Surprise! I'm going to miss you...

Well, not *you*, but a friend of mine.

A friend of mine lives in the UK, but, for the last few years, he has come to the States for 3 weeks every three months or so for his job (he works for a US company).  When he comes, I get to spend a reasonable amount of time visiting with him on the weekends. We usually have lots of fun, I get a nice change to my normal routine, and most times, I end up going places I wouldn't normally go.

And, he's my oyster buddy :-) He introduced me to the joys of raw oysters and when he's here, we have oysters at least once during his visit.

Recently, he's decided it's time to find another job. And I agree. He's very, very smart, driven, and extremely motivated to create great software products. Not something he can do in his current job. He's been dissatisfied with his work for awhile, but giving up the frequent trips to visit his US friends has kept him holding on.  But, to no one's surprise, he's reached his limit and is now ready to find a new job (and he has a few options lined up).  It all makes sense to me and I am happy that he's ready to do something that's more satisfying and more in line with his talents.

A day later after we talked about this, I suddenly realized that I'm going to miss his visits. And, I'm totally surprised. He's a good friend, but we're not especially close. When he's not here, we don't communicate much. And while we have good times together, we don't share close, personal things very often.  So, I'm surprised at how much I suddenly feel a loss. I know that I'll visit him, and I'm sure he'll come for visits as well -- he has a lot of friends here. But, I didn't realize how much his visits had become a part of my general routine. Once every three months, there he was.

Today, I felt oddly happy and sad. Happy that my friend has a bright future ahead of him and is going to go out and reach for it. And yet so sad that this change means I won't have as many fun times with a friend who, apparently, has come to mean more to me than I realized.
 
Surprise...