~Thursday~ It was slightly rainy this morning, but I had my umbrella, although it was a little hard to manage with laptop bag, soft-sided briefcase, and two rolls of wrapping paper—which I forgot to take to work last night when Casey and I dropped by there with the other party stuff—in my hand.
Today’s “theme” for Try Transit Week was “Free Ride All Day Long,” and to that end I found a huge plastic bag smothering the fare machine when I boarded and went to swipe my card.
Logorrhea boarded at her stop and the inanity—as it always does with her—ensued. Some discussion started about the teaching profession, and she shared: “THAT MAN IN CALIFORNIA WHO JUMPED OFF THE BRIDGE ‘CAUSE HE COULDN’T GET HIS STUDENTS TO BRING UP THEY GRADES. WHO WAS THAT BLACK MAN IN THAT MOVIE ABOUT TEACHING?”
Someone said, “Stand By Me.” No one disputed this, but looking it up just now to include here, I see that that’s not the right movie. It was really Lean on Me.
She laughed and said, “YEAH, THAT ONE. WELL THAT TEACHER WAS NO MORGAN FREEMAN. MAYBE THEY NEED MORE BLACK TEACHERS. YOU CAN’T GET NOTHIN’ BY A BLACK MAN TODAY. THEY BIG-HEADED.”
I sweated from noon until 7:00 today at work, starting with preparations for my boss’ retirement gathering that started at 3:30, and ending with cleaning up for an hour-and-a-half (which I was happy to do). The conference room that we were setting up in was ridiculously hot, and the thermostat would not allow for adjustment.
The 1.5-hour event was really nice. A good crowd showed up to send Jude off in style. This slide show, entitled Judith Vose Davis: A Digital Scrapbook, played in the background along with music by R. Carlos Nakai. I had lots of comments about what a great tribute it was to Jude, which I consider both personal and professional affirmations.
There was a short time when the floor was opened to share any sentiments with Jude and people did. Our photographer, Chris, got some fantastic shots of how moved Jude was by them.
The entire collection of photos is here.
It was a poignant and heart-warming goodbye and somewhat of “the end of an era” in terms of our Information & News Services department. Now it’s me and Rhonda left, as Rhonda steps into Jude’s position. Chris took several pictures of the three of us at the end, and I liked this one the best:
