{"id":37,"date":"2006-02-23T08:39:21","date_gmt":"2006-02-23T12:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/2006\/02\/23\/how-bizarre-how-bizarre\/"},"modified":"2006-02-23T08:39:21","modified_gmt":"2006-02-23T12:39:21","slug":"how-bizarre-how-bizarre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/2006\/02\/23\/how-bizarre-how-bizarre\/","title":{"rendered":"How bizarre, how bizarre???"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

I had worked in the paper industry for many, many, many years before
\nmaking the smartest career change of my life by starting over and
\ncoming to work in Academia.  In fact, I had worked for the same
\npaper company for 16 years!  Of course, this means getting to know
\na lot of people.  Some of them came and went.  Others, I
\nworked with for years and formed very strong friendships.  But
\nlike anything else, life changes and sometimes those contacts are lost.<\/p>\n

The past several months, though, have had a wave of “reunions” with many of my old friends, in one form or another.<\/p>\n

I would say that it was back around November or so when I had a
\nsurprise email show up from my sweet friend Joanne (she’s still in the
\npaper industry although with a different company) and soon after, she
\ncame into Cambridge and we had lunch together.  It was so great to
\nsee her again and I look forward to staying in touch!<\/p>\n

Then, a couple of months ago, crazy Jenny appeared in my in box! 
\nJenny doesn’t work for that company anymore, either.  She’s made a
\nfew moves since then so I’ve sort of lost track of what she’s
\ndoing!  But she’s one funny chickadee so it’s great to be back in
\ncommunications with her!<\/p>\n

Next, came Annmarie.  Annmarie and I have been going to the same
\ndentist for oh….???  15 or so years now???  Oh, at
\nleast!  I’ve known her for 21 years!  NEVER have I run into
\nAnnie there but my last visit (late January\/early February) as I sat
\nand waited to see the dentist, I was reading the schedule for who was
\ncoming in that day and, low and behold, there’s Annie’s name, along
\nwith her two wonderful children!  She doesn’t work for that
\ncompany anymore either.  <\/p>\n

Next, I think was Dana.  Apparently, Dana had run into Joanne (the
\none from 3 paragraphs ago!) and Joanne  told her that we’d gotten
\ntogether so, yup – you guessed it – next thing I know, there’s an email
\nin my inbox from Dana!  Dana doesn’t work for that company anymore
\neither although she was still in the industry until she was laid off
\nrecently.  That’s worked out okay, though, because it’s given her
\nopportunity to spend some time with her precious son as he begins
\nkindergarten!<\/p>\n

Annmarie and I continue to communicate via email (the one from 2
\nparagraphs ago) and she sent me an email saying that, when she was at
\nthe dentist, she’d asked about another old coworker Irene (she’s not at
\nthat company anymore either) and that the dentist told Irene she was
\nasking for her so she called Annie out of the blue.  Irene told
\nAnnie that she’d recently run into the lovely Michelle awhile back.
\nMichelle doesn’t work at that company anymore either, she’s staying
\nhome and being mommy to her two sweet children!<\/p>\n

Yikes, I can’t believe all this has happened and I’m not even done yet!!!<\/p>\n

Last weekend, as I was out shopping for a floor lamp, I looked up from
\nthe lamps and standing there next to me was Louise – our switchboard
\noperator!  Louise doesn’t work for that company anymore,
\neither.  She’s retired.  But nobody <\/span>could handle a switchboard the way Louise did!<\/p>\n

Then….  on Tuesday, who popped into my email but my wonderful
\nfriend Pam!  Pam and I have known each other for close to 20
\nyears!  We have a very special friendship – we both understand
\nthat life is hectic which means that we don’t get to see\/talk to each
\nother all the time.  It can go months between our communications
\nbut every time we do catch up, it’s some of the happiest days of my
\nlife!  Pam doesn’t work for that company anymore either.  In
\nfact, when she resigned, she FedEx’d her resume!!!  That’s a truly
\nfunny story but we’ll save that for another day!  \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Ah…  that must be it, you say?  After all, that was Tuesday and it’s only Thursday.  Nope!  Not quite.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, as I sat at work, my phone rang.  I could tell by the
\nway it came through that someone had called into the name recognition
\nsystem.  Hmmm….  I wondered.  Who could this be? 
\nWell, next thing I get is “Hi, Mary.  It’s Lori”.  “Hi, Lori”, I
\nsay.  “I used to work with you”, I hear.  “Oh, geez, which
\nLori is this?”  I don’t even recall her response but as soon as I
\nheard it, I knew exactly which Lori it was!  Last time I saw Lori,
\nher adorable little girl was probably 6 or so.  Well, now she’s
\n16!  Ugh…. we’re all getting old!  Lori doesn’t work for
\nthat company anymore either.  She does, though, live about 5
\nminutes from me now so a lunch date is definitely in order there! 
\nYay.<\/p>\n

Phew.  That’s it now.  What can all this mean?  I don’t
\nknow.  I do know, though, that I am thrilled to have heard from
\nthese old friends.  I also know that I’ve been very fortunate to
\nhave each and every one of them in my life and I’m looking forward to
\nstaying in contact with all of them!<\/p>\n

This also makes me think, though, who the heck does work at that old
\npaper company???  I just took the opportunity to try to rekindle
\none more old friendship.  I sent an email to another old friend –
\nElise – at her paper company email address.  Let’s see if this
\nworks, or if she’s moved on, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had worked in the paper industry for many, many, many years before making the smartest career change of my life by starting over and coming to work in Academia.  In fact, I had worked for the same paper company for 16 years!  Of course, this means getting to know a lot of people.  Some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":361,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[677],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curtincallstories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/361"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/curtincall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}