Yesterday's Roses

I am moving offices at work. The last time I did this was about nine years ago. I said at that time that it would be my last office move at Penn State. Apparently, I was wrong. This time, though, I really mean it.

Much to my own chagrin, I am not a person who travels light in life. So what this means is that I have been spending hours and hours sorting through things, recycling a lot of paper, throwing things away, and taking most of my personal items home.

Among the many, many papers, I have found some treasures: photos of people who don't work here anymore, pictures of a younger and perhaps more hopeful me, mementos of past good times. It's been a walk down memory lane, and it reminds me of how grateful I am to have had the jobs that have kept me at Penn State for 34+ years.

Five years ago in mid-October, I got a bunch of roses right around our wedding anniversary, which is also my mother's birthday. The same day, I picked up a second bunch of roses, which I took down to my mom. The ones that I ended up with, I brought into my office. When they had dried, I taped them to a bookcase, where they remained until this day.

So this was the day the roses came down. They are crumbling now and the petals are falling off. Before I tossed them, I wanted to take a picture to remember them by, and so I did: so here are three of yesterday's roses. That blue background is a bag used for confidential shredding where I work. This is the only art I made on this day.

The soundtrack song is the Carpenters, with Yesterday Once More.