One month and a few days later

So I wrote my first post on this blog a little over a month ago. I was feeling rather lost in those early days of my retirement and I'm happy to report that I am feeling much better about it now.

I mean, c'mon, what kind of fool would you have to be to not love being free? Freedom from the daily 9 to 5 grind? Freedom from spending all day Saturday cleaning your house and running errands? I mean, free - every day, 24/7!  I used to cringe when I'd hear retired folks say "every day is Saturday" but guess what? It's true! Everyday is Saturday and it is a challenge when I get up in the morning to remember what day of the week it really is. Good problems to have.

But the old idiom about to much of a good thing is a bad thing also applies. When every day looks just like the one before it and you have nothing to do to break it up it gets kind of boring.  And boredom to me is the enemy. I eat too much when I'm bored; I get the blues when I'm bored and then I eat too much because I have the blues. It's a nasty vicious cycle all ending with me eating too much,  I have enough issues with my diet so adding reasons to eat just doesn't cut it.

Which segues nicely into my second post on this blog - what to do when you have nothing to do? I got several reactions to this post suggesting I should perhaps slow down, ease into things, not over schedule myself.  And for the most part, I respectfully ignored those reactions. 

In the last month I have:

1. Signed up for a yoga class and have been consistently going 2x/week and sometimes even 3x.
2. And 2 of the 3 classes are weekday mornings!
3. Taken care of some medical and dental checkups that I have been putting off.
4. Went to a Mother's Day tea with a new neighbor and friend - also midweek.
5. Drove to Columbus to help my daughter move into a new apartment on a random Thursday,
6. Signed up to be a City Dog Volunteer and have been attending training sessions - you guessed it - during the week!
7. Signed up for bi-weekly massages at Tri-C which basically means I am a human guinea pig for students studying to become licensed massage therapists - but the massages are practically free and no massage is a bad massage in my book,  And guess what - my appointments are at 11:15 AM every other Thursday!
8. Signed up to be a volunteer at the MLB All Star game that is being held in Cleveland. First training session was on a Friday afternoon. With more work a day commitments to come. 
9. Met a former coworker and fellow retiree at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park for a hike on a Monday morning, We enjoyed ourselves so much we decided to make this a weekly event!
10. Met some friends for happy hour drinks at 4:30 in the afternoon on what would have previously been a work day!

So, all in all, life is good,

Thanks for reading!