It's All Downhill.....

Finally....past the annual budget crunch mode.  Sliding into two weeks off on a beach.  Survived my first week of working four 10-hour days in exchange for having Friday off.  Enjoyed first Friday off immensely and we were productive.  We headed to Modesto this morning and picked 12 pounds of fresh blueberries!  Even dragged son #2 with us.  It was hard work! but nice to have a reason to get moving and DO something.  Thanks Groupon!

The long days went by pretty quickly, actually - and I did get a lot done.  Next week, I'm only working 16 hours - so probably four hour days.  We have other 'year end' stuff happening that requires my signature and it's OK to work shorter days which will go by incredibly fast.  I know I will for sure stick to that many (or few...for me, few would be the better word) hours 'cuz my boss signed my year-end time sheet (confirming my carryover days) with me only being there a couple days next week - so it's done.  I will stick to it no matter how great the temptation might be to stay longer.

I do need to work on lists of things to keep my team busy while I'm off - but thankfully, the first week I'm gone is a very short week and most folks are taking time off to stretch out the 4th of July holiday as much as possible...so I should be able to come up with stuff for folks to work on while I'm away.

H. officially FOR SURE moves home tomorrow - truck rented and one of his friends enlisted to assist. Thankfully, J. will take care of most of it.  There's not too much to move, really -

J. is at a concert in San Francisco this evening with a friend so it's a nice, quiet evening at home alone!

I tried to take a nap but wasn't really all that tired - that compares to yesterday when I was home by 3 and dead asleep by 3:30 for an hour and a half...so dead on my feet that I think I was asleep within seconds of getting into bed.  Felt so good to give in to exhaustion knowing there was a three day weekend on the other side of my nap.

I said goodbye to my boss with sadness....carried over the candy jar on my desk with two last jelly beans (his favorite) in it and said 'I'm heading home so I brought you these - to say goodbye'.  He gave me a hug and said 'there are two - should it be like communion and we both have one?'.  :-)  He's funny.  He promised we would get together for lunch; gave me all his contact info; assured me we will see each other soon - that will be true 'cuz he still has his district cell phone and will get it back to me in July at some point - but we all know how it goes with former co-workers.  You don't keep in touch as much as you'd like - or you do, but it fades with time - or YOU do but others rarely do until one day you wake up and realize that the only one trying to stay in touch is you - and you give up.  (And then you hear from someone that a 'friend' commented that 'we said we'd keep in touch but we don't'.  And the 'we' they mean in that sentence is me and them.  And you feel sad - and then pissed off 'cuz you can't recall them EVER calling you to check-in - while I spent the first six months of my current job running all over the place trying to keep in touch with folks from the college - who never reciprocated).

I needed to get that off my chest and I feel SO MUCH BETTER.

I think the odds are I will be in touch with my (now) former boss 'cuz we will both try to keep in touch.  BOTH is the important word in that sentence - with both trying, it will happen.  And I love driving out to Brentwood where he lives 'cuz it has a Trader Joe's and it's a really pretty country drive from here to there.

My new boss starts officially on July 8th (I won't be there that week).  He is a current principal in our district and this is a big move for him.  It will be exciting as we start a new year.

OK - I'm going to go make something with blueberries in it.  Probably a blueberry cobbler.  It's not too hot out so I will heat up the oven and bake.  Also possibly a blueberry coffee cake for morning.

I want to try to make refrigerator jam too - but I need to get some pectin tomorrow.