Today we had a retirement party at work for two faculty members. They were hired at the same time, so they decided to retire together too. The party was at six, two blocks from my office, and I get done at five, so I took a walk and then went back to my office to get my stuff. I heard a train, so I rushed back out, but it was gone by the time I got outside. If I'd gone to the building where the party was and just sat outside, as I had thought about doing, it would have gone right past me. Sigh.
There were a random assortment of people at this party, of course people from our department, but also people from other departments, and my old boss Handy Woman, and faculty who retired before I started there five years ago so I had never met them. My coworker, who has been in the department for maybe two decades, knew a lot more people there. I also talked a lot to the young Yiddish professor, and her son who will be six later this month - he gave me an acorn. He wanted to make cards for the two retiring professors, and he asked what their favorite animals were so he could draw them. One was easy, because we knew she loved bunnies, but we had no idea for the other one, so I said, "Bears?" He drew a bear, and then a crocodile for good measure, because who doesn't love crocodiles, am I right?
Travalon came to the party when he got done with work, and he and my coworker talked sports a bit. He would have loved my boss - the other day I had a one-on-one meeting with him, and we wasted half the time talking about the Bucks' pathetic postseason run, and how the Sacramento Kings could have been a team to watch but then Steph Curry came alive in Game Seven and demolished them. Unfortunately, my boss had to do something this evening with his school-aged sons. The food at this party was not as substantial as I'd envisioned, especially since I pay the bills so I know what we spent for it (it was some fruit and some cubes of cheese and some brownies), so Travalon and I left to go to Banzo for a real dinner. We didn't have any points, so we had to pay full price, but then we got enough points that when Travalon decided he wanted iced tea instead of just water to drink, he was able to get it for free. I guess we used all our points before that so I could get Banzo socks with smiling chickpeas on them. Speaking of socks, I got a gift card from our wellness program at work, and the World Wildlife Fund will give you animal socks for a hefty donation, so I am thinking a perfect use for this gift card would be some narwhal socks. They even look like real narwhals, and not sparkly unicorn dolphins like so many depictions of them on things you can buy. I swear seven years ago nobody I talked to had even heard of a narwhal, and now they're everywhere. Just like how Travalon is now on a Florida panther kick, and suddenly they're everywhere too. At least if endangered animals become trendy, maybe people will be moved to save them...
Famous Hat
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