Hi again.

I'm back.

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When P left (and it’s a long story why we did this, and it was the result of joking, but anyway, we did it) we made a paper P to tack up behind her chair. A sad replacement for her. This month, D is leaving and then J – and – and! – AND just today I learned that A is leaving. (Not exactly a nice Welcome Home for me.)

We will make a paper D and then we will clip out a paper J and then we will cut up a paper A and. And there will be me, sitting alone in my wooden chair on the topmost floor of our office, hair blowing out in the winds off of the porch, watching the little paper legs of my lost colleagues dance. Some sort of humanitarian Miss Havisham. That is how I picture it.

But that is not how it will be.

New faces will appear, new blood will beat warm, new footfalls will echo in our hallways.

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I am back from R&R and I had a fantastic time and I am exhausted – EXHAUSTED! – but I really barely thought about the office once. So maybe I didn’t really rest and I certainly didn’t relax, but I did disconnect, and I do think that is mainly what is asked of us to do on R&R.

I have so much to write about it but I also have 300+ e-mails in my inbox to struggle through and friends to see and a trip to the field (Kiwanja, here I come!) tomorrow.