Chicago

I spent the first half of the week in Chicago this week attending the GSA CAR Directors Conference. One of the additional duties I have been saddled with in GSA is the role of the Regional Customer Accounts and Research (CAR) Division Director. It is basically managing a team of four marketing folks. It is a good group of people in CAR. They have a lot of energy and passion for GSA and helping our customers, but I have not been able to spend the necessary time managing the program because I'm too busy managing my own program. I'm not sure why my boss wanted me to go to the meeting considering it is my last week at work, but I'm a good soldier to the end. It was a nice and easy trip to Chicago. I was able to go up to the Skydeck in the Willis Building (aka Sears Tower). That is where I took the picture in this post. They built this thing called "The Ledge" which is basically a glass enclosure that sticks out about two feet from the building and you step out on to the clear floor and look down and I guess it is cool or something. It was a bit of a let down, but it was funny to see kids get scared to step on it. One guy pushed his daughter on to it and she freaked out. I got back last night. I spent today finalizing a few things at work and making sure things were set for my departure. One of my colleagues took me to lunch today at Boston Beer Works. I've got a few paperwork things to do tomorrow morning, I will then sweep through the building and say my goodbyes, go to a group lunch, get a card and gift, turn in my ID card, and be on my way. Leslie asked me a couple weeks ago what I would miss most and I said my colleague Tony and a few others. She said "no, wrong answer" and I said "what do you mean?" She said I would miss being able to park in the building. It's true, parking in my building for free in the center of Boston is definitely a perq I will miss.