When awesome people move away

One of the things I love about DC is the diversity. There are folks from all over the country, all over the world, all with different perspectives and lives and stories.

The flip side of this coin of awesomeness is that the population is in a constant state of flux. There are D.C. natives and lifers, sure, but most of the people I tend to meet and befriend are those who come from somewhere else. And all too often, those people tend to leave for greener pastures, a move that makes me scratch my head because, frankly, I can't imagine living anywhere else. (Then again, I'm not paying property tax or trying to find a good school to send children to.)

So basically, Josh and I have gone through the following scenario about five times now since we moved here four years ago:

1. We meet really awesome person/couple
2. We get to know said awesome person/couple
3. We hang out a lot with awesome person/couple and they become the type of people that we automatically invite to any gathering we have
4. Awesome person/couple moves away

This whole process is heartbreaking, to say the least. When we moved out here, we knew absolutely nobody. My birthday in 2005 was spent only with Josh. We went to dinner and a movie. For a lot of people that seems like a perfect celebration, but I am a freaking extrovert who LOVES to go out and host parties, especially birthday parties, so it was actually kind of depressing for me (much as I love spending time with Josh!).

The entire first year or two we lived here was awfully lonely, and it seemed we would never meet people like us, despite our best efforts to attend Meetups, comic and gaming conventions, work happy hours, and the like. We made a few false starts with folks who - surprise - ended up moving away almost the second we started to hit our friendship stride with them.

The latest installation of the now-you-see-them-now-you-don't friends has my heart aching as I type this. I'm fortunate now that we have a fairly broad circle of folks to hang out with, but it is So. Damn. Hard to see yet more awesome people leave. I can't even tell you how tempting it is to let cynicism take over and not get close to anybody else for fear of being hurt like this again, but I'm determined not to let that happen.

And yes, I know...they're in another part of the country, they're not dead. We can still keep in touch, we can still see each other at CONvergence, this move will mean positive changes for them, etc. And honestly, we left a lot of awesome people behind in Minnesota when we moved out here, so I suppose in a way all this pain is a fitting retribution for that. But right now all those thoughts are but a thin balm on the selfish ache of grief I feel.

Long story short, I'd like take this cat up on his offer. If you see me in the next couple of days, I welcome any and all hugs.