One More Day

No, no, not the travesty of the same name that caused me to stop reading Spider-Man comics...

No, it's simply one more day of work for yours truly... I think I've gotten my desk sorted out to the point where I have almost nothing left to bring home (just a bit more to throw out), and all former responsibilities have been successfully shifted to others (including the care and feeding of 14 direct reports). I said goodbye to a couple of good work-friends today (who have tomorrow off) but the real show will happen tomorrow afternoon, at a local restaurant. The more I steel myself to "not get emotional about it," the more sure I am that I'm going to end up a blubbering mess. And now we all understand why I didn't want (and managed to avoid having) a goodbye event when I left the bank in 2001 after 14.5 years there!

I told Vicki today that I like the sounds of "I'm taking an extended break from working in order to write a book" much better than "I'm out of work" or "I don't know if I'll ever find work again!" For one thing, the high-falutin' "book-writing" angle makes it sound like I'm an actual author, rather than someone who just self-publishes his own ramblings. For another, ixnay on the whole ot-nay aking-may oney-may talk, if you don't mind!

Funny highlight of the day was supplied by none other than Jimmy Hinckley, who doesn't even work with me anymore! He was IM'ing me, asking me how the exit interview went, and I happened to mention that the HR Director was kind enough to buy a copy of my book right at the end of the proceedings. Hinckley summarized that perfectly, in his usual manner, by saying, "So you actually managed to PROFIT from your exit interview!" That may be a first in the history of such things... :-)

Less than 24 hours from now, I'll actually be unemploy---, I mean, "taking an extended break from working in order to write a book!"