If my pill box says "T" it must be Tuesday

When I was working, I always knew what day it was. Even during vacations, I retained a sense of time. Now that I'm retired (for a whole 11 days), my days are a daze.

We've had two snow storms that threw off everyone's schedules. And Abby and Eric have two weeks off from school, so the grandkids are home with them. I found myself checking the weather for Tuesday and Thursday, when I've been driving Augie to preschool, and then realizing that I won't be doing that again until January.

Here are a few other things I've noticed about my new life phase.

1. I figured I'd have lots of time to do Christmas stuff--bake cookies, decorate the house, write cards, etc. I have trimmed the tree--always a major undertaking. But we decided to simplify the decorating of the house, and I don't feel motivated to bake. The cards are definitely on my to-do-soon list. Along with gift-wrapping.

2. I'm now responsible for making dinner. I know how to sit down and come up with a concept for a brochure, but it's been years since I planned a meal. I need to read some cookbooks to kickstart that part of my brain, then make some choices and make up a grocery list. (I've seen a couple of nice recipes online that got me interested, so that's a place to start.)

3. I have some groovy new toys:

• Peter's company bought a couple of iPads, and since he doesn't use his all the time, I get to borrow it. Wow... I never thought I'd want one until I sat down with it. I love it. It will definitely be the subject of a future post. 
• He bought me a new camera for Christmas. It's a Canon super-zoom, a compact camera with a powerful lens so I can take better photos of the birds in the backyard. I just had to open it early, because we had a yard full of birds. Then we got a ton of snow, which dramatically shortened the distance between the ground and the bird feeder. The squirrels realized they could jump right up, and they sent out the word to half the squirrels in the city. The birds disappeared until yesterday, when we raised the level of the feeder. So I'm back in business. Another subject for future posts! 
• Tap shoes! We found a great source of used shoes for the kids, and they love them. I ordered some for me, fearing that I'd never find a comfortable pair for my long narrow feet. They came yesterday, and I LOVE THEM. I still need to find a DVD or online source of tap lessons. I was searching a couple of weeks ago when zombies attacked my computer.

4. I'm spending a LOT of time doing paperwork to arrange health care coverage for Peter and me. Q: How many times do I need to submit the same information to different units of the same company? A. Four doesn't seem to be enough. Maybe five will do it.

5. I'm also spending tons of time changing my email address contact information for dozens of accounts. Yes, I should have used a personal account instead of my work account from the beginning. But I didn't. And yes, I should have started switching a couple of years ago. But I didn't. I was able to keep my work account for the next several months (because it provides access to information I may need in order to do some freelance work or just help my former colleagues figure things out). But I quickly realized that I don't want to spend a lot of time on that account, because it draws me back into the work world.

6. I need to reorganize all my spaces. Starting with my office. I have places for my fabric projects and my photo projects, and a lot of old papers from work and the carousel and whatnot. But I have a huge collection of electronic stuff--cameras, iPod, the iPad, a digital voice recorder, etc., and accompanying cables, batteries, manuals, cleaning materials, carrying cases, etc, mostly living on a messy shelf and in a box in the office closet, under a bunch of kids' toys. Not to mention that my bedroom closet is full of work clothes I won't wear again. That's a project for summer.

That's it for today. I have to go make some phone calls about health coverage. Wish me luck.

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