It’s day 125 of my retirement and I’m back home, trying to re-settle into my daily routine.  I nearly used the word “vacation,” sometimes forgetting that since retiring, vacations are a thing of the past and the word needs to be eliminated from my vocabulary.  My wife was on vacation and eventually had to go back to work, but I practice retirement whether I’m home or traveling.  Yesterday and Today I’ve had a travel hangover as I struggle to get back in the right time zone and the right frame of mind.

Going on the road definitely disrupts my retirement routine.  For the past two weeks, I’ve been getting up at different times and spending a lot more time with my wife.  I haven’t gotten “my time” that typically extends from 7:30 a.m until 6 p.m. each weekday.  I’m not saying that this is a bad or good thing, but it’s a change that requires much adaptation.  Being with my wife means focusing on things important to “us” rather than to just “me.”  Saturdays and Sundays are “us time,” as are Holidays and trips and that means less time to reflect and write about life.  Today I’m back on “my time,” so it feels good!

I’m still restless in retirement, anxious to get on to the next thing rather than savoring the moment.  I’ve always felt that there is something better around the corner, and don’t spend enough time smelling the roses.  I also get grumpy and frustrated when I have to be on a schedule, one of the necessary evils when you are traveling.  You have to be at the airport at a certain time, reserve hotel rooms, rental cars, and make dinner plans. These are things that I hate to do, but part of any adventure away from home.  I carry this restlessness into what should be relaxation, so I’m always looking for more adventure within the adventure.

I do spend some of “my time” making plans for travel and that can be fun.  I study the areas where we will be traveling and make mental notes of the things I’d like to see.  I’ll buy tickets in advance for games and shows and plot them on the travel calendar.  In retirement, it’s the only calendar I keep, no more planning around business meetings.  When my wife retires in five years, we also won’t have to plan around her business engagements that too often involve my participation.

We’ve had several getaways already this year, but this particular trip was the first “all pleasure” trip we’ve taken since my retirement.  I kept reminding my wife that even though we were free to do what we wanted, she was not yet retired like me, but only on vacation until she had to go back to work.  I consider myself to be in a special club that only those that don’t work anymore can join.  She’ll join in a few years, but until then she’ll have to settle for vacations.  All of our other trips this year have been planned around business or family.  This was the first time that I laid on the beach not counting the days until I had to go back to work.  I was still surprised by how many were on the beach when they should have been working to save for the retirement club.

We’ll be home for four weeks until her next vacation, which is actually a retirement cruise for me and several of my friends that have also recently retired.  Of this circle of friends, my younger wife will be the sole worker bee.  She actually enjoys working so I doubt we will make her jealous, and she’ll probably just feel glad to be several years younger than all of us old farts.  It may not be any fun, even for me, hanging out with a bunch of people that have no working income.  We’ll toast ourselves all the way from Paris to Normandie and back, taking advantage of the “all you can drink” package that we all purchased.  Talk about a travel hangover!