Retirement Prep

 

Thanks to a cheap financially-prudent spouse, it looks like - if all goes well - I will join the ranks of retirees in 2014. The mere thought of it freaks me out. Good Lord, just using the phrase, "freaks me out", really does place me in the appropriate era. Why does the anticipation of a work-free life cause me so much anxiety? I'm really not certain, but I can bet that it has something to do with aging.

There. I've said it. Aging. Old. Decrepit. Retired.

March 2013

I really need to get over it.

The alternative to aging is not one that I am ready for, so I am taking the steer by the horns and embracing the fact that - if I take good care of myself - I should be around this planet for another thirty years or so.

Thirty years. That number is almost equivalent to what I have accomplished in this lifetime so far. It's hard to for me to believe my career as a Registered Nurse began thirty-seven years ago.

What's next?  One thing is for sure...I'm not done yet.

Girl's Trip 2012: Carribbean Cruise

Patty, Me, Suzanne, Kathy, Karin

Our Annual Girl's Trip this year was aboard The Norwegian Sky. 

Ports of call? 

Who cared? 

Entertainment on board? 

No clue. 

Food?

 Incidental. 

We were five ladies who hadn't been together in a while and thoroughly enjoyed catching up. 

Oh yeah...

and playing the slots.

 

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Jenny Joseph