The Year of Living Selfishly

When I started this blog a year ago the intent was to chronical our journey from work into retirement mode and to set up a format to let friends and family vicariously take our retirement road trip with us. Mission accomplished! I stopped blogging after the trip was complete. In recent months I have had people tell me they wondered what we were doing now since I wasn't making it public. Just in case you think we slowed down and became boring Retirees, let me set the record straight. We stayed home for almost three weeks but then October rolled in, and in celebration of our anniversary and Donnie's birthday (which annually passed us by unnoticed because teachers/coaches don't have time for such things) combined with our new found freedom in the fall, we were off again. Donnie's joys are pretty simple - a new golf course and some scenery are all it requires to make him smile. I like to refresh my tan - ladies of leisure should ALWAYS have a tan. With that in mind, we grabbed my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who are always up for going somewhere and headed east. We spent 4 days amidst the color of the Smoky Mountains and 5 days in Myrtle Beach. Yep, within four months I got to dip my tootsies in the Gulf, the Pacific, and the Atlantic.





We made it back to good ol Missouri and stayed put for almost 4 weeks after that! We spent time going to some school activities that we could watch and not feel responsible for :). We had dinners and lunches with friends. We went to movies in the middle of the day (free popcorn Wednesdays). I still felt a little like an imposter when I was in public during the day; as if people were thinking why is someone your age not working?! It's funny to go to the grocery store on senior citizen day. Max (our youngest) turned 21 just before Thanksgiving giving us another reason to travel and celebrate. We took him on a trip to Aruba. I can see why it is called "the happy island" because we were very happy to be there. Powder white sand, amazing sunsets, gorgeous golf, a swim up pool bar: ah, what more can you ask for (although chicken nachos at the airport on Thanksgiving day instead of turkey was a little strange).





Back in Missouri for 2 weeks to shop and plan for Christmas and although our original plan was to be home for the entire month, another great thing about retirement is people know you have free time and you get invited to go! Our surrogate stepchild Chris had access to her boss's lavish condo is Aspen for a week and was glad to have travel company, and of course we were happy to oblige, so pack up.......





So, 2011 was one for the books. I can honestly say all that travel did exactly what it was supposed to do; gave us a strong breakaway from our old life at school. I certainly miss the kids and the other school people who had been my days and I love dropping in to see them, but we have no regrets of making the change. We went more than a little ridiculous with our budget (or lack thereof) but I have no regrets about that either, I told the kids to use our life insurance to pay off the credit card when we die because we aren't stopping. I don't honestly mean that but have loved making it all about us for a change. Just like all those running for office, I promise to be more fiscally responsible and conservative in 2012. I will check back in every so often to let you know that we are still out here somewhere, smiling! Posted using BlogPress from my iPad