This used to be every weekend

It was primarily as I had foretold: the usual group + a couple from Old Pittsburgh, some straggly Banana coworkers of roommate’s, and that’s pretty much it. I had some Dogfish Head 60-minute IPA and there were a few 1.5 ounce drinks. Pizza: thin and crisp, sweetly crusted, with bacon, pineapple, and artichoke hearts. To firmly archive my time here, I even dined on some carefully tainted riced-krispie treats, the final of such indulgences for a few years at least (which also contained Trix cereal and smiley-faced cookies from local restaurateur Eat n’ Park). What else? Requisite Guitar Hero. I am an accomplished virtual drummer. A friend gave me another guidebook to Japan, this one in full glorious color. From beanbag seating on the floor, my room increasingly shamblesy, I pointed out: here is where I’ll be in three weeks, I think it’s very hot in the summer, my high school is seven floors tall, no I’ll never see you again (but it would be nice wouldn’t it?).

The day after, brunch! Mushroom/onion/spinach omelet, four pieces of bacon, fruit salad, home fries, french toast sticks, a frozen mimosa, iced tea out in the sun with a light breeze. I tried to remember the way it all tasted and how the metal ribbing in the chair felt on my back.

It’s been real, I tell these people as they pulse away, we’ve sure had a nice time knowing each other, haven’t we? You’d think it gets easier but it only gets harder as I go in phases. First the furthest away family as we realize this’ll probably be their last visit before I go. A co-worker or two as they leave for week-or-two vacations. Still far away friends, one, then the other. The next goodbyes will come Wednesday as my day workers leave, then at night when my work studies leave. In Iowa next week, all my family, my oldest friends (all I do is say goodbye to them anymore, we practically meet up just to say it). Then the hardest ones when I’m back: my still-here closer circle, my roommate, Jessy’s parents and little brother. The one goodbye I’ve become uncomfortably familiar with is usually Jessy’s and so it’s weird to know it’s the only one I won’t have to say this time.

They’ll be offset with hellos, hundreds and hundreds in two languages. Maybe that makes all these goodbyes valuable enough to embrace instead of lament.