When people talk about retirement, they make it sound like we're supposed to be off doing something exciting every single day. Traveling, cruising, eating at fancy restaurants, checking things off a bucket list. And listen, I love all of that. Give me a cruise ship and somewhere I haven't been and I'll probably have my suitcase out before you finish asking me if I want to go. 😂
But retirement doesn't always look like that. Sometimes it looks like what we did today, and honestly, those are some of my favorite days.
My morning started with cereal and coffee. Lots of coffee. Nothing exciting happening there. We were planning a day on the lake, so we started getting everything together. I packed what we needed to make sandwiches, and my husband made a run to the store for a few things.
He came back with plenty of water because it was supposed to be around 100 degrees today. He remembered the adult beverages too.
He forgot the chips.
The chips.
How do you remember the adult beverages and forget the chips? 😂
Oh well. We were officially having a chipless lake day.
We loaded everything onto 5 O'Clock Somewhere and headed out. We usually go to this little sandy island that everybody calls Sand Island. I know. We really stretched ourselves coming up with that name.
There weren't many boats there when we first arrived, but that changed pretty quickly. By the time we left, I'd guess there were around 50 boats scattered around us.
And if you've ever been around a bunch of boats on the lake, you already know what happens next.
Everybody becomes a DJ.
One boat has country music going. Another one has rock. Somebody somewhere is playing something completely different, and before long everybody is fighting for music rights. Nobody actually says there's a competition going on, but there is.
The boat with the loudest speakers usually wins. 😂
We spent most of the day in the water with our tiki umbrella keeping the sun off of us as much as possible. It was HOT, but the water felt wonderful. We saw friends, talked, laughed and just enjoyed ourselves.
Eventually we made our sandwiches for lunch.
Without chips.
Yes, I'm still mentioning the chips. 😂
And you know what? Sitting there on the lake eating a plain old sandwich was just about perfect. Nothing fancy. No reservations. Nobody asking what time we needed to leave. We were just sitting there enjoying the day.
After lunch and several hours in the sun, apparently my body decided I had participated enough.
I laid down on the boat for what I thought would be a little nap.
Next thing I knew, I woke up and we were back at our dock.
Now THAT is the way to travel. 😂
Apparently my husband drove us all the way back while I slept through the entire thing. I went to sleep at Sand Island and woke up at home. I can't complain about service like that.
I came inside, took a shower and tried to get all the sunscreen, lake water and whatever else I'd collected during the day off of me.
Then it was time to figure out supper.
And what did we have?
Leftover spaghetti.
Again.
Yes, AGAIN. 😂
And I ate it too. After being out in that heat all day, I wasn't about to come home and start pretending I was auditioning for a cooking show.
Then I took another nap.
Don't judge me. The sun wore me out.
Eventually I got back up, grabbed my computer and started answering Facebook comments, which usually means I'm either laughing, causing trouble or somehow doing both at the same time.
And while I was sitting here tonight, I started thinking about how good today really was.
Nothing huge happened.
We didn't go anywhere exotic. There wasn't some big event. We didn't eat at a fancy restaurant. Nobody checked anything off a bucket list.
We went to the lake.
We floated around in the water.
We saw friends.
We listened to about six different kinds of music at the same time.
We ate sandwiches without chips.
I fell asleep on the boat.
We came home.
I ate leftover spaghetti and took another nap.
And it was a GREAT day.
I think that's one of the things I appreciate most about retirement.
For so many years, life revolves around what you HAVE to do. You have to go to work. You have to be somewhere at a certain time. You have responsibilities, appointments, schedules and people depending on you.
Then one day you realize you can wake up, look outside and say, “Let's go to the lake.”
And you can just go.
That still feels pretty special to me.
Don't misunderstand me. I still want the big adventures. I want the cruises. I want to travel. I want to see places I've never seen, eat things I've never tried and keep making memories for as long as I'm able.
But I don't ever want to get so busy looking for the next big adventure that I forget to enjoy days like today.
Because this is part of the good stuff too.
A boat called 5 O'Clock Somewhere.
A tiki umbrella.
Friends.
Cold lake water on a ridiculously hot afternoon.
A sandwich.
A nap I didn't plan on taking.
Leftover spaghetti.
And nowhere else I needed to be.
Maybe that's one of the best parts about retirement. Not that every day becomes exciting, but that you finally have a little more freedom to decide what makes a good day.
Today didn't cost a fortune.
It wasn't fancy.
It certainly wasn't perfectly planned.
Heck, we didn't even have chips.
But tonight I'm sitting here tired, clean, fed, rested for the SECOND time 😂 and thinking…
That was a really good Saturday.
And sometimes that's enough.
Although next time I'm checking the grocery bags myself.
Because we're not doing another chipless lake day if I have anything to say about it. 😂
— Queen Paulette
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