Connecting

End of January. Temperatures in the high 60s. Tourists wandering around Main Street a day after Marvericks, the big wave competition. My New Year resolution this year was to connect with my teaching friend Matt from the school where I got sick. We had run into each other in the grocery store but had not shared lunch and time together for a couple of years.

We met for lunch yesterday, at a restaurant on Main Street for lunch. We chatted for 90 minutes, walked around the corner to see his new Volt, which looked very cool. He walked me back to my car in front of the restaurant, we were standing leaning up against the passenger side when suddenly one of the founding teacher's from the school appeared on the sidewalk. "Patty!" She looked good, had retired well over 10 years ago and was just having a bit of lunch with her husband. We all were chatting when I noticed the current librarian, who has been at the school since 1986. I had not seen her in many years. We all must have talked an hour together, sharing updates of former students, former teaching staff and the drama of the place. They all had just come to the coast for the day. Love that. Finally, they all left, leaving Matt and me together again. We talked a bit more, I drove home and realized I had a 3.5 hour lunch. It felt like I had played hooky from my Saturday gardening routine. Michael walked in a few minutes later while I was watering the garden. We sat in the garden and I had a lot to share with him.

My day talking about the school brought it all back. All the work, all the drama, all the politics, all the passion and to me, the fun of working in such a dynamic place. A nationally recognized school. School for the children of movie stars, internationally renown CEOs, founders of top Silicon Valley corporations, and people who brought the whole new industry of Bio Tech to the world.  It was the peak of my working career. It was when I truly felt that I was doing the work that brought together all the experience of my life; my working with and understanding children, my business background to deal with budgets, my ability to engage the department's staff to encourage improvement and constantly moving forward. I learned how to hire and sadly, had to learn how to fire. I grew and developed.

I vowed to Matt that we would meet for lunch again after school is out for the summer.

After I got home, I received an invitation to the beautiful Susan's memorial service on February 23rd. That will be a very emotional day for me. I have so much respect for her as a person, mom and wife that the loss at such a young age seems so very wrong. So very sad.