  My husband and I have had the pleasure and the agony of moving four times in five years. For some, that is just a way of life, but for me it's painful. True: I love being in new places and seeing new things. True: Making new friends and becoming familiar with a new city is a good time.
True: I do get antsy as time marches on and even I, though I did mention that moves are tough, look forward to skipping town and starting afresh somewhere else. Escape is part of my personality, but that's another story. So here we are. Finished with another place, packing up our belongings and heading east after a fun-filled, albeit suburban, year. What makes the move hard are these things: 1. Only by month 10 or 11 are things really smoothing out and becoming normal and comfortable and you feel like part of the gang 2. Because you feel like part of the gang, you start delighting in the idea of sticking around for a little while and really making those frienships solid and taking advantage of those things that seem cool but require long-term commitment. 3. Packing is the universal pain in the rear end. 4. This one's the doozy. You start thinking back to those past moves and not only feeling nostalgic for where you are now, but feeling nostalgic about all those other temporary homes you've left behind.
A part of me never liked this place to begin and part of me still is very pleased to be leaving. But the leaving invokes past pain and since I've moved four times in five year, my pain is magnified by What class? That's right, four. Have you moved? Does it sting? Well, think about all those other places you left and ask yourself whether your leaving now brings back the heartache of those leavings back then.
I can't help but think of them and idealize those other homes now gone and wish I were still there....or right there, or maybe over there. Now now. Before we all take out our hankies, let's remember the excitement to come. There's nothing better than moving into a new place and getting everything settled and feeling like you can conquer a new metro area. Perhaps you've left an unsavory relationship in the past? Walked out on a job? Embarrassed yourself horribly in a public place?
Lucky for you, you get to start a whole new life in this city and should it not work out, you, my friend, have the lovely option of moving and trying it again somewhere else. I titled this entry "the goodbye girl" because goodbyes are rough. If they weren't Boys II Men would've never made millions off that one hit: ah yes, the perfect analogy to the pleasure and pain of goodbyes. 
