Forks

So tomorrow I fly to India.

When I get back Deb and Maria will be gone. We ate lunch together pretty much every day for five years.

I will be the last person left from the Graphics team when I get back. It's true that many of them are in other jobs with the company now, but what was once a good group that I was proud of will be completely gone and I will sit in a sea of empty cubes where they once were.

Last night we all met up for drinks and it was good. Some were moving on with the job search, some had found things, some were wondering what to do. But a lot of people showed up and we had a lot of laughs. People are the same and people are different but for a moment we were back together.

I'm really glad we did it. I think we needed something or someone to say goodbye to that part of our lives and recognize that it was good. Our department broke up slowly and we never had a good bye party or anything. This was it.

Maybe I'm over-doing the Wonder Years dialog here, but I was very sad to walk out of the building today because I knew when I came back it would be completely different. I learned a lot from my team mates there and as a vendor over the years. I'm grateful and sad and will miss them.

Deb and Maria, it's been a pleasure. We had a lot of laughs, worked hard and fought the wars. You're my comrades and I will miss you both.