the first of many

Today, I said my first of many goodbyes. With little more than two weeks remaining to the move, goodbye's are inevitable. But no one can ever really comprehend just how hard they are until you're living through them.

And I suck at goodbyes. I draw them out. I make them longer than they need to be. I talk more, talk faster. I linger.

By some miracle of miracles, I was able to get in today to get my hair cut, even though I had only called yesterday. My hair has been in a ponytail every day for the past 2 months. It's at a horrible length with no real style. So, it was in desperate need.

So, I know, big deal, you just said goodbye to your hair dresser. But she's the hair dresser I've been going to since I started 6th grade. And now, here I am, years later, and I'm still seeing her, right before I start graduate school. I told her today that I would come home specifically to have her cut my hair - no one else will ever do.

I love her because 1) she's awesome at what she does 2) she is the sweetest person in the world 3) she loves to travel and talk about it in turn 4) she gossips 5) she listens well 6) I trust her 7) she's cheaper than therapy.

In preparation for the rest of the goodbyes I'm destined to say in the next two weeks, I lingered over this goodbye to her. This sweet, good, wonderful woman who's been in my life for these past however many years. Who's seen me through hairstyles - long, short, somewhere in the middle. And all of life's milestones in between those.

I will miss her.

And it really sucked saying goodbye to her.

Just like it's really going to suck saying goodbye to all of the rest of the people who have touched my life, no matter how big or how small.

Goodbye's are never easy. But I don't know that they're meant to be this hard.

*above photo: august 2008

my hair will never look

like that again.