losing a piece

Princess is moving to Seattle this weekend; he's trying to improve his quality of life and see more of his sister and her family by transferring to a different paper. I'm helping him drive up, which should be interesting. Because I haven't driven stick in years, and because he's sort of a scary driver himself--being the well-bred gentleman he is, he likes to make eye contact with the person he's talking to. Which is fine when you're sitting across the table with him, of course. Nervewracking when he's behind the wheel.

Anyway. After weeks of relative sloth, suddenly I have several pieces of writing due all at once. Not even laziness on my part, but other people's schedules, blah blah. A lot to write, not much time, and we leave Friday morning, and I try to think about this as a fun road trip to Seattle, not my handing my closest confidante and boon companion over to a new city. We were friends in college, and he moved out here soon after I did. I've known him for fifteen years, and boy do we have dirt on each other.

At his going-away party at the Lone Palm tonight, he hugged me as I was leaving and said, I'm glad I don't have to say good-bye to you yet, and I nearly lost my shit right there. I had risked a margarita, knowing that alcohol could make me maudlin, but I'd been doing fine up until that point talking to people I hadn't seen in a long time and others I'd heard about but never met. Catching up. E is pregnant with her third child. I finally met D's husband and their baby, and what a delight that was. Didn't realize that S is apparently seeing C's sister. Met D and V, both of whom I know solely through email, and liked them in person very much. The two of his ex-boyfriends with whom he'd had the longest relationships were there, and I was glad to see them. It was a very nice party as long as I didn't tell people how I really felt.

I feel safe saying this here because I know he doesn't read my blog, but I'm actually rather a wreck about this, when I let myself think about it. Which I've managed not to do for the past few weeks. That flight home Monday night, though, I suspect is going to suck.