After the ordination we all went back to Lauren's best friend's house and had a small informal dinner party that was attended by her close friends and relatives. The party only went on for an hour and a half because it was a Sunday night and people had to work the next morning. I ended up driving Phil and Don back to their hotel while the party wound down back at Gini's house. It was a good ride because I got the opportunity to talk more personally with Phil, which I wanted to do because I think I may do my second year of field ed at his parish. On my way back Lauren called me and informed me that there was something wrong with Gini's plumbing so we had to go to Gini's parents' house, about a half hour north of Chandler. I met back up with them and we trekked up to her parent's house which was pretty sweet. The next day was going to be very busy so we went straight to sleep.
We woke up fairly early the next morning because we had to get Gini back to her place, pack up the car, pick up Phil and Don, drop them off at the airport and then make our way back to Berkeley so that way we could pack up Lauren and move her back to Phoenix a week later. Whew! We accomplished our task and we were on the road heading west again on the I10 towards LA by 11:00AM. Unlike our trip down to Phoenix two days earlier we were not in a rush so we planned to stop and stay with our friend Maura, a fellow first year MA student, in Pasadena. Unfortunately due to traffic and pit stops our estimated time of arrival into Pasadena was going to be around 11:30PM so we decided to once again stop in Palms Springs for the night. We made it to Palm Springs, had a quiet dinner at the local Carrows, think Perkins but West Coast, and called it a night because we had plans to meet up with Maura for breakfast.
We left Palm Springs in no rush, taking the opportunity to see a bit of the area. It was cool because Palm Springs is one of maybe four or five town nestled away in a valley out in the desert, about 50 miles east of LA. It is a popular spot for tourists and has a few casinos and a few famous golf courses. After taking our fill of the valley we made our way to Pasadena. We met up with Maura and she took us to her favorite breakfast place where we proceed to stuff our faces with great breakfast food. Being the sports fan that I am I asked Maura if she would take us to the Rose Bowl, and she happily acquiesced. Lauren wasn't as excited as I was to see the stadium but since I am a huge college football fan she was happy to join me. Side note: she already is a Sox fan, slowly becoming a Pats fan, and before long she will be spending Saturdays watching football with me, and of course writing sermons. Anyways, I digress. We stopped at the Rose Bowl and walked around for a bit and then went back to Maura's house, which as it turns out is three blocks from the stadium. We dropped Maura off and started our way back to Berkeley. It was an uneventful trip the rest of the way back home and by 4:00Pm we were back at school, exhausted from the events of the past three days. However there was to be little rest because we had to pack, pack, and pack some more so we could move Lauren back to Phoenix.
The packing wasn't bad since her apartment wasn't very big, but boy did she have a lot of clothes. Fortunately we had stopped by her parents house one day and picked up three boxes about four feet high and maybe a foot and a half on each side. We used those boxes for her clothes and sure enough they all fit, though they were the heaviest boxes even heavier than the book boxes. When the day arrived for her to move we set out to pick up the truck and trailer from a U-Haul location near the Oakland Airport. Lauren and I at first drove right by it because this was clearly an individually owned and operated location with little signage. We got there by 8:00AM like we told the guy we would and he was nowhere to be found. We stood in this sketchy parking lot near a trailer that was the U-Haul office. We called the guy and after about forty minutes the guy showed up and set us up with our equipment. It was a fourteen foot truck with a full car towing trailer on the back. Ever since we had made these plans I was nervous about driving both the truck and trailer, not because of towing but because I really suck at backing up with a trailer on the back. I warned Lauren that we would have to be careful where we decided to stop for food and gas because it would be very difficult for me to back that rig up. We got the trailer back and then Lauren had to run to city hall to get a one day parking permit for the 2-hour parking spot right out in front of her house. A few people tried to park there before I arrived with the truck but Lauren told them to move it.
After getting the details settled it was almost 9:30AM and it was time to start packing. Lauren's father had arrived, and our friend/fellow seminarians Jeff, Jonathan, and Joe were to arrive by 10:00AM to help. Before they even arrived Lauren's father and I had most of the boxes out of the apartment and into the truck, again she didn't have a whole lot but we needed the fourteen foot truck for her bed and furniture as well. When they arrived they were immediately put to work moving the last few boxes, furniture, and begun cleaning the apartment. Around 1:00PM Lauren's mother arrived to help clean, because according to Lauren she is meticulous about cleaning, so with her mother helping us out we knew it would be ready for the next people to move in later in August. As the Boy Scouts taught me leave a place better than when you found it and sure enough with Lauren's mother's help we had had that place sparkling.
When planning our trip we had decided to stop twice on our way to Phoenix that way we would not have to push it especially since we had Lauren's cat Cubby with us in the cab of the truck. We were to leave Berkeley no later than 7:00PM and drive about four hours to Buttonwillow on the I5, which is about as far south as Bakersfield with Bakersfield being about twenty miles east of the I5. So we left Berkeley around 3:30 and we had to stop at Lauren's parent's house in Livermore, which was on the way, in order to pick up a few more things. Lauren's parents made us dinner so we had an opportunity to relax after a crazy day that had started at 6:30AM. We were getting to the time we needed to leave so we wouldn't arrive in Buttonwillow too late, but Lauren and her mother kept dancing around having to finally say goodbye. I totally get it, and do not fault either of them since it always sucks to have to say goodbye to my mother whenever I leave, but I moved them along in a loving way and they hugged, and cried out on the driveway. Just as I was about to get into the truck Lauren's mother grabbed me, squeezed me tight, and asked me to take care of Lauren, to which I said that nothing would happen to her as long as I was with her. I was choked up a little as I got into the car and her parents stood at the end of the driveway as they watched their youngest child head out to begin a new stage in her life away from them in Phoenix.
We arrived in Buttonwillow around 11:30 with no incident and a relatively uneventful ride. We stopped for the night and went straight to sleep because of the sheer exhaustion of the day's activities. We woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and excited to for the next leg of our trip to Blythe, CA which is right on the border of Arizona. We could have made the trip in just two days but we would have arrived in at her apartment around 8:00PM and would have then had to unpack and begin setup because we had nothing to sleep on and we weren't going to spend the night at Gini's again, even though she lives 100 yards from Lauren's apartment. Anyways, we made our way over the Grapevine again, which was cooler this time since I was technically driving a truck and towing something so we had to weave our way in and out of semi-trucks and not get in the way of the cars trying to zip past all of us. It didn't take as long as we had thought and before we knew it we were descending down the mountains towards LA. We cruised around LA, just after their morning rush hour so our timing could not have been better. We passed through Palm Springs yet again, though this time we didn't stop and by 4:00PM we were pulling into the Motel 6 in Blythe. Phoenix was only a three to four hour ride away but we knew that we shouldn't try to do it. So we had dinner at the Denny's down the street and hung out in the room watching movies and playing on our iPads.
We woke up the next morning, got Cubby into his travel cage, which by the way was great since Cubby was quite agreeable throughout the whole trip. We took off around 8:00AM and rolled into Lauren's new apartment complex around 11:00AM. She did a walk through inspection with maintenance and we were ready to move her in. At this point in the day the temp was easily 106 degrees, and yes it was a dry heat, but by arriving at this time we both know that none of her friends would be able to help us unpack because they were all still working. Only one person that was to going to be available and that was going to be around 3:00PM or so after he got off work and that was Gini's boyfriend Chance, who is also close friends with Lauren. So Lauren stayed in the house moving boxes and began to unpack as I brought in round after round of stuff. I unpacked that trailer in about two and a half hours with Lauren helping to move the couch, the box spring, and the mattress. By the time Chance called to see if he should come over we told thanks but not to worry about it. After the truck was unloaded we assessed the furniture situation and determined that she needed a TV stand and a few bookcases. We stopped by the U-Haul drop off location and left the trailer since we didn't need that anymore but told them we would return the truck the next day since we had one more errand to run with it. We then took the U-Haul to Ikea and grabbed those items and went back to her apartment. We ordered pizza and relaxed for a bit.
Over the next few days Lauren I unpacked, assembled furniture, and situated everything into its right place. Now, by the time I left to head back to Berkeley she still had stuff to unpack, but we did a majority of the work. She began work that Tuesday June 5th, so for the next few days Cubby and I hung out playing video games and watching TV while Lauren went to work. Now I didn't just sit around the whole time I did make for her a strawberry pie, from a recipe that my mom uses and is always awesome, and I also made her beef stroganoff from scratch. It wasn't long before it was time for me to head back to Berkeley so that I could get ready for my summer job at a summer camp in Oregon. Then on Monday June 11th, almost three weeks after her graduation and ordination, she dropped me off at the Phoenix airport and that was the hardest goodbye ever because we both knew that we wouldn't see each other again until August...August 17th to be exact which is 40 days from now, but who's counting??? Ok maybe I am. Anyways I boarded an evening flight and was met by our friend Jessica, who also just graduated from CDSP, and she gave me a ride back to my dorm. And like that, for the first time in over three weeks I was alone again, but this time I knew that Lauren was out there and that I truly wasn't alone. Of course we did FaceTime over our iPads as soon as I got into my room, but still it was weird to not have her around. I had three days to hang out at school and with the few people left on campus, as well as to pack up for my next adventure to a state I had never been to and a camp I had never seen in the middle of nowhere Oregon. I was trusting in God that this would be an awesome experience, only time will tell...
Me in front of the Rose Bowl, pretty sweet even though we didn't get to go in
Our truck and trailer at the sketchy pick-up location, sure the overcast skies didn't help much but those would clear way for sunny cloudless skies later
The truck all packed up with her car loaded on the trailer...that was our ride for the next three days
The first Dunkin' was just outside of Phoenix so of course I had to stop and we both got iced coffees...man I miss DD, can't wait to get back home in two years to get my fix...Lauren is also a fan now :-)
Yes that is my foot and yes that is a woman giving me a pedicure, it was a gift from Lauren and don't knock it until you try it
The strawberry pie ready to go into the fridge and chill...I think I cut into it too early but it was still epically awesome
Cubby chilling on top of me
A heron hanging out in one of the few small lakes in Lauren's complex, she also has a pool and a few tubs scattered around the complex
