Winter Saturday in the Midwest

It has been a week since I stopped working.  For some reason, when I tell people this news I feel compelled to remind them how old I am.  Just so they don't think I am giving up too soon, or being lazy, I guess but I think it is curious why I do that.  Well, also, my income has shrunk by half and I think people will wonder, since I am so poor, why I don't just continue.

I think I will miss working and after a week have already figured out that I will need to make a new plan.  My days so far have left me at odds.  I can't seem to get my rhythm back and spend the days aimlessly instead of productively - and then, because I am Catholic, I feel guilty about that.  Guilty about the snacking I'm doing, about sleeping too much, well - if you are Catholic you know what I mean.

In my working days, I did laundry on Sundays and if I missed doing laundry for some reason, I wouldn't do it again until the following Sunday.  No mid-week laundry for me; it didn't even occur to me.  It's like garbage day - if you miss it, there's always next week.  I ate dinner at 5-ish.  I went to bed between 9 and 10.  I slept approximately 7 hours, with Penny waking me up at 5:00 a.m.

I've been trying to convince Penny that I no longer need to get up so early, but she isn't listening to me because I still go to bed between 9-10 p.m.  When I get up in the morning, I feed her first and then make myself a cup of coffee.  I sit and watch the news and knit.  In the past I was in my pj's no later than 7 a.m. and then I would shower, do my hair, dress, makeup and wait for 8:45 to leave for work.   Sometimes I would go back to knitting while I waited.

Now, I can eat whenever I want.  It doesn't  have to be at regular times; I can even combine meals if I want.  I can have spaghetti at 9 p.m. if is suits me.  But I won't.  Yesterday I was, for some reason, falling asleep on the couch at 2:00 so I thought I was take a short nap.  I woke up at 4:30.  Then, when 9:00 rolled around, I was tired enough to go to bed and sleep until 5:00 this morning.  I felt guilty about wasting an entire afternoon, but more to the point I wondered why I was so tired!  Is this what retirement is going to be like for me?  I think I need more to do.  Maybe I will volunteer somewhere.  More on that later.