Before I left the big Apple, I sent this note to 125 of my closest co-worker friends:
Hello friends,
Yes, it is true: I am leaving Apple. My last day here is Friday, then I run off to Sunnyvale to work on Motorola's developer site.
This was my third round at Apple (after one year in Marcom at Apple Germany, and then four years in the Advanced Technology Group and Newton Group). I spent almost three years in AppleCare, and YOU are all to blame... I mean credit for this good long time (a whole generation in internet years), so I would like to take a moment to thank you.
Thanks for teaching me all kinds of nifty things about the interwebs. Thanks for helping me out when I needed a hand. Thank you for always smiling at me like you meant it (I know you did). Thank you for spotting me a buck to refuel if I was treacherously undercaffeinated. Thanks for all the good challenges, puzzles, and problems you gave me to work on. Thank you for saying thank you for jobs well done. I never took your appreciation for granted. An extra-special all-caps THANK YOU to my colleagues in Europe, for reporting errors and broken links, suggesting improvements, and reviewing content. You have been immensely helpful, and I can't thank you enough. Please keep those cards and letters coming (just send them to my manager).
To all of you, thank you for being so smart and kind and wicked funny. I'll miss you all terribly.
Oh, and my svelte figure thanks you for feeding me all that chocolate. I take my memories away with me, evenly distributed on my hips.
I really will miss all my friends. I know I'll stay in touch with many of them, but it's never the same if you don't work together on a daily basis. Still, I am not sorry I left. I'll take my good memories with me (there's lots of those), and will let the bad ones fade into oblivion (yes, there's lots of those too).
And I've had a great first week at MOTODEV. From first impressions, it looks like I'll have lots of good things to contribute, and lots of new things to learn. Good times. Good times. I feel seasonably merry. I'll find me a pair of antlers to wear and be the MOTOELK.