That's right... Oakland. After stops in Moraga, San Ramon, and Mare Island (Vallejo), California (the places, along with my home, that I have most-frequently blogged), I have taken a new job in Oakland. Quite a change of scenery... I was growing tired of the blight of valley-ho; hello blight of oaktown. (That is a joke; downtown Oakland is very nice.)

The decision to leave a job, and more specifically, a job that you like, for a company that you love, and with people you enjoy working and being friends with, for a new job in the same geographical area, was very tough. And I am not so good with words... (Then why the hell do I blog?)

But, to get right down to it, I quit my last job (or resigned) by haiku. The classic haiku 5-7-5 form, not some fancy other haiku form I never learned, and only English Masters students (It wouldn't be English though, would it? Sanskrit? What is that anyway?) would know. What am I saying? They wouldn't know it either.

Here it is... I walked into my boss' office, a friend of mine, the second-baseman on my softball team, the Red-Legged Superbas (a non-profit organization, www.superbas.org), and after a few choice coy words, handed him a notepad with my hand-scribbled poem...

Wonderful people
Fun-filled time at ENGEO
Now I say goodbye.

One more time for the phonetically challenged...

Won·der·ful peop·le
Fun·filled time at EN·GE·O
Now I say good·bye.

I wished my "most favorite" fellows farewell in an email, subject: "this is the last one, i promise..." and closing with...

Let there be peace on earth and god bless all of you. (But there is no god; or else, geologists wouldn't exist. But they do; so this "god" theory doesn't really pan out.)

Anyway...