Last Tuesday

I was really grouchy today, though I'm not really sure why. I woke up next to a wonderful guy after a good night's sleep. I made a nice breakfast. I participated in "free cone day" at Ben and Jerry's. My favorite faculty member stopped in to give me a hug and the offer of a reference. I blame the crappy weather and the fact that it's Tuesday.

Tickets bought

We bought our plane tickets last night: flying out of here at 7:15 PM on May 31.

Ode to Trader Joe's

Something that makes me irrationally happy: The black bean burger wrap at Trader Joe's. It's a chopped-up black bean burger patty, spinach, corn, and zesty salsa spread all wrapped up in a whole wheat tortilla. I was reluctant to try it at first because it's not very big, but once I picked one up and felt its heft, I decided to give it a shot. Boy, am I ever glad that I did. It's chewy, delicious, and very filling. Over the weekend, I had the genius idea to heat it up. I nuked it for a minute, put it on the Foreman for a few minutes more, and enjoyed what can only be described as a grilled taste sensation. I bought one for dinner tonight, and am looking forward to going home and doing it again. I've got a Trader Joe's by my work, a Trader Joe's by my apartment, and if Mapquest isn't lying, a Trader Joe's by my Seattle place as well, so I foresee plenty more black bean perfection in my future.

Shoes: Oh my God... Shoes.

I just met with the owner of Thom Brown Shoes, which I am much more familiar with than I should be. He's looking for a student to help with the design of a new store and came to us for help. I don't know why that made me so excited. Maybe he'll be so grateful for my services that he'll donate a free pair to my collection? Not like I really need any more shoes.

One more week

I now officially have one week of work left. Erik is going to be on vacation, so today was our last day as coworkers; we did a final Espresso Royal/Trader Joe's run together. I went through my file cabinet to try to sort everything out so that my replacement does not inherit the same mess I did: my predecessor was fired for being an alcoholic, and it took me a long time to figure out what to do with all the loose ends. I think I'm going to leave things in pretty good shape.

While organizing, I found a copy of my job description, which will help me improve me resume, and a list of 50 typical job interview questions, which might help me prepare for interviews. My parents keep bugging me about health insurance; if I get sick or hurt, they're going to be the ones paying for it. I've got an eye appointment tomorrow, so I can take care of that before my insurance ends. Otherwise, I guess I just have to hope that nothing bad happens- knock on wood.

"little, sticky green leaves"

Late April/ early May is my favorite time of year in New England. Flowers are blooming, the leaves are small and pale green, and the weather is nice; it almost makes you forget how crappy the other 11 months are. I forgot to wear my watch today, and I noticed that I am starting to get a watch-tan.

Penultimate Tuesday

Everyone was sunburned today from watching the Marathon yesterday; people just collectively forgot to wear sunscreen since they haven't had to do so for so long. (I know, you should always wear sunscreen, even in Winter, but who really does) My chili was a success at the potluck, and I even had plenty of time before work to walk to Whole Foods to buy a cake.

Work wasn't very productive; I printed off the results of our Career Fair survey, but might to leave it for other people to analyze because I've pretty much checked out, though I'm trying hard to stay engaged until the very end. I met with a couple of students and started the tedious process of scoring late reports. People know I'm leaving now and are starting to ask me for details, so since the cat's out of the bag I asked the facilities guys for moving boxes. I now have 5 sweet toilet paper boxes sitting in my office.

This means that I have one more Tuesday at the BAC. I've always hated Tuesdays; when I was younger I had cello lessons on Tuesdays, and though I liked playing, I never liked the one-on-one interactions with the crazy Russian guy or the bitchy woman I had for teachers. Now, Tuesdays mean shifting my usual 9-5 to 11:30-7:30. While it's nice to have one morning free for appointments, going to the bank, post office, etc, I don't like being the last one in the office.

Penultimate is a good word; I don't really know where I picked it up but I like to drop it to make myself sounds smart. This is my penultimate week of work. Today was my penultimate Tuesday. Tomorrow will be my penultimate Wednesday. Sweet.

On a different note, I made a new discovery today: rice ice cream. A couple of my coworkers are lactose intolerant, and one can't eat gluten, so I picked up a carton of that for them when I bought the cake. It was sweet and creamy, without being too creamy; it reminds me of frozen yogurt without the tang. Delicious.

Marathon Monday

It's Patriot's Day here in Boston, the day of the Boston Marathon. Because the finish line is about half a mile from my work, we get the day off- forget about getting to the office through the mob zone on Newbury Street. Poor David wasn't so lucky: he had to be in Hopkington at 4 am with the National Guard for crowd control.

I, on the other hand, woke up at around 8:15, since my roommates didn't have the day off and did the usual morning competition for the bathroom outside my door. I made a leisurely breakfast, and watched the runners on TV while perfecting a cover letter. At around 11:30, I got a call from Diane, who was coming to Coolidge Corner to watch and wanted to know if I was interested in joining. We got a good spot on the Tanbark of the T stop across from Trader Joe's and watched for about an hour and a half. We saw the first women pass, the first men, and the first wheelchair racers. My batteries died after the first few women, but I did manage to take this picture of the first and second place ladies:





Dire Tune (#7) was the winner, and Alevtina Biktimirova (#8) was second. There were no American women in the top 10, and I was surprised the Russian women do so well- they placed 2nd and 9th.

The change in group dynamic between Needham (when I first tuned in) and 23 miles in was striking: instead of being in a pack, they were distinctively spread out.

At about 1:30 I felt like I was going to burn, so I suggested we go inside. We got some coffee and talked for a little bit. She told me about her new guy, and I told her about Seattle. We agreed that seeing the Marathon was something cool to check off of our "things to before leaving Boston" lists.

The check from my subletter arrived over the weekend, and I am going to cash it tomorrow or the next day; even if the bank was open today, I didn't feel like braving the mob to get there. The weather has been gorgeous, so that and the Marathon inspired me to go for a run after coffee. I ran about 3 minutes then walked from my apartment to BU to St. Mary's and back. The race was still going at around 4 pm as I walked home along Beacon street, mostly the old and feeble. By the time I went grocery shopping at 5, they had opened up the street and forced the stragglers to complete the race on the sidewalk.

Now I'm making chili for Len's birthday tomorrow- the last PACE Potluck I will ever need to endure. It's killing two birds with one stone: last minute bonding with my boss (good for the rec) and using up all my dried beans.

Strange Encounter

I ran into one of the Bates A Capella groups on the T yesterday; Maine is far enough away that I forget how close it really is. I'll randomly run into less people I know in Seattle, but I'm sure that chance encounters won't stop altogether.

interviewing

We're interviewing people for an open position in the Advising department. I'm hoping one of them will take my job; I'd hate to put my coworkers through another round of interviews since these people seem more than qualified.

Spring Cleaning

I'm cleaning out my room and starting to pack things up. I've tossed/donated a lot more stuff- it gets easier the more you do it. Unfortunately, the beautiful weather yesterday encouraged me to go on a post-gym shopping spree (my gym is on Newbury street), but I like what I bought, which will encourage me to dispose of some of the stuff I don't like but was holding on to for lack of wearable alternatives.

Friday was an example of why I can't wait to quit. Though it was my day off, Erik called me at 9 am about our work study student's paycheck, which wasn't cut. I'll spare you the boring details, but basically it was just a chain of incompetency that could have easily been stopped early on. I had been looking forward to a leisurely day of roommate-less time in my apartment, but instead I rushed home from David's, put in my contacts and showered quickly, and wolfed down breakfast on the T just get a quilt trip on something I've messed up a few times because no one has ever told me how to do it. It was also a minor mistake that from my end was not obvious and could have been caught if the person on the other side was doing their job. I don't know why but the whole thing really, really upset me and I left the office very shaken-up.

Here's how I did it

What do I have in common with these people? [Scroll down for the answer]

Keep going….

And going…

Almost there…

Let’s talk when you have a chance.

Helen

Saying goodbye

Len has been pressuring me to tell Cait and Erik that I am leaving, which I really do need to do but am just afraid; we've been so busy that I don't want to drop a bombshell like this on them until after the Faculty meeting tonight (my last one!) I'm going to miss them both a lot, but I don't like drama and want it to be lighthearted. My thought now is to send them an email with a list of Seattle people and include my name in this. "What do Fraiser Crane, Tom Hanks, Ichiro Suzuki, Kurt Cobain, and I all have in common?" then have them scroll down the page to a picture of the Space Needle, saying "come talk to me." Then I'll tell them. Maybe take them out to coffee? JP Licks? Martinis?

Espresso Royale vs SEATTLE

"Espresso Royale: that's something Seattle doesn't have!" -Len

It's Seattle... there will be coffee; I'm not worried.

Excitement

David and I talked about combining our music libraries and putting speakers all over the apartment, which made me really excited because I'm a nerd. I'm looking forward to having an art space; I miss doing art regularly, and since I'm not taking any classes now I don't do as much as I would like. Unemployment is going to have some advantages!

Places to visit and revisit

I have a list of places I'd like to go before I move; some are places I've been to, some are places I've never been to.

• Portland, ME
  
• LL Bean in Freeport, ME
  
• Newport, RI
• Nantucket/ Martha's Vineyard
  
• NYC for deep-friend twinkies
• Sorella's in JP (the best pancakes ever)
• Zaftig's deli
• Veggie Planet in Harvard Square
• Harvard Square in general
• Chestnut Hill (See below)

On second thought, some of these places are probably pretty easily duplicated; I'm guessing Seattle has pancakes and good vegetarian pizza.

Letter Delivered

I was in before Len this morning, so I took my letter back from his desk. He came in a few minutes later, so we chatted a bit about the Career Fair. Newton arrived in the middle of this conversation so I couldn't make a direct segway into the topic of Seattle, though Len had a few minutes before his 9 am appointment, so I made it short and sweet in his office. He said he knew it was coming and that I had given him plenty of notice. He seemed sad but not angry, which is good. Now I'm focusing on how I will tell Cait, Erik, and everyone else.

Done (almost)

Yesterday's career fair was a great success; 130 students showed up, plus representatives from 11 firms. People lined up at the door well before 10, and the last one left at 3:30, 2 1/2 hours after it was scheduled to finish. Everyone had good things to say about the event: the firms, the students, BAC staff; even the president showed up to see what it was about and seemed pleased. Not to brag or anything, but I feel like this was a big accomplishment for both the school and myself. I put a lot of time into getting it together, and am glad to leave on a high note.

I didn't get a chance to give Len my letter on Friday because he went home before I did, and I didn't want to leave it for him to find before the career fair, when he was already stressed and in a bad mood. He left again before I did yesterday, so I left my letter on his desk for him to find tomorrow.

My Notice

I plan on giving this to my boss at the end of the day. Wish me luck.

-----------------------------------------------

April 4, 2008

Dear Len,

I’m leaving Boston for Seattle at the end of May; it’s a city I’ve wanted to live in since I first visited relatives there ten years ago, and an opportunity to be closer to my immediate family (yet still remain distant enough). Though New England has its charms, I am really looking forward to getting back to the West Coast. Friday, May 2 will be my last day at the BAC.

Thank you for everything you have done for me over the past 18 months; I can’t emphasize enough how much I have enjoyed working here and couldn’t ask for a better set of quirky coworkers. Both you and the Practice department as a whole have given me so much opportunity to grow both professionally and personally, and I have learned much more than I could ask for in this role.

I hope this gives you enough time to find a replacement; I am happy to provide whatever assistance you need to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Sincerely,
Helen

Staff Meeting

Just sat through my last BAC all-staff meeting. I should have taken a piece of the crappy cake to celebrate.

Chestnut Hill

I was just thinking about my old neighborhood in Chestnut Hill and how I'd like to visit it before I leave; I haven't been back since I moved out, since there's really no reason too. Still, I'm curious about a few things. I want to see the progress on the construction site across the street and if Karen the landlady still has the same ugly wreath on the front door. I love the cemetery that was down the block and might take a walk through it. Maybe I'll get some food at the over-priced sushi bar and an eye-brow wax at the salon. Compared to where I live now, the location doesn't have a lot to offer, but it did have enough I guess. Very happy I left though: Coolidge Corner is awesome.