Great Evening Thanks To An Optometrist

Last night I had dinner with a great group of people.  It was a small bunch of co-workers plus some husbands and significanat others.  Chances are extremely slim that any of us would know each other if we hadn't worked together. We were celebrating two things--a retirement and a landmark birthday.

These people are huge parts of my life.  We've been huge parts of each other's lives. Some I've known 20+ years and most of them for over 12 years. 

We've been through divorces, marriages, birth of a child, birth of grandchildren, and deaths of parents and loved ones and other family members.  We've experienced a child's tongue piercing, we know whose mother makes great pies, purchased jewelry together, shared recipes, shopped,  spent time together at work and outside of work.  I've mourned as pets have died, someone's sister's dog died, as a mother aged.  Rejoiced as one mother moved back to Lafayette.  Worried about a spouse's loss of job, change in job, a spouse's broken bones.  Felt concern as parents adapted to the loss of their spouse or worried about a father who keeps cutting his hand on his ladder. 

We've talked politics, religion, worried about finances and cars.  We've solved problems at work and at home.  Discussed wall paint colors, kids' activities, and given an endless number of product endorsements to each other.  We've worried about each other, grumbled about each other, worked to ignore each others' flaws, comforted each other but most of all loved each other (most of the time!).  These people are important to me!  They're my work family and my friends AND those two groups are subsets of each other and I know that's rare.  Very rare!

After college I went to work for a local optometrist.  A recent retiree from the English Department had taken a part-time job in that office.  Her replacement didn't work out well and left and the department asked her to return to her old job.  And she did.  It wasn't long until there was an opening here and she asked me to apply.  That was in 1984 and I've been here since (changing jobs once in that time).  That group of people from last night?  Two of the people there (excluding spouses, partners, etc.) were hired by other people.  The others I was lucky enough to hire and some have stayed here and some have moved on but still we maintain our relationships. I am honored to have these people in my life and I'm so thankful to have been hired by that optometrist which in turn moved me to the English Department and gave me the opportunity to corral such great people into one place. And that, in turn, gave us a great night last night.

Life is good.