All
I could ask myself after May 1, 2002, was "Why didn't I retire when I
was born?" WE need a new system--you collect Social Security from either graduating high
school or college until you are 62 and then you go to work until you
die!!! With the way life spans are going that could be 30-50 years! Most
of my life I really didn't work hard. Writing certainly wasn't hard. I
loved being a server and really didn't see it as work--except when it
came to side-work!  As far as the 10 years I spent with Weight Watchers
and Our Weigh that was a lot of fun and also wouldn't fit the category
of work so retiring just offered me more time of doing things I like.

Nothing
gets me crazier than when I hear, "Why should I retire? What would I
do?" or that they are bored being retired. I am still trying to figure
out how I got things done when I was working as my schedule is so full
now I meet myself coming and going. I need/want 28 hours in a day and at
least 8 days in a week!  Between going to see the stage version of "The
Lion King" at the Broward Performing Arts Center or the world premiere
of "When Women Steal" on the Florida Stage not to forget going to the
movies and liking James Franco in "Spiderman" (When did he stop making
good movies?) or seeing Matt Damon come into his own in "The Bourne
Identity" plus pigging out at Sweet Tomatoes (open) and  The Chinese
Buffet (closed) there was also going down to the pool for 1-2 hours a
day and once a week going to the beach in addition to writing 2-3 hours a
night on books that I was hoping to get published somewhere around
2006. Time! I neededmoretime!

In
October Ed came to town and we went to The Cheesecake Factory (open) 
and I sent Layde my first 3 essays. I was getting together a book of
essays that I planned to publish under the title "Letting It All Hang
Out! Commentaries, Musings and Essays From An Old(er), Poor Gay Man".  I
didn't realize that I was writing blogs before I became familiar with
blogs! The following week Robert Igizi came in from New Jersey and after
Fuddruckers (closed) we went to the Seminole  Casino. Robert was a
heavy gambler and he used my card so I would get a lot of free passes to
shows during the year. By the end of October I had put on about 5
pounds and was going crazy with the credit card companies calling but
really didn't have any complaints about my life. I decided since I was
retired I wasn't going to shave anymore and, for some reason, as the
beard grew so did the belly!

Pierre,
from West Palm Beach, and I were getting friendly and he would come
down 2-3 times a week and we would go to dinner and a show or movie,
sometimes with Gino, sometimes not.  One evening the 3 of us went to see
a stage production of "All" and then dinner at Celito Lindo (open) and
the next, since he had never been there, we went to Sweet Tomatoes
(open) then "Far From Heaven" and in the category of 'Everything old is
new again' there is a musical version of that movie opening on Broadway
this week!
All
in all 2002 was a good year except for the credit card mess I had made
in the first few months but once I retired life really got good for me. 
I was learning to follow a budget and not spending more than I had or
before I got it. Also, more important, for the first time I started to
save for something--my 17th Leap Year birthday! I thought of it as my
last blast and I was already in the planning stages.