Birthday Cakes and Mortality

I must remember to take the 1/2 sheet cake into the office tomorrow. It is the Birthday celebration for those with recent birthdays at our office who have managed to live another year. It is not that I begrudge them this accomplishment, but it is going to be a hassle to get this thing there with the frosting intact if we have another unusually hot summer morning like the last week has been!

The frosting is very important--as each month is compared to the last. My birthday party group is a "minimalist" group--it is summer! There are three of us (the committee), and five of them (BD people). We will limit our menu and festivities to cake--thus the centerpiece of the event should probably not be crushed or melted.

Last week someone I attended high school with died. Not just someone--but someone I sat next to for four years back then. Not just died--had a heart attack while driving home. Just doing what he did everyday. No illness, no terrible prolonged suffering, no time to plan. That is not supposed to happen to someone who is as "young" as I am! It is sad.

Coincidently, both of these events (birthday focus and death of a peer) occur in the same week that I met with my "investments advisor"--to discuss the ridiculous amount of money that I must save to be able to retire sometime before I turn 80 years old! Now it is not that I haven't already saved money--and have amassed far more than I thought I would be able to--but it is never apparently "enough".

I receive statements periodically from social security saying what I will get once I reach age 67--the minimum retirement age for my birth year! I look at the dollars, and think--wow!, then realize that in 10 years, this won't be much. I also am not entirely convinced that the government can be trusted to make good on this promise of dollars that they dangle before me periodically. I will have a pension, 401 K, 457 plan, etc. Still, I wonder if I will need to reduce my spending on yarn and other pursuits of pleasure? What good is having all the free time in the world, if you can't afford it?

So, I will write myself a note not to forget the cake. I will continue to save money for the day when I can sleep in, knit with Katie and Matt (they are younger, so should still be there in the morning), and make trips to the garden center to buy plants for my garden so the deer will continue to visit my salad bar! I hope that, unlike my high school friend, that I will have years to enjoy it.