Let the goodbyes begin

I just returned home from a fantastic trip to Bar Harbor, Maine. Since Friday, I have driven over 21 hours on the interstates and byways of New Hampshire and Maine, and while interstate driving is not my favorite activity, especially during epic rainfall, I gladly made the trek with my girlfriend to go say good bye to a handful of close collegiate friends.

Bar Harbor is absolutely beautiful, if you can get past/around/through the tourist crowds that sustain the community's economy. I have no problem with tourists on the individual level, as I'll soon be one overseas. Its crowds of tourists that get my goat. Luckily its still early in the season and the weather sucked, so there weren't hordes of people out on the streets.

Its weird, with roughly a week left before staging, the real goodbyes have begun; other the past weekend I said au revoir to people who love me. Until yesterday, the common parting message would usually be See you tomorrow/in a week/in a month, but now that's changed. See you in 27 months, if all goes to plan carries a uniquely immediate and fatalistic tone. I'm trying not to be fatalistic about this, but I've never been staring down such an alienating and extended absense before.

In lighter news, I cut all my hair off. Well, almost all; I left about an 8th of an inch on the top of my head. Before I left for Bar Harbor I hit up a local barber and ordered a buzz cut. She was nice enough to take the razors to my face, as well, making the shaving process far easier. So now I'm clean cut and ready to look business-casual for staging and PST. Woo-hoo.