The journey begins

Now this is fucking cool. I am sitting in the car (Jason is driving), 9 miles from the Georgia/Alabama border, connected to the internet via my new Sprint wireless broadband card, blogging. We left Kathleen & Rich's almost an hour ago, and it was, as expected, a teary goodbye. Last night there was another goodbye get-together where I said farewell to Karen and Mindy, and I did plenty of weeping then. But not as much as when Kathleen and I said goodbye. Her 3-year old daughter ran out to give me a hug and a kiss, and that's when the waterworks started. She's such a muffin, and we've had fun the last few days, taking the dogs for walks, going to the playground, playing Candyland. I think Kathleen and I were trying to put off the final hug for as long as possible, under the pretense of checking the house to make sure we hadn't left anything.

But then it had to be done. We clung to each other for a couple of minutes. I really love her, and feel closer to her than any friend I've had in my life. I loved her from the minute I met her at my second job interview with Charlie. I had already met with him and Julie, and he wanted me to meet the other associates in the firm, so we had dinner at Pricci, a really nice Italian restaurant in town. Kathleen had been out drinking the night before with my predecessor, and was nursing a monster hangover. She sat down and said, "Motherfucker, I've got a headache. I need some water." And that was it. I've adored her ever since, and in the ensuing almost 8 years, we've become bestest buds. Leaving her is the hardest thing about leaving Atlanta. But we will talk and email and see each other and be friends forever.

So now we're on the road, heading to Memphis. We just passed over the Alabama line. The adventure has begun.