I am now six years into retirement and am finally settled into it. A lot of shit went down, most of it outside my control. I became an orphan after almost a decade of The Long Goodbye with both my parents. I spent most of the year after my mom’s passing, travelling and working through the grieving process.

I stupidly relocated to the beach for a romantic relationship that turned to hell and left to come back home 18 months later as a climate change refugee and one incidence of physical domestic violence; cancer and covid.

I adopted a very spirited dog; lost a lot of friends due to death and lifestyle changes; reconnected with some college friends who are still in the area but with whom I had lost touch due to parenting and careers. 

I reconnected with high school friends from NJ at a class reunion and am now on the planning committee for our 50th class reunion in 2025; made a few new local acquaintances that have the potential to develop into good friendships; discovered some latent artistic skills that I continue to develop and expand, and hoping to take some clay classes this spring-summer. 

The downsizing and organization of my smaller home continue, and I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

I have reached a point of sustainable contentment, along with the fleeting times of sadness and happiness that is to be expected. I am safe, secure, financially stable, living independently and loving the freedom that comes with being intentionally single. 

My dog has calmed down into her forever home; my health is good — it could be better if I didn’t enjoy good food and drink with good friends, but life is definitely too short now to worry about that much. LOL. I still take my dog to the dog park just about every day and swim laps/do yoga on a regular basis a couple of times a week.

I am having a blast with my new electric seated scooter and getting around without driving my car. There hasn’t been anywhere I really wanted to go since August that I did not get to. I will make a final decision on what to do about my car (transmission issues) after I return from visiting my son Andrew in Denver the first week of March. He is happy and healed from having two discs in his neck replaced in early November. 

I have already bought tickets to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Colorado Symphony performing the music of Harry Nilsson, and a Colorado Avalanche hockey game. 

Will go to the new Meow Wolf art place, and I plan to go to a vintage bath house for a day of relaxing soaks and bodywork. Early spring will have me finally completing the small landscaping project I started pre-cancer/covid days and cleaning up the back patio that has been long neglected. I need to get all that done before summer arrives and find myself relaxing by the outdoor pool at the campus recreation centre. 

I also have season tickets to ECU baseball, football, and student theatre. I will continue to take Lifelong Learning programs through ECU. The spring catalogue just arrived, and there are some interesting programs I will be signing up for. I taught myself how to make sushi, and this year’s culinary journey will be to learn to make tamales and maybe some baking.

May 2023 be kind to all of us.