another last.

...this one is the last business trip. to our hunt valley office (my first time there, and to the baltimore airport - funny how first things and last things can go together). to facilitate a training class in manager effectiveness. this was the fourth time I've delivered the class, and it was hands down the best. the managers were all really glad to be there and I think they learned and had fun. it doesn't get much better than that!

but I won't miss the lonely hotel rooms and meals by myself (another first - room service dinner).

or the time in airports or on planes. time when I would much rather be home. with my family. I was really excited to catch an earlier flight. and I made it home in time for dinner with sara.

this next week is going to have a lot of lasts. and I am telling myself I need to take it slow. enjoy the moments. because it will be over before I know it.

retirement lunch.

...as in oh my, it's real, isn't it?!

 click here to see who's who

my team treated me to my all-time-favorite maggiano's family style. we ate (lots...fried calamari, fried cheese, maggiano's salad, caesar salad, gnocchi, rigatoni d and cake and cookies) and shared stories. mostly about the past.

lisa and matt raided the closets and cubicles and dug up an NTRC marketing video (yes, a VHS tape from the mid-1990's I think) and a folder full of marketing brochures, client communications pieces and company newsletters. we shared stories about managers. about projects. about office space. about balancing family and work. about lunches out with teammates. about all the things that make up a career that spans 26+ years.

our waiter surprised everyone when he brought the cake - and don't kid yourself, it served everyone! and gave me a great opportunity for a wish... that I missed because it took me 4 (5?) blows to get all the candles out. but really - and I know this is corny beyond reason - what more is there to wish for?

and before we left for the restaurant, lisa gave me the team gift - a digital frame loaded with images of my team (I finally get to see what patrick and sunita look like) and clients - even my office. wonderful memories all of it and it will have a special place here on my desk at home come january 30.

officially.

...retiring. reported in our internal leadership newsletter last week:

After a long and impressive career in benefits outsourcing, Mary Rogovin will retire from Hewitt effective January 2010. Mary began her career in the early 1980s with Hazlehurst & Associates (a predecessor to Northern Trust Retirement Consulting), which Hewitt acquired in 2003. With a degree in Applied Mathematics from Georgia Tech, she aspired to be a pension actuary. But, in the fall of 1983, she took a temporary assignment on Hazlehurst's newly formed Defined Contribution recordkeeping team and never looked back. Since then, Mary worked in nearly every aspect of benefits outsourcing. For the past six years, she was a Benefits Delivery Manager in Hewitt's Atlanta office. Most recently, she served as the Defined Contribution Enterprise (DCE) leader. She made great strides in developing an effective implementation and ongoing delivery approach for DC plans in the middle market. Mary is looking forward to this next chapter in her life. She plans to teach knitting classes and looks forward to watching her daughter play in her last season of high school varsity tennis.

It has been especially fun to get so many "best wishes" and "congratulations" messages. many from folks I've never met in person, and only worked with a few times. and I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon, but for now, I'm also enjoying the "did you knit that?" whenever I wear a sweater (today I wore my josephine top, so I could honestly answer "yes" :-)

apartment hunting report - days three and four.

...yesterday wasn't quite so busy - we had a great run in the park
and then picked up stuff for a quick breakfast from dean & deluca. lots and lots of window shopping later, we stopped at this great gourmet grocery right around the corner for dinner snacks.

we thought today might be more window shopping with a lease signing sometime midday. but while we were at lunch, katie got a call from the leasing office that the paperwork wasn't all together. I spent a very stressful hour at our nyc office printing paystubs and then arranged for tax returns to be faxed.

and now we're waiting (somewhat impatiently) for a call that everything is ok and we can sign a lease in the morning.

I'm actually pretty proud of myself that I don't look nearly as stressed as I feel in our lunch photo!

eta - just heard she's approved!!! signing the lease tomorrow morning at 10:30 (whew!!)