Only help someone pack if you want to miss them less.

Erik left tonight. *sigh* He thinks I'm being a huge nerd for being sad that he's gone, and you know what? He's totally right.

We're going to a wedding together next weekend in Spokane, so I'm spending a couple days with him. Then two weeks later is his sister's wedding, so I'm going to the Tri-Cities that weekend, booking it up there as soon as VBS ends to hopefully make it in time for the rehearsal dinner.

Then it's my birthday...not sure if I'll see him then, but I hope so!...but then two days later is Creation (Creation Festival NW is a GIGANTIC Christian Music Festival held at the Columbia River Gorge--4 days of sunshine, friends, and music=GLORIOUS!!), and I am officially GOING!! And here's the best part--it's "work" so I'm going FOR FREE!!!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Seriously, it's awesome. At least 2 of my favorite bands will be there...not to mention about 50 other bands!!! I went last summer for the first time ever, and it was FANTASTIC!! And crazy hot, but who cares?!? Especially after the Portland dreariness, I could move to Las Vegas and bake in the heat all year with April and never get sick of it! Anyway, Erik pretty much always goes to Creation, so unless something crazy happens, I'm sure I'll be spending 4 days with him then (along with the other young adults we'll be taking as "Young Adult Ministry"--the best part of my job, hands down. I get paid to hang out with people my age. Okay, so we're supposed to talk about God, too. We do...usually. :) Anyway...).

Then the next weekend is my cousin's wedding in Montana, and I think Erik's going to go with me, so we totally have the best possible situation in terms of long-distance dating.

So about the title of this post. All week we've been packing and cleaning and getting him ready to go. He has an interesting housing situation, and it turned out that he's actually leaving all his stuff in the house (his roommates aren't moving for awhile, apparently), so we packed him all up, but didn't move anything, except to get it all out of the way. Day 1 and Day 2 of packing were really fun, actually. We were playing and working and taking breaks and enjoying each other. Day 3 we took off and went on a date instead. Day 4 was fairly productive, but we were both sort of tired of it...by last night (Day 5)...eeek. We were both tired and frustrated and sick of packing, and since we were the only ones there, we were definitely taking it out on each other. Finally I offered to head home so we could both have a breather, and instead we decided to take a deep breath and remember that it was the packing we were sick of, not each other. Then it went a lot better, and a lot faster. We got his car packed up this morning, his roommate made us all an awesome brunch, and then, as a suprise thank you for helping him all week, Erik took me to see "Get Smart!" He's good like that, and it was awesome to spend a few stress-free hours together doing something fun before he hit the road. (And we both totally enjoyed the movie by the way--it's pretty funny!)

Alas, then it was time to say goodbye, and I headed to work (yep, on a Saturday. Lame, I know. And I'm working tomorrow, too.) and he headed to the Tri-Cities. He left me a message letting me know he made it, so he's officially gone now. I decided that packing people up for a move is God's way of helping making goodbyes easier--we have a frustrating, lengthy task to do together so we get annoyed and miss them less. The only trouble is, it only works for a few minutes. And don't worry, I still miss Erik. Even if I WILL get to see him again in less than a week!