It's Official....

I'm OUTTA THERE!!!!

Today was exhausting - a crazed attempt to download most of the esoteric details in my brain into Boss, and practical tips to the sweet, smart and brave temp who was dragged into manning the desk and tackling shoving the paper in the right directions, until a permanent replacement is suckered in hired. Boss was so damn brave. Real boss came up from South FL to take a bunch of us (me, Boss, and our buds) to lunch, we had a great time, and Boss gave me a lovely new laptop bag/briefcase he picked it out with his own two hands. He was so proud, he chose it because it was both practical and the topstitching made it "girly." Awwww. Not really what I'd have picked but I'll use it and love it to pieces, because he picked it all by himself, and that's so hard for guys.

Many hugs from many people, and SO many "Good for you, you're doing the right thing!"s from people I barely know. Such a hap-hap-happy place.

I now have TEN consecutive days off in a row, a luxury unknown to so many of us who toil in Corporate America. Not because our employers don't GIVE the vacation time, but because we can't TAKE it, because the shit is flowing too hard and fast and more than a few days away, even with checking voicemail and email "on vacation," is just not worth the price of re-entry. Not a problem our Wartime Commander-in-Chief has noticed in the rest of America, but I digress....

Goodbye to Boss of course was not goodbye, we are already planning an assembly of the posse for drinks in a couple of weeks. We've been friends since, I'm trying to count - 1992? 1993? A damn long time. We are bound together on some cosmic level of friendship and that's not going anywhere. So our goodbye was quite unemotional -"Go kick ass, you'll be running things in a year," and "I'm going to nag the living shit out of you until you push the job search and get out of here too, our talents aren't used here." That was the Emotional Farewell.

I think I'll sleep well tonight. If the freaking lizards and frogs will shut up. There is a drainage swale/ditch behind my back fence, and after the many inches of rain we have had it's full and a freaking Playboy Mansion for horny amphibians. I have been awakened at 3 a.m. every night for the past two-plus weeks, listening to the amphibian equivalent of "HEY BAYBEEE!" and the answering calls of, "BUY ME A DRINK, HANDSOME!" The party gets started after midnight and goes on until 4-ish. I fall into a fitful sleep until the clock goes off at 5:30. Yeah, I'm loving summer so far.

Knitting - a few rows on the latest baby hat. I had no idea how addictive baby clothes are, I think I'm going to shove the useful portions of The Stash toward baby things for grandchildren-to-be-identified-later. Because baby stuff is instant gratification.