How to cram 5 years into 5 days

How do you say goodbye to an old friend?

After five years of triumphs, tribulations and a whole lot of Mikes Pastry cannolis I am leaving Boston for the evil empire if you're a Red Sox (or concrete jungle where dreams are made of, if you're Alicia Keys.) Arguably the most defining period of my life is coming to an end.

I've never coped well with transitions -- always the one in elementary school that took 15 minutes to switch from reading to math -- and this transition is going much the same. Unlike my peers who made the big jump from college to the working world, Boston came to work with me like a school child that still carries around its baby blanket or one of those Baby Boomer moms that seem like they never left high school. Boston has been my green blankie or favorite sweatshirt, a comfortable, casual environment I can wrap myself in though good times and bad.

The prospect of leaving behind the historic buildings nestled beside skyscrapers, the cow-path roads and the dropped Rs has admittedly awoken my neuroses. So has the prospect of leaving journalism, a destructive, compulsive habit that when it's good it's so good but when it's bad it's awful. I don't know how I'll be able to excuse my reaching for the wine cabinet after a 12 hour day or the random curse words after I hang up with someone trying to get in my way. I'm excited to finally be with my husband in the same place for more than 4 months at at time, but nervous to know what married life is really like.

So what do I do in the meantime? Soak up everything Boston has to offer (at least in terms of food) in the next 5 days.

I started in my first adult home, Salem, and arguably one of my favorite hangout spots -- the Gulu Gulu cafe. Next stop will be in my current home, Beverly, for a couple of bags of Atomic Cafe coffee. John and I already hit up Sel de la Terre for lunch, and the work crew will go to Lucky's with me on Thursday for I'm sure some alcohol-infused revelry. I'll go to Flour for their bread pudding, Kickass Cupcakes for, what else, cupcakes, and of course Mikes Pastries.

If I gain 5 pounds this week, I'll be OK with that because at each place I'll remember all the memories of good times with friends and maybe that extra adipose layer will be a way to carry Boston with me to my new home.