A lovely note left for me by my office mates We're 4 days into being back in Aberdeen. Before we left for Christmas in Houston, Joy very thoughtfully asked if leaving Houston would be harder this time. I hadn't really stopped to think about the possibility that leaving Houston a second time would harder than the first time, but there was some good truth in that question. When we left in September we left knowing that we would definitely be back at Christmas, a mere 3 months away (I even had a countdown app going). I left at least with the naive expectation that I expect many college students, and many people who are really moving away from home for the first time, leave with- that things will somehow slow down and not really change that much. That life where you leave it won't go on without you there. And I realize that that thought is incredibly egotistical and not sustainable at all because life obviously goes on with people moving in and out of our lives all the t