Series Finale
The Marketing department is a strange bunch of people. Unlike the majority of employees who are on a timeclock, we are exempt. I try very hard to be there on time, but if I'm late, it's no big deal, and there are those who stroll in anywhere between 15 and 45 minutes late everyday and don't give a shit. While the rest of the company races to punch out at 12:00 for lunch, the Marketiers tend to take late, long lunches, and until we moved to the new building, we always ate lunch together in our own marketing room. We dressed up as a group for Halloween. We had loud, raucous brainstorming meetings.

On the flip side, some of us put in way more than the expected 7-1/2 hours a day. There is a part of me that is always at work, always thinking of new product ideas, names, slogans, articles. I love my job. On weekends and vacation, even when I call in sick, I'm still mentally at work. Of course, we've all been given notice that we are being replaced by FOM (more on that after the job is officially terminated), so I don't know why I still try so hard.

Anyway, the Exodus has begun. First Michael left us for a design agency. A week later, Jill left us to help start up a new division of a consumer goods company. I'm pretty sure the next one to leave will be HRH Favi.

We took lots of pictures, and exchanged addresses and phone numbers, making promises to get together at least once every other month. Though we all started with the department at different times, this group has been together about four years. The business has been mostly downhill since I started eight years ago, but until recently it still was a great place to work. MF made sure all that changed. At our peak, we had twelve people; now we are down to five. All the best people have left, and a few stragglers remain, yours truly included, to close down the department.

It's like the end of a TV series. We were thrown together like a sitcom ensemble, and we were a very strange cast of characters.

Nerdy, brainy Marc. The most talented person I have ever met. His mom is such a nut job, I'm surprised he turned out to be so normal.

Matt, a former actor and bartender and a total babe, he never really gave up the spotlight, always doing crazy things to get attention.

Mike, always cracking jokes that may or may not be funny, the only person in the entire company who actually reads our Nielsen reports.

Richard was so friendly I thought he was hitting on me. He turned out to be the gayest person I know. I've never seen a grown man run like that.

Janet, a princess from USC. I wonder if she'll ever be happy about anything.

Joe, the Generic guy. He loves green. And Pilipino jokes.

Michael. Soft-spoken, artistic, musical, and a wild streak that pops up when you least expect it. "Well, I wasn't always a Christian."

Sharon knows everything about everyone, and I know nothing about her except she loves farts.

Lori aka Miss Melba Toast, the White Trash Princess. "Lookin' for love in all the wrong places." I think all she wanted was a family, and she's finally found it in Nashville.

Jill, the buffer between us and management. It's amazing she put up with that crap for so long. And vice versa.

HRH Favi, the loudest, most obnoxious person I have ever met. Underneath the tough barrio exterior, she has a huge heart. If she had ever met Janet, she would have eaten her alive!

Scott and I shared an office for five years before I discovered he's gay. Our typical conversations started, "You wanna hear something gross?" If I stay in touch with only one person, it will be him.