Written 3:30am, June 13; edited for coherency and published 12:30am, June 14

It's nearly 24 hours since I groggily turned off my alarm, showered, took the last of the things to the car and headed to L.A. with the kitties! I awoke at 4:30 and was on the freeway, croissanwich in hand, by ten after six. And what a crazy journey that was! Six hours of cats meowing at me is not the most fun thing in the world, I must say.

8:45 am
Joe: Hello?
Meg: Hey, it's me.
Joe: Hey, how's it going?
Meg: Okay. I'm bored of driving now!
Patches and Homer: Meow, meow, MEOW!!!

I also called Joe because my boredom was making me sleeeeepy. Talking to him helped a lot, and after an hour of chatting, I felt much more alert, but Joe was very sleepy. I told him I'd let him get some more rest, and I called up my mom. She and I can talk for hours, so I thought that would be a fun way to entertain myself. Well, about five minutes into our conversation, my phone died. Low battery. Always a comfort to know your sole point of contact is completely gone when driving on the freeway in the middle of nowhere. How sad is it that one of my first thoughts was, "Aw damn, now I can't audioblog!"?

I kept telling myself comforting things while I freaked out. Then I began worrying that the cats were getting overheated. Patches looked like she was panting, because the way she meowed was to open her mouth wide and say, "Meow, reeawwwrr, meeraaawwwrrrr!" without closing her mouth at all. It looked very scary, and I knew I needed to tell Joe I was phone-less anyway, so I decided to get some gas. I stopped and filled the tank, looked in on the cats, and tried not to worry. I went inside to buy some mints and get change for the payphone. Joe didn't answer his cell, so I left him a message and tried to remember the directions to the house (the original plan was for me to just call Joe when I hit a certain exit so he could direct me over the phone to the boarding place for the kitties, but clearly that plan was no longer going to work out). I put a towel over the cats' crates and hit the road again with a full tank. I very quickly realized that I'd just made a giant blind spot with that towel, so I tore it down. When I did so, it finally dawned on me that sure, the cats were getting some sun, but the inside of the car was air conditioned. They do that at home all the time - while the air is on, they lie in the sunlight coming through the window. Voluntarily! Relief swept over me as I realized I was not torturing my cats (well, not via sun exposure anyway - they still weren't too thrilled to be in their crates in a car moving at 85mph!), and we continued on our way. I listened to my CDs of old time radio shows ("What are you going to do? Kill me, I ask hopefully?"), and munched on some granola bars while searching for landmarks. I always love seeing notable places or signs that let me know I'm very close to my destination. The Los Angeles County sign is a big deal, as well as the Angeles National Forest.

When I finally came across the exit for the boarding place, I got off the freeway, wondering if a gas station might be nearby. Or perhaps I'd even discover the boarding facility all on my own! No such luck. I started following signs back to the freeway, and called Joe.

"Hi, I'm on my cell, I don't know how long it'll let me talk!" I blurted out at him when he answered the phone. We very briefly discussed directions. I knew all the correct streets and turns to get to the house, except for which way to turn off the freeway! Kind of an important one. Once I knew where I was going, it wasn't long before I was on the porch steps in Joe's arms.

He and I drove the kitties to the boarding place, at which point they asked, "Do you have their vaccination records?"

"Uhhh, no," I said. I forgot! They were in my car, and we'd taken Joe's car to the boarding place. They said we could fax it to them, though. Otherwise, they'd vaccinate them themselves. At least we knew they weren't going to get kicked out! Joe and I followed a girl back to the kitty area, and let them out of their crates. They began sniffing everything and hissing. We picked them up and said goodbye, but they squirmed a lot, so we set them in their cage together. They hissed and swatted at each other a little bit, which was weird as hell, since they never do that kind of thing normally. Our kitties are super mild, so it was just strange. I'm sure the stress from the drive just got to them. They never stay awake for six consecutive hours! Or cry for six consexutive hours, for that matter. Hopefully they calmed down and are snuggled up together right now. I'll call tomorrow afternoon to check in on them.

So, we're here! We're staying at our friend's house, which is being remodeled. More people will be moving in over the next few weeks, but for now, it's just me and Joe in this big house. I didn't even write about my first trip down here, and how the big open windows freaked us out. We wanted something to cover them with, especially that first night. We'd bought a shower curtain for the shower earlier in the day, so I said, "Let's put the shower curtain in the window! I know it'll work!" And it did! Not only did it work, it worked so well we got two more shower curtains over the next two days, one for another window, and one for the shower itself. Then I left for a week, and now that I'm back, I see they've put a shower curtain in nearly every window of the house!! I'm so excited that my idea caught on! Heh.

I can't believe we're living in L.A. again. It doesn't seem real yet. It seems like I'm just here on vacation. I'm sure it'll sink in eventually. For now, I'm enjoying the pretty weather, the vacation-y feelings, and the broadband internet connection. We may be sleeping on an air mattress, but we've got broadband!

Speaking of which, I uploaded some new photos to my gallery, and a new entry to Seafoam that I wrote on Saturday. It's about EATM. It's strange, because when I re-read that entry, it sounds so much more upbeat than I felt that day. Maybe I was just trying to convince myself that everything will be okay? I know it will, but that doesn't mean I haven't run through a whole series of emotions since I got the news. The stages of grief perhaps? Sadness, anger, disinterest, anger again. A lot of times I think I'm just fine, like I'll really enjoy UCLA, and I remember back when I really wanted to go there more than any other school. It is a great school, but ... I don't know. I don't feel excited about it yet. I'm still kind of pissy about the whole EATM thing. It's just a huge disappointment, and I guess it'll take me a bit of time to get over it. That's all.

Well, I really should head to bed. Coming Soon, more moving stories, including but not limited to: The woman who said something that made me think, "Yeah, that's why I'm moving away from the Bay Area," the neighbors who said goodbye, Moving with Bobbi, The U-Haul Story, the Packing Up The Car in the Middle of the Night (Practically) story, and the Going to Kinko's and El Pollo Loco while Super Spacey story. Next time!

Good-night!