DEPARTING THOUGHTS

Wow, the last couple of days has been quite a whirlwind. With about 24 hours before I leave for New Zealand, I find myself not having started packing yet. Which is okay because I KNOW where everything I need to pack is; it's just a matter of putting it all into my backpack. I had a really nice dinner with my parents last night at The Perfect Kitchen (kind of their send off since they won't be at the airport tomorrow). I ended up not sleeping (intentionally) until 2:30 a.m. last night. This is my attempt at tricking my body into getting used to New Zealand time (they are 16 hours ahead of us). The goal is to do an "all nighter" on the plane from LA and end up sleeping at around 8 a.m. (Toronto time) because I expect to land in Auckland at 2:00 p.m. (Toronto time).

Two of my direct reports finished off today. We had cake and a fairly sentimental farewell. It was a meaningful experience for me to have worked with Kathryn who was referred to us by Community Living Toronto. They place people with disabilities into work environments. Although it was challenging at times, especially when trying to introduce a new task to her, it was also quite rewarding when she grasped the ideas and excelled at it. Manpreet was also a very good worker and I really appreciate how she took Sandra (my other new hire) under her wings and got her up to speed quickly. It seems a little surreal now, even as I hold their security access cards in my hands. It feels like they will come back tomorrow, when, in fact, they won't.

I found that one way of curbing my bubbling excitement is to be productive at work. I feel like I got so much accomplished today. And it wasn't last minute shoddy work just to get all the details done before I go, but truly good, complete work. I still want to make it to MEC to pick up a few things before I take off. I had a nice sushi lunch with some co-workers as they wanted to "see me off" as well. Mmm. Lot's of "good-bye's".

My mom got quite agitated last week because one of the links in her Favorite folders was broken and she couldn't access a website that she likes reading. I fixed that for her and she was sooooooooo happy. I also showed her yesterday how to use Google to find ANYTHING on the Internet. Who would've thought...