A lot has changed in the past year. I created a blog to chronicle my adventures in retirement and impart wisdom about what I’ve learned along the way. Instead of doing either of those things, I took on a low-paying, work from home, part-time job that consumed all my free time for the whole school year. Then, in April 2017, after a 21 month break from my physicist career, I was approached by my prior company to do some PRN work to fill a shortage in their staffing.
I didn’t sleep for a week! The kids are about to be out of school! Where will they go while I work? What if it’s as stressful as it was before and I can’t handle it? What if I can’t remember anything?
After a short period of negotiation and a long period of reservation, I decided to go for it. What did I have to lose? I would be an independent contractor, in charge of my own schedule. New management was in place, and it has potential to be the perfect (well, near perfect) situation for working part time and making some extra money (according to the kids, it’s so we can put in a pool).
Three months later things are going pretty smoothly. I’ve been able to manage my schedule so that I don’t work more than three days per week. I’ve been able to schedule the kids with day camps or with babysitters and we still have time to do fun summer activities so they haven’t really noticed a change in their daily lives. I was mostly able to remember how to do my job with a few hiccups along the way.
What’s next?? I quit my other part-time job, so now I’m down to just one. The kids are back to school in two weeks. I’ve committed to working three days per week when the kids start back, leaving two days per week to try to get everything else done (hopefully including more than once per year blog updates!). The kids will be going to an extended day program after school for a couple of hours on the days that I am working and the big news: I won’t have to sit in carpool any more!!
That’s all for now, stay tuned for any actual words of wisdom to come in the future.