I know I have not written on this blog in quite some time. Since I last wrote on March 17 (almost two months ago!), I have completed two trips, and have four more trips planned this year (Los Angeles, Canadian Rockies, Arizona’s biker highways, and winter holidays in Puerto Rico.)

I spent three weeks in Puerto Rico in April. One week for fun, one week for “work,” and another week attending and speaking at a conference. The “fun” part of this journey was not as much fun because someone I had invited to join me was unable to come. I felt let down, but made the best of it.

I visited my friends, swam in the Caribbean Sea with my husband’s spirit at our favorite secluded beach, and tolerated daily interruptions for virtual meetings that seemed to interrupt my free time right in the middle of each day.

While I am retired, I consider my participation on academic and professional groups that I lead and on which I am heavily engaged as “work.” Constant meetings, tons of email, writing papers, and preparing presentations were soul-sucking.

I returned home during the last week of April with a medical …

… or shall I say dental, predicament making my life uncomfortable. I was treated in Puerto Rico and then again at home, and now am seeing a dentist to follow through on a treatment plan to catch me up on procrastinated dental work. TG for dental insurance!

That one week at home was incredibly busy with two big suit-and-tie requiring meetings in Washington DC. I appreciate that what’s left of my brain is valued, but man, testifying and presenting is brain-drain exhaustion.

I really shouldn’t complain. It is said that retirees who do not challenge their brains suffer memory loss and disconnection. Well, that will not happen to me!

Me? Suit-and-tie? Yep… and actually, I was kinda missing dressing up as I did for work, so I have actually enjoyed suiting up a bit now that I have updated my wardrobe with a few suits that have been tailored to fit me.

Also during the last week of April, I got my sixth Covid-19 shot; my second bivalent booster. I keep on top of my vaccinations, not only because I believe in the science, but I am convinced that my three-day bout of Covid-19 was very mild because I have been vaccinated regularly. I got Covid-19 in Miami while changing planes on my way to Puerto Rico in December. I will never visit Florida ever again — even changing planes.

The first week of May saw me leading a very difficult meeting in Seattle. I lead an advisory group and we were having our first in-person meeting since in-person meetings became allowed after pandemic restrictions were lifted. Talk about brain-draining! I am glad I went, but am also glad I only stayed for the duration of the meeting and no more. I have been to Seattle often, so sightseeing was not in my plans. (“Been there/done that”)

The travel to and from Seattle was uneventful, but I had forgotten how cramped it is to sit in economy class. Since another entity was paying for my travel, that is the only seating permitted. With flights very full, I could not upgrade… alas, I made the best of it, but didn’t like it.

Now that I am back home in Maryland, I am catching up with life and returning to a comfortable routine. I continue to volunteer two or three days each week as a medic. I have virtual meetings that suck time away from most of my days in between.

However, I do try hard to carve out “me time”. I went skydiving with my long-time skydiving buds last week. I was singing to myself, “Time for me to fly!” I have also been riding my Harley much more often.Life is short: regular home routine is comforting.