Notes from the final week

It's been quite a fun week at the office, with a lot of people stopping by to talk. One of our alums, who now works across campus, stopped by to say he still had the retirement party pictures in his camera but he'd copy them off soon. When I pointed out that he is the busy dad of a toddler, he told me their latest story, of his and his wife's attempt to cut the little one's bangs. She would always wiggle and the bangs came out crooked, so they decided to try it while she was asleep. He put on a headlamp to help him see in the dark bedroom and his wife took the scissors. Snip, snip … and the child woke up. What must she have thought, our alum said, of this strange creature with a light shining from his head, peering over her in the dark, and a pair of giant scissors right above her eyes. Picturing the sight, I laughed out loud.

Then I stopped in at a co-worker's office, where our secretary was, and we three told more stories for awhile before we decided we had better get back to work.


A number of students have come by on their way out of town for the holidays, to catch me up on what they are doing and where they are headed -- some are graduating. Most of them have grad school in their sights; scary job market, I guess.

One of our student employees stopped by to say goodbye yesterday, and related that she is the next-to-youngest of 11 siblings, and she is aunt to 29 nieces and nephews. I know that she must have many stories to tell, if we weren't saying goodbye.

One of the new editors, who's been in and out of my office regularly for the past several weeks, stood outside my office door today with a clear look of panic on her face. "What will I do when this office is empty?" she wailed. She feels like she's heading into new and scary responsibilities with no rock to hold onto. She's more capable than she gives herself credit for, and I try to reassure her. One of my students from 20 years ago, who went on to be an editor at a major metropolitan newspaper, wrote the nicest note for my retirement party saying I gave her the confidence to believe she could be a writer and editor. I hope I have been able to do that with this student also.

One more day. I've still a list of loose ends!