Random Connect Points:
Reba's Stories

Every year on May 23, I have a little personal celebration to observe my "adultiversary" - the first day at my first "real life" job  – the receptionist to a freshman Congressman on Capitol Hill.  Back on my 30th “adultiversary,” I wrote this essay for a national trade magazine about 20 pieces of advice for young professionals. I always like to go back and revisit these each year on May 23 to see what I’d add to the list (the farewell post I wrote in December when I retired expands on a number of these). But now that I’ve taken on the new role as a “rookie retiree,” I have a little different perspective on life lessons that have emerged without the constraints, labels and stresses of the daily work grind. As I've tried to live out my goal of spending money on experiences rather than things in my new world order, I've discovered a few new truths. 1 – It’s OK to be a beginner. I wrote about this earlier this year, but this revelation makes me re...

Flossie and me leaving PetsInc It’s National Rescue Dog Day, and I hit the jackpot back in September when I adopted Flossie, a medium-sized lab-ish beauty. Here’s our story. During Hurricane Florence, I went to PetsInc to walk some of the dogs that had been evacuated from a shelter along the coast. I’d done this before during an earlier hurricane and saw that I could fill a short-term need they had at the shelter. My beloved golden retriever, Dixie, had died about nine months earlier, and I was in the early stages of debating if it was time to start looking for another dog - a golden for sure ( read that post here ). Since I was set on a golden - and figured it was pretty unlikely to find exactly what I was looking for that day – I wasn’t too worried about being tempted to bring a dog home. I walked 15 or so dogs of all shapes and sizes in the drizzle on a nice wooded path area behind PetsINc. They each got a little loving, a few loops around the path and plenty of time t...