Sunday, August 07, 2011

Survival Training And Retirement Planning

It's been hot and humid here in Baltimore. My clothes are sticking to my back and strands of hair are plastered to my face. My makeup has taken on a life of it's own, migrating to wherever the sweat takes it, and my head feels like it's going to explode with the amount of heat its producing. Even standing still, I feel the beads of sweat forming on my scalp, slowly trickling down between the strands, until one breaks free at the forehead. It's been a two-shower-a-day weekend.

Ed has taken to calling me "Flash" because he thinks I'm experiencing hot flashes. It doesn't matter how many times I explain to him that I've been like this since birth. My mother used to cut the feet off the feetsie (our family word) pajamas when I was a toddler because I hated being hot. It's been a lifelong battle and it's not getting any prettier.

This morning, as I sat in the hotel restaurant at breakfast with Ed and our friends, I was brandishing one of the
fans I bought in New York a few months ago. It seems I was the only one in the restaurant who was hot. I'll tell you what, Hilton puts on a really nice breakfast spread (omelets, french toast, waffles, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, bagels, juice - you name it, they had it), but they were really lacking in the air conditioning department. And I looked like a ninety-year-old woman from the south, with my fancy fan in hand, do-declaring about how wahm it is.

After breakfast, we retired to the lobby area and took our places; each of us in a big armchair, circled around a low coffee table. Let the klatch begin. Questions were asked, answers were given, there was some crowding around an iPad, a little exchanging of trucking stories. Although Marlaina and Greg and new to trucking (only the road a few years), they are not new to life. They are extremely well traveled, have had fantastic full careers in other industries, and have a wealth of information to share. Ed and I feel like we're totally getting the better end of the deal because they've got some great information and are full of interesting stories of their adventures around the world. We're basically telling them how to find good flatbed freight and where to buy the best tarps.

The focus for this weekend pow-wow has trucking for them, finance for us. Ed shared what he knows about how to build a successful business as an owner-operator, and Marlaina shared her investment strategies and knowledge. She's a wealth of information; from her days as a political investigative reporter to her daily asborption of podcasts, news articles, financial television programs and personal experience. With all the information we're accumulating, we're going to have a really good handle on our retirement planning and execution.

The wheels are totally in motion! I'm excited by the idea of my money growing but I'm not so interested in having to read about it, but that's why I have Ed. Numbers make Calcutron as excited as I get when I find a discontinued costmetic item on Ebay. As long as my investments keep increasing, I'm happy. I just don't want to hear about it.

This weekend has been one of our best ones in the four months we've been working in the area. It was serendipity that we were able to be here (instead of on the Seattle end), at the same time they were on the East coast. We crammed so much into our weekend. Our next trucking/finance seminar is planned for a sailboat in the British Virgin Islands. We've been talking about this for almost a year and we're close to narrowing down our dates and exact location.

I don't think I'll really mind the heat and humidity so much if I'm sitting around with a tropical beverage in my hand, listening to Marlaina tell me how I can make even more money than I am now, while we watch Ed and Greg work the rigging and the sails to keep us moving through the water.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 YEAR AGO:
Just A Glimpse
2 YEARS AGO:
Eddie Mails A Package In His Dorfman Friday
3 YEARS AGO:
Shower Jam
4 YEARS AGO:
Golden Arches
5 YEARS AGO:
The Land Of Fruits, Nuts And Flakes
6 YEARS AGO:
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

3 comments:

all things bradbury said...

hmmmmm....wouldn't i have loved to have been there too.....i need all the retirement planning advice i can get!...sounds like you guys had a great weekend....i love it when it works out like that!

Terry said...

As a woman who is unfortunately experiencing those lovely hot flashes (medical miscalculation, but thats for my memiors), I highly reccommend an icepack down the front of your bra or even a ziploc bag with ice in it. It works pretty well but it is kinda hard to accomplish in the lobby of the Hilton I reckon.

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