Day 1 SOL 2017 Retired

The first day of March holds two important firsts for me. It is the first day of writing a daily slice of life sponsored by two Writing Teachers blog. I've participated in this annual event several years. Each year my goal is to participate at 100%. Life events seem to interfere with my plans. Sometimes poor internet caused me to fall short of my performance goal. Other times work obligations hampered my success. This year I thought maybe I shouldn't even try because I haven't achieved my expectations. But I value this writing process, I love feeling connected with teachers, and I relish a challenge. So here I am late in the day creating my first post for the 2017 writing challenge. You can read more about the process here: https://twowritingteachers.org/2017/03/01/day-1-sol17/

The other first for me this March: it is the first day of my second retirement. I taught in a public school for 29 years and retired from that in 2006. Just as soon as that job ended, actually even before I was done with school, I went straight to work as an education consultant for a state agency. Yesterday was my last day working there. I planned to work 10 years, but ended up loving most duties of the job and continued working until yesterday. I wanted to leave on a high, while things were still going smooth, while I could still meet my expectations. But I was getting tired, I was starting to avoid some of the more stressful duties. That was my clue that it was time to make a change so in January, I began the process to retire. I had 2 months to clean out my office, tie up loose ends and prepare for the transition. I cried while in my office on the next to the last day. Yesterday I attended a training and afterward my coworkers gave me a sweet send-off. I was done. 

Today I attempted the transition! I awoke early and began my regular routine: took the dog outside for a walk, gave her a pill, fixed her food, made coffee, exercised, showered, started a load of laundry, washed a few dishes, set out my husband's pills, took the dog outside again, I looked for birds and picked up limbs from the storm while she explored. We went inside and I checked the time, it was almost 9 o'clock! My thought: what am I going to do the rest of the day? 

I applied make-up and headed out to pick up a prescription, pay a bill and check the mail. I was excited to be around other people and eager to talk with old acquaintances. One friend offered me a job helping her with her new venture, wedding venues. It definitely sounded interested. That took 30 minutes so it was still not nearing lunch time. My thought: how am I going to do this?

My husband said I had to learn to pace myself, that I could not do everything in one day. Hmm. I only know how to work full steam, I don't know how to change that pace. I'll try to take one day at a time.