Officially Retired!

What a day I had! Our secretaries play a song over the intercom every Monday before we open--something uplifting to get the week started off right--and every Friday to get us through the last day of the week. So this morning they played "kiss him goodbye" while all the nurses and nursing assistants danced down the hall & all around me--you had to see it to believe it--I was laughing so hard! Then I had a full sized team of patients, the idea being that when our 9:00 nurse came she'd take them over & I'd just help everyone else until early lunchtime at 10:30 & then I'd basically just be in the lunch room the rest of my shift to enjoy all the food everyone brought in & get to chat with everyone as they came in for lunch. But....we had so many patients coming in today--a few we hadn't even expected--and, as happens so often, we were understaffed by 3 nurses, so I just couldn't do it! Everyone kept telling me it was my last day & to go relax, but I love all my co-workers & they were running like crazy so I just kept working. At noon they paged me over the PA system with "Diane RN to the conference room stat" because they wanted me to sit down & eat (as they'd brought in tons of food and a cake), & to give me a retirement gift. They all chipped in and gave me a huge gift basket full of wonderful, thoughtful things, as well as some cash "so I could get myself something fun that I ordinarily wouldn't buy". When I got home, Tom had bought me some flowers, and Court, Matt & the twins had sent me flowers  (so the flowers are my blip for the day)  Jen had called me at work to tell me to have fun my last day & to tell me that the baby wanted to say "congratulations to grandma"!  Tomorrow night my friend is having everyone over at her house for my "official retirement party"! I have such a wonderful family & wonderful friends! I'm truly blessed!!  :))