TheBanyanTree: stop the presses!

[David Rubin]

Congrats, Julie! Janie retired in 2008 and I in 2009 and we’ve loved every
minute since. Enjoy!!

On Thu, Jan 4, 2024 at 1:40 PM Teague, Julie Anna via TheBanyanTree <
thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Pammie!  I'm excited, too.  I should probably work until I'm 65 or
> 67 or whatever, but I'm jumping ship anyway.
>
> Julie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TheBanyanTree <thebanyantree-bounces at lists.remsset.com> On Behalf
> Of Pam James via TheBanyanTree
> Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2024 1:12 PM
> To: A comfortable place to meet other people and exchange your own
> *original* writings. <thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com>
> Cc: Pam James <pamjamesagain at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: TheBanyanTree: stop the presses!
>
> I am so very excited for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> On Thu, Jan 4, 2024 at 12:56 PM Teague, Julie Anna via TheBanyanTree <
> thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com> wrote:
>
> > Dear Tree Folk, some of you have known me forever and a day, and
> > during the whole time you've known me, I've been here at a computer
> > screen, pressing my silly little keys and keeping my silly little life
> > afloat by writing computer programs which ostensibly provide
> > those-in-charge with the information they need to keep charging.
> > Well, I did some calculations this morning.  Or, rather, I opened the
> > handy-dandy Excel spreadsheet in which I had previously coded and
> > saved the calculations almost three years ago (when the numbers seemed
> > impossibly high and nearly insurmountable).  And what these
> > calculations told me, in the form of a single number with a lot of
> > backstory, is this--
> >
> > Ahem.
> >
> > Little Julie Anna Teague,
> >
> > who was born into a dirt poor family in Nowheresville, Indiana
> > (population 500), who has worked her entire life at jobs with varying
> > degrees of meaningfulness, including almost 41 years for Indiana
> > University, who has written a story or two, climbed a mountain or ten,
> > and been owned by a cat or twenty (and currently one very spoiled
> > dog), who has done yoga, breathwork, meditation, acupuncture, reiki,
> > vision-boarding, primal screaming, long distance running, art therapy,
> > sound therapy, talk therapy, and several things that were
> > self-destructive but felt good at the time, who has loved and lost and
> > loved again, ad nauseam, etc., and so forth, who has tried always to
> > be kind and giving to her friends and family and animals and the
> > environment and other good causes, who has scraped and saved, made do
> > and paid off, re-used and re-grouped, eaten all the leftovers and
> > composted all the scraps, and raised two damn good kids,
> >
> > has FORTY-NINE actual working days left in her working life at Indiana
> > University.
> >
> > Forty-nine.  LESS THAN FIFTY DAYS, FOLKS, and, to paraphrase the great
> > MLK, I am free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty, I am free at
> > last to live my life no longer beholden to a forty hour work week or
> > shackled to my computer with the proverbial golden handcuffs.
> >
> > I get the key to the handcuffs in forty-nine days, and guess what,
> > they aren't real gold anyway.  I've mostly stopped worrying that I'll
> > end up eating cat food, but getting my teeth cleaned twice a year will
> > become my budget luxury item.
> >
> > And before anyone responds with, "You'll need a PLAN to get through
> > your retired days."  I think every person I've told has said that to
> > me.  No worries, I have plans.  I have grandkids to nurture and am
> > gaining two more in the Spring.  I have reading, classes, art, and
> > volunteering I want to do.  And my big plan, already in the works for
> > many months now, is that I'm starting a micro-sized flower farm in my
> > urban back yard and will be selling at the Farmer's market.  It is
> > hard work, but it's the work of my heart and never feels like work.  I
> > can be in my garden all day every day, doing the crappiest of garden
> > tasks, and come in exhausted and filthy and with my back aching, and it
> still feels more like joy than work.
> >
> > So, that's where I'm at.   Let the countdown commence.
> >
> > Julie
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
>
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