Gentle goodbyes

At the end of this school year--oh my, that's the end of this month-- I'm leaving the office that has been my home for the last 12 years. I'm leaving the school that has been my home for... oh my... I've been on that campus for 26 years, and somehow attached to it even while I was elsewhere, for another 17.

Why? Oh, that's a story... let's just say: Things change. And as travelers on the M.S. Highway... oh, we know all about that.

I spent the day (when I wasn't teaching) going through Stuff, collecting things that are and always have been mine (like the picture of me marching in the Yale Band at Bush I's inaugural parade), photos that I took of sets I designed, thank-you notes and other gifts from students... and tagging things that are to stay behind, with the names of their new owners. For example, the spare HPL bulbs and gobos go to the drama department, the C++ books go to the math department, the computer gear, some of it of quite entertaining age (like the 56K modem) goes to the tech department.

It was a day of very gentle goodbyes. Some laughter. Happiness at gifts others received, like the big smile I got in the library by giving them a nice handful of rulers (something they use a lot of). Happiness at my own treasures thought lost being rediscovered.

I'm just about at the end of the Big Cleaning. The physically hardest part will be lugging the boxes of memorabilia into my truck and then--the really hard part--finding somewhere to put them in the garage.

But I'll manage. Traveling the M.S. Highway definitely does teach you how to "manage."

I hope the "happy buzz" lasts, while I traverse the Final Days of the year and navigate the waters of Dealing With The Insurance Companies. (ugh)

Well, I'm definitely ready to cash in on the "learning how to manage" gift of M.S. with that one.

It's easier to deal with a trick bladder than an insurance company.

I find humor so easily in my own disease process... I hope I can find, and keep laughing at, the humor in those conversations.