What do you do when you have nothing to do
So, here I am 6 weeks into retirement.
Here are some of the questions I am asked by all my friends, neighbors and acquaintances.
1. "How do you feel?"
2. "How are you enjoying retirement?"
3. "Is it amazing?"
4. "What trips do you have planned?"
The truthful answers are, in order
1. Lost
2. I enjoy not having to get up early in the morning(smashing the alarm clock)
3. Not yet
4. Angola on the Lake, NY for the 4th of July. Asheville, NC for our 40th wedding anniversary. Somewhere west (yet TBD) with my friend Nancy on her biannual Thelma and Louise road trip in September. Anna Maria Island, FL in February 2020 and Ireland/Scotland September 2020. (Important note about trips and travel - you can't do it all the time. You have the freedom, but unless you are independently wealthy in retirement, you do have to plan this stuff with an eye on the finances. I hate this.)
We are conditioned from the time we are young to have structure and purpose in our days. Starting in Kindergarten and going all the way through adulthood and our professional lives we follow an expected schedule. We have somewhere to be at a certain time, something to be done to fill our days, and then the fun stuff that we attempt to fit in all around the obligations. It seems there is never enough time for all that fun stuff.
Then comes retirement and everything changes. No longer do you have to be somewhere at a certain time. No longer do you have something to do every minute of every day. And the fun things that you were shoe-horning in around the must dos don't seem as plentiful. When you have 24 hours a day 7 days a week there is lots of time to fit in fun stuff. In fact, there isn't as much fun stuff as you thought there was. And, most of the fun stuff involving events such as concerts, plays, and get togethers with friends all happen in the evening. Leaving me with a lot of time on my hands during the day - during the 9 to 5 hours that I used to fill with work.
Which brings me to the topic of this post. What do you do when you have nothing to do? I am diligently trying to answer that question. You can only read and binge watch NCIS for so many hours a day! Here's my approach to finding things to do:
1. I scour Facebook for events in the Northeast Ohio area. I'm not tied to where I live, I'll drive wherever if it sounds fun. I keep clicking on Interested and then FB reminds me when it gets closer. But that seems too vague so my friend Calla and I have purchased big desk calendars old school style where we write down all these events that sound fun and interesting. (Calla, a former school teacher, wants to color code the calendar entries but that is harder than it sounds.) Anyway, it doesn't matter if there are 2 or 3 on one day - when the day comes, we'll make a game time decision as to what we'll do that day. We just started this this week so I'll keep you posted.
2. I have signed up for yoga classes with some of my neighbors. This is a good thing to do on many levels as the yoga classes fill some time, I get to socialize with folks, and it is good for my ongoing knee rehab so win, win, win.
3. I have signed up to attend a new volunteer information session with City Dogs CLE so I can start volunteering with that organization. That happens on Wednesday 5/22 and I am really looking forward to it. You know my motto - Life without dogs, I don't think so.
4. I signed up for Meet-up. I guess I have been living under a rock because I didn't know about Meet-up. And in case you aren't familiar with this site, it is not a dating site. There are groups for every interest you cold possibly have. There are walking groups, biking groups, reading groups. There are groups for the east side, west side and all places in between. You can sign up based on age - or not. Yesterday I added Hike through the Cleveland Cultural Gardens with a guide on Wednesday 6/5 at 10:00 AM through Meet-up so off to a promising start!
5. I signed up as a volunteer for the MLB All Star game festivities to be held in the CLE in July. My hubby is bummed out because he somehow missed this opportunity. But, oh well, you snooze you lose.
So that's where I am at the moment. I have a lot of time on my hands but I feel like I have a pretty decent handle on filling some of it.
Stay tuned for the misadventures that I am sure will follow!
As always, thanks for reading!
Here are some of the questions I am asked by all my friends, neighbors and acquaintances.
1. "How do you feel?"
2. "How are you enjoying retirement?"
3. "Is it amazing?"
4. "What trips do you have planned?"
The truthful answers are, in order
1. Lost
2. I enjoy not having to get up early in the morning(smashing the alarm clock)
3. Not yet
4. Angola on the Lake, NY for the 4th of July. Asheville, NC for our 40th wedding anniversary. Somewhere west (yet TBD) with my friend Nancy on her biannual Thelma and Louise road trip in September. Anna Maria Island, FL in February 2020 and Ireland/Scotland September 2020. (Important note about trips and travel - you can't do it all the time. You have the freedom, but unless you are independently wealthy in retirement, you do have to plan this stuff with an eye on the finances. I hate this.)
We are conditioned from the time we are young to have structure and purpose in our days. Starting in Kindergarten and going all the way through adulthood and our professional lives we follow an expected schedule. We have somewhere to be at a certain time, something to be done to fill our days, and then the fun stuff that we attempt to fit in all around the obligations. It seems there is never enough time for all that fun stuff.
Then comes retirement and everything changes. No longer do you have to be somewhere at a certain time. No longer do you have something to do every minute of every day. And the fun things that you were shoe-horning in around the must dos don't seem as plentiful. When you have 24 hours a day 7 days a week there is lots of time to fit in fun stuff. In fact, there isn't as much fun stuff as you thought there was. And, most of the fun stuff involving events such as concerts, plays, and get togethers with friends all happen in the evening. Leaving me with a lot of time on my hands during the day - during the 9 to 5 hours that I used to fill with work.
Which brings me to the topic of this post. What do you do when you have nothing to do? I am diligently trying to answer that question. You can only read and binge watch NCIS for so many hours a day! Here's my approach to finding things to do:
1. I scour Facebook for events in the Northeast Ohio area. I'm not tied to where I live, I'll drive wherever if it sounds fun. I keep clicking on Interested and then FB reminds me when it gets closer. But that seems too vague so my friend Calla and I have purchased big desk calendars old school style where we write down all these events that sound fun and interesting. (Calla, a former school teacher, wants to color code the calendar entries but that is harder than it sounds.) Anyway, it doesn't matter if there are 2 or 3 on one day - when the day comes, we'll make a game time decision as to what we'll do that day. We just started this this week so I'll keep you posted.
2. I have signed up for yoga classes with some of my neighbors. This is a good thing to do on many levels as the yoga classes fill some time, I get to socialize with folks, and it is good for my ongoing knee rehab so win, win, win.
3. I have signed up to attend a new volunteer information session with City Dogs CLE so I can start volunteering with that organization. That happens on Wednesday 5/22 and I am really looking forward to it. You know my motto - Life without dogs, I don't think so.
4. I signed up for Meet-up. I guess I have been living under a rock because I didn't know about Meet-up. And in case you aren't familiar with this site, it is not a dating site. There are groups for every interest you cold possibly have. There are walking groups, biking groups, reading groups. There are groups for the east side, west side and all places in between. You can sign up based on age - or not. Yesterday I added Hike through the Cleveland Cultural Gardens with a guide on Wednesday 6/5 at 10:00 AM through Meet-up so off to a promising start!
5. I signed up as a volunteer for the MLB All Star game festivities to be held in the CLE in July. My hubby is bummed out because he somehow missed this opportunity. But, oh well, you snooze you lose.
So that's where I am at the moment. I have a lot of time on my hands but I feel like I have a pretty decent handle on filling some of it.
Stay tuned for the misadventures that I am sure will follow!
As always, thanks for reading!
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