Since I had worked part time in my professional role for over 14 years, and had a customer whose long term contract covered all of my hours, I had no warning. Unfortunately, it was during the period when many large companies in Michigan, particularly large banks and automobile companies who were our main customers, were in danger of going bankrupt. So I got the call.
My first reaction was disbelief, then relief that I no longer had to commute for an hour and a half two or three times a week through good weather and bad to visit my clients. I was however, very sad that I would no longer be visiting the individuals and providing the services and information they needed. Many clients had become friends and I would probably never see them again. Meetings and conference calls, however, I could live without.
So I quietly read my separation agreement, the retirement materials, and tried to get my head around the new changes. This announcement came about 8 months after my divorce. And eighteen months after my Dad's cancer and removal of one lung. I had moved twice and was just about to drop off the 'high end' of the stress-level chart, but no, here came another stressful major life event.
I waited while they sent my case to an actuary to calculate my retirement before the payments would start. Glad I had a cash settlement deposited safely in the bank. Took three or four months.
Funny, I am a math major, and I know I like dealing with numbers more than most folks, but part time folks must use 60% of their full time salary equivalent for the retirement calculation. I was working 60% of a 40 hour week, or 24 hours. Seemed to be obvious to me what number to use, but I waited.
Then they said they had to sent it out to an actuary AGAIN to calculate what amount I had to share with my ex-husband as part of the divorce decree. Even though we had a court-approved QDRO stating the percentage. No problem. I waited.
I did finally get the report, and after failing to find gainful employment comparable to my previous job with reasonable income and available part time so I could continue the other activities with which I had filled my life for all these years, I did successfully retire and begin receiving monthly payments. Health care is another story which could fill lots of blogs. Let's just say I went private this year since the funding intended to bridge me to Medicare is not going to stretch anywhere near that still faraway time.
With all this waiting, you would think I would have had plenty of time to clean out my desk, my files and get rid of all the stuff I had accumulated in my long career. Somehow it just did not happen.
I did move my desk upstairs since I was not going to be spending hours creating reports, reading emails, responding to customer requests and sitting through long conference calls. And I moved things around in the file cabinets on each floor so the things I used daily were close at hand. It worked well for several years.
Now fast forward to 2014. I have become very involved on the Board of Directors of the local theatre where I love to perform. For a year, I managed the web site, for several years I have been writing grants (successfully) for them. I helped develop and implement our social media presence. And this year, I have been helping manage and develop a business plan and social media updates for the Costume Shop we took over from a partner theatre, which serves arts organizations, schools and the public across the region. I still perform, sell tickets, usher and handle other duties as assigned.
In my spare time, I practice guitar and learn songs to sing for my Hospice patients. I usually visit once a week, and sing at memorials and occasional religious services.
All this brings me to my decision this weekend to move my desk back downstairs where I would have more space to spread things out, a better chance of sitting up straight, and a view of the wetland behind the house.
The first problem is that since I quit working, many things have changed in my life. (I know, more stress! But the good kind.) I reconnected with an old acquaintance, fell in love, bought a sailboat together, and got married. See my older blogs for the stories. Although we each still own a home, we spend most of our time at my place since I have two geriatric cats, subjects of more of my blogs.
J is a musician, and to make him feel at home, as well as out of necessity during a brief period when he rented his house to a family of friends, I turned over my old office to him as a music room and office. That room is not now available.
I do have two other bedrooms besides the one we use, but my kids stay there when they come home and they are not large enough for a good workspace.
So I decided upon the large family room downstairs. It is a pretty large room, but it has doors to the room housing the cat litter, a bedroom, the downstairs bathroom, the unfinished basement space, the music room / office and sliding glass doors to the backyard. All this provides some challenges in keeping access to all of the above and a place to walk through the middle.
Additionally, the furniture I chose for this large room includes a large sofa and an armchair that is almost a small love seat, a small wrought iron table and chairs that will go outside if it ever warms up enough, a five-foot cat climber and several odd tables positioned to discourage the cats from using their claws on the upholstery. The first few years here, a verbal warning kept them at bay, but since J arrived, they do not get as much of my attention and react as you would expect.
But I was ready for the challenge. Friday night, I started by shoving around the existing pieces. When J got home from singing in Royal Oak, I showed him my plan and got his commitment to help me carry the heavy stuff down next chance we got.
Today was it. He was busy recording drum tracks for his performances, but took time to help. First we got the desk, then the small two-drawer file cabinet. The TV stand makes a great credenza on one side since we do not have TV service any more.
After that, I held my breath and moved the DSL service down. I was fully expecting to have to enter passwords or codes or something to get it running in the new location, but other than telling me that J's computer was non-trusted, it was easy.
J was happy to move my two-drawer lateral file out of "his" room, but it was very heavy so we emptied all of the file folders out so it was manageable. When I went to reload them, I was hit with the reality that I needed to get rid of my old work files.
At first I thought it would be hard. I could not have purged these files five years ago. It would have been too painful. Reluctantly, I started going through all the folders.
I did keep a few folders of pictures and personal inspirational papers. But when I got to the files about my bonuses, performance plans and evaluations, and things I had collected to document how the company operated, I stopped and reflected for a minute. There was no information in most of these files that I would ever need again. The Social Security Administration has all the information it needs to calculate my future payments. Most of the people I worked with and managed have left the area and I will never see them again. In the end, I pitched a huge stack of papers over two feet deep.
All those years, all those wonderful talented and fun people I met and worked with, and all of the expertise I had and valuable information I collected. Now no one cares about the paperwork. Even me.
What I care about is the memories and I will always have those. As well as an abundant supply of folders, hanging files and paper clips. Old habits die hard. Can't waste supplies.
I have moved on. Life is better than ever. Who could have predicted this? Certainly not me. Guess I will never stop learning. And moving on to new adventures. With J.
Yes, it was quite a day.
