To Boldly Go...

Today is the first real day of my new life. You see, gentle readers, I retired on Friday. A little ahead of schedule, but more about that in a bit.

Schwaidelson survivors 1962

Yes, COVID-19 played a part in the decision. As the Junior Son readily pointed out, "You are elderly. You shouldn't be going into the office!" Talk about a slap in the face. I have never considered myself "elderly" even when I use my AARP discount card. I'm not spry or sprightly or any of those other condescending words used to describe old folks. Nope, I'm just regular even if at the last family function I attended I was seated at the "survivors' table." You know which one that is. Every catered affair has at least one. 

Simon survivors 1962

I used to look at those pictures and think How old you all are! Now, I look at them and try not to faint as I think, My G-d! I'm older than you are in this picture! I have great memories of these people, but I remember them as really old. Granted, I was 10 when these were taken, but even so, the alteh kockers moved slowly and carefully. None of them looked like they were ready to sign up to visit the pyramids or the Taj Mahal....except for the lady seated at the far right in the Simon survivor table. She was a globe-hopper. Twenty years later, she was an octogenarian hiking her way around the pyramids before visiting her granddaughter in Israel. And her daughter, now an octogenarian herself, just got back from Egypt in time for the plague here. Earlier in the year, she had been bouncing around India.  Her nonagenarian sister is still driving and there is no reason for her not to drive. And she just cancelled a trip to Israel because of the plague. 

Which only goes to prove just because you're older, you don't have to be old. Sorta.

I'm the only widow amongst my ring of first cousins; everyone else is married or in a committed relationship. From my folks' generation, there are only two remaining aunts: my dad's younger sister and my mom's younger sister-in-law, both over 90 with no serious indications they are slowing down any time soon. Neither one is are particularly old...at least in my thinking. One has a great pair of pins, and Lord knows, she still knows how to cut a rug! The other one just got her first SUV. I say first, because I suspect she'll get another one when this lease is up. No shit. If I get to be that old, I wanna be that old just like my aunts. 

Still, according to the CDC I am elderly and should shelter at home. 

The boys were a little perturbed I was going into the office. There was a general consensus hemming and hawing on the phone about how I should be sheltering at home and staying out of public places. I was reminded I still take drugs for breast cancer, although my oncologist says my immune system is fine. And the word of restructuring to deal with a new economic reality was filtering through the office. 

Okay, I get it. Which is why I moved up my retirement date.

The real reason I retired on Friday instead of waiting for my original date later in the year had to do with the fallout from the Corona virus, but it was not about me. It was about my team at work. You see, there are only 3 of us. My two teammates are not close to retirement age. I am. Removing me from the group early might mean those two will go on working since one already works from home, and the other will begin to work from home this week. I quietly told my teammates and my boss I was pulling the plug. And I told them why. A whole lotta thought did not have go into this decision. It was, quite simply, the right thing to do. 

And so, I am now retired. 

Ugh. I hate that word. I'm not retired; I am set to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before... Oh wait, that's Star Trek. But it's also me. I will do all those things. 

What it doesn't mean is that this blog is going away. Or that I will stop editing my new novel. Or that I'm getting a new rocking chair any time soon. (I already have the one from nursing kids, thank you very much.) It simply means after morning minyan, I'll go walking with my friends before I sit down to write.  

And I'll finally get to play in a regular afternoon mah jongg game... as soon as the plague is over. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Since everyone keeps calling to ask about my first day of the rest of my life,

I can safely tell you it wasn't much different from the old life: 

I kept answering the phone.

If you want to check up on me...send an email. 

I promise you will get an answer.