the district retirement seminars. That means Hubby and I will need to start looking into Medicare and supplemental insurance. I'll have to visit social security and see just exactly what the pension is that we'll have to live on. All of that makes my stomach knot with anxiety. But then I think about next September and NOT having to get up at 5:00 but instead wandering out to clean up the kitchen at 10 a.m. and then sort through the files in the computer room during the afternoon while listening to good music on the CD player, and suddenly, I'm floating on a sea of bliss. Isn't that just like life? Some of it really dreadful? Some of it simply wonderful?
2 comments:
Life is sounding mostly positive! I would really like to retire, but I'm way too young and am hoping for 62. We'll see!
You're going to love retirement. And hey, Medicare isn't as bad as you've heard.
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