Signing off from AOL

The exit interview with HR lasted only 15 minutes. Someone from the Mountainview office gave me an overview of my separation benefits. There were very few surprises. I have the next 90 days for our company stock to rise 300% so I can unload my remaining vested stock options. My flexible spending account will be terminated after today. This means I have until April 15, 2006 to file claims for any expenses incurred up until today. But any further expenses from tomorrow on will not be reimbursed. He then proceeded to ask me my reasons for leaving, where I am going, whether there was anything that could have been done to prevent my departure. When asked how the company can become a better employer, I suggested that we allocate less money on giving employees brochures, trinkets, and T-Shirts and use more of the money on salary. Other than that, I pretty much gave positive reviews for my experience here, I even said I was happy with the salary I was making (which is true).

It was a rough day for me because I am the nostalgic type and have a tendancy to reminisce on days like today. Throughout the whole day, I was keeping a mental track of the the last time I use the bathroom, the last time I used the vending machine. I even made it a point to go to lunch in the cafeteria one last time to check out the attractive women (there is this one really attractive red head that I saw for the first time there today, possibly an intern).

But that's not the strangest thing that I did. Sometime this afternoon, I remembered back to four years ago on the morning of my first day. I called Sara from the lobby of our headquarters to tell her I had arrived. As I was exiting the building for the very last time, I picked up the cell phone and made the call to tell her that I have departed