As one departs, two arrive....

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye...

I am so sad. My friend Michele is moving to Pittsburgh, this weekend! We haven't had much time to say goodbye but we did have a "going-away dinner" Wednesday night at McCormick & Schmick's where Michele used to be a server. It was a fun evening, despite the occasion. But we know she'll be back. One or two Pennsylvania winters oughta have her running back here to sunny California (at least we hope so!). Who is going to catalog the things that suck about LA with me now? Michele and Darcy were the first people I really met here in LA that a) gave me the time of day and b) didn't think I was too weird or too "girl from rural Pennsylvania" to hang out with. Seriously, the night I met you guys at SnB I came home and told Tristan "I think I made friends!" Something that I worried might not happen so thank you!

Here's Wednesday's gang:

Back row: Me, Michele, Christian, Emily and Mike
Front row: Sarah, Sam, James (also Annie in the second pic) & Mike

We dressed up for fun--see Michele's blog for more info. I'm wearing a dress that Tristan bought me about 5 years ago when we first started dating. Since it still fits, I had to wear it (overlooking the fact that it is made of stretchy material, mind you).

Christian, Michele & Me. Christian was at a swank Louis Vitton party. Quite dapper in that hat, no? Doesn't Michele look great? Pardon my cleavage...

Saturday we are off to Runyon Canyon. I've never been and I'm glad I have one more chance to say goodbye...to Michele, not to Runyon Canyon although since I go hiking like, once ever 15 years it might seem like that.

I am so sad to see Michele go and I will visit her next time I go home to PA. Only a 45 min flight from Harrisburg or 1 hour from Lancaster (thats Lanc-astor, not LAN-castor like you crazy Californians say)!

On a happier note:

Tristan and I added to our family in the last few weeks. Magellan needed a playmate so we went to look at some kitties up for adoption at our vet's office (Laurel Pet Hospital in West Hollywood--awesome vets, by the way). These kitties had been brought in when they were 3 months old and relinquished to the vets. They are now 8 months old--5 months of living in a little cage together! Well, we wanted just one when we left the house but they were obviously bonded and if we took them both they would neuter them for free so we got them both. Yes, we are officially CRAZY CAT PEOPLE. That's 5 cats. But the two older ones spend most of their time under the bed or in the closet so it's really like we only had 1 to begin with...

But the kittens are just so damn cute. And they lay (ly? lie? never did get that right in English class) together so much that it's really like we just got one large, 2-headed cat. We named them Pierson and Post. It's a law school joke. The first case that just about everyone in law school reads is Pierson v. Post, about a guy (Post) who is tracking a fox through woods and valleys for hours only to have another guy (Pierson) step out and shoot it as it went past, having expended zero effort to actually hunt it down. The question was "who owns that fox?" The court decided that the guy who shot him had dibs. Yeah, that's exactly how they said it too. Anyway, Tristan and I met in Property class and we joked a long time ago when we first started dating about getting two cats and naming them after this stupid case which is really a hallmark of the law school experience. So here they are. See, 2-headed kitty...
Close up of Post--who is a bit more skittish than Pierson. He is more grey with very pronounced black stripes. He is also very sweet and likes to eat my hair. When scared he runs and sits in the litter box. Ew! But he makes up for it by doing this very Stevie Wonder head rolling thing when he is puzzled by something that is just adorable.

His wiley brother Pierson (see why we didn't name him Post?) waiting to pounce on his brother's tail. He pounces on everything. He's especially fond of biting my kneecap through the comforter which hurts even more than you imagine it would. He also gets confused by our sheer curtains and on more than one occasion has tried to leap through them to get from the windowsill onto a nearby chair, bringing down the curtain rod, the curtain and a floor lamp or two. He finds that this activity is best undertaken at 3:30 in the morning.
Two sleepy kitties. That's Pierson in the front. He is more of a brown-grey and has white tips on 3 of his paws.

Close up of Pierson. He had to inspect the camera's zoom....See his black mouth? I think he's sort of Goth.


And here's Post after I'd taken like a zillion pictures. He figured he'd better just pose and get it over with. Doesn't he look like he's about to say "are you quite finished?" I think he has a Bitish accent though I can't explain why...
Just to give you an idea of how big these boys are. They are only 8 months old and their paws are huge....and they are lying on a king size bed. We may have to move to a bigger condo in the next year or so just to accommodate them.

Well, I have other fun things to tell you and I promise to do so soon. I got a new job, we just had to make some major, super fun emergency home repairs which might mean some fine dining on Ramen until, oh, about Christmas and I have some finished knitting projects and works in progress to share with you all...

But now I'm going to go get some sleep so I can get up early to do my homework. Because, um, tonight I had to watch Grey's Anatomy and stuff and all the things I thought I would get done are still, um, not so much done (or, ahem, even started).