Are we at March already? I’m trying to figure out how January and February passed by so fast. Some news! Today is my first day of retirement from my 26-year executive position. I plan to still do some work in that industry as a contractor, I think. Or maybe not. I’m trying to figure out what I exactly want to do now. I’m not very retired. I have a couple of businesses, as well as a ton of hobbies, charities and women’s groups that I participate in locally.
[pullquote]”In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake, coming back to this life from the other more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world where everything began, there is a small opening into the day which closes the moment you begin your plans.
What you can plan is too small for you to live.” – David Whyte[/pullquote]
But just waking up this morning and savoring all the possibilities of my life was pretty intoxicating. Well, then I need to go to Ash Wednesday services and ground things back up.
Time for the random sample grab bag drawing. Drop a comment to be entered, and I’ll draw from commenters for two sample grab bags. If the winner has a special request for one or two samples, I’ll be happy to see if I can include those.
Winners of the Amouage Bracken Woman samples – MMKNPA, Otamom, Kathleen Smith and Pats133. Just click on Drop Us a Note at the top, send me an e-mail, remind me of what you won and get me your mailing address. I’ll send you a quick e-mail to let you know I got your e-mail and it didn’t land in a spam filter and then get it on the way to you.
I’d love to enter a grab bag of samples! Samples are my addiction! Thank you
Congratulations, have a wonderful retirement. I would love to retire…9 years to go, ugh! It sounds as if you will keep really busy, it is good to have a focus, but also great to know you can relax and do nothing, if you chose. Thanks for the draw, I would love to win new fumes. I have been in a rut lately, I have been wearing the same fragrance for 2!!! weeks(it is Chanel, it is a nice rut, but I need to break out!)
Happy retirement, Patty! It must be a good feeling to know there are new things ahead of you.
Thank you for the draw. I love grab bags!
I was in a similar situation recently when I left my job to join my husband abroad. What a mixed bag of feelings it was, waking up for the first time in the new city an not having to do anything at all…
have a great and exciting retirement!
Wow, congratulations! It sounds like you have plenty to keep you busy as you move forward into this new phase. Thanks for the draw!
Congratulations, Patty! So exciting! Please enter me in the draw.
Congratulations, Patty – now the next adventure begins! And thank you for the pic of the pooches; just what I needed to put a smile on my face 🙂
Congratulations! Dwell in those possibilities for a bit….
Thank you for the giveaway, please count me in! I love surprises; am now remembering there were many I missed this past year including Rahele. So if possible I really want to try that.
Ahh, retirement! That’s exciting! Do you have any big projects ahead of you?
Please do enter me, I love a good grab bag 🙂
Congratulations on your retirement, may it be the start of an equally active period in your life -if that’s what you want- involving things you get to choose, and that you love.
I’d love to be the lucky winner, and I adore surprises, thank you!
Despina Veneti
veneti.despina@gmail.com
Congratulations Patty,wish you many moments of joy and excitement! 🙂
Happy retirement
Congrats on your retirement from one of your jobs! You don’t sound like you’ll have to worry too much about how to spend your free time, but I hope you will do lots more fun things 🙂 More puppy time, too!
Congratulations on your retirement, Patty! Hope you are able to do some things you’ve been dreaming about!
Congratumalations, Patty!!!!! That’s freaking wonderful for you!! (No need to enter me in the draw.)
Congratulations! Savour the possibilities. ‘A couple of businesses, a ton of hobbies,’ charities and women’s groups – I think you are living my ideal life!
Congratulations on your retirement! It will be wonderful to have more time for yourself and hobbies. I had read that you are a fan of DSH Chinchilla and I ordered a sample from STC per your recommendations. Love! And, I just visited the DSH website and learned she lives/creates in North Boulder. I’m south of Denver and am excited to order a full bottle of Chinchilla and some samples of her other creations. Thank you for your fragrance insight!
Good luck with this big change in your life. It seems wise to only semi-retire, and with lots of hobbies and interests I am sure you will enjoy having more time for your own projects. Please enter me in the draw for the sample grab bag. I still haven’t tried anything by DSH and a nuber of other independent American perfumers, so trying to remedy that this year!
Well done on your retirement Patty, Enjoy a well-earned rest but keep busy as well. I could apply for ‘early retirement’ this year but have lots of work to do to my house and need the money for another while. I am thrilled to see i am one of the winners of Amouage Bracken woman (have sent you on an email). Perhaps it was just luck or perhaps the perfume fairy was happy that i passed on a lot of my unused samples and half-bottles to some up and coming perfumistas where i work. They were so happy and really delighted with their haul – and now i am feeling the same and looking forward to trying Bracken. Thank you so much – you are very generous. xox
Congrats and blessings to you in retirement! I enjoyed the timeliness of your post, reveling in the possibilities for your future; it helps me a bit. When I got to work after Ash Wednesday Mass, my bosses told me they are leaving our university for a better job elsewhere. Thus I will soon be jobless, either looking for another lab to join, or totally changing my career! Blindsided! But I know all will be well 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway, enter me please!
Retired with interests / involvements sounds – ideal! So happy for you, Congratulations Big-time!
Congratulations and thanks for the drawing.
Congrats on your retirement! The real question is: does it smell different? Or what is the perfume of retirement? Have fun! But it sounds like you already are…
Congratulations! It sounds like a wonderful new beginning for you and I wish you the best!
Enjoy your retirement! I fantasize daily…
What a wonderful time of life you’re entering! Like starting out after college, the possibilities are endless. Except now you have years of wisdom to guide you. Congratulations!
Congratulations! What an exciting time. Thank you for the giveaway.
Congrats on your retirement! I say relax for a for a while and bask in your new free time. 🙂 Also that quote is just wonderful, thanks for sharing!
Congratulations Patty. You will soon wonder how you had time to work! Retired and living it. Get to visit my children and grandchildren whenever I want. It’s wonderful.
Congratulations! Here’s to many new adventures. And thank you for the draw!
Congratulations on your semi-retirement, Patty! My hope for you is that you use your time in a way that pleases your senses and leads to deepening and accomplishment in all the aspects of your life: physically, spiritually, in your relationships, in your businesses, and at home. Wishing you blessings! Hugs, Dina
Congratulations on your retirement!!
Those puppies are so cute! Would love to try the samples. Congrats on your retirement– I aspire to that one day! haha
All good wishes for the new chapter, and prayers for this time of “dangerous opportunity”.
Congratulations on your retirement! Every day I mark one day more off the calendar, only 9 years to go. 🙂 Thank you for the Amouge giveaway and I’ve emailed you. I am actually looking forward to Lenten Fridays where we can go out for fish and I do not have to cook.
I didn’t get your e-mail. That’s strange. If you didn’t send it, make sure to send it to perfume.posse at gmail dot com.
Retired with interests/involvements sounds — ideal!
Congratulations, and get right into enjoyments!
resent through the ‘drop a note link’ as well as through my private email, looking forward to giving this beauty a try! 🙂
Every happy wish to you in this transition! How exciting!
Thanks for the draw — you don’t happen to have a sample of Bruno Fazzolari’s Lampblack, do you? Or a big ol’ bottle of vintage Diorling laying around? 🙂
Oh, I’m not retiring from STC! That’s a labor of love. I had another FT job as a vp in a nationawide company that I’m out of as of today. That had turned into not a labor of love for a few years. 🙂
Thank you for the morning dose of pup-ular cute. And congratulations on your 26 years.
congratulations on the retirement. mine is on the distant but very visible horizon. Please enter me in your draw. If you have samples that skew unisex or masculine, that would be great.
The best is yet to be! It sounds like you still have much more to accomplish and now, the time to do it all!
What a wonderful way to wake-up! Happy retirement, the people I know who retire are busier than ever but doing, mostly, things they love.
Congratulations on your retirement and the many new adventures and opportunities your going to have in this new chapter of your life!
I love David Whyte; great to see that quote from him! Congrats on the next part of your journey.
Happy Retirement! It can be wonderful. I’d love to win. Thanks so much for the draw.
Beautiful quote. Congratulations on your retirement! I’d love to win some perfume samples, thanks for the drawing!
Girl, I am so jealous!! I am planning to retire the end of 2018 and it can’t get here fast enough!! Thanks for the drawing. I’m in! I’m planning to do volunteer work after I retire, working at the library and helping children learn to read. They have a great program here where they pair volunteers with children struggling with reading and it has worked really well. I, my husband, and my son all had trouble with reading, and figured it out later than most, so I want to help these kids and let them know they will catch on and go on to be successful in life.
Congrats! That feeling you describe is one I have whenever I have a staycation with nothing planned. Sounds like fun!
Congratulations on your retirement! Enjoy
Enjoy your retirement! It’s good you can stay busy. Thanks for the draw!
Happy retirement Patty – Enjoy! And thanks for the draw : )
Congratulations, Patty, on your retirement. Ah, ’tis but a dream yet, for me. I’d love to hear more about your groups, hobbies, etc.
Congratulations on ÿour retirement :)!!! Wish you the best in this next chapter!
I love the quote and the tiny moment when you are between the two worlds. I always try to remember the thoughts that cross my mind at that moment and if I manage, it is always enlightening. There’s nothing like new beginnings so enjoy yours.
I have not! Can you send again? I had to change e-mail address a couple of months ago. Send to perfume.posse at gmail dot com. I’ll respond as soon as I get it. Okay, that’s annoying if my e-mail isn’t letting a lot of stuff through.
Good Morning and a beautiful Ash Wednesday! Congrats on your retirement… I won some perfume a couple of weeks ago and I’ve dropped three notes to you and have heard nothing back. Have you received them? Paddy
Congrats on your retirement!! So many possibilities….very exciting. And the puppies in the photo… is the little one a frenchie? So cute!