A former boss of mine shared with me before I retired: “every day is a Saturday”, when you first unplug from corporate life. In his usual I-hate-to-admit-to-him way, he was right on target. He later followed it up with another update: “then eventually, every day becomes a Sunday”. I’ve recently learned that “you eventually balance the two out”, though I’m personally still trying to achieve that final state of nirvana.
As I mentioned earlier, in Navigating the Final Stretch, a bumper crop of former colleagues rolled off the corporate finishing line yesterday. Today they are all waking up to a new kind of Saturday. Welcome to a long-awaited series of continuous Saturdays!
Why Saturdays?
Because, you’re propelled forward by a burst of energy carried forward from the night-before-TGIF sense of elation and relief.
Because, the snowploughed-into-after-retirement list of projects is now dancing before you, like an excited new puppy trying to grab your attention.
Because, the many I’ll-call-you-when-I-come-up-for-breath friends are now popping up in your emails, texts, etc wanting to book a lunch, or even breakfast. Woh! Breakfast? Guilt-free-two-hour lunches? Radical, right? Indeed, these things only ever happen on days that call themselves Saturdays.
Because, you don’t quite trust that this could really last. Better buy some insurance. Be prepared, just in case. So squeeze in as much as possible, before you wake up and the whole thing evaporates like those perfect dreams that cruel alarm clocks sometimes shatter.
Because, now you get a second chance at figuring out … all over again … what you want to do when you grow up.
I love Saturdays. They are elastic, high-energy, optimistic days and best of all, they are defined by me. Enjoy your Saturday everyone!
All those days that came and went ... 
If retirement is a “weekend” seven days long, a good question that we’ve discussed is “Can you go on vacation once you are retired?” or are you simply living your life someplace else? Is you life now “vacation”? Some of us still “work”, though not for pay. We have meetings, appointments, projects, deadlines, emails to send and respond to — all of it looks like life before retirement! It is different, yet the same. But I do agree with you — yesterday I had no meetings and spent a lot of time reading a book I had wanted to finish (and did). Consequently, it felt like Saturday all day!
Reading your perspectives on Saturdays and vacations gives me a glimpse into my future empty nest life. Reading books during the day has never been an option on Saturdays, but I can see that gradually creeping into the realm of possibility as August 2013 looms on the horizon.