My Last Week at ICA

During my last week at ICA (January 9-13) I was fortunate to have someone take me out to lunch every day, which was really nice.

On Wednesday, instead of our regular managers meeting, the managers surprised me with flowers and cake. There was no agenda for that meeting other than to share stories about me and my 8.5 years of work at ICA. Needless to say, there was a lot of crying going on from everyone, but it was really nice and touching.

The rest of the week flew by quickly.

On Friday, my last day, my office door had been decorated and at the end of the day, my co-workers threw me a small get-together at the restaurant bar down the street. They reserved a long table and decorated it with balloons and streamers.

Shortly upon arriving, a party horn was blown and there was a presentation I was not anticipating. The ceramic instructors made these beautiful plates with a map of ICA's campus on it. Each staff member signed their name where their office or studio was. Words cannot describe how completely touched I was. I immediately started to cry and couldn't stop crying pretty much for the rest of the night.

Susie gifted me with a framed 3 Musketeers candy wrapper. We, my two closest friends and former work colleagues Susie and Karin, used to call ourselves the 3 Musketeers - One for all, and all for one. I believe we were the core of the development department and we worked well as a team.

Karin also presented me with a pin of pilot wings. She actually spent her birthday day (that Friday) driving all over L.A. looking for this gift. When we used to have to sit back-to-back in our first "office" space, our big leather office chairs made us look like two pilots in the cockpit of an airplane when we were both facing the same direction. So we dubbed each other co-pilots and that's also how we often worked. It took the both of us to fly some big events and land that thing perfectly.

I also received my very own clipboard that everyone signed. At events, you rarely saw me without one. Now I have my very own. My favorite saying was written by Jennifer Carroll. It says, "No one f@#ks with a woman with a clipboard!" Especially this one! ;)

I cried a lot that night and initially people thought it was because I was sad, but that was not the case. I was crying because I felt so loved. I didn't know what to expect, and I was more than taken aback by everyone's effort and generousity. I will miss them greatly, but I'm also excited for my new journey in life.