Lisa Davis46 said:Jamie Davis9, I feel for you regarding that tooth, and I really hope you're doing okay now!
I also share the regret that Radiohead didn't quite hit the mark with their albums...
I’m doing fine, all things considered. I actually find myself enjoying the winter weather; there's something healthy about the cold.
I found myself thinking about my former director today—the woman who originally hired me for this role. She’s retired now, and I was reflecting on our last encounter. She was someone I held in incredibly high regard because she was a true powerhouse; she managed to hold her position at a massive institution for over twenty years, regardless of how many different political administrations shifted through Washington, weathering every storm imaginable. She was intelligent, formidable, and possessed this unwavering resolve to build something of lasting value during her career.
Everyone was intimidated by her, even the mid-level department heads, because she could be incredibly difficult to deal with, which, looking back from my current perspective as I watch everything slip into total anarchy day after day, seems like a perfectly logical strategy.
I never felt much of a need to socialize with the people at work, and I remember planning to just drop by the pub next to the university for a quick thirty-minute courtesy visit during her retirement send-off before heading straight home.
And that is exactly what happened. I endured about half an hour of forced merriment, and just as I put my coat on, hoping to make a quiet exit amidst the crowd, she spotted me. She called out my name, signaled for me to come over, and told me to stop being difficult and take the coat off so I could actually socialize.
She then said some truly lovely things that I won't bother writing down here, noting that out of the entire staff, she relied most heavily on H. and me to preserve her legacy, explaining with great precision why she trusted H. and why she trusted me specifically.
I never once imagined that a woman in charge of such a huge organization would give a second thought to someone like me, but the peak of my astonishment came when, at the end of her speech—still poised, composed, and stern as ever—she gestured toward the gathered crowd and bluntly told us: "You don't give a damn about any of them; they're all just so painfully ordinary."
Thom Yorke - Dawn Chorus
