Quick Trip to Lexington

Suzie came down from New York City on Friday to visit. Like her last visit, we watched the Great British Baking Show (well, Masterclass version), ate Indian food and gave each other backrubs. A funny thing happened with the Indian food: I was wondering why it was taking forever to be delivered. I got a phone call 30 minutes after it was supposed to get to the house. "Your food is ready for pick up." UGH, I forgot to click on "Delivery"!!! Fortunately, they were nice enough to deliver and since they aren't that far away, it didn't take forever for the food to get here. Sigh.

Suzie and I took the Metro down to Virginia to meet up with Robyn and Meg, and off we went!  The whole point of the trip was to drop Suzie off at Alumni College (think of it as camp for adults) and also walk around town and campus. Suzie's apartment was in the brand new junior housing. Wow, it's so nice! The single rooms are spacious and each apartment has a kitchen and large living room and balcony and a full size washer and dryer! And air conditioning!  They are so spoiled!

 

We walked to the restaurant that we used to eat at. You know you're getting older when you look at the menu board and think "You shouldn't get that cheesesteak. You'll regret it later." I ended up getting a salad with chicken. I saved my calories for our trip to the ice cream shop (I got coffee crunch). We walked around campus and eventually sat to reminisce. We left Suzie on campus so that she could get settled into her room.

 

I was in charge of reserving the hotel room and when we opened the door, it was 2 double beds. Crap!  I should have gotten 2 queen beds. Robyn and I ended up sharing a bed because Meg was getting over a cold. It wasn't too bad for a night, Robyn and I have slept in smaller beds when we've had to share.

We met up with Suzie after breakfast and went to the bookstore. I almost got a tank top, but decided against it because it was too tight in the chest area. I ended up with getting a post card for us to write and send to Page, one of the other girls in my college group. We went to get coffee and we sat near the Commons to rehash some more stories from college, mainly about nutty girls that we didn't like. Finally it was time to say good-bye to Suzie and drive back.

I picked my car up at the Metro and drove to my parents' house to pick up RJ, who, I heard, was Mr. Grouchy Pants. Julie said that he hissed at Uncle when he came for a visit. SIGH.

Karen's Retirement Party

My boss and I stayed later than usual last night when she rode in from the airport to address a bunch of things on my to-do/to-ask-about list and then we went to Happy Hour afterwards with 2 other coworkers. First thing this morning, I had her signed off on a bunch of things so I could take the weight off my shoulders and then we did my performance review (I'm hoping my promotion will be effective any day now...I just want an official email with the news!). She then went to have her final chat with the Executive Director while we were setting up for her party. I was a little nervous about the cake because it was raining outside when I went to pick it up from Giant. It didn't fit in the grocery cart, so I had to lay it across the top. I was crossing my fingers that it wasn't going to slide off and land in a puddle before I made it to the car!

The retirement party that I coordinated for my boss was a success: pizza, cake (marble with buttercream frosting), plaque commemorating her 22 years of service, presents (a very nice tote bag with other travel related gifts) and a PowerPoint featuring funny pictures of her (I had a little bit of help from other staff).

I was able to hold off on the tears until our final hug before she gathered her belongings and headed to the airport. One of my coworkers said she almost teared up watching us hug because we were both crying (I almost didn’t want to let her go).

Her parting gift to me was her collection of giant microbes: syphilis, gonorrhea, H1N1, etc. Yay, science! I stitched her an amaryllis plant, which based on the florist's website, is given to commemorate a big achievement. I usually send her flowers for events, but they only last a week or so. These will last forever! I also made a card for the office to sign.

Guess it’s my time to grow up a little and take the helm of the department.