I'm an emotional person, always have been, always will be. I cry at funeral or memorials for people I barely know. I cry at most weddings. And I especially cry at goodbyes.

This is the time of year I hate living in such a resident saturated city. All of my good friends are resident wives. Last year I had a couple leave that I considered good friends and one go away for a year but she'll be back in about 2 months - yay! But this year I have one leaving that started the same year, husbands in the same program, she was supposed to be here another year and two of our kids are each six weeks apart. There are also two others leaving that I consider good friends.

The prolonged goodbyes suck. This morning it was goodbye at our bible study group, next Wednesday will be goodbye with all of the neurosurgery wives, then there are a couple of going away parties and then finally the neurosurgery graduation dinner where I have no doubt I will be bawling because the next morning they are gone. One to Vegas and one to Florida.

I think this one hits me the hardest because we came in together. When we started we thought we'd go out together but her husband is going to do a fellowship a year early at another Mayo sight instead of staying here. Her 3rd daughter is 6 weeks older then A and her 4th is six weeks older then R.

I'm terribly sad because they're leaving but I also wonder if I'm sad because I'm getting left behind. I will have two good friends that are still here for our final year, one will also be leaving next year onto a real job and one will be finishing her first year as a staff spouse. We will be going on to one more year of training and then who the hell knows. This is just another reason why 7 year residencies suck because you're in one place so much longer then so many other people its hard to make friends that are here the whole time and are at the same point in their lives.

Anyway, I hate this time of year. I hope it goes quickly because I hate saying goodbye but at the same time I hope it goes slowly because once they're gone DH's schedule gets that much worse.