Forest of Friends: The Octet

Their were 8 of us in my graduate school class at UC Irvine, and we affectionately referred to ourselves as "The Wonder Octet." After graduation, two moved to New York and the other six either stayed in Orange County or moved up to Los Angeles. We are a very close group, and while our professors and program were outstanding, it is really this group of people that made my grad school experience the joy and opportunity for growth that is was.

This week Jen was visiting from New York, and many of us were able to get together. Our classmate Jason and his wife Amanda hosted a BBQ at their posh Irvine apartment, where grilling and playing the Wii took place.

We talked about day jobs, auditions, managers, books we were reading, and Emma. Emma is the almost two year-old daughter of classmate Adrian and his wife Hannah. Adrian is the only Octet member who is a parent, so the rest of us were fascinated by this little human. She was quite funny shutting the bedroom door so her mom would not follow her into the room, and my favorite was hearing her say "cats" in Emmaspeak : "tak-sss."

Thanks for a great visit, Octet. Andrea, it's your turn to come out!