Reality Is Setting In.

We just got back from dinner with "the boys": Matt, Mike, Dan (and Brigitte), and Steve at the Lebanese Flower. I was looking forward to this dinner as a chance to say goodbye to the food as well as the people, but I didn't expect to feel quite as sad as I did.

The actually hanging out was great. Kaden was kind of a shit, but we DID hang out for 2 hours, so who can blame a two-year-old for hitting his threshold? Lol. We got to laugh and joke and share stories as we always do, but the goodbye part sucked.

I hugged Dan first and was feeling pretty good about saying goodbye... but by the time I got to Matt, I almost lost it (but kept myself in check because he asked earlier in the night if I was going to cry). He was wearing a blue shirt tonight and it reminded me of walking through the mass of people coming out of Abu Dhabi International Airport on my first night here. After a solid day of flying with a 7-month-old, with as many issues as we had, I was just about at my wit's end when out of the crowd of veils and dark skin, came a well-over-six-foot-tall white boy. :) I knew Matt was himself the minute I saw him and hugging him tonight reminded me of that first night, hugging him as he "saved me" from the strange new world I'd just stepped into. (He made me feel even more at home as he blasted Christina Aguilera's "Dirty" on the radio as we flew at deadly speeds back to his apartment before Stu's flight arrived.)

I'm definitely going to miss Mike's infectious happiness and the all-around good-hearted nature of these boys. And Mike is right, "This sucks."