It's About Time

I am completing my fifth year of retirement now, and I find myself still answering the same questions:

“So, do you still like being retired?” “What do you DO with all that time?”

The answers are simple: Yes, I love it (trust me and see for yourself), and every day is different, but every day is good for different reasons. Like all of my retired friends, I am busier than ever and I don’t know how I had time to work. (Actually, I do know: I had no life when I worked. All I did was work.)

These questions are brought to you by the working masses, the same people who wanted to know – make that demanded to know – “What are you going to do when you retire?”

The truth is, I didn’t have a plan then, and I don’t have a strict one now. But I have learned a lot in the past few years about myself and about life, lessons I didn’t have time to learn before I retired.

First, nobody does nothing better than me (and I mean that in the best grammatical sense). By that I mean that I can have a day with nothing scheduled and it will still fly by. I can remember being at work and looking at the clock, thinking that 5:00 would never come. Now, I start paying my bills on-line, throw in a load of laundry and, when I look at the clock, it is dinner time. And that’s not because I get up at noon or eat dinner at 4 PM either. I call this phenomenon my “kitchen cabinet theory of time.” No matter how many cabinets you have in your kitchen, you will fill them. It’s the same with time: The things you have to do fill the time in which you have to do them. I like that line so much, I should copyright it, or at least make t-shirts. If only I had the time.

I’m not saying every day is bursting with excitement, though the days that are spent reorganizing the salad dressings in the refrigerator (Make mental note: Add to To Do List) provide a certain feeling of accomplishment. Many of my days are filled with meetings for my volunteer work with Community Visiting Nurse Association or the Associate Alumnae of Douglass College. Knowing that I can spend a half day greeting freshmen and their families as they arrive on the Douglass campus is more rewarding than you can imagine. Meeting a friend for lunch, going to an afternoon movie or making a dentist appointment for mid-day relieves a lot of the stress I suffered when I worked. I can spend a day wandering around, taking pictures or loading them to Shutterfly. I can spend a day in the pool, reading or taking a nap (mental note: Take a nap later).

Second, there is always time spent spending money. I think I am doing retirement on $100 a day. I know I can’t leave the house without spending $100. Costco alone is $100 just to walk in the door (make mental note: Renew Costco membership today). When I am not shopping – and shopping is considerably less frequent than in my working days – I am at the cleaners (again, not as often) or filling the car with gas, buying plants for the porch or stopping at ShopRite to get bananas and walking out with three bags and minus $100. Even the days when I don’t leave the house I can spend $100. There are those shoes I wanted to order and there’s no charge for shipping, so why not save gas and order them on line, I ask myself. Someone is always walking for charity, or there is a birthday card and check to send, or the handyman is here to repair something, so even on the days I don’t leave the house, I still manage to spend $100 or more.

I’m not saying that the spending is a good thing, though I am trying my best to contribute to the economy. Could I curtail spending? Sure, I could. But will I stop putting gas in the car or supporting charities – or buying shoes? Doubtful. It only takes time and money to be a happy retiree.

Third, I still have to keep a schedule. I don’t mean waking up or going to sleep at certain times, but I need a calendar just to keep track or what I am doing and where I am supposed to be every day. There is a play in New York, a basketball game in Piscataway and a blood test in Bridgewater. Let’s just not have them all be on the same day. I literally carry my schedule around with me on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet (or, before that, on paper) because I would be lost without it. Sometimes I am even lost with it. I usually can’t remember further out than two days from now. I keep a folder just for all the invitations and RSVPs so I’ll know that I responded and when and where I am supposed to show up. Add that to garbage night, recycling day, the pool closing, somebody’s birthday and paying my estimated taxes and you’ll understand why I need a calendar on me at all times.

I don’t mean to imply that life is either too dull or too frenetic. On the contrary. It is all about time management – and having a good time. Time is truly the best gift you can give yourself. Retirement has taught me to appreciate time, whether it be spent with a dear friend at the Met for the day, bouncing around the pool in my “water ballet” class, or watching a movie I waited 40 years to see. I am grateful for the time to think, to read, to write, to take pictures, to watch movies, to enjoy life, to take a nap and to control time on my own terms.

I guess that was my plan all along. I wish you all the gift of time – time to do what you want to do, to do what you need to do and to treasure every minute. Have a good time.