Today is a double celebratory day

[Siwsan]

Not only is it my Birthday, but it is also the 10th anniversary of my retirement. I've never even once regretted retiring on my first day of eligibility. That was reinforced when they asked me to please come back, for 3 months, to help them catch up on the back log. You see, they never refilled my job position. I was allowed to set my hours and days worked - just Tuesday through Thursday, coming in as early as I wanted and leaving after 8 hours. The pay was great but within days of my return I regretted agreeing to the temporary job.

Back story, I had to deal with a VERY toxic "co-worker". A dim bulb who acted like she was a spotlight. Think of trump in a skirt. Yes, she was a very vocal ULTRA right wing 'born again' christian whose moral behavior was anything but Christian like. She had been fired from another department but HR kind of screwed things up and there was an ongoing litigation that required she be re-hired. The reasons she was fired should have countered any ineptitude of HR. Once she came back, it was impossible to fire her, due to that litigation.

At the start of 2015 I had just lost my sister and mom within 3 weeks of each other. The previous 3 years had been hell, trying to balance everything. I never heard a word of condolence from her but she did up her game of making my days as miserable as possible. She was one of the main reasons I ended up in therapy because she made my existing issues even worse.

The up side of the work phase of my life were the people I could trust and who really cared about me. The company used to award 'Employee of the Month' prizes (I won about 4. Maybe 5) and then an employee of the year. Well, back in 2000 I suggested they needed to create an 'Employee of the Millennium' award. We laughed about it and it became a running routine for me to suggest it. The company threw me a retirement party and my retirement gift was a plaque declaring ME to BE the 'Employee of the Millennium'!! It hangs on my dining room wall, to this day. And during my 3 months of temping I hung it outside my cubicle wall, just to rub it in the nose of the toxic employee. Naturally I locked it up every night because I have zero doubt that she would have destroyed it. Yea, she was that awful.

So, here I am today. 72 and feeling like 42. I'm surrounded by loving family and friends, a new great nephew on the way AND my wonderful clowder of kid cats. I truly believe that retiring on day 1 is why I'm still here, today.