My dashing young protege, one Kate Conrad, is leaving ASH. We have a going-away happy hour for her. Happily, it’s not at Rumours, for once. It’s at one of Kate’s favoriate bars, the Big Hunt. It’s one of my favorite bars as well.

We leave, a large throng of us, right at five, for the long trek over to Connecticut Avenue. I’m excited so I lead the way and am the first through the door. Sadly, we had planned to be out on the deck upstairs out back, in the tree house as Kate calls it, but they’ve got it closed on account of the heat. So we stay inside, in the upstairs room next to the bar with the pool table.

My camera won’t focus in the dim light, so I make Kate give me her camera. And I take posed portraits of Kate with everyone. I’m no good at candids. And I’m not happy with my camera anymore, not after it won’t work, you know? I need to find out what kind Kate’s is and where she got it.

I’m going to miss that Kate, but I’m glad she’s off pursuing other opportunities, doing better things than the admin stuff she was doing at ASH. She’s off to be a teacher. A high school teacher in PG County. English and Speech and Theater.