So Here It Is

The first work day of 2011, the day on which I would be heading back to the office if I hadn't just retired. I didn't roll over and go back to sleep, for long, because I needed to be up and moving by 9am, to be ready for visits from my contractor and the writer/director of the play I'm preparing for. I visited the laundry to trade dirty sheets for clean, came home, and had lunch.

There was sunshine earlier this morning, but it's mostly hidden now, and I'm not as strongly motivated to get outdoors. But I need to get a walk nearly every day, so I'd do well to plan a walk with somthing pleasant at the end of it, bundle up, and get out there. So that's what I'm going to do.

The Countdown Concludes; I'm Retired!

I've left the office for the last time (leaving behind, it suddenly occurs to me, a set of earbuds that were plugged into my computer). Went immediately to have a massage, followed by a manicure, picked up some food and came home. I swept the sidewalk, had some phone conversations, and am watching the news much like any other weeknight.

Don't know when I'll start to really feel retired. Maybe not until the first workday of 2011 when I wake up at 7:30 am, roll over, and go back to sleep.

Counting the Weeks, Days, and Hours

Two weeks, eight days, or 56 hours to go. I've started clearing out my office of stuff to go home and have started passing on books, papers, and files to the editor who is taking over my publications.

Yesterday I paged through my archives of "Best of the West," the office newsletter, which I had kept going back to about 1985. I mostly looked at the pictures of so many people I used to know who had been laid off or had gone on to better things, and the few who had retired and/or died, and the very few who were still with the company. Each of them I gave an issue with their picture in it.

Now I'm starting to say to myself, "The next to last Monday I'll be buying milk on the way in to work." Only two more times I have to fill out that dreadful online timesheet.

I've already written on the paper calendar I use to keep track of my billable hours - the 23d is a half-holiday, the 24th is a full holiday, and as of the 27th, I'm retired!!!!!!

It's Official! I'm Retiring!

Finally, finally, all the pieces seem to have come together: Several years after the death of my co-tenant-in-common, I reached a deal with his estate and got a loan to buy the rest of the building, got moved downstairs, renovated the upstairs to a fare-thee-well, and have finally leased it. For months, I have been promising myself and warning my co-workers that I'd set my retirement date as soon as I signed a lease on the upstairs flat, and I'm a woman of my word.

I have officially informed my boss that my last day will be December 24 and have applied to have one of my pensions and my retiree health benefits start as of January 1 (1/1/11 - quite an auspicious date).

I've already started to fill in some of the blank places on my social calendar. I've acquired a leading role in a one-act musical comedy that is to be staged next March. I just bought a series of 20 yoga classes for $1 apiece, and signed up for a meditation retreat in two weeks. And, of course, I've got plenty of community organizing work to keep me out of mischief.

Look out, world-outside-of-work, here I come!

Community Forum on State Government

After months of planning and research, Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, SFOP, the Progressive Jewish Alliance, and PICO California finally held our public forum on the morass that is California's state government. Authors Peter Shrag and Mark Paul set out the various reasons why we can no longer govern ourselves: too small a legislature for the size of our population, supermajority requirements for passing budgets and raising taxes, limitations on reassessing corporate property for taxation, term limits, etc. Since the meeting was scheduled opposite the opening night of the World Series, and our own San Francisco Giants were playing, the turnout could have been dismal. However, concerned folks from Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, other SFOP congregations, and a few PICO affiliates around Northern California contributed to our total attendance of 101.

I felt moved to wax lyrical in our debrief afterwards. When asked to state how we were feeling, I said: "hopeful. It feels like we've lit the fuse on an explosion for good."

Then later I said: "I have been seeing the budget mess as a group of social justice activists scrambling for crumbs from a shrinking pie, when what we really need to do is get into the kitchen and stock it with fresh ingredients, new cooks, and good recipes, and turn out many luscious, big pies. But looking at the mess that is our governmental system, deadlocked because ballot initiatives amending the state constitution have tied legislators' hands yet voters blame them for being unable to act, I'm beginning to see it more as a huge Gordian knot, and we're starting to find some loose ends that we can use to untangle it, step by step."

In particular, IMHO, Californians should vote next week, yes on Prop. 25 and no on Prop. 26. The vote on 25 would start to peel away the supermajority requirements that are keeping the legislature from adopting a budget in a timely fashion, and the vote on 26 would refrain from instituting a supermajority requirement on other government functions.

Blinds and Library Ladder are In

Finally I have privacy in my back hall, and a much darker bedroom. And the library ladder is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

I've sorted my books into fiction and non-fiction. Within non-fiction, so far I've separated Judaica from all other stuff. Pretty soon I plan to subdivide fiction into at least two categories, and subdivide non-Judaica. The goals of the process are to be able to lay my hands on any book that I want in a few seconds, and to be able to browse similar books for other good reads.

Now that I have only a single box of stuff not put away (and a fairly good idea of what to do with it), I'm ready to put a toe in the waters of hospitality. I've invited a recorder-playing buddy over for duets. And I'm starting to think about throwing a house-warming/retirement party.

The top flat is all renovated and on the market; showings have already started, and I expect some applications within the next week or so. So it should be rented no later than the end of this month, and I should be retired no later than the end of next month. Yowza!

Progress at Home and the High Holy Days

So, the recliner has arrived and my bookcases have been extended to the ceiling, and most of my pictures are on the walls, and most of the boxes are unpacked and gone. My library ladder has been delivered and is being installed today, and my new blinds are on their way. Every few days I get an idea about how my belongings could be more beautifully or more conveniently arranged, and I'm getting more and more comfortable in my new home.

On the other hand, the stress of buying the rest of the building, acquiring a huge new mortgage, and relocating downstairs has finally expressed itself in the form of a cold that is going into its 11th day, including two or three days of fever. In order to avoid spreading it around, I missed all the Rosh Hashanah services at shul, including the one I was scheduled to co-lead. I'm planning to attend Kol Nidrei tonight and as much of the services tomorrow as I can consistent with trying to get well.

All this distraction has kept me from doing prety much any spiritual preparation for the new year, I'm sad to say. And that's a particular shame this year because I'm so close to retiring and will need to restructure my days without the framework of work. I will need all the spiritual perspective and clarity of mind I can summon to equip my days with accomplishments and healthy pleasures, be a good and fair landlady, and manage my expenditures. I'll want to find interesting and valuable volunteer opportunities, and build on my CSZ and SFOP work, plus get back into artistic and literary endeavors.

Anyway, maybe I'll reread my Shabbat Shuvah sermon and plan to use time during and between the Yom Kippur services for reflections.

May we all be sealed in the Book of Life for a peaceful, healthy, and productive 5771.