One of my closest friends, S, is leaving his job. His last day is on Friday, but I'll be off for the holidays on Thursday, so the last day I get to see him here is tomorrow. He's moving to a better job, which is wonderful, 'cause his current boss is less than sub-par and his work situation has been horrible for years (I can't even begin to tell you how awful). But I don't know what it's like to work here without S. I met him (through L) less than a month into my internship here in 1990 and we were almost immediately friends. He'll still be working for the same institute but he'll be in a different building in a different area of the city. No longer will he or I be able to stop by each others' offices for a chat. Or venting. Or to show each other the coolest thing on eBay. I'm getting a little sad, thinking about it. On the not-so-sad hand, the area he'll be working in for the next year (before they move the office to SW DC) is in Chinatown (ha - Chinatown in DC, what a joke!), so this will force me to get up there for lunch now and then.
Still, his leaving is so bittersweet. I actively encouraged him to look elsewhere (even pretty much wrote his resume) and was so happy when he got the job, but now I'm missing him already. And he isn't even gone yet. I am proud of him, though, for finally saying that he's had it and moving on to a new situation. Who knows? With luck, he might do so well that he ends up back here in place of his current boss. And that would be sweet, sweet, sweet justice.
( 08:50 FH | silly hooha. )