LAST DAY IN THE OFFICE

I cleaned off my desk, but a sign in my office window, changed my voicemail greeting, and installed an email out-of-office auto-reply. I spoke with my closest colleague, my supervisor, and my mentor. I am out of there until June.

It was tinged with a little regret. What if I don't come back? What if I do come back and can't regain my form? Reseach agendas have inertia of their own, but that inertia must also be sustained. And that's what I won't be doing while I take care of Monkeyboy.

Leaving the office today reminds me of locking the door behind me as I moved out of my Adams Morgan apartment in 2001. I was moving to a new opportunity -- the house I bought, with plenty of bubblicious appreciation soon in store. But as I told the open doors, swept floors, and bare walls of that apartment, "I would do it all over again." The twenty months I lived there were great, and I was content to continue with that life. But to let regret interfere with opportunity is unwise.

Now, the opportunities beckon to connect with the Boy, support the Wife (even as she supports me financially), and reinvent myself.