Sad Panda Goodbye Lunch in NYC and the Five Stages of Grief

It isn't often that one works with such a rare group of internet dorks that one gets a fancy goodbye lunch at a nice restaurant and suddenly flashmobbed by cats and pandas on sticks and an entire play constructed to demonstrate one's coworkers five stages of grief over one's leaving. But that totally just happened.
Here's me with @MarySnauffer, making a Sad Panda face. Mary is grinning devilishly because she wrote the play about the five stages of grief and knows I have no idea what I'm in for.

Important note: these animal cutouts were made by printing them from the intarwebs and gluing them to file folders, then cutting up the file folders to make them into puppets. Apparently, my coworkers did this in my office the day before yesterday while I was wrapping up business in our Connecticut office. YOU JUST NEVER KNOW what people are up to when you're gone.

Are you familiar with the five stages of grief? Well, here they are, as represented by cats on sticks:

1. Denial.
In the above photo, I am reading aloud from the THREE PAGE script as Mary holds Denial Cat, looking all denial-y.

2. Anger.

Here we have @mink21 holding Anger Cat.

3. Bargaining.
Bet you thought there'd only be one Bargaining Cat. Nope. There are three. Go figure. I didn't make the rules. Truth be told, the puppets were under our plates when I got there and I thought they were really artsy placemats -- and I was SO SURPRISED that they used the same kind of file folders we have at work to make them.

I am an idiot.

In the middle there is @lshon who took the rest of the pictures.

4. Depression.

Depression Cat, as expressed by @JessicaRandazza.

5. Acceptance.

And here's cheerful Acceptance Cat, who speaks in a southern accent and said, and I quote, because I have the script in front of me: "You know what? I wish you the best of luck over there. But you know what, you don't even need luck because I know you'll do just great. Just the way you are."

Then Sad Panda becomes Happy:

So, basically, this is the best goodbye party anyone has ever given to anyone, ever. I work with some of the most creative and hilarious people in the world, and I will miss them very much when I move. Tomorrow. At 8am.

I wish everyone had friends at work who understood exactly how and exactly how VERY dorky they are. I know it's not the case, but for one day, I felt like my unique flavor of dorkiness was completely acknowledged and celebrated by my coworkers, and that was pretty darn fantastic.

I will miss them all very much, and will never forget this joyful, hysterical and delicious lunch in NYC.

Thank you everyone!!