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.)