Freedom - At Last!!

WooHoo!!!!! Must say I can hardly believe it but the day has finally come. 

NO MORE WORK! 

Technically I'm not retired until January 1st, 2017, but I had lots of vacation days saved up and chose to use them rather than be paid out. SOOOOO worth it :) This last week was far more anxious than I anticipated, as evidenced by many weird dreams and sleepless nights. None-the-less I have survived :). Friday started out with me delivering a gift bag to each of my colleagues. The mug rugs were a BIG HIT! The office was a buzz with everyone comparing what was made for them, then Laura decided they should be displayed and people could guess who got what. 

It was fun watching them all oh and aah over the mug rugs and trying to guess who got what :) (that's skinny me standing on a kick stool taking a pic, with Jim and Laura). 

Here's "the collection". It definitely set the mood for the day, I'm so glad I took the time to do this as it was so well received. My colleagues took me out for a lovely lunch at  Ninety-One, the cafe at Windermere Manor.

Starting at the bottom left is Liz M., Peggy E., John T (retired 2 weeks ago), me, Walter (Librarian Emeritus), Melanie M. (she left last Friday for one of the affiliated Libraries), Christy S., Marg S. Bottom Left: Laura C., Fran G, Adam K., Bruce F ( looking down at his speech), Kristin H., Courtney W., Catherine W., and Jim S.

I had a lovely Parsnip and Pear soup followed by a nice Caesar salad. There were speeches and gifts, most importantly the gift certificate to the Marsh (quilt) Store.  In my thank you speech I told them how I anticipate a lot more quilting, including more charity quilting. Earlier in the week my friend from the Law Library took me out to lunch at The Wave. We had a good chat and it was nice to connect for reasons other than work. We worked together on one of the many committees I've been involved with, and connected with each other as we were/are both dealing with the same life issues.

When all this was done I was off to the Pater's. We chatted for a bit then went out for a lovely Prime Rib dinner. So all in all I can't complain AT ALL. The day was long and tiring, but it's all over now. When I got home the first thing I did was turn off my alarm clocks!!
It's another beautiful sunny Sunday, so I think I'll do some work outside today and NOT my usual Sunday routine. Must develop new routines now. Looking forward to that :)

TTFN