Snow and Farewell.

A funny thing(s) happened on my Thursday today. First, I watched in awe as people carried on with their usual lives despite the 4-6 inches of snow on the ground. As a southerner, I was amazed to see people knocking the snow off their cars and driving away (sans chains on their tires of course!) and watching students trudge off to class like any other Thursday. (No, the institution did not close for what the midwest probably calls, "a dusting") and even though a lot of folks I knew called in sick to work because of all the snow/ice on the road, it was business as usual! The photo to the left was taken around 8am this morning from my window. As for me, I didn't mind going into work today and I was MORE THAN PLEASED that I live on campus and didn't have to worry about driving into work. I simply walked down the hall!

Second, I said goodbye this morning to a friend and coworker who is moving back home to pursue another opportunity. I've known for quite some time she was leaving and since I'm no stranger to picking up and moving on, figured it would be easy for me to focus on the good times, cherish the friendship, and see her when I see her. Until she actually left this morning. She was supposed to leave yesterday but with the snow, stayed an extra night with me in my apartment and we had one last adventure together at 2am responding to a fire alarm in the building. So when we both got up this morning and she left, I simply gave her a huge hug, wished her safe travels and said I would talk to her soon. And I carried on with my morning and went to lunch. But when I returned from lunch, it hit me like a ton of bricks: My compadre, confidante, colleague, neighbor, billiken buddy, and dear friend had left. There wouldn't be any more lunches or dinners together, no daily phone calls to chat about the crazies of the job, no giant hugs on the mall, no huge smiles and Nebraskan accents to greet me every time we saw each other and finally, no Betty Rubble laugh invading my life. And then the sadness came. I rebounded pretty quickly by simply calling her but I know as we get into our new routines, it will be harder to stay in touch. And let's face it: practically living with someone and seeing them daily is VASTLY different from rarely seeing someone and catching up via phone calls now and again.


Don't worry folks, I'm OK. I feel incredibly blessed to have met and worked with her, incredibly lucky that we not only worked well together but played well together too. I know she'll remain a friend and colleague in the field for life and I couldn't be happier for her to return home to be closer to her family and work at her alma mater. But I'll miss having her around dearly and am sad to say goodbye to another friend too soon. Definitely too soon.