Officially Retired!!

What a busy week it's been.

I woke up early Monday and my first thought was 'this is the LAST time you have to set an alarm on a Monday unless you're taking transportation to somewhere.  Ship, plane, train - I'll set alarm.  Day to day?  Never -

Around 2PM on Monday, I looked up from what I was working on to see people coming up the ramp to our building door.  They entered and a person in a black t-shirt and black slacks walked by my window - followed by J. . So I thought the 1st person was H. - but NO!  It was B.!  Surprised AGAIN by the sneaky guy - and he'd even surprised J. .  The plan HAD been for him to get here Wednesday (I was expecting him Saturday morning) but then he surprised J. by arriving on Monday - got a friend to pick him up.  H. was in on it - (he was there for the surprise, too) and the two of them were super pleased with themselves that they'd pulled it off.  B. had just phoned us on Sunday and said 'so I have on more week of work'.   Liar.  LOL.

So he's here - and surprise number two is that it sounds like he's not going to Florida for the 4th of July - he'll be here with us for close to three full weeks.  It will be fun -

Tuesday absolutely flew by - which I really wasn't expecting because it was a 12+ hour day.  I had a lot of reviews to give so there were appointments throughout the day to get those done - and the next thing I knew, it was time to head to the Board meeting.

A text from my boss shortly before the meeting invited me to join the Board in closed session to give me time to say a few words to all of them.  He followed the text with stopping by my office - and noticed FIRST THING that my hair had some purple streaks in it.  We've had a running joke since his first month as our Superintendent - I said 'you'll know I'm retiring because I will have purple hair'.  And he said 'CBO's can't have purple hair'.  Game on, dude.  My assistant has daughters and she brought me a 'hair crayon' - I was able to add streaks of purple and it really worked well.

It was a lovely time - they are an amazing board who focus on kids and I wanted them to know how much easier all the jobs we do in the district are because we follow their lead - focus on the students and what's best for them and you can't go wrong.

My boss did a public acknowledgement during his Superintendent's Report as well which was lovely.  My 'last meeting'.  When the budget was approved, they thanked me - and I said 'I am so excited to have my LAST budget done that I could literally turn a cartwheel!  I won't - because I might hurt myself - but I sure want to!.

Home a bit before 8 and couldn't unwind.  Headed to shower (didn't want to go to bed with the purple streaks - might rub off on my pillows and it made my hair feel 'stiff') and went to bed around 10 - SUPER late for me.

Today flew by!!  I had a huge list of things to do post board meeting - the new CBO was at a conference today and tomorrow and I'd offered to do the things required for getting the budget docs to our County Office as well as a host of other tasks that needed doing - including another review to give that had me meeting someone at Starbucks.  My team and I did a final lunch together - Jasmine Thai here in Tracy which is FANTASTIC Thai food - and before I knew it, it was 2PM - an hour past my goal (to leave at 1PM) but not bad.  My team helped me gather up the last of my stuff and walked me to my car.  As I pulled out of the parking lot and they were heading into our back door (to our building) I honked the horn repeatedly as I left. 

I tried to feel choked up - but I wasn't.  I will miss my friends - truly, I will.  But they are friends and by definition, I think we will be in touch.  But I'm more than ready for the next chapter.

I'm planning to enjoy 4 low key days - being productive around the homestead but adding in some pool time, down time, computer time and just resting a bit.  Letting my mind de-stress and training myself to let go of the myriad of 'work' thoughts that creep into my mind on a regular basis.

It's been a lovely career, JSD - I'm grateful - so blessed.  But I'm also ready to let work go - so very ready!