T minus 8 hours and counting.

Tomorrow is my last day in Dilbert-land. I have five things to do: clean out my desk, fix one minor problem, show someone how to do something really easy and fun, forward all my calls/emails to my replacement, and send my "thanks and good luck and keep in touch!" email to a select list of recipients.

To be uber-cliche... what a long, strange trip it's been. What started as a temp admin assistant job nine and a half years ago, which I only agreed to because I was looking for a social welfare-type job and the temp job offered me flexibility to interview, and also I could type 947 words/minute which was apparently a requirement, turned into a nine and a half year endeavor. Six years of which were really good.

I've had several opportunities over the last few days to reflect upon my experiences (good and bad), thank fellow coworkers, actively avoid other coworkers, and promise everyone that I will keep in touch. Because this was my first job out of college, and I've been here for-freaking-EVER, it's a bit surreal to realize that come Monday morning I will have no idea what the hell I'm doing. I keep reminding myself that people change jobs all the time... But *I* don't, and this is all just very weird.

(That said, I should really change jobs more often because I've gotten more free drinks and random presents over the last few days than I probably have in a lifetime.)

And the whole "keeping in touch" thing feels a lot like high school graduation. I still talk to 4 people I went to high school with. Post Dilbert-land, I think the number of coworkers I keep in touch with will be slightly higher for a while, but it will eventually trickle down to 4 people who I can eventually proudly say I've known for 15 years or more.

With so many light years to go and things to be found, I'm sure that we'll all miss her so. I just hope they don't call me after I leave. For any calls beginning with certain prefixes, I'm already prepared to answer my cell phone with the greeting, "Hello, you've reached the winter of it's NOT MY PROBLEM!!"