:(

This morning a received a text message from my best friend, Marcus, that made me happy and also very, very sad. It read "I GOT THE JOB IN VIRGINIA!!" Obviously, he is pretty thrilled about his new job which will take him 2,000 miles away on a government internship. I am too. It is a great opportunity that could set him up for life if things work out the way they should. But he is going to be gone in a few months and that part really sucks.

Sure we have been separated before, when I was gone on my mission for two years, and we haven't even lived in the same city since we graduated from high school six years ago. But, there is something that feels a little more permanent about this time.

Marcus moved here from Indiana when we were in seventh grade and I was assigned to give him a tour of our middle school. The first thing I noticed about him was the San Francisco 49ers Trapper Keeper being held in his arms. Everything after that is history. For the last eleven years we have evolved from sleepovers and Nintendo 64 to rock concerts and road trips. We've seen Dylan, Clapton, and Aerosmith and have traveled to Vegas, San Fran, and the O.C (with hopefully a long-planned trip to Indiana to follow next year). We text each other nearly every day and I have taken enough trips to visit him in Ogden to drive all my Logan friends nuts.

He doesn't read this blog so I suppose I can say whatever I want about him. I really do love the guy as if he were my own brother and I am practically getting teary-eyed just writing this. February is still three months away but it will be here before I know it. I am going to miss you. dude.

Back in our younger days

Older and more hairy, but still rocking the same pose.