Once upon a time (because all good stories start with these four words) two Portuguese residency permits found their way to the United States, here’s their tale.

Delays, SEF & Redefining Retirement Yet Again. It seemed as if our flight was never going to leave Porto as we waited – and waited – to board the airplane.  Scheduled to leave at 11:30 a.m. we saw the flight crew board the plane at 10:50 a.m. and we knew there was no way.  And, 30 minutes later we were still waiting.  Finally, we taxied down the runway at 12:30 p.m. and off we flew toward the United States.  We were heading home, ahead of schedule, but for a very good reason.

When the pilot announces that all crew members should stop serving and buckle up, you know it can’t be good. On the behalf of all those who, like me, can’t accurately describe the depth of how much I hate to fly, I’d like to thank the pharmaceutical companies for the invention of Valium.  It’s a game changer.

So, wouldn’t you know it?!  Cause and effect.  It worked!  I wrote a post yesterday explaining why we were still waiting and first thing this morning, we got the call.  Dina, from the Portugal Consulate, called us at 8:15 this morning and said, “Good morning, Abi, I want to start your day with good news.”  Whoop!

The logistics of leaving.  It’s an interesting situation in which we find ourselves as we continue to wait, wait, and wait a bit more for our Portugal visas to come through.

“The line between disorder and order lies in logistics…” – Sun Tzu

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”  Walt Disney

With 30 minutes to spare, we ordered our standard Starbucks, Americana and Chai Latte, and sat down to catch our breath and sip the hot steamy goodness.  As we sat and sipped, we casually browsed our paperwork and quickly realized we had forgotten probably the most important piece of the puzzle, our passports.  All we could do was slap a face palm and laugh. For two people who are ridiculously organized, to the point of obsession at times, how in the hell did we forget our passports?

Apparently, we are not quite ready to settle in to the country life of retirement; the life of mowing 5 acres of grass and then watching it grow again.  Moreover, what we find ourselves embracing in this chapter of life is that we don’t have to play by the rules.  It’s called redefining retirement for a reason, and that’s what we’re doing, again. We’re redefining our path of retirement.

If we give in to fear. There are times when words absolutely fail me.  And for someone who enjoys the fine art of jibber jabber and the written word, to have words fail me really sucks.  If I could voice the speedway of thoughts and emotions that are zooming through my brain at this very moment you’d be begging me to STOP!

With the election now less than one week away, I find myself holding my breath. This, I promise, is not a political post, but it has crossed my mind in recent weeks to crawl into bed, pull the comforter up over my head and not come out again until November 9.  Is it just me?