Things I’ll Miss (My Farewell to FSI)
As many of the three readers of this site know…I quit my job recently and my last day is tomorrow. The purpose of this entry is to post a few pictures of things I’ll miss when I leave here:
The Foreign Service Institute of the State Department is a beautiful facility on a very nice campus. I love in the spring to walk around outside during lunch or my breaks in this pretty place.
I have one of the best cubicles of any contractor here. I’ll miss my private little office. I really had a dwelling that was way above my pay grade here and I appreciated it. I loved to be able to look at Vader and imagine what he would do to some of the dumber people I had to work with…or at the shrine to my wife and kid to remember what all of this was about when I needed to get things into proper perspective.
Finally…I guess I should include a picture of things I won’t miss:
I won’t miss these damn geese. Every spring they invade FSI. They act like they own the place. They crap all over and it is almost impossible to walk anywhere without stepping in it. Every time I see one of the stupid students or staffers here feeding one of these despicable creatures I just want to throttle them (the feeders and the geese). Geese are for eati’n…not for feeding.
I don’t think I’ll be making another trip out to Main State while I still work here so I can’t put any pictures of that dark and dreary place here…but I would include that as a place I won’t miss. With the exception of the excellent cafeteria and the great people I had the opportunity to work with there I considered trips to the place to be a real drag.
I guess none of you really care but I want to remember these things…so to the blog they shall be posted. I hope to get some pictures of the excellent people I’ve worked with tomorrow at my farewell lunch. I don’t know that I’ll post the pics here but I do want to mention that I will miss all of the people I’ve worked with. It has been a great pleasure to have been able to get to know many of these people and I will miss them greatly.
UPDATE (04-08-2004)
Here is something else I’ll miss:
I caught 5 mice during the last 2 years I worked here at FSI. I have a little area of my cubicle that is pest central where many traps have been placed. There is one trap (the one in the back) that I caught almost all the mice with. The exterminator contractor who gave me the traps thought I was cool because I wasn’t afraid to empty, reset and bait my own traps when I’d catch the little buggers. I think they should set some traps for those stinking geese too!
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What exactly IS FSI??
Comment by Jordan — April 8, 2004 @ 1:07 am
Sorry about that. FSI is the Foreign Service Institute. It is where the State Department trains all of its employees in the languages and other skills they will need as they represent the United States throughout the world.
Comment by Jeremy — April 8, 2004 @ 6:06 am
It does look lovely, and it reminds me of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, which I attended in 1974-1975. Good luck in your new vocation, I’m sure you will do well!
Comment by Sam — April 8, 2004 @ 12:02 pm
If I recall correctly, you felt the same way about the ducks at AT&T back in the day. Remember that time we watched the sea gull swallow the baby duck whole? That was awesome.
Comment by Char — April 9, 2004 @ 4:40 pm
You are, and do, deserve the very best!
Comment by Mum — April 10, 2004 @ 11:21 am
Nice pictures. Didn’t use your camera phone?
Comment by Michael — April 12, 2004 @ 4:37 pm
I always missed the good stuff at AT&T. I guess it’s because I kept on forgetting to sign out of TSYS that I missed the fun events like seagulls swallowing baby ducks whole.
Comment by Brett — April 13, 2004 @ 2:05 am
Brett,
I wish the seagulls had been hungrier so you could have partaken of the joy the rest of us had when we got to watch the blessed event. I hated those ducks. I guess I just have it in for waterfowl.
Sam,
We trained a lot of students at FSI who were sent there from DLI in Monterey. I always hoped we could work something out where systems people from both schools could do an exchange and I could make a trip to CA. It never panned out. Oh well.
Comment by Jeremy — April 17, 2004 @ 6:12 pm