One by one

It started a little over two months ago, my next door neighbor and confidant moved from her home in our neighborhood into another neighborhood within our little community. It was really hard, Kelli is my East Coast girl. We have a faux Sox -Yanks rivalry going on and are brutally honest with each other. It was rough at first, and the girls and I miss our walks across the driveway in our PJ's to flop down on their living room floor and visit, but they are just a few blocks away, not really all that far. Two minute drive, if that... But like Deja Vu all over again, my other half is moving away too. Monica and I knew we were kindred spirits when she moved here in October. Our daughters are inseparable and go through withdrawals if they do not spend time together daily. They must get that from their mother's - since Monica and I cannot seem to go more than a few hours with out talking. We try to walk daily but if we don't walk, we are on the phone or at each others house.

My friend has been struggling to find her dream home. Every time she fell in love with a house, someone else bought it out from under her. Her frustration was mounting and I could see it was taking a real toll on her. She promised me months ago, they were not leaving our community that she loves it here and could not imagine living anywhere else. Something in my heart told me as soon as she said that "She is not staying." I was right... Monica and her husband signed papers to buy a home in another community this weekend. They found a home they love. New, never lived in, on a good piece of property... They will be very happy there. It's not all that far, maybe a 10 minute drive - But the fact that I have to leave my desert oasis, my little bubble if you will, to get there... It's been a hard pill to swallow. I will get over it, and I am happy for my dear friend and sister, but at the moment I want to cry...

So it seems one by one my friends are leaving. I am having difficulty with this since Brian and I are usually the ones to leave. When were were in Long Beach, and one of our close friends from back in Massachusetts left to move back to New England I was devastated. Butwe still had a great circle of friends. Brian and I have not created that same tight group of friends here (our fault). The two couples that we did spend a lot of time are the ones who moved... I have to keep telling myself this is not the end of the world. In California, Mike and Alissa were on the same property and then only 1 block away before they moved back to New England, but our other friends were in Huntington Beach, Aliso Viejo, Fountain Valley and not in Long Beach. I need to get over the fact that here in Arizona we live in these little closed off communities and get back to the reality of - my friends most likely will not live across the street. Like everywhere else in America, they most likely will live across town - I sill want to throw myself in front of the moving van and have a temper tantrum though!!