Only 26 To Go!

Sitting in a budget law training session, I couldn't help but look around to see what my "peers" look like. Without a doubt, I was by far the youngest in the room. I saw some familiar faces from the same training session a few years ago, but nothing too exciting.

Something sad caught my eye. In the front row I spotted two women. both with hair in various shades of white, one with some flecks of gray still showing. The skin on the woman I could see best was showing many signs of age. Loose, jiggling triceps, age spots, wrinkles ....

Why were they there? How old were they? the clothing, the jewelry, the faces, voices, laughs .... everything tells me they are grandmas and wives and should be retired. I felt bad for them having to be at training instead of home with coffee, Cream of Wheat and Regis Philbin. I don't want to be their age and still working because I have to. I'd rather just be working by choice. Maybe I would volunteer my time at the Wildlife Safari as a docent, or something fun like that.

My mom could have retired last year. She was only 48 years old. She still works now, by choice, but she's still young and doesn't yet need to be free to babysit my child. :-( I can't keep straight how long they tell me I HAVE to work before I can retire from my job. Let's just work with 30 years. I have been with PERS for over 4 years now. So I guess 26 more years to go. That puts me at 56 years old. I can work with 56. The two women I was looking at are close to 70. I just don't want, in 30 years, for some perky 30 year old girl to look at me and feel sad.