Today is Andy’s 24th birthday! Happy birthday!!

My close friend is a pension consultant for the NJEA. When teachers plan to retire, they go see him (or another consultants) to discuss their financial situation. He and I know that I am financially able to retire right now, but I have mixed feelings about it:

• I still enjoy teaching and the interaction with all my students and faculty members; the fact that Jean will be at PHS this year, as well as David, makes it even more enjoyable;
• I am not happy doing an average of 50 hours of schoolwork per week, sacrificing many of my evenings and most of my weekends doing schoolwork, leaving me virtually no time to do any of my own writing for 10 months each year;
• if I work 3 more years, my financial situation at retirement will improve so much that I need not worry about economic setbacks for the rest of my life (which hopefully will be at least two decades +);
• I WANT TO WRITE MORE!!!!!!
  

Currently listening: Rock and roll was born out of the blues, but many people do not realize that an equally-important progenitor was folk music. Artists such as Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, the Byrds, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Fairport Convention, the Strawbs, Richard Thompson–and the list goes on–were all folkies at heart. I have been listening to two albums of folk/folk rock recently. The Folk Years is a five-cd set of 1960s American folk music and folk rock, while Folk-Rock Founders is a two-cd set of British folk rock. Great stuff, a lot of it underrated due to the perhaps unfair dominance among critics of blues rock.

Currently reading: When I need to take a break from books, I read several magazines, and the one I am currently reading is Smithsonian. Its articles are all over the place, with the emphasis on history and world culture. Highly recommended to all life-long learners.