County Westmeath

Tl;dr: Celebrated retirement day with a golf open competition win, drinking Guinness, learning to pull a pint, and changing a flat tire at 2am.

I wrapped up my final day at work, which is just strange to even write, let alone do. After 18 years , 2 months, and 4 days at Washington Mutual and then JP Morgan Chase, it is both thrilling to launch into a new phase of life and bittersweet to say farewell to so many wonderful people who have educated, inspired, and put up with me for years. (For those of you reading this that didn’t have the, errrr, “experience” of working with me, just know that I was most proud of refusing to be a serious banker and bringing at least some amount of ridiculousness to the table as often as possible. 😜)

What better way to kick off retirement than to head for the midlands of Ireland and Donny’s birthplace?! He’d put the word out that we’d be in Mullingar so a gathering of “the boys” (a group of ~20 lads dating back to Mullingar secondary school) got together for a few rounds of golf and catching up.

I headed out with Gary & Spacer just hoping I wouldn’t make a fool of myself on Donny’s home course. I had a great round mostly because my playing partners were hilarious. I made a comment about Spacer changing outfits more than a Madonna concert (August weather is just a tad unpredictable) which then prompted Gary into serenading us with Beyoncé tunes. Not only can he sing, he’s got the the moves to match!

I felt like I was playing pretty well and, with my unfortunately high handicap, it turns out well enough to win the Friday Open competition that Donny had entered us in. Many thanks 🙏 to the Boys for coming to my defense when the course didn’t initially recognize my score as I wasn’t in their score posting system.

After a few celebratory drinks and more hilarity in the golf club, we headed into town for, you guessed it, more hilarity and mayhem. It’s always amazing to be around a group of people that so enjoy each other and have the history to back it up.

At one point, Smitty did me the tremendous honor of pulling a pint of Guiness with excellent instruction from his bar staff. The key is in the angle of the initial pour, letting it “cascade” for the requisite 90ish seconds, and then putting the perfect creamy head on it. Needless to say, I have a LOT of respect for those that make the perfect pint look so easy. It was the perfect cap to a great day.

But wait, there’s more! As the revelry wound down, we ended up getting a ride from said Smitty which led to the unexpected experience of changing a flat tire at 2am on a dark country road. Donny is a pro iPhone flashlight holder! 😝
Spare tire swapped and off we went to crash in a beautiful guest room only to wake to a view of the quintessential Irish countryside.

This could be my best day ever.Read more