If you opened this page, you have either decided that you are interested in my life in retirement, or you want to watch as I circle the drain and lose my mind halfway around the world. Either way, welcome to what I hope will be an entertaining saga of experiences and personal growth as I make my way as a retiree in Indonesia.

The first thing that you realize about being retired is that your priorities and responsibilities completely change. You no longer have to think about being ready for the work week, whether that entails getting your clothes ready, having your equipment assembled, or just getting enough sleep to function. You are only responsible for yourself and that is an odd feeling. This occurred on the Sunday evening before the first work week that I didn’t have to participate in. I’m not saying that there aren’t things that I have to do. It’s just that the perspective has changed. I’m not going to get fired if I show up late for work or risk ridicule if I don’t have the right clothes to wear. Still, there is a responsibility to not squander the opportunity I made for myself by working towards retirement. I’ve seen some stories of folks who think that they are on permanent vacation on that first day. These are the ones who waste six months before they realize that they can’t just loll around the house every day until they die.

As much as I would have rather just stopped working and immediately starting my new life, there were things that had to be done before leaving Hawaii. There was a lot to do on a rather tight schedule. We needed to pack everything that we wanted to take with us and everything else that had to be stored. We had movers take away large pieces that I gave to my family. A week after that, a crew came to clear everything out that hadn’t been put into a box. Without remorse or sentiment, they swept everything out. These are people who have gone into the homes of hoarders, so my little undeclared disaster area didn’t give them any pause. Everything went.

Originally, when we had thought about renting our apartment, the idea of cleaning and getting it ready for viewing put a giant ball of acid in the pit of my stomach. It was overwhelming to the point that I didn’t even know where to start. But after speaking with the realtor, I was reassured that there are people who can take care of things. While this made my life 100% easier, it also meant that a lot of decisions had to be made quickly. We couldn’t take any electrical appliances because a different current is used in Indonesia. The toaster, coffee maker, ice maker, and hair dryers all had to go. We could leave them to be swept out, but we preferred to find them a home with people we know. This was much easier said than done. I must have made six trips to Goodwill, seven to Friends of the Library, two to the dump, and countless runs to my parent’s house, where were stashed things that we couldn’t take with us. At first, this seemed a bit extreme, but the idea of reducing my possessions was very liberating. Plus, packing light lets us easily pick up and move to a new city whenever we want.

A big difference between retirement and vacation is that vacations are usually a time for a person to rejuvenate in order to be more productive at their jobs. In retirement, you need something else to drive you or else you can fall into the trap of the forever vacation, which is a lot like going down a rabbit hole on the internet. You think you’re doing something when the reality is that you are chasing your own tail. To avoid this trap, I am going to be a full-time writer. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself. It might take a few months to settle into a routine after we arrive, but my plan is to write for four or five hours a day. For the remaining waking hours, I want to get regular exercise, practice my saxophone, blog regularly, and spend as much time as possible exploring the cities we live in.

A large portion of this blog is going to be dedicated to what I learn about writing along the way. Something you will notice is that I will use the phrase “they say” a lot. This refers to the writing experts, some real and some pretend, whose videos, tips, and books I digest. For example, they say that handwriting in a notebook is the best way to keep track of your thoughts. They say that the muscle memory of forming the words on the page forces your brain to retain things longer and make new connections. Well, ‘they” have never seen my handwriting. I have a hard time deciphering it myself sometimes and the surest way for me to lose an idea is to write it down in ink. I use as little paper as possible. I have a couple of tiny notebooks that I rarely use for things like noting the spelling of a place name or to log what time something happened. If I don’t transfer that to a file as soon as I get home, odds are it will get lost. In place of those fancy notebooks, I use OneNote to track everything. I have a notebook for my writing and tabs for each topic. If I need to find something, I can type ctrl-F and find anything I have written about something. Everybody has their own method of keeping track of their thoughts and writing drafts. If I never touch a pen to paper for the rest of my life, I will be much happier for the experience.

Some views of the streets of Jakarta

The Central Park Mall decked out for xmas