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Sunshine State Sue

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Sunshine State Sue last won the day on January 14 2014

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About Sunshine State Sue

  • Birthday 12/26/1960

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  • Gender
    Not Telling
  • Interests
    alto in choir, group exercise, whole food plant based cooking

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  • Biography
    BA in math and computer science; MS in Industrial Engineering
  • Location
    Tampa Bay, FL
  • Interests
    alto in choir, yoga, water aerobics
  • Occupation
    programmer

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  1. I think it's been about 20 years for me. I was Sue in St Pete back then. I rarely checked the chat board during our hs'ing years. Now, I rarely check any other board. I have no other social media account. The K-8 board, the Middle School board, the High School, Board, the College Board all helped me through. One boardie tutored ds in writing one year. 3 boardies critiqued my ds' high school transcript. I think I've only met 3 boardies IRL: one from Tampa, one from Colorado, and one from Canada. I am grateful for SWB. My heroine! Anyone remember vegsource?
  2. This is my 11th year volunteering with VITA - Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. One of the locations I volunteer at is run my a retired military site coordinator and several of the volunteers are military. VITA typically has an income cap (79,000 this year) but our site does not have a cap for active/retired military. There is another site on the military base I believe. You can lookup VITA sites here.
  3. wrt work: what do other people/want expect from you? I can't help you with your values and desires. That is something you need to determine for yourself. I can tell you that, for me, I never have had any desire for full-time employment. Pre-child it was okay as a young professional. But there is so much more to life. There always seems to be pressure for more. At least where I have worked in corporate america. Dh, while always gainfully employed until retirement at 69yo, never made half of what I could make full-time. So, I have always had to work. Fortunately, I was able to work 20hrs/wk with family health benefits for 12 years after ds was born. Then, I had to work 30hrs/wk for family health benefits. Then I was persuaded to take full-time pay for 30hrs/wk. I kind of regret that because I didn't feel right about it. A little over a year ago, I resigned because I wanted to work 20hrs/wk and get health benefits and that wasn't an option at the company. 2 days later, I was offered (same company) 20hrs/wk with health benefits. I say my age is Medicare minus 2. Working until 65 can be a slog. And I mostly like my job. I like work-life balance even better.
  4. I sometimes say that I grew up in a large family where our favorite form of communication was ridicule. I am loathe to put myself into a situation where I could be ridiculed. There are 2 activities that I might like to participate in that I cannot make myself participate in because I am so self-conscious and feel foolish and embarrassed. One is zumba. One is dancing (not sure how you call it - free style dancing?) I'm not asking for advice on how to overcome my inhibitions. I have some ideas. I want to be inspired that it is possible to overcome an inhibition by examples of others who have overcome their inhibitions. If you have overcome an inhibition and are willing to share, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks in advance.
  5. This. I volunteer and we use TaxSlayer. There is a checkbox in the basic information/personal information, near the name, ss#, dob, that says they are a dependent.
  6. For a while, I volunteered at a library that was a combination of city and community college library. After they got to know me, they always notified me when jobs were available. I work as a programmer and didn't need library $$, but a lady in my church followed my footsteps and was hired on after a short time. My gay neighbor retired after working as a (college?) librarian in OH. He says libraries are very accepting places. A gay man in our church has worked as a children's librarian forever. I'm in FL fwiw, home of the anti-woke guv. Ugh.
  7. I helped a friend sign up for SS a year or so ago. She was married for >10yrs but divorced. Her ex-dh died. Her full retirement age was 66yo. She waited until 67.5yo to apply mostly because she dithered about finding marriage/divorce papers. I thought she would get 50% of his SS but she got 100%. We discovered that she could have gotten 100% of his SS starting at 66yo (her full retirement age). She lost a year of SS. They did give her 1/2 year back pay.
  8. We live in a 55+ community. Dh is 72 and retired 3+ years ago. He plays softball, lots of pickleball, does pottery, shares a garden plot, volunteers 1 morning a week, is on our COA board, and will likely be the next pottery club president. When dh worked, all he ever did was ride his bike and watch sports on TV. I love that he is so active now. I'm working part-time and mostly do fitness classes. I volunteer as a tax preparer during the season, tutor a fitness instructor returning to college in math, and volunteer as a cake baker for mostly kids in foster care. Together, we volunteer as ushers 2x a month at the big live theater 30min away. When I retire, I would like to learn some of the games (euchre, rummicube, bridge, poker, hand/foot, majong) played around here or maybe try some of the paper crafts or sewing/quilting. But what do you do with the "stuff" you make? We are awash in pottery already. I'd like to invite friends over for tea and conversation more often.
  9. I work part-time now. They know I have one foot out the door and they don't want me to leave. I am learning to be very passive aggressive. I get emails about stupid training. Delete. Eventually they email my boss who forwards them to me with a request to do the training. Delete. Invitations to company wide or department wide meetings. Delete. Go ahead and fire me. Then I won't have to decide when I go. Just had a birthday. I turned Medicare - 2.
  10. I'm a shy extrovert. I grew up in a big family and enjoy gatherings, large and small, though I do prefer smaller. I enjoy talking to and getting to know people, though I joke that being married to an introvert and working from home (thankfully part-time now), I am losing the fine art of conversation. I sometimes tell people that I need to practice my conversation skills. Dh is an introvert. I once told a counselor that I would like to trade him in for the extroverted model. It makes me sad, and I feel that my world is smaller because I am married to him. I realized many years ago that he would not be able to satisfy my social needs, and I do my best to get those needs met on my own. To be clear, dh has other redeeming qualities. I say he can speak to the POTUS or a homeless person and you wouldn't know the difference. Me, not so much. I also prefer the company of women to men. If you invited me/us to to parties over and over again, I would try to develop a one-on-one relationship with you. I am very proactive about developing and maintaining friendships. I am the one inviting people to a picnic or a local play or a local concert or for a walk. Our home is also my home and I do invite people over. If it's girlfriends I invite over, dh will say hello and retreat to his man cave typically. He rarely wants to socialize with groups, though I must say that since he retired 3 years ago and we moved to an active 55+ community, he's been so much more social, and I am much happier with our social life. I sometimes think he gets more invitations than me. He is involved in more activities and meets more people than me. You have expressed this sentiment (of non-reciprocation) before. I remember replying years ago on a thread around the time your father passed away. It is frustrating to be the one who does the vast majority of the inviting. People have so many reasons for not reaching out. Some have family that fills that need. Some are introverts with less social need. I just know that if I wasn't proactive, I would be much lonelier, and so I do what I need to do. A few express their appreciation, but still don't reciprocate. Hugs.
  11. It's been a long time since anyone threw me a bday party. Bday is Dec 26. We went to Japan this year on a tour with an acquaintance who had lived in Japan and was an Asian Studies professor all her career. It was nice to be with someone who spoke Japanese. I would say 25% of Japanese speak English. I personally would not go anywhere in Asia or Africa or South America on my own with one exception (see below). OTOH, my younger sister is an intrepid traveler and does that kind of thing. We went to the Galapagos Islands on our own. I told myself that it was an international tourist destination and therefore people would speak enough English for us to get by. I imagine Tokyo Disney would be similar.
  12. I hosted an over the hill party for myself for my 40th. Everyone had to dress in black. I made a graveyard cake and had a bunch of other chocolate desserts (chocoholic here). We played 1960 charades and had a hula hoop contest. I invited friends for a hike at a local nature center and lunch on my 50th. I made all the food. I had my brother take pictures of me next to a 55mph speed limit sign and used it for my 55th birthday party invitations. I made a vegan dinner and dessert for 8 friends. My 60th birthday was during covid. I went with a few friends to a salt cave then to a park for a picnic afterwards. Between my 50th birthday and my husband's 60th birthday (he's 9.5 years older than me), we went to Italy while my in-laws stayed with our son.
  13. Ditto. I remember driving down the road and the car in front of me had a flag flapping out the window and it irritated me. And if a flag flapping out a car window irritated me, what do you think dh and ds were doing to me? For me, a few appts with an acupuncturist made a remarkable difference. Also, an herbal concoction called Change of Life at a local natural product store.
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