Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

This fall I’ve been privileged to teach a fair number of Road Next Taken classes.  I’m always overwhelmed when in the space of a one time, 1 1/2 hour class, participants not infrequently crack open the window into their soul and share what’s there. For the majority, retirement is simultaneously wonderful and frightening.  They’re uncertain about what they also feel certain about.  Surprised that tomorrow can be challenging in ways they never imagined.  So happy that they don’t have to go to work in the morning while wondering what this day...and the next...and the next might be. Like me.   Like me, they wanted their lives back; they got them; and now what?  What does happen when you get your life back?   Is it handed to you on the metaphorical silver platter?  Or do you have to rummage around in the kitchen drawer to find it?   Is it what you expected, anticipated, planned for or does it end up being none of the above? T...

This sage advice is courtesy of my friend, Patty Carney-Bradley. We had lunch yesterday, then toured the exhibits at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.  While I enjoyed the museum and certainly learned a whole lot more about Salvador Dali and surrealism (still has a tendency to give me a migraine), I mostly enjoyed spending time with Patty. In previous lives, we taught together at the Edina Family Center  as Licensed Parent Educators.  Those were synergistic years; speaking for myself, I learned a great deal about the value of being introspective, then accepting the challenge to change.  Much of this had to do with my interactions and friendships with the women I worked with.  Some of us are now Facebook friends (you know who you are), allowing us to keep up with, in particular, the children who have morphed into adults.  Such a gift to have that richness serving as a foundation for the later years.  Thank you. Patty and her husband are pretty m...

This falls into the category of "other assorted retirement activities" as in reorganizing the fall/winter closet.  Yes, don't judge, I have two closets, one for the aforementioned fall/winter clothes and a second for the sweatshirts and spring/summer clothes.  With the culling of the fall/winter clothing, however, I might need to consider moving the sweatshirts to the fall/winter closet although sweatshirts, for me, are a year round item of clothing.   The past two weeks, I've had the pleasure of teaching a few classes.  When I teach or speak in public, I feel compelled to wear a dress.  Hence, on the evenings I taught, I pulled out a dress.  And heels.  Again, don't judge.  Remember, I'm 65 1/2 years old and came up through the ranks when NO ONE wore jeans to work unless it was Casual Friday and even then, if you were an administrator, you thought twice about wearing the jeans.  (Once you crossed the line, however, you seldom we...

I feel that the test is coming. The past couple of weeks in yoga, our instructor has been reminding us that fall is a season of change that we might feel in our bodies, our hearts, our minds, our souls.  We may be experiencing a sense of disequilibrium as the days shorten, temperatures fall, and we can see through the trees to branches rapidly becoming bare.   Right now in the upper Midwest, fall color is peaking.  Earlier sunsets are often sky filled blazes of wide swatches of pinks, purples, oranges.  In that respect, it makes it easier for me to accept the falling temperatures, the constant chill in the air that both intuitively and intellectually I know will only grow deeper and more intense over the coming months. You all know that I am a warm weather girl, truly the warmer, the better.  I park my car in the sunshine year round, never in the shade (I mean, come on, why?).  My gravity chair has a place of honor in the sunniest spot in the bac...

No, this post is NOT about sex but I am going to posit a question a la Carrie Bradshaw, she of Sex and the City.  Plus I figured having sex in the title might be a good way to draw readers. Before I retired, many already retirees would look at me with something akin to sympathy and tell me that it would take me awhile, but I would find a routine.  I've been ruminating over this quite a bit, which leads me to wonder--Why is it important for people leaving the routine of the workforce to then burden themselves with a new routine?  Because, after all, isn't that something we're all looking forward to with baited breath once we retire?  That we can jettison the routine, do whatever we want, whenever we want? (I previously wrote about the value of getting into an exercise routine, which I have been adhering to rather religiously.  Therefore, I exempt exercise from the ensuing conversation about routines.) And don't get me started about schedules.  Definiti...

It's the morning you've been dreaming of ever since you announced your retirement. Your co-workers have gazed longingly on that date marked, probably in red, on your calendar.  LAST DAY OF WORK. The alarm does not go off. You don't have to haul yourself out of bed when you awaken. Now what? Here are a few things (that I can recall) those who were already retired shared with me about retirement: It's great. You'll never look back. You'll be so busy, you'll wonder how you ever worked. You can do whatever you want. Keep a list of all the things you say you want to do. Travel.  Travel.  Travel. It takes a while to get used to it.  About a year. You'll get to spend a lot of time with your grandchildren. You'll get into some sort of routine. Friends and co-workers asked me what I was going to do when I retired.  I sensed an undercurrent of, "You're not just going to be  retired , are you?" which I took to mean there wa...