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...

The words to an old favorite song from the Sound of Music kept rattling around in my head as I was listing to a podcast by the author Emily P. Freeman who has a new book out about how people make decisions. The podcast episode focused on a chapter about the importance of accepting how to be a “beginner.” As the song said, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with ABC, when you sing, you begin with Do Ra Me.” That song just happened to be the first one I tackled when I started piano lessons in January after a 50-year hiatus. This writer’s discussion about being a beginner prompted me to reflect on a question that I’ve been asked quite often now that I’m a little over 90 days into my new career as a “rookie retiree ” - what’s the most important thing I’ve learned from this new adventure? Drip - best place to write I considered all I’ve learned about which coffee shops are the best place to write or how Target has a whole di...

It's Flossie here - guest writer for the day.  I know how much my human loves her "side hustle" freelance writing - especially when she has the chance to really dig into some of the stories of the people she's gotten to interview. She's talked my floppy ears off about this one. For the April article in Columbia Metropolitan Magazine about local k-9 units , she got to sit down with Sgt. Cynthia Waggoner of the Columbia PD. Cynthia spent almost two hours with my human in Drip on a cold rainy day talking about what she does, why she does it and how she does it. Cynthia talked with such passion about the dogs, their training and their lifestyles. But what really struck my human the most was the connection between the human and K-9 officers. My human and I have a great connection, but this sounded different. Cynthia talked about how they were almost in each others' heads, knowing each other thoughts and anticipating each others' next mo...

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the world outside of your weekday work? I did. Sure, before I retired three weeks ago, I got out and about during the workday on the way to meetings, appointments, lunch, runs home to let the dog out or to meet the plumber. But as a rookie retiree, I've found actually living in this other world has been quite enlightening. Before, I sometimes idly wondered what happens at Target on weekdays? Who are those people on computers at the local coffee shop mid-morning? Is the grocery store crowded at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday? Who goes to a movie a 1:30 p.m. on a Thursday? In my first weeks as a rookie retiree, I tackled a couple of these burning questions with field trips to Target and Lowe’s midmorning on a Tuesday. I'm a weekend Target shopper - one of those get 'em done types on the weekend who can find almost any "staple" I need from there. Of course, like anyone who strides through those double doors bypassing the big cart...

One year ago today, I got home from work and found our beloved Dixie had died peacefully in her sleep in her favorite sun puddle on the patio. This is the tribute post I wrote in her memory . I still miss her every day. She was much loved. Not long after Dixie died, I came upon a book written by the playwright Eugene O'Neill in tribute to his much-loved dog, Blemie. It was written as Blemie's last will and testament. The book literally dropped off the shelf onto my foot when I was browsing at my favorite DC bookstore, Kramer Books. This passage in the book gave me great comfort and allowed me to eventually open my heart to bringing a new dog into my life. For this I'm so grateful (and I hope Flossie is too:). I wrote this post back in August reflecting on this passage below. ".. . I have heard my Mistress say, 'When Blemie dies we must never have another dog. I love him so much I could never love another one.'  Now I would ask her, for the love ...

(Just a daily stream of consciousness writing exercises to sharpen my mind for my first 30 days without a daily work routine. I'm sharing publicly to stay accountable to myself.) Day 1 - January 3 Day one of retirement. New world order. Trying to start an exercise of writing 200 words daily. Maybe a theme of lessons learned today. Some may be too personal to publish here and they'll stay in my journal. Others will end up here. It's ok not to have a plan. It's ok to sleep in a bit. It's ok not to get anything on the to do list done. It's ok to feel a little shaky about this new adventure. It’s ok to feel a sense of gratification from kind notes from people who say I’ve touched their lives. It's ok just to "be" for a while. I did accomplish setting up the dual computer monitors and didn't flip out when I realized I've screwed up my google contacts. Nothing a trip to the Best Buy geek squad won't be able to fix, I feel certain. A...