The NAIRU and Goodbyes

Last night was our first real goodbye, made strange by the fact that it was also the first time we had all been together in more than a month. I wondered why we had drifted apart, and why she had spent her last evening with us, and I was so glad that she did. We wandered down to catch her a cab, as if nothing was out of the ordinary, and hugged. How strange it all felt. She doesn't like goodbyes.

The NAIRU came out. For those of you unfamiliar with the NAIRU, he is a toilet-paper roll man that Numoy and I created in second-year after a particularly fruitless study session for macro. Needless to say, he has been around a lot since. He has been to Waterloo and Toronto. He has been dropped it pitchers of beer and kissed by multiple women. I tucked him away at the end of the night, to be crushed in my bag with my stolen Bifteck glass. He's had a good run.

Now its all snowballing on me. Speaking with him as I was leaving Rez last night, my subtle envy at his three years to come, his disbelief that I was graduating already. Our agreement that something strange happens to time when you are here, as so much changes so fast.

Slow change as well. Sometime during my night at BDP I was accosted by an old 'ex', one who has spent the last three years setting up an awkward arrangement between us. His actions placed us squarely in 'uncomfortable acquaintances' and I went along, trying not to be hurt as he avoided my eyes at bars and gave up on small talk after 'how's it going'. Suddenly we are talking. Sure there was intoxication involved, but we have been out together before. From zero to friends in less than sixty seconds. He wants to hang out. I asked if he really meant it, and he emphatically said yes. Stuck wondering how much of this was related to beer, I think I will get back in touch. I hate not being friends with him.

So the rain continues on and off, and I wish it would stop so I could wander around. I'll take advantage of this lull and race off into the afternoon.