Today was my last day working at Microsoft, which means I am now officially on vacation. This also means that I’m unemployed, and boy, does it feel good! Don’t get me wrong, I loved working with my team, FUSE, but I think I love not working even more… well, at least for the next 3 months.

Yesterday, the gorgeous people at FUSE threw me a “surprise” going away party. I walked in on them blowing up balloons and hanging up streamers. Karen turned to me and said, “hey, don’t you have to use the bathroom for 15 minutes?” After I came back, I found blue and green streamers and balloons (the FUSE colors), cakes baked by the wonderful Karen, and most importantly, my awesome friends/co-workers “surprising” me with big smiles. If I weren’t so tough and rugged, I might’ve cried. The fabulous Jerome came in a little later and gave me a beautiful flask with my initials engraved on it. He even took the extra step and filled it with Dewar’s! Of course, I had to do a taste test; I concluded that it tastes really good with coffee, especially at work. People came in throughout the day bringing good luck wishes and bon voyage farewells, but I think they really just came for the delicious cake.

As excited as I am about my upcoming adventures, it’s still pretty sad leaving such a wonderfully awesome group of people.