On another note, our business manager, who I HATE to leave as she has been in the same boat as me, is the last person who needs any in-office drama.� She has had enough in the last couple of years.� At the beginning of 2004, before I went to work for Mike, and while we were rehearsing The Wizard of Oz, I learned that the office manager, whose name is Paula, had just been diagnosed with brain and lung cancer.� I didn't know her at the time, but learned much about her.� Mike and his wife were very distraught.� Fast forward a few months, I go to work for Mike, Paula is undergoing her chemo and radiation and is on the road to recovery.� She is now in remission.� However, her husband of 40 plus years has Parkinson's and has been slowly deteriorating the last couple of years.� In the last two or three months though he has deteriorated rapidly and has now been moved to hospice.� He is expected to pass away within the month.� I just ache for her and everything she has been through the last two years, to be gravely ill, only to get better to see her husband wither away and die.� They never got a chance to enjoy each other after she went into remission.� I have a tremendous amount of guilt for focusing on my issues when hers are so much worse than mine.� And since she and I have been each other's main support at work, I feel awful about leaving her to fend for herself.� When she told Mike about her husband's imminent death, his reaction was less than the sympathetic response she would have hoped.� That, however, is just a product of his now knowing how to deal with the situation.� It was not meant to be insensitive.

I got a call yesterday from our client who I wrote about a couple of days ago.� She was just calling to say goodbye to me, and was upset for a few minutes, not because she was angry with me, but because I have provided a source of stability and comfort for her these last few months.� I assured her that I would continue to work on her case and that Lonnie would take good care of her.� I will miss her terribly as she is one of the few clients that I really made a connection with and one of the cases that I have really been able to sink my teeth into and get a good managing grip on.� I will think about her often.� I hope Mike will need to use me on this case as I feel a certain amount of responsibility and obligation to see it to the end.

*Sigh*� So it is done.� I am gone after today, but, only with regard to my permanent, full time status.� With that, I am looking forward to the new direction my life will now take, and the new role of full time mom I will now assume.

Song Virus du Jour:� "Something Wicked This Way Comes" ~ From "The Prisoner of Azkaban", John Williams, Composer

Useless Trivia du Jour:� John Williams has received more Academy Award^� nominations than any individual, other than Walt Disney.� The www.oscar.com web site has a data base with these statistics.� The last time it was updated was April 2005.� John Williams is shown to be tied with Alfred Newman with 43 nominations each.� Walt Disney is shown with 59.� John Williams has now exceeded the 43 and should have 45 nominations to his credit as he was nominated twice this past year for two films, "Memoirs of a Geisha," and "Munich."� Don't forget too that he did the score for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," so that is 3 films he had out in 2005.� He is a busy man.� He has won 5 Oscars^�.� Go John!