March 1, 2020

I'm not good with dates.  In my lifetime I've forgotten my mom's and dad's birthdays several times.  Been off by a week or two for many friends', even girlfriends' birthdays, on several occasions.  I've missed performances, and rehearsals, and tons of other important things due to my disability with dates.  Once I even got fired for this; forgot to attend an important client's special event during my first year out of college while working in PR.

I deserved it.  It was a lame oversight.

All part of my "accidental" path to becoming a teacher, I guess.

But, I do know our wedding anniversary.  My wife's birthday.  And my kid's.  They're all important days to me.  I've never forgotten any of them.

I also usually know the start and end dates of the school year long before the school year's begun.

And, I'll sometimes have a deadline or two in mind, too.  For whatever it's worth, these days, I do tend to hit my deadlines a little bit early whenever I can.

To be fair, I should add: Google calendar helps me a lot with all this.

But, along with all these important dates, there's one other that I've got stored away in the corner of my mind.  March 1, 2020.  And every year about this time I get a wonderful reminder of it... in the mail from the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS).  According to the mailing, on that date... March 1, 2020... a date that's now officially a smidge less than a decade away... I will have earned my 80 points... 80 and 49 thousandths points to be precise... and, per ASRS, that means, by whatever arbitrary algorithm of odd calculations they're using to determine such things, on that day the great State of Arizona has determined I will become eligible for something they call Normal Retirement... which sounds a whole heckuva lot like plain ol' retirement!  Which, at 53 years of age, after mere 26.7 years in the game, ain't too shabby.

It's a Sunday.

I'm thinking, on Monday, March 2, 2020, I'll probably call-off...