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May. 7th, 2010 12:23 amI finished the CD of Alexander McCall Smith's latest Mma Ramotswe book, The Double Comfort Safari Club, this evening on the way home from the grocery store. The reader, Lisette Lestat, or something that sounds like that, is excellent as always. I love this series, for the contemplative nature of Mma Ramotswe musing about cattle and landscape of Botswana, the leisurely pace of the story, the adult version of Run Spot Run that is so soothing (the repetition). This particular book is very much about kindness. Which somehow also makes me think that if "Lost" ends up being all about "all you need is love," that's okay with me.
It's late, I've been chomping on gourmet dark chocolate all night, and shall probably need an Ambien to get to sleep.
I've started the wheels turning on early retirement. Turns out they turn more slowly that I realized. The first of the marks I have to hit to do it occurs when I turn 55 in a few weeks. the second is a few days later, when I attend a mandatory-for-retirement class. The third may end up being the first if the paperwork ever arrives = I need to fill out an application for a particular benefit, and it turns out that CalPERS is now reviewing those applications from Feb., e.g., is three months behind on their paperwork. If I can't leave the first week of July, I may stay until the end of the year. To be determined...
I was writing to my cousin in France that sometimes I have to give myself credit for accomplishing anything remotely normal, given the direction I was pulled in by a family member in the years when most of my cohorts were attending college. I'm kind of jazzed by the idea of going back, finishing a degree, once I have the stability of the retirement and the house under me. I still will never forget standing in the rain in LA, unable to afford the $6 umbrella that would last longer, and having to buy the $3 umbrella that I knew would break, because I couldn't afford the $6 umbrella. I can't wait to leave this job but it certainly has given me an independence that I am oh so grateful to have.
It's late, I've been chomping on gourmet dark chocolate all night, and shall probably need an Ambien to get to sleep.
I've started the wheels turning on early retirement. Turns out they turn more slowly that I realized. The first of the marks I have to hit to do it occurs when I turn 55 in a few weeks. the second is a few days later, when I attend a mandatory-for-retirement class. The third may end up being the first if the paperwork ever arrives = I need to fill out an application for a particular benefit, and it turns out that CalPERS is now reviewing those applications from Feb., e.g., is three months behind on their paperwork. If I can't leave the first week of July, I may stay until the end of the year. To be determined...
I was writing to my cousin in France that sometimes I have to give myself credit for accomplishing anything remotely normal, given the direction I was pulled in by a family member in the years when most of my cohorts were attending college. I'm kind of jazzed by the idea of going back, finishing a degree, once I have the stability of the retirement and the house under me. I still will never forget standing in the rain in LA, unable to afford the $6 umbrella that would last longer, and having to buy the $3 umbrella that I knew would break, because I couldn't afford the $6 umbrella. I can't wait to leave this job but it certainly has given me an independence that I am oh so grateful to have.