Oasis

 It was the type of event that sounded so appealing--free dance performances, bands, and art--wandering around grazing from food trucks. It was a culture fest. We would feel like we were doing something truly fun rather than sitting with FOMO. But we ordered pizza first, and made salad, and
sat in my friend's jewel of a tiny back yard. And started to talk. And just kept talking as the air cooled. As her tiny solar lights began to glow here and there, like fireflies. 

Her wee back yard was an oasis of friendship, comfort, news of old friends and forgotten professors, stories of trips taken and men left behind or picked up along the way. Who needs a culture fest?

Retirement

I tell people I'm retired, and they congratulate me, and then I say I was laid off, and they say they're sorry. Of course, I was laid off at the start of May, and got 14 weeks of severance, enough to hold me until September or October, if I'm careful. And truth be told, I was counting the weeks until mid-September when I was going to retire anyway. 

So why tell people about the layoff? I
guess it means I don't have to fully own the status of being retired--at least not yet, at least not until I've come back from my first big trip in retirement on September 13. And sometimes it feels like owning the status means meeting so many expectations--making every day joyful and meaningful, spending the money I've saved effectively and wisely, making a difference in the world, taking on adventures, having a clean and tidy house. So much.

One of the activities was to write more, and I looked into staring a blog. I didn't imagine this green mailbox would still be here so many years later. I looked at Wordpress, but with the free plan I couldn't figure out how to get a theme. But then this morning, I was playing around with the Google widget, and lo and behold, Google has purchased Blogger and this ancient, rusty green mailbox is STILL here. So be it--here is where i will mail my letters to myself, and perhaps at some point, to others. (By the way, green mailboxes do exist.)