January 6, 2024 –
I was able to get my vision board printed and hung it up New Year’s Day. It’s on the wall beside my desk. All of my hopes for 2024 are displayed in beautiful 18” x 24” glory. There is no avoiding it. And that’s why I did that. It’s in my face – a constant reminder of what I want to accomplish.
It was my first week back at work after the holidays. I am trying to be positive about the environment there, trying to be cheerful and friendly and go out of my way to engage with my co-workers. I try to act happy. It’s a struggle because I’m not happy there. I like my co-workers and there’s nothing wrong with them per se. I just feel like it’s high school and there’s the clique of girls who have their jokes and private conversations and once in a while they let me join in. I am at the point in my life where I don’t need the crap and games that comes from working with a group of people. I just don’t. But I also realized that if I don’t go out of my way to socialize I am left in the dark about what’s going on and that’s depressing too.
I spent most of my week keeping my eye on the prize – retirement. I can retire in 1 year and 10 months. And that’s what I’m focusing on. So, if I have to pretend to be cheerful to get along and make it through 22 months, then that is what I will do. My future self will thank me. That slogan appears on my vision board in big bold letters. For encouragement, I went to the pension plan website and looked up what my pension would be when I retire aka “the prize”. It’s not a lot by any stretch of the imagination. But if I have no debt, it will pay my rent. And then for everything else, well, I’ll have to dip into the RSP or get a part-time job. But that’s okay. Eye on the prize.
I had to laugh because one of the people I work for is retiring – mandatory retirement for him at age 75. We have a list of things that we have to do as part of him exiting. So I spoke to my supervisor last week and said that I wanted to broach the subject with him to let him know that I’m on it but also that we need to start thinking about what to do with all of his stuff (he has a ton of papers, books, personal stuff). So yesterday. I walked into his office, asked if he had a minute and asked when would be a good time to sit down and review the check list. He smirked. I think he thought I was trying to push him out the door, not entirely true at all. So he says “we have plenty of time and my plan is to bring my truck one day after work and load all of my stuff into it.” “Okay. But I need to know when you are doing this because we have to book the freight elevator and I also have to let security know so they don’t think you’re stealing.” “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.” “It’s okay. They gave us a check list.” “Okay. Well, we have plenty of time.” “Yes, sir, I agree we do. I just wanted to start talking about it.” “We have plenty of time.”
Tthat was the end of the conversation. I emailed my supervisor and let her know that “we have plenty of time” and her response was “yes, but it also sneaks up on you.”
So, I guess we’ll see how quickly time flies by.
Diary of a DOW 