SUGGESTION SATURDAY
Today's book was suggested by one of my most faithful commentors, Amy. Thanks for the suggestion Amy (and the frequent comments.)
Today I have decided to actually apply myself to this whole blogging thing - you know, actually read the book before flaking off and watching seven episodes of Brady Bunch (not that I would ever do anything so irresponsible), try to get the blog entry posted before 11 o'clock at night, that sort of thing. We'll see how that goes, but my goal for the rest of the year is to try to get the entries up closer to 5 or 6 in the evening (I'm clearly easing into it.) But don't worry dear readers, becoming a more responsible blogger is not going to make my blog entries any less shallow and mindless - that aspect of the blog will never change.
Today's book, "Everyone says they would like to retire early, but Rodney Rothman actually did it - forty years early. Burnt out, he decides at the age of twenty-eight to get an early start on his golden years. He travels to Boca Raton, Florida, where he moves in with an elderly piano teacher at Century Village, a retirement community that is home to thousands of senior citizens."
Shallow thoughts:
- First, I'm going to get all of the shameless blogging activities out of the way first. There's the shameless plug of other blog entries in order to artificially inflate my page count, in the form of reminding you that I have read another book on the subject of retirees. And then there's the part where I talk about whether I like the book or not, in order to add an extra paragraph to the blog entry, thereby making it look (hopefully) as if I have put much more effort into the blog entry than I really did. I am happy to report that I really liked today's book. And now it's time for me to tell you whether I recommend the book or not (that part is just to flatter my own ego, because I like to think that people are waiting every day with bated breath to see what I'm going to recommend next) - and I would definitely recommend this book (and so does Dave Eggers so now I can shamelessly plug that blog entry as well.) Now, I think I can safely move on to something with more substance. Ha Ha, just kidding. There will be no substance in this blog entry, but I think we can move on now to something less shameless (unless of course I feel the need to fill up the blog entry with pointless stories about relatives of mine that you have never met.)
- My only real experience with communities filled with retirees is when I used to visit my Grandparents in Florida - who decided that it would be a really good idea to move to a mobile home retirement community (no that's not a typo, they really moved to a trailer in Florida) conveniently located in the middle of the state - far, far away from any pesky traffic that might be created due to anything interesting being located nearby. Although I really shouldn't mock it because I did have a lot of fun looking at the newspaper dresses my Grandmother and her friends had all created. That was also the moment when I decided that I don't ever want to get old. Coincidence? I leave it up to you to decide dear readers. But, the fun didn't stop with newspaper dresses - oh no indeed it did not - because there was also lots of fun to be had from driving 20 minutes to buy ice cream that tasted like someone had stirred orange juice concentrate into frozen yogurt, and the endless fun of going to a restaurant named Fat Boys which was so gritty I was genuinely shocked when the Department of Health didn't show up mid-meal and shut the place down. Lest you think I am being too hard of my Grandparents dear readers - let me assure you that my Grandmother is the first to laugh when I mock her (it's part of her charm) and my Grandpa would respond by smiling and saying "You didn't like the restaurant?" in a tone of fake outrage (charming as well) - so I feel certain they would enjoy this entry . . . if they knew how to turn on a computer to read it.
- I think my favorite part of the book was when the author was gently chastised by a senior citizen on an airplane for not being well-dressed while traveling. I believe the exact quote was, "Is that how you travel?" So, I guess, when it comes to travel I'm a lot like a senior citizen because I have trick travel rules: 1. No ugly clothes cross the state line - workout clothes only go along if they're going to be used for an actual workout (and I'm too lazy to do that sort of thing on vacation - so no workout clothes) 2. Dress like a character in an old movie while flying whenever possible (this is the rule I violate the most often, because I'm lazy) 3. travel hair should always look even better than regular hair (f0r some reason my hair always seems to be able to sense when I'm on vacation and it does cooperate.) In short, I'm shallow, and that's something I will never take a vacation from.
