Monday, October 20, 2008

So Long, Farewell

Don't get too excited about my blog post title, I did not snag a job in Chicago and saying 'farewell' to my current job. Which means I'm going to be blogging from NYC for a little while yet while some of my recent opportunities play out.

My post title is in reference to the fact that one of my best work friends got a new job today. Her official last day will be Halloween. And I could not be more bummed.

I should probably back up a little, because I don't really talk a lot about my work friends. I do talk about my work bff/gay husband, but besides him I do hang out with a little group of people, a clique if you will. There are four of us and we go to lunch every day together, call each other incessantly, send each other inapproriate e-mails, and in general are good work friends.

We each work in different departments, love to complain about our company, our benefits, how much we don't get paid, hot office gossip, and of course things like girlfriends or boyfriends or annoying roommate situations.

Of all three of my work friends, Small Fry is my best friend at work. She used to work in my department as the Marketing Manager and at first we really didn't get along. In fact, I hated her. And I'm pretty sure she thought I was an idiot. In fact, she confirmed this a few months ago when she brought up an old Excel sheet I did when I first started at my job that was sub-par. She gave me two months until I quit. In my defense, I think I might have still been drunk from Senior Week festitivies because I had graduated three days before. My voicemail message that I recorded on my first day sounds like I swallowed marbles because I barely had a voice. Well jokes on her, because I'm still here.

Anyway, after Small Fry and I worked on a huge event together almost a year ago (read: we worked long, long hours together), we became bff. I introduced her to Forever 21, she made me obsessed with $5 foot-longs at Subway. We have inside jokes. She tells me secrets before she tells her best friends and I tell her things that I never thought I would share with a co-worker. I can truthfully say that she and I have gone beyond the work friends barrier.

Small Fry is one of my best friends and not just at work. I will miss her more than I can say - because the one great thing about my job is the people. I like coming to work and knowing that if I need to bitch about The Boss that Small Fry will be there to listen to me. Or knowing that if I want skip that horrible looking Lean Cuisine I brought for lunch that someone will go and grab Hale & Hearty with me.

So today I am just sad.

And tomorrow I will start planning a kick-ass going away party for her.

10 comments:

hoppster said...

i hope she made sure her new company does not block gchat, because that is a prerequisite for me and keeping in touch with my old work bff's during regular business hours, and my bff's (work or not) that abandoned me for bigger and better things (like NYC).

Melly Mel said...

I hate when the good ones leave. That sucks, I'm sorry. At least you can still come here and vent.

Suz said...

Aww...I know how you feel. Actually I was on the other side of that equation not too long ago, I had to leave my work bff behind. But we are still bffs and I get to keep up with all the work drama there through her, but it still isn't the same. When I left she put together a memory book with pictures and farewell messages from everyone. I still have it on my desk today. Maybe you could put together one for her? It would probably mean the world to her because parties come and go, but memory books (like High School yearbooks) seem to stick around forever!

Mich said...

oh i feel for you... i really do. having that really good friend at work makes the days so much better.
my work BFF just moved to a different city! after 3 years of working side by side (we were so close we even took out half of the cubicle wall between us so we could talk to each other and make faces about other co-workers easier)
oh i miss her...

good luck! atleast you still have the other 2 in the crew!

Elizabeth Marie said...

This is one of the things I really dislike about being a writer. It's a rather lonely profession. No work friends to pal around with. She sounds like a nice girl - too bad she's leaving. More room for new friends though!

Izzy said...

Awww, that sucks! I hate when I change jobs and leave my friends, or vice versa. Good lunch buddies are hard to come by! Especially those that you know all of your secrets -- even about your own boss -- are safe. You guys had better par-tay like rock stars!

Sunny said...

you're lucky to have a co-worker as nice as she is :)

Audrey (the Hepburn House) said...

oh bummer! hopefully she won't be going too far so you can still hang out!

Samantha said...

oh man! i hope you guys stay in touch.

CherrineB said...

Hi,

It's hard when you reach a comfort level with someone and then "poof" no daily contact.

However, be happy with have great technology-phone/fax/e-mail to keep in touch.