Friday was my last day of work at The Company. After nearly seven years, I am no longer an employee of Big Red, nor indeed of anyone or anything. I am absolutely unattached for the first time in a very long time and it feels amazing. And like I said a twenty times on Friday, beaming, I wish every day was my last day. By some fluke, my boss was sick that day (for the first time in over two years) so the atmosphere was really care-free.

We had a Chinese buffet for lunch, courtesy of Peter and Ali, that featured TWO styles of chicken feet and tripe. Seriously, what says Bon Voyage! like Chicken Feet and Tripe? A pot-luck lunch set up on a table amongst our desks naturally drew plenty of visitors, so I had the chance to say goodbye to a lot of people. See, the thing about The Company that I worked for is that we bounce around from team to team, and sometimes from 'skill' to 'skill' as they say, which allows us to get to know a lot of people really well. Some were just aquaintances, but there were lots that I worked in close proximity to for months. Daryn: good lad, introduced me to Bill Hicks, loves Tool. Brian: cool guy, ladies love him, drunkenly told me that I was one in a million. Joe: We theorized about Lost for hours. He left a couple of weeks ago to prevent himself from going crazy. Good luck with that Buddy! Irina: the Rusky, very smart woman, deals with customers with the Iron Fist. We laughed every day together, and she went on vacation two weeks ago so I never got to say goodbye. I didn't get to say goodbye to Shalen either; he went on his honeymoon. He got me hooked up with his soccer team. Good guy.

So many good, good people. I think that's part of the reason I stayed at Big Red so long. For all the junk we had to put up with, and the crap that we got from customers, the people that I worked with were always fantastic, with very, very few exceptions.

Ali, Dennis, Richelle, Peter, JD, Nina, Kee, Oti, Marion, Ahmad, Rod, Daisy, Pam, Stegenga, Linda, Jennifer, Mark, Mark, Steve and Mark....thanks for the memories. There were many others of course, but, like Oprah would, I say your names to show I won't forget you.

By the way, if it sounds like I just graduated from High School, it sort of feels that way too.