B.Y.E. to the ol' J.O.B.

Ah man, leaving a job is tougher than I remembered. Today was my last day at the publishing company I called "work" for 3 1/2 years. I popped all my stuff in a box (sadly, it all fit in one teeny box), deleted my final email, and threw away everything in my "To Do" and "Done" boxes. Then I looked around at my neat and tidy teeny cube and thought "Hey, this looks like a great place to work. Everything's all neat and tidy!" I kind of wish I had done that earlier when I could have enjoyed the clean desk. But the next person who sits at that desk will love it. And also, he/she better also love the Post-It password collage on the inside of the second cupboard. You're welcome, Stranger I've Never Met!

BTW: I wrote probably the most epic job manual in the history of job manuals. You're double welcome!

And no matter how many gripes I felt I had, or how ready I am to move on, at the end of the day today, I actually ducked out secretly because I kept getting really choked up saying goodbye to people.

Oh, and THEN! I got WAY too sentimental over weird stuff, and offered to take people I had only met once or twice out for dinner next month. What?! Where did that come from? But people were so genuine and were so hopeful for me. "You deserve such great success" was one thing that someone said. And then I wanted to ask that person to marry me.

But one of the very best feelings was to FINALLY be able to befriend my co-workers (and boss!) on Facebook! Yay! I'm sure they have just been DYING to read my hilarious status updates and check out my photos from the Zombie Pub Crawl. The world makes sense again.

So I came home, unpacked my tiny box from my desk, and dug through the awesome gift bag of company-themed swag from my boss. It's weird to see all my office stuff in my house. It doesn't really belong anywhere. I mean, I just don't have any place to put my Beach in a Box (a teeny tiny recreation of a beach complete with shells and sand that was supposed to remind me to "take a little mental vacay every day").

Plus, I still feel bad for dipping out of the office so suddenly and quietly. I missed out on a lot of goodbye's that I really wanted to say. Unfortunately, it turns out that your beloved stoic, rock-solid blogger either had a lump of rocks lodged in my throat, or I was a messy ball of mushy emotions.

In case anyone from work reads this, and in case you are feeling oh-so-disappointed in the absence of a heartfelt goodbye, trust that I would have just made you uncomfortable. No one likes a sobbing nutjob carrying a box of pictures and a frog tape dispenser. And if the earlier part of the day taught me anything, it's that I am not good with farewells. In order to delay the gushy stuff, I would have promised to come in tomorrow to help you stock the library, and then I wouldn't have come and then you would have been both sad AND short-staffed.

But thanks to the small group of people I was smart enough to trick into liking me, and therefore can now call my Friends. Complaining about work was never more fun than when I was complaining with you. And even though I laughed uncontrollably when the most recent calamity tore into your day today - and I didn't have to deal with any of it! - I will always sympathize with you and be around to hear all about it and laugh at your expense. Good luck to all the great people I spent approximately 6,200+ hours with. I hope you still invite me to Happy Hours, and I hope you'll come to all the Dance Central parties I have. Just don't get too mad when I'm bragging about the new job!

Anyway, I'll talk to you all on Sunday when I'm being neurotic and panicky about a whole NEW job! Yay! Exciting for you!