My Bobblehead

Last week was my last week in the office. Sometimes my office truly resembles The Office. Each day last week I was treated to different funny things from the TV show. It was truly a great send off. Monday I came into work and there were two very large plates of Jello on my desk, each with office supplies suspended in them. Tuesday my cubicle space was outlined with pencils, along with the quote from Dwight, "I am going to need you to remove your pencils. I may fall and pierce an organ." Wednesday there was a fax on my desk from future Ed warning me about someone trying to poison the coffee at 8 AM. Thursday there was a jar of canned beets from Schrute Farms, and a brochure from Schrute Farms promoting their Agro-tourism bed and breakfast. Friday there were Office quotes ALL OVER the entire office. There were streamers. The coolest thing was the gang had purchased me a bobblehead of ME. (See above – they call him EDventure). It is pretty freaky how much it does actually look like me. The week was pretty cool.

I felt really honored. Normally when someone leaves it seems there is this determination to pretend that there the employee did little to make a difference while there. It was odd for this group to throw me a party, and even to go so far as to find out from Jean what my favorite party foods were.

It was humbling to see Chuck cry when he said goodbye. It was a good cry. My relationship with Chuck had taken a 180 degree turn during the winter. Chuck became someone I truly cared about. And, it seemed he finally felt cared about.

Right after the luncheon, a guy called me over to a private part of the suite. He said, "I'm a little behind on my tithing." He opened up his wallet. I said, "Oh no. You're not behind." He said, "Really, I am." We bantered. His eyes were welling up and he tossed it on the desk and walked away. The thing is, he isn't a Christian. It really took me back. Maybe one of the reasons it took me back so much is that Jean and I had been praying that God would provide for us, because with the move we were going to be short financially to pay a bill that was due really soon. And, we were going to be significantly short. When I sat at my desk later in the afternoon I pulled the money out of my pocket. What he had given was the amount we were short. It choked me up. Because of his gift, and God's gift.

I am glad my 11 1/2 years of full-time work at Datacomp ended so well. Not because of what they did for me the last week. Mostly of how good I felt with where my relationships were with everyone. I left with no regrets.