2004-12-01 - 1:48 a.m.

I�ve been on a quest to replace a very sad chair (Old Pink) for nearly a year. I think Old Pink came from a garage sale in Montabello in 1995. I know she lived in a number of band rehearsal rooms and eventually floated into Erik�s old band�s practice space. I always had my eye on her and was able to scoop her up when Erik�s band self-destructed in �99. Through the years, my cat (Mr. Blue) has been customizing her. He saw fit to shred one of her arms. This is his work:

Several weeks ago, I spotted a very cute chair/ottoman set on craigslist, and I corresponded with the seller forever trying to set a time to come see it. He (the seller) was in L.A., so it was kind of a pain to drive up there on a weeknight. I started referring to him as �my friend Nelson,� since his name was Nelson and we were calling each other all the time.

Tonight, after enduring Laker game traffic, I finally made it up there and beheld the set, and it was indeed cute. I made the purchase and thought to myself that Nelson really did seem like someone I�d want to be friends with. He had a bunch of friends over, and they were all so damn cute and incredibly friendly. There was a special moment where he left the room and quickly reappeared wearing a totally different outfit�turns out he has a twin brother! My friend Nelson is sneaky. Who knew?!

He seemed really familiar�I thought maybe we went to school together, but I put my finger on it when Erik and I were halfway back to the LBC. He used to be on MadTV! Back when MadTV was super hilarious! He was the red-hot, short bitchy Latino fellow! This is exciting for me, since I used to adore MadTV back in the late 90s.

I miss Nelson already. As for Old Pink, she�s moved on to greener pastures in �the treehouse room,� which is our version of a garage�a non-insulated add-on supported by stilts�guaranteed to crumble when The Big One hits.

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