Little Raindrops

Posts Tagged ‘Tal’

I’ve been a little lazy on trying to find homes for Tal and Gabby. A few months ago I worked on it a bit, then figured we had plenty of time and it would work out. Maybe it just bums me out so much, I don’t want to deal with it and hope it will just magically fix itself. Well, we’re leaving next month and we still have them. I’d love to bring them along, but it just doesn’t make sense. I’m sure they’d be happier finding loving families locally than they would be going through all the changes we’re about to encounter.

We have an ad in a bunch of papers for them and I got our first call on Saturday for Tal. An older woman whose 13 year-old cat, Mickey, passed away in December. We arranged for her to come by on Sunday and check him out. Of course, she thought he was absolutely gorgeous. He is always scared of strangers at first, and usually takes a few days to warm up completely. I was a little nervous as she cornered him in the hallway to pick him up, but thankfully he didn’t freak out and scratch or hiss. He was definitely nervous, but he was wonderful about it. She decided to take him home and we explained that he’ll need some time to adjust, of course, but then we’re certain he’ll be as loving and affectionate with her as he is with us. It was a really rough day and I was pretty much crying on and off until I went to bed. It’s hard because the goodbye seemed so quick, but how can I really say goodbye? He doesn’t know what’s going on and it’s best to just get it over with. I feel silly for being so upset over it — I know there are bigger things in life — but it was just a very stressful day (and I’m pumped full of pregnancy hormones!)

I woke this morning to a phone call. The woman wants to bring him back to us. Apparently he was hiding and wasn’t as “warm and cuddly as Mickey”. We were very upfront with her yesterday about how he needs time to get used to the change and that he most certainly will be shy for a little bit. It sounds like she just wants a Mickey clone, this perfect cat who loves all people immediately. Tal didn’t do anything wrong, he just wasn’t friendly with her. Over one night. I tried asking her to give him a little bit more time, but she really thought it was a mistake and brought him back to us. I’m so mad that she didn’t give him a chance. And that I went through all the heartache and tears yesterday just to have him back, disoriented and moody, with us today. We’re going to have to go through this all over again with someone else now. And hopefully they’ll be more patient with him. It’s a big change for him and I don’t want him pulled in and out of homes. He’s been home for a few hours now and isn’t quite himself. He’s not hiding anymore, but he’s hissing at Gabby and slinking around cautiously. I’m worried that he won’t be so easy to place. He’s beautiful and friendly, but people can’t get a good feel for his personality after just a brief meeting. I’m praying that someone else will come along for him.

We did get a call about Gabby today. There’s a couple and their two year-old daughter who wanted a young cat. She sounds great and really excited to meet Gabby. She isn’t bothered that she’s missing a leg, just concerned she won’t be able to walk up steps. We don’t have stairs, but she manages to get on the couch and the bed, so I’m sure stairs will be just fine! And she’s worried that Gabby will be aggressive with their toddler. We don’t have a lot of small kids over here, but Gabby has never swatted at anyone, has really only hissed at other cats when she was stressed out, and I’m sure will be nothing but sweet and gentle. So I’m really looking forward to having their family come over and spend some time with her on Wednesday morning (assuming I’m not in the hospital!)

I’ve also been in touch with a woman at VIVA, a local cat and dog rescue. VIVA, like all the shelters around us, are so full and cannot take our kitties in. They are being very helpful in trying to find homes for them, though. This woman was with animal control when Gabby was brought in two years ago and had her leg amputated and she remembers her very well. She said so many people fell in love with her then, and those sorts of cats pull at peoples’ heart-strings, so she’s certain Gabby will be easy to adopt out with the right advertising. We’ll see what happens on Wednesday, but if that doesn’t work out then they’ll be pets of the week in the paper and on their e-mail lists and all that. We’re praying that the right people come along for both of them, and soon. I know we have until the end of March, but things will be so busy very soon and I’d rather get the tears out before I’m tired with Baby, visitors, and moving.

Tal and Gabby have been really good about not destroying the tree. Well, they both drink the water from the stand and Gabby chews all the bottoms off the low-hanging candy canes. I love that they just like to hang out underneath it and relax. We put Gabby’s bed underneath and she spends most of the day there. Matt came out to the living room today and found them both asleep, with Tal lazily resting his head on her back. They are too sweet!

I’d been moody and tired for a little while and just wasn’t feeling up for getting into the Christmas spirit. It’s also harder being in California, where most of the time in December we can wear tank tops and flip-flops. We won’t be going anywhere this year and Jen is coming for a couple days, but not until after Christmas, so I just wasn’t feeling the urge to pull out decorations and bake.

Well, something switched the other day; I think we decided to put on a Christmas DVD. Matt got really excited about the season and we decided to go out and get our first real Christmas tree! We unpacked the lights and decorations, the stockings and the nativity, and went to town. I even baked cookies. We picked up a cute 2007 ornament of a baby mouse sitting on a green pacifier, which reads “Parents-to-Be”. Matt caved and let me put cute little red bows all over the tree, which I think is only fair since he gets his colored lights (and won’t even think about my white lights on our tree!) We have a stocking up for Baby because I think it’s cute to include him/her, even though it’s not really “Baby’s first Christmas” yet, but I’m not really sure what to put in it yet. We also hung Matt’s stocking that he got from Mama last year. It arrived just a little too late last time, so he didn’t get to use it. She stitched Tal and Gabby, Matt’s favorite movie’s logo (Akira!), a Mario 1-up mushroom, us (Matt is wearing the big hat — his hair isn’t that long!), and a mail truck because Matt would like to be a mailman one day. We got pretty pine and cinnamon scented candles, too, and Matt put up the white lights with red and green garland around our kitchen entryway. The whole front of the apartment looks and smells great and I am finally in a Christmas-y mood! There are a few more photos in our gallery. And here is one of Matt loving our tree:

For the past couple of days, we’ve had a feline houseguest. Robb and Janeece from church (and weekly small group) were having their house sprayed for termites, so we offered to take care of their sweet cat, Misi while they were out. Misi is a gorgeous 14-year old Siamese who has never left the same house nor seen another cat with the exception of vet visits. We set up a box, a blanket, a scratching post, food, and a cat house in the game room for her to have as her own private space. We knew that it would take some adjustment and she wouldn’t get along with Tal and Gabby right away, but we were hoping that they would grow indifferent to each other, at least. Well, we didn’t really want to keep Misi locked up in her own room the entire time, but she seemed happiest that way. After the second day, we would leave the door open so Tal and Gabby could slowly check her out. They were really great and weren’t at all aggressive, but as soon as Misi saw another cat (or even knew one was in the hallway!) she would let out a low, constant growl and occasionally hiss. Ours were mostly just curious and didn’t seem to take it too personally, but we found that they were taking out their stress on each other (and us!) We couldn’t really touch Tal without him getting snippy with us and smacking our hands, and they would hiss at and pounce on each other. It wasn’t anything too traumatic, and Misi was a complete sweetheart with just us, so long as other cats weren’t invading her space. I felt bad because she hardly ate anything at all, but I think she was just nervous being away from home for the first time. She survived and Tal and Gabby got over their issues once she left. Everything is back to normal now!

Matt got an assignment! We don’t have orders yet, just the rip. Guess where?! Misawa, Japan!! This is so great because that’s exactly where we wanted to go (#1 on his Dream Sheet.) He had been applying for special duty postal assignments to get to Japan, but there were no slots for his rank at Misawa, so our last application was for Kadena. Well, he didn’t get a postal job, but rather got chosen for this quarter’s overseas nonvolunteer assignments in his career field! We’re not sure what all he’ll be doing yet, but the unit is part of an intelligence group, so that might be interesting! There are a few downsides, though. His report date is 29 Feb and cannot go out any earlier than 30 days ahead of time. Well, being due on the 8th, that really doesn’t work for us. Our options are for him to go out and I’ll follow later, but depending on whether the baby comes late, he may miss the birth! Or we could apply for a new report date, which is what we ended up doing. The date couldn’t be pushed any earlier, only bumped out later. He picked March 31st, but we’ll see what we get back. If the baby comes perfectly on time, then it’ll be about 6 weeks old when we go out there. Initially I would have preferred to go out while pregnant, but this is nice because then family members can meet baby before we move across the world. I know Mama will try to be out for the birth, but that is hard to plan around, especially with Andrea’s due date only 10 days after mine and wanting to be there for her, too. Matt’s parents and Jen will be out in the middle of February also. It will be such a hectic time, but it will be nice to see everybody and maybe get a little help out with getting ready for the move and taking care of baby.

Matt and I have talked a lot about Tal and Gabby and decided that it just doesn’t make much sense to try to bring them. We have to get them microchipped, rabies shots, a FAVN test (will probably take a month or so before we can do that), then a blood test followed by 180 days of quarantine before they can enter Japan. Well, I’m not sure we’ll have the time. Plus, it will be such a drag getting them out there on a long flight then the 12-hour pet shuttle trip up to Misawa. And temporary lodging doesn’t allow pets and our housing options would be limited with them. I think it would also freak them out a ton and who knows how they’re going to handle a newborn on top of all that. We’re going to try really hard to find them a good home and maybe (hopefully!!) they’ll get to stay together wherever they are. It’s sad and we’ve grown really attached, but I think it would just be crazy (and expensive) to try to move them out with us. It will be quite the stressful time without dealing with pets. They’ve been so sweet with us and we love them so much, but so long as they’re with loving new parents, I’ll be okay with it. Maybe someday when we’re settled in we can get another kitten, too!

So when we adopted Tal, the shelter didn’t know what breed he is and just said “domestic short hair”. Firstly, his hair is not all that short. Not that I really need to know his breed or anything, so it doesn’t matter too much. I was looking at this community I’m a part of, foundphotos, and ran across a bunch of cat pictures someone had posted. They all look like Tal! I always thought it was neat how his whole body is white, but the top of his head and his entire tail is orange. Apparently all these kitties are Turkish Vans, a type of cat whose whole bodies are white, but have color on their heads and tails. His fur is really, really soft, which is common with these cats. They also have an unusual fascination with water. (Maybe because they come from a lake area in Turkey?) Tal will hang out between the shower curtains whenever Matt or I shower. He also just chills out in the bathtub and lets the faucet drip on him all the time. We just thought he was a cook. So I’m betting he’s a Turkish Van! Doesn’t matter to me, but it’s neat to know. Apparently they’re a rare breed, too. Just uhm … thought I’d share!

I’ve actually been avoiding posting since we returned because, while most of my posts are pretty lengthy, this one just seems like too great an undertaking. Well now it’s time, so here we go!

Mel and Matt’s Excellent Vacation

Monday - We left the car in Santa Barbara in the C-lot … C for Conklin. We had a layover in Los Angeles, so we went and had chili at Chili’s in the airport. It was 7 pm before we landed in Denver and Mama and Ron were there to meet us. We chatted in the car and pretty much crashed in front of the TV with some terrific Sloppy Joes when we got to the house. Not much of interest to report.

Tuesday - Mama rented a car for us, which was extremely nice. She had to do some work, so Matt and I just sort of wandered around town a little bit. He picked out a new, “grown-up” leather wallet (to replace his dingy Linkin Park, Hot Topic wallet). For some reason, I couldn’t do a name change on my driver’s license last year unless I was at a Colorado DMV in person, so this was my first opportunity to correct my driver’s license. Surprisingly, that took all of ten minutes. When Mama finished working, she took us to the Cave of the Winds. Well, actually she made a wrong turn and took us to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. That was okay, though, since we had never been there before! We toured around the museum and the dwellings a bit, then watched the native American dancers, which was so cool! Afterward we went to the Cave of the Winds, but would have had to wait around too long for a tour, so we just left. In the evening Mama and I looked through old “kid things” that I might want to take back with me or have mailed. All of what I’d like to keep is mostly children’s books, the rain stick Grandpa gave to me, and a box of old sketchbooks, journals, and yearbooks. We had a nice steak dinner with baked potatoes and spinach/egg/bacon salad on the back porch, followed by a rousing game of Balderdash! Ron and Mama are awesomely goofy with their definitions and Matt was really good, but that night I topped them all! Heheh. When Mama and Ron went to bed, we stayed up and watched some TiVo’d Animal Planet.

Wednesday - What a relaxing day! We slept in and didn’t do much in the morning. Mama, Matt and I drove to Gleneagle to meet Ron for lunch at Barracuda Bob’s. What a cute little lunch stop! Ron took Matt back to hang out, but Mama and I headed to Black Forest for Yevgeniya’s Day Spa for our massages and facials. We had our massages together first and they were so relaxing! Mama then had her facial while I hung out in the sauna and read magazines. When I went in for my facial she got a pedicure. The place was so comfortable and the people there were extremely nice! We spent most of the afternoon doing that, then headed back, a little oily and feeling refreshed. We had dinner followed by another round of Balderdash, which Matt won. More Animal Planet then bed.

Thursday - Thursday I don’t remember doing much of anything, which is wonderful. Mama and Ron had to work, so we just sort of lounged around as I remember. Dinner was really the highlight of the whole day. Mama and Ron took us out for a first anniversary dinner to The Melting Pot. Oh my goodness, it was so good and so much fun! We ordered the Big Night Out, which started with wine and salads (whoa, great salads), followed by a spinach and artichoke heart cheese fondue with rye bread, apples, tortilla chips, carrots and celery for dipping. How great was that! Mama and Ron split the Pike’s Peak Entree (lobster, shrimp, teriyaki steak, chicken, New York strip, and ravioli pieces to cook) and Matt and I shared the Garden of the Gods Entree (filet mignon medallions, teriyaki steak, chicken, peppercorn pork, sausage, and portobellos). We traded our mushrooms for their ravioli Florentine! We chose to cook our meats in a Coq au Vin fondue, which is a broth with burgundy wine, mushrooms, garlic, spices and herbs. What I liked is that they made everything in pot in front of us: mixed up all the cheese fondue ingredients before our eyes as well as all the meat fondue ingredients. Now we can go home and do it ourselves! We were stuffed, but couldn’t skip out on the chocolate fondue dessert. We chose a dark chocolate fondue with strawberries, pound cake, bananas, brownies, cheesecake, Oreo covered marshmallows, and graham cracker marshmallows. Overwhelming goodness! Anyhow, that was dinner. I can’t believe I spend more time talking about food than anything else. It really was that good, though!

Friday - Matt and I packed up and headed for Denver, where Mama owns a condo by the science museum. We went to the Cherry Creek Mall to wander around the Tattered Cover, grab some lunch, and pick up Oblivion for Matt. I don’t know if it was just the heat (98 degrees that day!!), the lack of oxygen, or just laziness, but when we returned to the condo we pretty much just passed out on the couch for a few hours, unable to move at all. The condo is nice. Mama is redoing everything in it to prepare to rent it out to travelers on business. I think it’ll be great! For our purposes, it was perfect! Comfy bed, a pretty shower, Internet, television, a pool. Hooray! When we finally got up off the couch, we met up with a friend of mine from Fort Collins, Matt (yes, another one!) He moved to Denver a while ago to go for a second bachelor’s degree in industrial design. We didn’t really have any plans, so we found ourselves driving around aimlessly, chatting and catching up. We found a pretty little lake and went for a walk around it. The walk was longer than anticipated in such heat, but it was still nice! We went to 16th St. downtown to wander around and found dinner in the Appaloosa Grill. Matt (mine) had the seared Ahi tuna to try for the first time, which we found neither of us really care for. What was terrific was the pomegranate pork with brie mashed potatoes! It was a relaxing visit of mostly chatting and “how-have-you-been”s. Matt was a really good friend to me a few years ago and it’s very nice to see him again and introduce him to my Matt!

Saturday - Renaissance Festival! Matt and I drove down from Denver to Larkspur to meet up with Mama and Ron at the RenFest. We got there first, so we wandered around the shops, took in some Puke & Snot, and watched a bit of the Washing Well Wenches. When Mama called, we met up for some corn on the cob and turkey legs. Mmmm… We checked out the batiks while we waited to shoot at the archery range. Matt and I stopped by the yarn shop and I got a spinning lesson (with a drop spindle, but also got a history lesson on the spinning wheel). Way fun! We bought a spindle and some wool for me to try out at home. That was enough of the RenFest for us. We headed back to the condo, did a little swimming, and just hung out some more. Then we got all dressed and went out on a little date to Benihana. Matt has never had Japanese food before, so I thought we’d go out to a grill with performing chefs. The food was okay and our table was un-talkative and seemed really grouchy. We went back to the Cherry Creek Mall afterwards to see Click, which was okay but not great. It’s just nice to be out with Matt on a date.

Sunday - Matt and I drove up to Fort Collins so I could show him my old freshman year stomping ground and meet up with some of the boys. Matt and I navigated our way through Old Town, where a busy Brew Fest was commencing, to Beau Jo’s for some yummy Colorado-style pizza. The group of geeks I hung out with at CSU has sort of disintegrated over the years, so we didn’t participate in a 20-person Outback dinner like we used to, but we definitely had to meet up with Tim at last. We arranged to meet at Joe’s place and I, unfamiliar with the roads and foiled so many times by massive road construction, finally made it there after a few wrong turns.. Tim’s hair is its natural color and much shorter. All the guys are looking great! Andy had just arrived home from hanging out with Peace Corps buddies in Denver, so Tim, Joe, Matt and I swung by his place to snag him. I haven’t seen Andy since I joined the Air Force and he joined the Peace Corps in 2002, so it was really nice to meet up after all that time. Matt had all ready met Tim and Joe at the wedding last year, but we introduced him and Andy. We bowled two games at the Horsetooth lanes. Matt and Tim are tied for the win, Andy won the drunken bowling award, and well … Joe and I just kind of stink. :-p It was a blast, though! We went to Young’s Cafe afterwards for some Vietnamese, which was pretty good. We went back to Joe/Dave’s place to watch Tom Yum Goong, a Thai martial-arts flick. It was, well … amusing enough! The guys assured us that the previous movie, Ong-Bak, was much better. It was still nice to just hang out with the guys, though. We headed back to Denver around 9, but didn’t really get there until about 11:30 because of horrible traffic! Oh, it was a mess. I think we watched the Simpsons then crashed.

Monday - Got up and packed our stuff. Mama and Ron showed up around 9:30. We watched the Discovery Channel to kill some time before we headed to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to see the Body Worlds 2 exhibit. We had tickets for 11:30, but slipped in sneakily at 11. We saw all sorts of real bones, muscles and organs as well as real people posed so we could see all the nerves and muscles and whatnot. It was neat enough, but I guess I was expecting something more spectacular. It wasn’t really gross or anything, either. Everything was plastinated (?) and we got to see a lot of cross-sections of people and organs and whatnot. I think the part that got to my stomach the most (but was still amazing) was seeing a uterus with an actual 3-month fetus inside or the cross-section of a pregnant woman. It’s incredible, but still sad. I kind of felt like it was just like school. We had little placards tell us what the elbow is or the stomach. We kind of know a lot of that all ready. I think the most interesting was the abnormal stuff: the coal miner’s lung, the gigantic liver with cysts all over it, or the cross-section of an entire 400-pound man and all the fat in the organs and whatnot. We sort of flew through it in about 30 or 40 minutes, though. It was pretty crowded and most of the stuff didn’t require a lot of scrutinizing. Matt and I grabbed some McDonald’s cheeseburgers and Mama and Ron took us to the airport. We said our goodbyes outside, then headed in to wait for a few hours. We got some TCBY yogurt and the guy who served us was also at our table at Benihana, so we chatted a little bit. We had a three-hour layover in LA again, so we returned to Chili’s for some chili and chips. We read a lot. I started and finished Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, which isn’t terribly long (perfect for layovers and plane trips!) but I enjoyed it tremendously. It’s a fun, fantastical fairy tale and I do so adore Neil. We got home just before midnight, downloaded the new WoW patch, and installed Oblivion before crashing. It was quite a nice trip. When we talked to the cat-sitter, Meredith, she told us that the had a wonderful time playing with Gabby, but she couldn’t go anywhere near Tal. This was a shock to us, because Gabby is constantly terrified of Matt and Tal is the social one. I guess we’ll never understand.

Wow, that was … lengthy! Matt wrote his own long overview of our trip at his blog, too. Other things have happened since we returned, but I don’t feel like typing anymore! More later …

Yesterday Little Melissa and I hung out and it was a blast! We had a KFC picnic in a park in Santa Maria before heading to Boomers for some miniature golf. Being that it’s the first sunny, rainless day we’ve had in weeks, a Saturday, and the beginning of most kids around here’s Spring Break, the golf course was super crowded. We scratched that idea and went for a round of DDR. Then we sat in line for ever waiting for the bumper boats. I don’t think I’ve ever done bumper boats before, and even though I don’t especially enjoy getting sprayed for five minutes with dirty pond water, it was pretty fun. The only time Melissa’s been on a Go-Kart was with her father when she was seven and it was really scary for her, so we decided to give it another whirl. We picked a two-seater and I was the driver. When a lady crashed into the side and took up the entire road, we slammed on the brake as not to hit her and discovered that our car had no brakes at all. Oh, we smashed into her pretty badly. Having no brakes isn’t that big of a deal until the end of the five minutes is up. When the guy stood out in the middle with his flag and everyone stopped in a nice little line in front of him, we came barreling through at full-speed yelling “get out of the way! We can’t stop!”, coming inches away from running him over. I suppose it was the most exciting park go-cart experience I’ve had. We did another exhausting round of DDR then went sunglasses shopping at the mall. No, we didn’t get these, he he. Good times. We hung out at home afterward, hung out with the cats and played around on MySpace. She has Spring Break all this week and I only have Thursday – Monday, so hopefully we’ll get a chance either Thursday or Friday to hang out and, if the weather’s nice, maybe go for a nice hike around here.

Yup, still alive. It’s been a pretty hectic month. School is stressful as usual. Had my second math exam, which I know didn’t go nearly as well as the first one. It’s tough stuff and I just need to study harder.

Since my last post a few things have happened. I had my birthday. It wasn’t really all that exciting, but it doesn’t seem like 23 is supposed to be. It was the weekend my best gal pal Carol left town for Nebraska. It was all sort of bittersweet, as it’s an exciting adventure and she’ll be back with her love, but sad that we got really close just recently and now she’s gone. I should be used to seeing friends come and go by now. We had a really nice going-away / birthday dinner at a cute local cafe. I had to go to school on my actual birthday, so it was fairly uneventful.

So Matthew’s out in New Jersey now. I’m excited for him because it seems so romantic to just drop everything and set up in a completely new place to be with someone you care about. I know he’s struggling some with personal issues right now and I hope she’s the influence and encouragement he needs. My only concern is his lack of employment. Hopefully his restaurant prospect will work out. It’s just sad that he’s now that much farther away. I’m way out here with the Pacific Ocean in my backyard and my two siblings are way out as east as can be. I just miss ‘em.

So Matt and I have been trying to plan a first anniversary trip for this June. We figured we’d drive out to Colorado and see my mom. We were thinking about IndieFest, which is in beautiful and relaxing Pagosa Springs, but I guess we both just aren’t feeling it. A lot of the bands are pretty cool, just no one we’re passionate about. Then we were considering Wakarusa, which isn’t that much farther of a drive and would be completely cool because there’s a bunch of bands there that we would absolutely love to see. It’s just that we’re driving the whole way there and back and are all ready short on leave, so it seems like too much of a hassle. Last summer we did the High Sierra Music Festival and next summer we hope to do Coachella, which seems like the only reasonable festival to attend, since it’s within a 5-hour drive. Next month Dave Gilmour will also be in San Francisco for his On an Island tour … hmm.

So we moved into this new apartment. It’s only about 5 miles from our old one, but it’s “in town”, which I suppose is better. We can walk places now, if we were to go anywhere. The place is so much nicer than our old one. It’s a lot newer and cleaner and has a second bedroom and a dishwasher, woohoo! We got bedroom furniture (finally) and a new couch yesterday and have completely moved everything, so we’re starting to settle in nicely. Pictures to come soon! A driving factor was being able to get a second cat: our old place only allowed one pet. So of course last weekend we went out and adopted a kitten. She’s a four-month old gray tabby with three legs (had to be amputated earlier this month after she got caught in a car belt). At first I thought that was kind of creepy, but she’s so pathetically cute and I just love her to death. We named her Gabby because she’s a Gray tABBY (hah yah, I know, lame), but mainly because we were looking for someone to name her for and we decided to go with Gabby La La (one of our new-found favorite artists … and playing in Santa Monica during my spring break … hmm …) She and Tal were really hesitant and curious about each other at first (a bunch of pictures here). Gabby just sort of sat in her house and Tal would stare at her and slowly approach. He whacked her on the head a few times and I think that ticked her off. For the next two days they’d hiss a lot and swat, but now they snuggle together, hang out, wrestle (and she makes the most horrible quack/groan things when she wrestles), and share everything. I think they’ve adjusted to each other really well, which makes things a million times easier. I’m glad Tal now has a playmate, since we’re at work and school most of the day and he just hangs out alone at home. So we’ve just been spending a lot of time with the kitties the past few days.
So I’m skipping school today because Jen, Matt’s little sister, flew in from New York for her spring break. She spent yesterday in LA and is on a bus on her way to Santa Maria right now. She’s staying through Sunday, but I can’t get out of school tomorrow (physics lab and I tutor … kind of important) and I have drill all day Saturday and Sunday (and this weekend is mandatory, unfortunately). So today is really the only day I’ll get to spend with her, which is a huge bummer because she is one awesome chicky and I’m so glad she’s traveled all the way out here to see us! At least Matt will have Friday – Sunday to hang with his sis. We don’t have any huge, exciting plans. She just spent a few months at an internship at Martha’s Vineyard writing songs and performing, then just had a trip to Nashville to hang out with all sorts of cool bands, then hung out with hot guys in LA, so I kind of feel like our visit is the low-point of her vacation. Ahwell, we’ll take her out to a nice dinner and play video games. Matt will be the entertainer really, so he’d better come up with something fun to do, hehe.

Well that’s about all for me. I need to move some of the cardboard boxes out of the way and make the place a little more presentable for our guest. Ciao!

Edit: I snapped some quick apartment photos for your viewing pleasure. The place is still somewhat messy, but we’re working on it. Enjoy!