A couple weeks back, I mentioned that my colleague M was leaving to start his own lab. We will have a stack of farewell messages for him, each in its own envelope. Since we have all had coffee with him between ten and ten thousand times, I made this for the notes and the photos:
As it turns out, the lab might not really like the coffee bean drawstring bag for the purpose of corralling farewell messages.
I'm pretty sad about it.
Maybe the lab will see sense, but if not, I'm happy to mail it to one of you. It might make me too sad to keep it.
Or maybe it can be the "envelope" for your own message, and they can suck it.
@FernLovebond
I'm definitely on board with the "they can suck it" part!
There's an associated party on Friday, and right now, my main goal it to get through it. I adore colleague M, so I'm trying to focus on that.
@Helical_Code Were I your colleague, I would still appreciate the incredibly thoughtful gift whether or not it was used for its original intent, especially since you took the time to make it. And I agree with @FernLovebond ... let it envelope your own message and the rest of them can suck it.
@Helical_Code
"Passed it on to the person making the decisions"? Bestie... your gift, your decision. Buck the party, buck the overplanning/micromanagement. Go to colleague and give them the gift with some little thing (nice coffee beans? Idk) or personal letter about your time together inside it (or both). "This is outside the party, just wanted you to have this." Because it's awesome, and so are you.
Perhaps I overstated things.
There are a BUNCH of supplies that may or may not be used for the farewell message project. Colleague S is organizing this aspect, and I trust S quite a bit. I've asked her to return the bag to me if she doesn't use it for the notes.
I have a couple more weeks before colleague M gets on a plane with his family. M has two small girls, and the plane ride is going to be a whole project. I'm thinking finger puppets might be perfect.
💜
@Helical_Code
Oh, well... I still say so the last thing I said, but meh. I just think anyone would love a gift made with such kind intentions. 😊
@Foxthorn
Thank you so much! We will see what happens. I've passed the item on to the person making the decisions, and we will just see how it goes. The party project has become really complicated, and the only way we will get through it is to trust each other to make some decisions. That said, the red blood cell lunch bag will not be in a position to be vetoed.
@FernLovebond