Tuesday Slice: Selling, not buying

 

The back-to-school retail ads and emails have begun.  I will admit, I perused the Mead Store on the 'zon, looking at their collection of notebooks and journals. There are a few notebooks and stationery items sitting in my cart...

...but this is the year I need to sell, not buy.  There are four tubs and at least as many piles of teaching materials and decor sitting in my living room, waiting to leave the premises.  Some, like the sequencing cards I bought at the teacher store last summer, have never been opened, since I was taken off of specials rotation last school year and didn't need to have as many activities to offer in the library.  I have bulletin board supplies, alphabet bean bags, bins and baskets and books that I am ready to sell at rock-bottom prices to teachers needing to outfit their classrooms.  The only decision I have left is whether to hold an old-fashioned garage sale in the coming weeks, or take a stab at Facebook Marketplace.

I'm not sure exactly what the future holds for employment opportunities, so I haven't severed all ties with educational email feeds and social media follows.  But I can say that the prospect of shrugging off the mantle of the past thirty-three years is something I am definitely looking forward to.  

Tuesday Slice: Lunching with the ladies

 

The meet-ups always seem to last for three hours.

Two hours in, the food has been eaten, leftovers boxed up.  Servers have refilled our water and tea, delivered and collected the check with a decent tip.  Still we chatter on, talking about work, books, health, kids;  money and retirement plans; the state of education, of government, of employment opportunities.  The phones only come out to look something up, share a picture, add to a TBR pile.  As the last hour winds down, we talk about how great it has been to sit like this, uninterrupted by work and family responsibilities.  We make vague, hopeful plans to do this again soon.

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One month after officially retiring, these meals have been bright spots in the murky middle between the last job and the next steps.  I value my friendships with these women.  The one-on-one time outside of work settings reaffirms that we have connections that transcend shared careers and decades-old experience.  Maybe now that I am taking back my time and energy, I can focus on expending both in continuing these soul-filling conversations.

Photo by Kaboompics, negativespace.co