The One Left Behind

My sister left for California on Sunday, to go to grad school at UCLA. We've lived within 20 minutes of each other for 22 of the 26 years of our sisterhood. That's impressive, considering we've lived in 3 states. But now she has returned to the land of our roots, the Golden State, and it's pretty much a guarantee that she will never live in North Carolina again.

My dad flew in from CA on Friday night to hang out with me for a day and then to drive cross-country with Melanie back to CA.
There was comfort in the knowledge that I would be seeing both of them in 7 weeks at my brother's wedding, so I didn't cry when I said goodbye. I take that back - I teared up as they rounded the corner.

Those of you who have never been emotionally attached to a pet won't understand this, but my heart broke to see Melanie have to say goodbye to Applejack and Zoe. She loves my babies so much. Even my dad was smitten with them after just 2 days. They're easy to fall in love with.

It was wonderful to spend time with my dad. We didn't do anything special, we just hung out. We watched an episode of (one of my new favorite shows) "Psych". He took a nap while I made CD mixes for their trip. He took us out to dinner twice - CPK and Panera. (Thanks, Dad!) It was great. It's just now starting to sink in that I'm the only one left on the East Coast. It leaves me feeling sort of lonely, in a strange way. But I'm waiting in eager anticipation for my trip to L.A. in October.
Brian & Elise are getting married, and I couldn't be more thrilled! It'll also be a wonderful family reunion. Good times, great people.