Abandoned by user

My husband and daughter pulled out of the driveway at 7:00 a.m., headed east. My son and I fly out on the Thursday red eye flight and then the three of us - husband, son, me, will be driving cross country home after dropping off the girl.

Oh, guys, it's so bittersweet. I'm so proud of her, graduating with honors from college, setting out into the world 2000 miles away with her fiance. This is what parenting is, right - I want my kids to launch. I just don't really want them to launch so far away!

I thought that I would grill steak for my son and I tonight, to try to stave off some of the loss (nothing like food to try to make things better, right), so I drove over to the local grocery store to pick up a few things. I walk into the produce section and see her best friend from kindergarten who works there, and we both start crying and hugging next to the organic pepper display. 

I'm glad that I have Halloween bingo to provide a bit of a distraction from feeling sad. I am also so grateful to all of the brilliant minds who have created new and better ways for us to keep in touch across the miles. If I didn't have facetime and texting and airplanes, this would be so much harder. I can pretend to myself that she's just 2 hours south, as she has been for the last four years, until my mind comes to grips with the reality that she is a ten hour flight away. But even that means that it is still possible for me to visit her several times a year.