The black dog's day is not yet

I'm really too tired to muster any kind of coherency right now -- seems like the perfect time to update, right?

Today was my last day at the job previously known as the perma-job. I trained my replacement all day today and half of yesterday. God, that's tiring. He's a very earnest young Chinese gentleman. His English is very good, but there's still enough of a language barrier to make things difficult. I had a huge amount of information to impart to him in a day and a half. He has experience, of course, but one thing you learn in accounting work is how many, many ways there are to do the same thing, and how much those ways vary from company to company.

My sense of urgency left me with little time and energy to make allowances for language and cultural differences, I'm afraid. I fear that much of my training was barked at him. He was not taking enough notes, though -- I know that. I found myself saying over and over, in my most fearsome schoolmarm voice, "You need to write this down. What did I just say? Write it down!!!" It was for his own good, though, really.

There was no fanfare or hoopla at my parting, of course -- this from a company that is known for its hoopla. Yesterday there was an hour-long engagement party with a tropical theme, tied to the couple's impending honeymoon, and complete with an office-based limbo contest.

The company, however, did circulate a "goodbye" card for me. Inside it, surprisingly, were gift certificates good for three movies at one of the city's best art-house theaters (I'm surprised they knew that much about my tastes). I went to my now ex-boss, Monica, with whom I shared a less than satisfying boss-employee relationship, and thanked her warmly and genuinely for the movie-going gift. She said, "You're welcome...I had to go through a LOT to get those last night!"

Typical Monica.

There were several people I really liked there, and it *was* sad to say goodbye to them. One of them just announced that she was leaving, too. Heh -- sinking ship, I'd say.

I must now fling some things in a suitcase as I'm leaving in a few hours for the airport -- I'm taking the red-eye to Chicago, and then I'm off to Ann Arbor to catch up with good friends. Yay! Back Tuesday.

Take care, LJ friends...

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