À bientôt

Whew. I have no clue where to begin. The last few weeks have been an absolute dream come true. My only complaint is that it all had to come to an end. Thankfully, I was too tired at 4am this morning to really get upset about saying goodbye to Shan and Car, because I can tell you, with an adequate amount of coffee and energy in my system, I would have been a mess. And not a hot one.

We had a brilliant time together. Skiing in the Swiss Alps, meeting other fun travelers, taking a train across the entire country where we saw nothing but snow, snow, and more snow. Roadtrippring from the German speaking part of Switzerland, to the land of Swiss Italians (and the best pizza you've ever had in your LIFE). And finally back again to chez moi just in time to head to Heidelberg for a short weekend filled with more snow, Gossip Girl, and dangerously uncoordinated German guys who think fist pumping in a club is the new hip shake.

Looking back on the last three weeks, I know that we made the most of every moment together, even if that meant choosing to stay in, drink wine, and lounge around on the mattresses taking over my floor space. And the only tough part about being reunited was knowing that we would have to separate again, and for who knows how long.

As much as I like to hope that I get better at saying goodbye to the people I love, I'd be lying to myself if I thought that were true. That heavy feeling still finds a way to settle deep in my chest, and I have no idea how long it plans on staying there. And as I scroll through all our photos for the third time today, I can't help but find comfort in the smiles staring back at me. I am so damn lucky. And in an infinite number of ways. But the most important? I am lucky to have those people in my life that make it what it is. That make me who I am and help remind me of that person when I occasionally get off track. I am thankful for the goodbyes because that only means that the next God-I-missed-you-so-much hug is just around the corner. The in between moments may royally suck at times, yes, but they're there for a reason, or at least I choose to believe so.

Besides, as one very wise friend once wrote to me in a card,

"Good friends are like stars. You don't always see them, but you know they are always there." -UNKNOWN

Love you guys. And miss you more than words could say.