Found

Today at church, a woman and her family sat in front of us. At the beginning of the service, when we all greet those around us, when she shook my hand, I recognized her. I waited until after the service when I tapped her on the shoulder and said 'excuse me, but are you Wendy?' And she said yes - and when I said 'I'm Mindy' she gave me the biggest hug. She and I worked together at my old corporate employer many, MANY years ago. We lost touch after she had a baby and quit working. I knew she and her (then) husband lived in Tracy and kept hoping to run into her. I've searched in the phone directory for her; driven by her address (not too far from our house). No luck. Learned today that I couldn't find her 'cuz she and her first husband got divorced and she's remarried. We are planning to meet for lunch one day during the break - it was so great to see her. She looks just the same and since the birth of her son (she almost died during childbirth and she can't have any more children as a result) has adopted a beautiful little girl. She's remarried to (by all appearances) a really sweet guy - he had his arm around her shoulders all during the services and I thought that was so sweet - and still living in Tracy. She's a stay at home mom. I'm really looking forward to catching up with her - she was a really good friend and we both commented how we were so sorry we lost touch.

AND our church has changed their policy of allowing only 'members' to take Communion - guess they realized that any Christian who's been baptized and confirmed in any Christian church should be allowed to participate - so today, for the first time in almost 20 years, I took Communion. So did J. The kids are also starting confirmation classes there this week and hope to be confirmed soon, though it will be a year or so before they will be able to participate. We still love the church and are really enjoying the new pastor. He's in his early 40s and is really 'cool' and we like him a lot. They interspersed Christmas music throughout the service since it's the first weekend of Advent.

We then went to Ace Hardware and bought our Christmas tree - a 10 foot Noble Fir. Beautiful and HUGE - but it's safely in the house and we will put lights on it this week after the fire retardent dries. We have decided to do all white lights this year - and then resisted the urge to spend another $60 on white and gold ornaments. Maybe next year we'll get ornaments to do a 'theme' tree.

We have a very busy week - Wednesday night we attend the kids confirmation meeting, Thursday night is H's school holiday performance. Thursday AM I have to be in San Francisco at UCSF medical center by 9AM for a test - THAT will be fun. Have to leave the house by 6 to get to BART in time to get to SF then take a Muni train to the hospital. The surgery will now be postponed indefinitely since my change in jobs makes taking time 'off' problematic. I figure I've lived with these 'issues' for a long time so I can probably manage another year. I will meet with the surgeon on the 20th just to see what he thinks about the test results and then we'll start making plan B since plan A is officially on hiatus.

Work is crazy. I sort of regret giving so much notice - not that I don't want to be helpful and get as much done as I can. But because on Friday afternoon, I realized that the work is still pouring in and there will be no 'I'm done' point in this transition. I have a list of things I absolutely, POSITIVELY must get done before I leave - after that, I'll just make folders, type notes and leave it for my coworker and boss to deal with. I can't get everything done - no way. I worked several 12 hour days this past week and felt the exhaustion in my bones. I can't do that for the next two weeks. Well, I could. But I'm not going to. They will muddle through without me. It will not be 'pretty' nor seamless. I have agreed to stay on email for awhile to help answer questions, etc. But at some point, the ties will be cut and I will have officially moved on. I will be meeting with the consulting company that has been hired to write a new job description for my job. Not sure I want to be involved with that process since the last project this company did for our district is what sent me 'over the edge' into 'officially looking for a new job'. Makes me sad to think about it and I don't really have anything constructive/positive to say. But I will try to give a description of what I am doing vs. what my job description defines what I'm paid to do and hope they come up with something more appropriate.

Two more weeks until my vacation. Can't wait. Have no 'plans' other than the usual holiday stuff - and can't wait to sleep in for days on end.