Every day is now Saturday

Ilene Black Betting On Black

I have entered into a new galaxy. A new reality. A new step on the ladder of life. A sea change. A quantum leap. A transfiguration. A sort of remodeling. In short (and in plain English), I am officially retired.

Many people have asked me, “So what are you going to do now?” I have answered, “Oh, I’m not sure yet.” The truthful answer is actually, “Whatever the heck I want.” If I want to stay up till 2 in the morning watching funny videos on my phone, I’m gonna do that. If I want to go shopping, I’m doing it. If I want to meet friends for lunch or breakfast, guess what? I’m doing it.

I have plans to do major reorganization in our house. At the time of writing this piece, it has been 13 days since I retired. So far, I’ve cleaned out our junk drawer (everyone has one of these, right?) and purged my underwear and sock drawer. The list of things to purge and reorganize is a bit intimidating so I’m taking my time and pacing myself (Synonym: procrastinating).

I had been working from home since March 2020. Our “man cave” had to be transformed into my office. The first (productive) thing I did after I retired is to clear that room out and reorganize it. Not an easy task but so satisfying when it was done. I also have to clean out and organize my craft room. This is daunting. My craft room is frightening. Messy, little room to walk. So, THAT will be a major undertaking. I have a feeling that a column

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about this endeavor may be in my future. One of the best things about being retired is, NO MORE ALARM CLOCK! I had begun to physically despise that alarm in the morning. I would get up to turn it off, all the while rolling my eyes and sighing heavily. Don’t get me wrong. I loved my job with the presbytery. I loved the people, the work, just about everything about it. But being forced to get up early became torture for me over the past few months and I was OVER IT!

There were two things that made me decide to retire. Well, three if you consider my advanced age!

The first one is health reasons. The second one is the realization that time doesn’t wait, that things can change on a dime, and I wanted time to do what I wanted to do. I debated with myself for a short time, but in the end, I made the leap. Do I miss my job? Not yet! I’ll always miss the people. They were the best part of my job. 25-plus years ago I met my co-worker Cathie and now this woman is closer to me than a sister. We have been through so much together; graduations, weddings, family parties, funerals, grandchildren, relocating, illnesses….the list is endless. Cathie is my Number One gift from the presbytery.

If my dad was alive, he’d be thrilled that I retired. If my mom was alive she’d immediately present me with a list of places she wanted me to drive her to. My husband and our three kids are very happy. They took me out to dinner to Firkin Tavern (my choice) to celebrate and at one point, I exclaimed loudly (probably too loudly), “I can stay up late tonight!”

I can remember when my paternal grandmother retired. She worked for years at Goodall Rubber on Whitehead Road. She used to give us drumsticks from the factory. Goodall made the plastic tips. Unfortunately no one played the drums but they came in handy when I wanted to poke my brothers.

Anyway, I remember that she spent a lot of time in the kitchen making pickles and jellies and canning tomatoes and all kinds of stuff. Be assured that I will not be doing that.

I’m not sure I’m qualified to make any profound statements about retiring since it hasn’t been two weeks, but I’m going to do it anyway: Retiring is a gift that not everyone gets to unwrap. So if it’s possible for you to do it, take the leap. It’s worth it.

Ilene Black has been a resident of Ewing for most of her life and lives across the street from her childhood home. She and her husband, George, have two sons, Georgie and Donnie.