Warning: LENGTHY AND SAPPY POST BELOW. PLEASE CONSULT WITH A BOX OF TISSUES PRIOR TO, WHILE, AND AFTER READING THIS.
Notice: If you'd like to bypass the letter, skip to the Google Form in the comments.
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To my Ohio friends and family,
Picture this:
We are all sitting in a room with Piano Guys quietly playing cover songs over the sound system. There's food, and yarn, and lots of candy. People are sewing, making cards, playing board games, bleaching T-shirts or trying to figure out and finish any one of the half finished craft projects on the UFO (UnFinished Object) table. There's a bunch of people talking and laughing, some who obviously know each other as they sit at tables together. And there's some that don't know anyone in the room except the one weird lady wearing jeans and a teal shirt trying to get the presentation on her stupid flash drive to work on her computer in the corner.
Then the weird lady, who secretly has stage fright, approaches a microphone and the music changes.
And the weird lady begins to sing this song.
You suddenly notice a flash of light behind you.
As you turn, you see photos. Some of the people in the photos you know. Some of them are of you. You see camping tents, and orchestra dresses. You see the weird lady in so many unusual pictures: mini-buns hairstyle from prom, THE PERM, crafting parties, videos of her rolling in her chair down the hallway, "draped"/stuck next to an ottoman or doing snow angles in her classroom with spilled beanbag chair filling on the floor. You see pictures of board game carnage as some proclaimed victory in Settlers of Catan or Ticket To Ride. You see pictures of cars and vans heavily laden with coolers, boxes of frozen waffles, and an extreme number of watermelons and jugs of Gatorade concentrate that only your high school algebra teacher could have prepared you to calculate. You see pictures of whipped cream pies being thrown by children and teens toward teachers wearing rain ponchos, science goggles, and big smiles. You see RandomRoadTripSaturday pictures from all over the place. You see emotional pictures with captions about the weird lady being so proud of something one of her kiddos did, or overcame, or conquered.
And you look around, wondering who is cutting onions at a time like this. But in typical fashion, the weird lady knew how you would react and had already planted a box of tissues, a mini trash can, and chocolates at your table just in case of dementor attack.
And as the music concludes, the group of people realize that while they may not know everyone in the room personally, the weird teal lady does. And even though she is moving to the other side of the country, she will always be a part of your life, past, present and future, if you will have her.
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Just over a year ago, I made the decision to follow a prompting and prepared to move to Utah. I knew the news would make many people very sad, even though they say they are happy for me. It's ok and natural to feel multiple emotions at the same time. It's kind of like eating a bag of Sour Skittles.
I wish I could say "see ya later" in person and hug everyone (who was comfortable with hugs) who attended the imaginary going away party I described above, but a stupid virus has kept that from happening. Please do your part to help keep ALL people safe: wear a mask in public places, wash your hands, and for Pete's sake, stop licking each other! You may think your neighbor is cool, but they are not an ice cream cone!
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I'm planning on starting my travel adventure with my trusty sidekick, First Officer SeaBass, tomorrow morning. As always, in true Star Trek fashion, a Travel Log will be posted. (If the idea of seeing those is triggering to you, feel free to snooze me or unfollow me for a week or so. Those who know me best know that I don't like to do things that trigger sadness, rather, I like to do things to make people laugh and think.)
If you would like my new address or my email address to send well wishes for me to decorate my new apartment, fill out the GoogleForm below, paying close attention to the message that appears after you click submit. (Please, no flaming bags of 💩 or glitter bombs. Besides, everyone knows Amazon gift cards make better confetti.... 😉)
Sending virtual hugs,
Captain Julie Perry
Starbase Triumph
End personal log.
Computer, transmit log to my friends.
#takecare #bekindtoALL
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