Squirrel called us this evening, crying. She asked for Azura, and I handed the phone over, and went into our room. When she got of the phone Azura told me the news.

Moose left her. He's going back to Michigan. She's going to live with her parents in High Point.

"At least she'll still be around," I said. "Yeah..." Azura said.

We held each other, and made small talk. I told her how I'd been feeling about Squirrel. Then we talked about the wedding.

And that was the way we dealt with it. Cycling between sadness that our good friends were leaving, and happiness that we were getting married.

We're going to go over there Thursday and eat dinner, say good bye. I'm surprised at how much this affects me. The only thing I can think of is that I was more deeply bonded with them than I thought.

It's not surprising really. Squirrel and I had a lot of interests in common. Role-playing games, art, comics. Hell, she's one of the few people I know whose taken more math courses than I have. I showed her some database stuff, and started to explain the mathematical theory to her one day. And that was what she wanted to know. I'm really going to miss her.

Of course, she's only moving to High Point, she promises to drive down on weekends (It's about an hour, hour and a half drive.)

I won't miss Moose as much, of course. He didn't try to become as close. He wasn't all there. I guess he had a lot on his mind, and he decided it last night, at the beach.

Ironically, it's what Squirrel wanted too. For him to leave her. To separate for awhile, and grow up. And maybe that will save their marriage. Maybe it will destroy it. No one knows.

But in the meantime, I've got a wedding to plan. Azura and I have told the people we care about most. She told SwtHonestE, her best friend down in Florida, I told LadyDawn. We stayed up late into the night making wedding plans.

Between good work, a wonder fiance, and Squirrel & Moose leaving, I'm still mostly happy. I'm sad they're leaving, but well, I'm overjoyed about the wedding.

Generic Joe's A Typical Male