West Coast Woes

It feels like deja vu all over again. Most of you will remember back in May when the most devastating of all devastations hit me: my biffle moved to Los Angeles. It was a sad day that literally made me cry when I met her at the airport to say goodbye. Sophia was off to sunny california to pursue the fashion world by attending FIDM, landing a killer internship and working for Michael Kors in the process. All whilst gallivanting with beautiful celebrities in a little place I like to call Paradise. Sophia would be the seventh of my close close friends who moved away from Hot-lanta in the last year. I'm starting to think that I either suck as a friend or I smell really bad. J-baz moved to the beach in Charleston, Coffaro headed back home to Cincy, Patty took off for Saint Diaaaago. Megs moved to Oregon for grad school and her boyfriend, Catherine hit the Big Apple and Wendy moved to Missouri. And now, my best friend in the whole world, Erin is moving to San Fran.

This is a girl I've known since I was 2. We caught chipmunks together in McDonald's pencil boxes when we were 4. We played on my swing set and made up stories about the lives we wanted (we had boyfriends that we met at 6 flags - 6 flags was the swing set) and we played "can't touch the ground". We wrote a soap opera together in the 5th grade about all of our church friends. We ruled the youth group together all through high school. We held seances together after we watched Now & Then for the 200th time. We rewound the split second of Now & Then over and over again, hoping to get a glimpse of Devon Sawa's d-thang. And as a result we will always remember the famous line "Give us our clothes back dammit! PLEEEAASSEEE!!!!" We'll also always remember all the words to "Hitchin a ride". We played dress up and made home videos. We made up a dance to My Girl that we made our parents watch us do about 80 times. We can quote the entire Billy Madison movie from start to finish together. Or act it out, whichever you prefer. We went to High Harbor together for 5 summers. We created AOL profiles and listened to .wav files in middle school and flirted with boys in chat rooms - after watching the Ally McBeal dancing baby for the 700th time. We prank called everyone in my class at school. We worked our first big-girl job together at a restaurant in Atlanta that's since shut down. We also got drunk at said restaurant when we were 18. Robby wanted to fire us. But he didn't. We've spent every Christmas together, watching Home Alone (another quotable movie) and playing board games. Only now, we get drunk in the process. Then we went off to separate schools and remained best friends.

Now here we are, at the ripe old age of 25. She's just finished school (copywriting) and is following a killer job offer (and coincidentally or not so coincidentally, her boyfriend) to San Francisco. And honestly, I don't blame her. If given the opportunity to do what she's going to do, make what she's going to make and live with my boyfriend after living at home for 2 years, you bet your ass I'd do it too! But here I am again, in Atlanta, while another bestie moves 3000 miles away.

It's heartbreaking. I know I just take things way too personally sometimes but I can't help it. And I know that her move has nothing to do with me. But I just don't want anything to change - like, ever. I like my friends where I can reach them - across Atlanta traffic. Not 3000 miles away. But here we go again. Wednesday night we had dinner and drinks at our "spot". We always go to the same mexican restaurant no matter what the occasion is. We've been eating there since we were 10 probably. It was the first place in Atlanta that I used my fake ID on my 19th birthday, and got away with it. It was the place where we had our sendoff dinner for Wendy, the place we met Cravey for drinks before Easter, the place we took Stuart when he and his friends came in town. It's just our spot. We know the wait staff. They give us free shots. It's our spot. And Wednesday night made things real. And tonight will be even more real. She leaves tomorrow. TOMORROW. And I don't think she's coming back for the holidays. 

I'm going to miss her SOOO much. But I guess I have to look at this as a golden opportunity to cash in some sky miles, right? If only I'd been saving some up. Dammit. Maybe Southwest will offer some killer deals when they get going here at HSJ. One can only hope. I am beyond excited for her but so effing sad at the same time. That being said, I wish her the BEST of luck out in San Fran! Make that money and kill it at your new job Erin! I love you!