1) The activity of the day was conversation, mostly by phone. And the word of the day was “enervating.” There was a lot of active listening.
1a) Volunteers are finding out about my plans to leave, and for some of them it’s a real shock.
1b) Last year my New Year’s resolution was to become more comfortable with difficult conversations, especially around politics. And no, I’m still not good at that.
2) The estate sale started today. I have really and truly tried not to be a bother - my poor sister has enough to deal with - but I did weaken earlier this week and ask her to take two items out of the sale. Long story short, those two items didn’t sell today, and the agent is going to set them aside for me. I don’t deserve it, but I’m so grateful.
2a) Yesterday, before the announcement of my departure went public, I got a big envelope in the mail from my sister. I was expecting the legal documents that needed my signature. I was not expecting the packet of love letters my parents wrote each other in college, or the biographical sketches they wrote about themselves in their early 30s. Laura thinks the latter are from their attempts to adopt a child before I was born. It was an unexpected, and emotional, look at how my parents saw their early lives, their development as people, and their own relationship.
Early in his presentation.
3) In the early evening I attended a campaign event for Mayor Pete in the club room at Fenway Park. I wish I’d recorded everything both he, and Jack Connors, our host, had to say. After this enervating day, I felt a feeling of hope just watching a candidate who could behave like a gentleman. Whether he wins or not, I want him to play a larger part in the national discussion about the future of our nation.
3a) I’d been advised that a couple friends of friends were attending this event. I never found them, but a former office colleague was there with a friend, and we ended up talking for a bit at the start.
4) I was vibrating with fatigue by the time I got home. Oddly enough, I was sleeping fine before I gave my notice . . . but not now! :-/