Another Gretchen?

My boss, Gretchen, has left the building.


Gretchen was one of the people who hired me here at The Dallas Morning News, and has been not only my boss, but my Weight Watchers buddy, my cute-animal-photo e-mailing pal, my fellow fashion critic, and the person I know I can go to for a good movie review, a tasty recipe, or to complain about how fat/out of shape/hungry/lazy/unmotivated I am. Gretchen is my friend, and now she's my friend who lives and works in Kuwait.


That's right, that tiny country in the Middle East with all the oil. She's moved there for a year and taken a DMN hiatus, with the understanding that there may or may not be a job waiting for her when she returns.



We are interviewing her potential predecessor today. She has a background in advertising/sales. It's a group interview with the interactive operations team, which consists of five people. If you ask me, that's not an interview...that's an ambush.



I'm keeping an open mind, but really, the thought of replacing Gretchen just makes me queasy. So much uncertainty...