Today was the day that the county honored this year's crop of retirees.
They served us a delicious dinner: salad with strawberries and pecans, fresh rolls, beef kabobs from the Grand Champion Steer at last year's Buckwheat Festival (that I really did not need to know!), cake and sherbet. It was served in the cafeteria of the high school on Fiesta plates...or really nice fake Fiesta! We ate and they gave us a plaque. Typical. But, the cool thing was they gave each of us a copy of our years of service record that showed what and where we had taught each year. Some had taught in each school in the county and I have taught at the same school for all but one of my years in the county. There were only 4 ahead of my 33 years and the total years experience in all the retirees (20 maybe?) was 811 years!
It really was just perfect. I loved that the food service people prepared the meal. The county office staff served the meal. It was at the high school and I could watch out the window and see kids coming for evening activities. It was mostly people that I have shared a good chunk of my life with...some only tangentially, but enough that we could spend a good while doing the "remember whens?" Some have shared much more closely the joys and sorrows.
It was another step closer to my retirement reality.
Tomorrow it is 10 days and counting....10 days.
Yikes.
Oh. And I got my first retirement card in the mail today!
Let's see. 10 days till you have to find a new title for the header. Like Gone Fishin'? Or New Life Coming. Or something Because that's a pretty short countdown, kiddo. They didn't give me a dinner when I retired - oh, wait. I NEVER DID. I've got to do something about that -
ReplyDeleteYou know what? It is so very busy at this time of the year that I am hardly getting to enjoy it as much as I would like. Everyone is testy and I just want to say...Hey, leave me alone, I'm trying to enjoy my last few days here!
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about a new name, but one has not come to me yet. My older blog was called Abundant Living and I may just go back to that...7 days! And I have a 25 minute musical production of Little Red Riding Hood to pull off still!
25 minutes. I'm willing to bet it's going to be ace.
ReplyDeleteFound out today that one of my raccoons is not going to be there. Time for Raccoon #2 to step up! Red and the Wolf are BFFs and pretty good together. It is next Thursday, but we don't have school on Monday...
ReplyDeleteI am pretty darn proud of them so far. The two backdrops are mostly painted...6' x 7' on paper, that I draw and the parents paint in the hall so everyone going past gets excited. Fun.
And now, cuz I'm late to reading this, four more days. Four! Assuming I did my math correctly, which is always a sketchy business for me. Luckily it is my husband that is the math teacher in our home.
ReplyDeleteI dream of retirement. A happy, but sadly distant dream. It is SO darn depressing whenever I get my pension statement that notes I'm eligible to retire in, like, 2098.
Four would be stellar, but I'm afraid it is still 6 days. Don't worry about the math though, my husband is the math teacher in our house, too. I could have been wrong...and may still be. Regardless, I am ready when the last day comes!
ReplyDeleteMay I just say how much I enjoy it that we have this cool little circle of friends? When I see you guys commenting on each other, it's like family and I love, love, love it.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to me. I love it, too. Happy.
ReplyDeleteOh, but now I'm just painfully embarrassed. My ridiculous math deficiencies have been exposed. Oh, so...red in the face.
ReplyDeleteBut, yeah, very cool :-)
WSW, don't worry a whit about your math abilities. We are still discussing how to count the days here. Do you go to the new count as soon as the current day starts or after you survive the day? I vote for survival before it gets to count...just in case!
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