Just your average video conference....

Day 25:

Video conferences. I'm not sure how yours go down at work, but the ones I attend are some what comical. Not comical because of the content but more so because of the people attending. Normally I tend to get out of most of the video conferences that are held in my office because well, my boss is awesome, and he sees no point in wasting ALL of our time, so he only makes one or two of us attend. Being the only one in VA from our department, I guess some how I win out in the "who has to go to the video conference" category. WINNING. Although I will say I thoroughly enjoy watching certain people choose their seat based on which one they think will get their best angle (do they not know that the whole image is distorted at best and it doesn't matter who you are, you look like a pixelated blog half the time anyway?? I'm just sayin)... or when the loud inappropriate co-worker can't hold his tongue and you start playing the see-if-you-can-mute-it-before-he-gets-himself-fired game (for his sake). But those are about the only parts I actually enjoy.....

Except for today. Somehow I got roped into a video conference and I was thinking to myself "man, the day before I'm out of here and I gotta go to this thing! Well, at least I can say bye to the people in Texas, since I won't see them before I resign." I guess it should've seemed odd to me that I had NO idea what the meeting was about, but with all the out processing, cleaning and things whirling through right now, it just didn't dawn on me. I sat down and watched the said people do their norm... frantically get there 30 seconds before the call is supposed to happen and then painstakingly choose their seat (remember, we're all pixelated blogs...JUST SIT DOWN ALREADY).

As the meeting started, my boss instead of our director, took the lead and all of the sudden I could feel my stomach drop and my face get hot. They were throwing me a SURPRISE goodbye party!!! It was really so sweet and they were all so proud that they actually surprised me with their sneaky little plan. Here's the thing about me. I LOVE surprises. Or it's more I love the meaning behind surprises.... That someone is thinking about you and how to make you feel special and or appreciated in a playful way. But what I forget about surprises is, all of the sudden the spotlight is on me 100% and I honestly never know what to do. Everybody's watching and I can be so awkward in these kind of moments. I never know quite what to say when I feel like the world is staring at me. It didn't help that Ken started chanting "SPEECH SPEECH SPEECH!" Thanks Ken. But as much as the spotlight made my stomach drop and my face turn red, I felt loved and supported today. I couldn't believe how encouraging they were about me taking this next step and going back to school. It was awesome. I couldn't have ended my career there with a better video conference call! I would give them all a shout out and say thanks, but I'm pretty sure none (maybe ONE) of them read my blog because they don't know about it! What the heck, I'll do it anyway... Thank you FMWRC - CR! You are the best! I'll carry this with me for a long time....