Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008
Retirement Party
At the end of December, my boss retired after working for the bank for thirty five plus years. This past tuesday night the company had a retirement party for her at a nice restaurant.
One of the girls who I used to work with, Kristine had relocated to another branch in the middle of November when we merged an emailed Vanessa and I asking if we'd like to meet an hour before the retirement party for drinks and to catch up a little so we agreed to that.
When I arrived, Kristine was already there, sitting at the bar waiting for Vanessa and I. It was unusual because Kristine is always running late for things. Perhaps she turned over a new leaf in the short amount of time that I haven't seen her or perhaps she was thirsty and needed a drink. haha.
The two of us talked about old things and new things until Vanessa arrived. Vanessa had gotten stuck in traffic and was about fifteen minutes late. The three of us came to the conclusion that we missed the old office and the way things were ran. We did a lot of bashing about our new co workers. At the old branch, we were all very close and at the new branches; both Vanessa and I's and Kristine's; not so much. It really sucks.
We sat at the bar for a while until we looked into the other room and saw people arriving for the party.
Before we were seated to eat dinner, everyone was mingling ... talking to one another. I saw a few people out of the forty people who were there but a lot of them I didn't recognize. I only know a handful of people from outside my branch. One of our best customers was there also. He is an older gentleman with lots of money which is only one of the reasons why I say he is our best customer. He is very nice too; very classy. For thr two years that I've worked for the bank, I still don't know how he aquired all of of riches.
The food was good. They served fettucine and scallops, stuffed chicken breast, mashed potatos, salad and cake for dessert. To drink they had water, iced tea, soda and coffee but I stuck to drinking my beer which as I scanned the room I noticed that many other people did the same thing.
When everyone was finished eating, our regional manager gave a speech saying how great of an employee my old boss was, etc. Then, my old boss gave her speech. She told us how much she enjoyed working for the bank, etc. Then, she said,"Although I have enjoyed working for the bank for so many years, there are some things I'm not going to miss ...." And this list was waaay longer than the first list. haha. It was funny.
Then, she went around to all of the tables and said her goodbyes. By this time I figured that things were wrapping up so I excused myself as did a few others.
I do have to admit that it has been weird without her at the branch. Right before I left the party and I was saying good bye to her, she said jokingly,"Call me when the state quarters come in!" And that was that.