Leaving is a strange thing. . .

Leaving is a strange thing. It’s even a strange word. Say it to yourself. Say it out loud several times. It’s kind of like “elbow.”

I have less than a week left in the greater Pittsburgh area. I am going on my seventh year here. I have had some wonderful “ups” and “downs,” and I hope my time here was very well spent, but there are times when I have my doubts.

My friends here will be the hardest thing to leave. The friends here have become like family. They’ve cared for me as one of their own, like a family member. They’ve invited me into their homes, fed me, clothed me, and loved me. They’ve truly loved me.

I can’t explain what it’s like to really be loved. To be loved with your baggage, and in some instances loved for your baggage.

Do you really know what it’s like to be loved? Seriously loved. Not just “kind of” loved, but loved all the way around. Loved when you’re at your best, but also truly loved when you’re at your worst.

I know I do. Thank you all. Thank you men of the CLC (and their wives and children), thank you clan LeCornu, thank you CCGF family, thank you so have i, thank you Kidd, thank you Shaw, Bo, Shaw Jr., (actually the entire poker clan), thank you to everyone I have forgotten. . . put your name here _______________________, because I couldn’t have made it without you.