"I wanted to say 'I'll miss you' or 'Don't go' or 'Thank you'...

-The Lovely Bones

I went on a last minute adventure yesterday and for the first part of this morning. Dave and Chris, (two of my old roomies) are moving to China today. I have known this for a couple of months, and have been telling them that I am going to come see them before they move, since the last time we had seen eachother was May of 2003. (For those of you who don't know, we had no idea how to get a hold of eachother until we found eachother online a couple of months ago, which is the reason for the huge gap of time in which we had no communication).

Long story short, reality hit me when I was at work on Tuesday and I realized that if I didn't get someone to cover my Wednesday (yesterday) shift, then I wouldn't see my boys for abagillion years! After many frantic phone calls, I found someone to take my shift, and I left yesterday morning for Portland. Lora picked me up at Union Station and we went and got us some grub. Then she took me to Chris and Dave's apartment. They were waiting outside for me, and there are no words in the human language that can even begin to describe how amazing it was to see them. I have such a strong bond with those boys, and even after over three years of not seeing eachother, it was still there as strong as ever.

We spent the day packing and throwing things away and cleaning. I wanted to get a good picture of Dave and Chris that ISN'T from three years ago, but they both work too hard and don't stand still, so this is the only one that I could get. Sigh.
Chris had to drive to Albany last night with a truckload of stuff, so him and I said our goodbye when everyone else was outside. It was really sad. The whole experience was so bittersweet, because it was so great to see them and to see that despite whatever drama we all may have had when we lived together and despite the years that have gone by, the three of us are still so close and understand eachother well. But at the same time.. they're moving to CHINA! So I was feeling happy because everything was perfect, but... China is FAR!!!

Sad. Don't want to write about that anymore.

Anyways, everyone left, and then Dave and I were on our own, but he had friends dropping by on a constant basis to say their goodbyes. His last group of friends left around midnight. Then Dave gave me a backrub, which made me so happy, because that's one of the things I miss most about Dave. That may sound shallow, but man oh man, he gives GREAT backrubs! Then I gave him a backrub, and then we sat up and talked about all sorts of stuff.

Eventually we realized that our bodies were begging us to go to sleep. we also realized that we had sent all the blankets with Chris. Woops. So we got on the mattress and snuggled together for body heat and we kept talking even though our eyelids were heavy and we were exhausted. At one point, Dave said "My body wants to go to sleep, but I want us to keep talking, because we never get to do this." I agreed. It was definitely one of those moments where the reality of the situation catches up with you.

Eventually we fell asleep and I slept so good, better than I have in a long long time. We both slept until the alarm went off this morning, and then we walked across the street and got coffee. Then I called a cab and Dave and I hugged and said bye. It didn't feel sad, because it all was so surreal...

Then I got back to Seattle and went to work and now I'm home.

I'm sad that they're going to China, but I'm so happy that I at least got to see them before they left. Those boys mean the world to me. Even though it was for less than 24 hours, it was great to see them.

On that note... I'm tired. Good night.