Goodbye, Andrea!

I'm losing one of my favorite nightlife partners in crime.

Ledger-Enquirer business reporter Andrea Hernandez leaves town this week to pursue a graduate degree in speech pathology.

Andrea and I came to Columbus around the same time four years ago. While I embraced Bud Lights and choruses of "Sweet Home Alabama," Andrea's initial reaction was, well, a little different.

I remember a Saturday night trip down Broadway when Andrea came up with a reason not to enter basically every bar downtown.

Things changed as Andrea's time in Columbus progressed. She ultimately became one of my favorite examples of a willingness to adapt -- and still criticize poor fashion decisions, of course.

While I urged Andrea to accept Columbus' jukeboxes, she occasionally lured me to the ATL.

We had two major nightlife excursions there, both of which happened on her birthday. The trips spanned a late-night coat check debacle, an aborted girl fight on the dance floor and debit card fraud at 4 a.m.

I don't regret one second of it.

Working in a field often dominated by career changes, I've learned how to say goodbye without getting too contemplative. I've mastered the art of exchanging long-distance contact information.

I know that the time we get to spend with our closest friends is usually too short.

But that doesn't stop me from always wishing it could last a little longer.

(The soundtrack to this post is Beyonce's "Get Me Bodied," a song Andrea diligently requested at Columbus clubs...sometimes her request was honored, sometimes it wasn't.)