Sunday, April 16, 2006

Hold the Door Please!

Last Monday, April 10th, was my last day as a city councilor. As a departing city employee, I was required to turn in the keys to my office, my city hall name badge, my fax machine and my underground parking tag.

I decided to make the trip to turn everything in before my Downtown Kiwanis meeting at 11:30. After making one last check around the office to make sure I hadn’t left anything in a drawer or under the desk, I dropped off all of my smaller items on the desk of Council Administrator Don Cannon, as he wasn’t in to take them personally. I then headed for the kitchen to get a diet cola before leaving the building to run another errand at the County Courthouse.

Upon leaving the kitchen, I headed for the elevator landing, as I had done hundreds of times before. I heard familiar voices as I approached the landing, but when I rounded the corner, I was a bit taken aback by whom I found waiting on the elevators.

There before me stood outgoing (in more ways than one) mayor, Bill LaFortune, and Mayor-Elect Kathy Taylor (just a few hours before she was to be sworn in).

I announced my presence by saying something like, “Now there’s a dangerous duo.”

Both seemed surprised to see me, even though they were hobnobbing in my “stomping grounds.” We exchanged very brief pleasantries and it was all I could do to keep from pointing first at Taylor, then at LaFortune and then at myself and counting one…two…three.

Instead, I just quipped, “So…when in Randi Miller arriving?”

At that time, the chimes of two elevators, arriving at the same time alerted us that the conversation was coming to an end. One elevator’s light indicated that it was heading up…the other indicating it was heading down to street level and ultimately the basement.

We parted, Kathy Taylor taking the elevator that was going up…Bill LaFortune and I sharing the elevator heading down.

Sometimes, in the simplest of moments, three years of one’s life can be summed up in an instance.

1 comment:

Paul Tay said...

Missy Mensch should be cavorting on some two bit Carib island with her long-sufferin' hubby. Wussup with dat? Swaggin' a thousand miles away from your SO? I jest don't git it. Give us da scoop on dat, willya?