The Dude is not in

“Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the Dude.”-The Big Lebowski, 1998
My best work friend, Kevin, who Cory lovingly calls “my work husband” had his last day at work on Friday.
Kevin and I have been having lunch together almost everyday for the last three years that I have worked for Company F. He is the one who introduced me to sushi, and tai food. He is the one who spent eight hours a day during my pregnancy listening to every complaint possible because I had every undesirable symptom possible, and didn’t complain himself one time.
He is also the one who only missed one day due to sickness the entire three years that I worked with him. Kevin is also the one who decided to take off all of December “just because”.
Kevin told me about two years ago he would be leaving Company F around this time, but I was hoping he would stay longer. Turns out he had some very interesting plans. He will be going to Tokyo for a little vacation. For a few weeks actually. He has put his stuff into storage and has a plane ticket all ready. He will be heading for Japan on the 30th.

I will be so lonely without him around. Our cubicles back up to each other, so we have been constantly in each other’s company forever. It is going to be so quiet without him to talk to!
Honestly, Kevin doesn’t talk a lot. He just listens to me talk. Talk about everything. My friends, family, beauty stuff. Everything. Sometimes he will have a clever comment to add in, but mostly he listens to me chatter.
Kevin is an extremely talented graphic designer that has somehow managed to not let Company F’s restrictive branding squash his design imagination. He has taught me something new almost everyday, be it about a computer program, or about our Macs.
I am hoping to still keep in touch with him. He has set up a blog at my insistance to cover his adventures in Japan. I may link to it if I think it’s appropriate later. I’ll let you know.
The only good thing in Kevin leaving is that I do get to steal his fab cubicle. It is about twice the size of mine. So I plan to move over to it on Monday. That’s about the only good thing I can think of. That, and all the money I’m going to save not going out to lunch!

So goodbye my friend, I will miss your extremely amusing negative views, and witty banter. It will be very quiet without you, and no one will ever replace you in my heart.