Forever

...And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever - Psalm 23:6

Forever is a long time.  For me there is a duality that is inherent in this idea of forever.  First, it is daunting, scary, and uncertain as forever is a point in time that cannot ever be reached.  In fact it is not even one single point in time, but purely a theoretical understanding of time.  Secondly, it is calming, warming, and welcoming as the forever that is referenced in the verse above from Psalm 23, is a time when all the things of this life pass away and we find ourselves in the presence of God in his heavenly Kingdom.  It is reassuring to know that what will last forever is not the pain and suffering of this world, but the unconditional love of God.

While so far I have discussed how this idea applies to our common human condition, there is another way to look at forever.  What in this world needs to carry on, forever?  What in this world needs to stop, forever? These are deep powerful questions whose answer will vary from person to person.  From their answers we will discover some of that person's passions, what they value, what they care about.  As we begin the second week of a season that seems to last forever, think about what needs to change in our society.  Pray for the strength to continue the work towards what ever goal or dream is in your heart.   

Wilderness

Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell - Nehemiah 9:21

When you hear the word wilderness what comes?  A few words come to my mind when I think of wilderness:  isolation, desolation, wild animals, hardships.  These are but a few words that come to my mind and I am sure that there are many more that can describe wilderness.  The wilderness is a recurring theme in both the Old and New Testaments in which it is portrayed as a desolate place where little survives, especially people.  Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and spent forty years roaming the wilderness as they made their way to the Promised Land.  There was no water, no food, and the Israelites complained about their hard life.  At one point in their travels they wondered if life was better in bondage than in wandering the wilderness.  All the while, during these difficult times, God was with them and provided all they needed to survive in the harsh wilderness.  In tomorrow's gospel reading from Luke we find Jesus intentionally heading into the wilderness for forty days to face temptation at the hands of devil.  In these forty days Jesus was sustained by his divinity, the source of which comes from God.  For the biblical authors the wilderness represented a place on the fringes of God's creation and where little survived.  A harsh and unforgiving land.  But the wilderness is not always a place of desolation or despair. 

I have been to the wilderness, not only in the Holy Land but right here in our own country.  Through my time in the Boy Scouts I grew to love the natural beauty of the wilderness.  Whether its the dense primeval forests of central Maine, the desolate high desert of eastern Oregon, or the Negev there is a beauty that words cannot describe.  As I traveled the empty roads to Cove, Oregon I found myself stopping on the roadside to not only snap a few pictures but also take in the natural beauty of the land.  There was a stillness, a quietness, that filled the space.  One can not help but feel God's presence even when there was not a single person around for miles.  There is something to be said for spending time in the wilderness.  I can understand the draw the wilderness had for the desert fathers and mothers who sought to rid themselves of the trappings of society and embrace the wilderness as a way to deepen their relationship with God.  I am not about to run off to the desert and live the monastic life, however the wilderness does command a powerful energy that cannot be denied.

The wilderness can be an amazing place full of beauty and danger but the wilderness goes beyond just a physical place.  Sometimes it feels like we are walking through a spiritual wilderness.  As I have noted before my walk with Christ has taken me to some amazing places and also through some difficult moments.  It is in those difficult moments when I felt distant from God and walking through that spiritual wilderness.  I felt lost, without direction, and desperately looking for sustenance to see me through the wilderness.  What I had to remember in those difficult times was that I am not alone.  Much like the Israelites that the prophet Nehemiah writes about in the verse above, God was with me, guiding me, sustaining me, and even sometimes carrying me.  When we are immersed in those times it is hard to see beyond it, but faith in God and trusting in his love will help us through the wilderness and into a deeper, fuller relationship with God.

 

Trust

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding - Proverbs 3:5

When ever I walked into the call center at GS I always noticed the several inspirational posters that were framed and hung on the wall.  Of course they were there to provide motivation to the members of the call center as they interacted with the customer.  I cannot attest to the effectiveness of these posters had on the call center but nevertheless there they were on the walls.  I distinctly remember one of them.  It said, "Trust takes a lifetime to build, but only a moment to destroy", or something along that line.  The poster is absolutely right.

Trust is built up over time, with successive moments where a person is able to count upon either another person or a group of people, and in which each person can lower their guard, become vulnerable, and be their true self.  It only takes one moment, one decision, one action, that can shatter a person's trust in another person or organization that will forever change the dynamic of that relationship.  I do not have to look back very far into my own past to see moments in my life when I had to truly trust in God.

I have known that I wanted to pursue ordained ministry since I was in high school.  I felt that God was calling me to a life of serving and building community.  After graduation I enrolled as an undergrad at Sewanee, aka the University of the South.  For those of you unfamiliar with this tiny church owned liberal arts school, it is located on the Cumberland Plateau in southern Tennessee.  The school's massive land holdings and its location on the edge of the plateau makes for one of the most picturesque campuses I have ever seen.  It is owned by a consortium of southern Episcopal Diocese and houses a seminary on its grounds.  I believed that this school would have been the perfect stepping stone to ordination.  In fact I had in my mind thought that my plan was going to occur in a linear fashion, high school to seminary to ordination.  Bing, bang, done.  I trusted that this was God's plan for me...but what I failed to realize as I zealously headed off to middle of nowhere Tennessee was that my journey was not at all going to unfold according to my plan, but to God's.

Fast forward two years and I was back in Boston with my education on hold, my journey towards ordination on hold, and my life just sort of drifting along without direction.  It was during this time that I felt the most distant from God and what I thought was my calling.  Day after day I questioned God, I doubted his plan for me, I was angry with God and I let him know.  Days turned into weeks.  Weeks turned into months.  Months turned into years.  During this time I was happily employed, had a scheduled routine that provided structure for my life and overall things were good.  I very well could have completely abandoned God's plan for me and made a perfectly good living working for GS and I could have been happy.  However, I felt that something was missing.  While my gifts and skills made me good at my job, I still felt that something was missing.  Then finally one day, my plan realigned with God's.  I am glad that I trusted in him.  I am glad that time had not shattered my trust in him to the point where I would have turned my back to him.

As the passage from Proverbs tells us, trust in God with all your heart and not in your own understanding.  If I had trusted in my own understanding then I would still be at GS, happily working, but not living fully into my Christian life, my life with Christ.  These words ring true in this time of Lent.  As we reflect upon our lives and the contexts and situations that we find ourselves in remember that no matter how far away you may be from where you thought you'd be, trust in God.  Do not let your mind destroy that trust.  Do not reason your way out of following God's plan that is written on your heart.  It is not easy.  God will feel distant, but I assure he is there and will always be there, until we are all called home.

Blessed

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. - Psalm 28:7

It has been almost seven months since my last blog post and I have to admit that I have been a bit lazy about it.  There really is no other reason other than it began to feel like a chore for me rather than a gift from me.  But after these seven months I have been driven to address this underlying desire to get back to it.  Though in the past it has been primarily a personal blog for those who are interested in the goings on while I am in seminary.  It has been useful to go back and read these events, to reflect on their meaning and understand what is going on in my life.  Much to your dismay I will not fill you all in on what has happened in the last seven months but here are a few words to sum up my time away from you lovely people.  So, here we go:

Amazing summer experience
Rural, country, natural setting
Refreshing summer, re-energized for fall
New fall semester
New classmates, new friends
New classes
Challenging classes
Difficult readings
Long nights of writing
Engagement (My personal favorite event of the last seven months)
Good feasting
All A's (Albeit A-'s but still not a bad showing)
Berkeley to Phoenix to Boston to Charlotte to Boston to Phoenix to Berkeley to Boston to Berkeley (all in a 45 day span...whew)
Good family holidays
Good visits with friends
New Years kiss with my love
New Spring semester
New classes
Same friends and classmates

So there you go...consider yourself updated.

While I guess I did provide a brief update, without pictures, I do want to offer you this.  As we ushered in the season of Lent last night with the service of Ash Wednesday, we enter a time of self-reflection, self-discipline, and anticipation of the joyful resurrection of Jesus, where death is conquered and through faith we are promised to be raised up on the last day.  So for the next forty days I would like to offer to you all daily meditations on a different word...all free of charge.  For today I chose the word blessed.

Over the past couple of days I have found myself reflecting on just how blessed I am to be able to be out out here on the west coast engaging in studies that I am really excited about.  For example, I walked out of my afternoon theology class and was walking back to my dorm and it was really warm out.  This drew my attention to the trees around me and there were flowers already blooming on some of the trees.  New shoots were poking out of the ground.  It is February 14th and spring is beginning in Berkeley.  Sorry to all my friends in New England who are buried under feet of snow, but this is part of the reason I feel so blessed.  I thank God everyday for the opportunity to continue my formation in such a beautiful place as this.  I am so blessed to have such amazing and supportive family members.  I am so blessed to have great friends who, even though I have been gone for months at a time, welcome me back as if I had never left.  I am so blessed for my parish family who continue to support me financially and through prayer.  I am so blessed for the gifts that God has given me and that I get to develop and fine tune these gifts for my future ministry.  Most of all I am so blessed for the love and support of Lauren.

Psalm 28:7 says, "The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him."  The psalms are filled with songs of joy and thankfulness.  They were a way in which the people of Israel could express their faith in God and they served a liturgical function as well.  As I begin my season of Lent I give thanks to God in song and prayer for all the blessings of my life.  I ask you, what are you thankful for?  What gets you out of bed each day, glad to welcome the new day that awaits?  I know Lent is normally a solemn time but I want to start it off by giving thanks.  So I ask you again, what are you thankful for?

Darkness and Light

Night is the worst time of the day,
Shadows creep in,
Long buried memories resurface,
All alone in the darkness of the mind.

Night is the worst time of the day,
Doubts creep in,
Questions left unanswered resurface,
All alone in the darkness of the mind.

Night is the worst time of the day,
Fears creep in,
Crippling thoughts resurface,
All alone in the darkness of the mind.

When the light comes hope returns,
Shadows disappear,
Desires for a bright future rekindled,
No longer alone in the light of God.

When the light comes hope returns,
Doubts disappear,
Certainty of love rekindled,
No longer alone in the light of God.

When the light comes hope returns,
Fear disappears,
Confidence in myself rekindled,
No longer alone in the light of God.

In darkness or light, never alone as strength is found in the love of God and my Beloved.

Head north into the wild young man or the northeast corner of Oregon, same difference...first stop Lakeview, OR

After spending some quality alone time in my room for three days it was time to head north to Oregon.  I had two options facing me, the first was to leave really early in the morning on June 15th and drive thirteen hours up to the camp in Cove or my second plan was to leave in mid-morning of June 14th and drive half way and stop for the night, then continue on to Cove on the 15th.  After careful consideration and suggestions from both my mother and Lauren I decided that the second plan was best, which relieved them both, knowing that I wasn't going to try and do the trip in one shot.  as I was packing up my car around 8:30AM on the 14th I received texts messages from Jessica who stuck at her apartment with her husband Thomas and they had no way of getting to work in the city.  Apparently a building went up in flames around 2:00AM that morning and it damaged a section of the BART track that runs between the West Oakland station and the tunnel under the bay heading towards SF.  That meant that when the morning commute started there was no BART service from Oakland to SF in either direction and it would be up and running until the late afternoon.  Because of that one section of track was damaged the entire transportation system in the Bay area was strained.  More people were taking buses which meant that every bus that went by their apartment was completely packed and weren't taking on new passengers.  They do not have a car so the bus/BART system is their main means of transportation and as each bus passed by their apartment packed like sardines, the prospect of them getting to work dwindled.  So I offered to give them a ride into the city and then head out from there on the first leg of my trip.

I picked them up around 9:15 and we were getting on the on-ramp to I80 when we hit standstill traffic.  It was like a parking lot.  The highways were also experiencing serious overflow because of the BART shutdown so we settled in for a long drive up to and across the Bay Bridge into SF.  This allowed us time to talk for a bit since we may or may not see each other again because they may be off to Kentucky before I get back from camp.  It was a slow grueling haul and what should have only taken thirty minutes tripled.  I finally dropped them off near their workplaces by 11:00AM and I was finally ready to head out.  I went right back across the Bay Bridge but going east was no problem, though I80 west was still backed up for miles and miles.

At this point I had two routes which I could have taken.  The first was all major interstate highways and would have had me on the I80 east out of the Bay Area, through Sacramento, into Nevada where I would have headed north on U.S. Route 95 through Nevada and into Idaho, where it would meet up with I84 in Boise, which then proceeds north west into the northeastern corner Oregon, where I would have exited in the city of La Grande and Cove is 15 miles west of La Grande.  I84 then heads due west to Portland and the Oregon coast but I won't have to travel that yet.  However the other route I ended up taking consisted of a few major interstates but it was mostly state highways that weaved north through Northern California and into the south central part of Oregon and more state highways until I would meet up with I84 a few miles south of La Grande.  I opted for the second route because the highways were mostly rural two lane roads that had little traffic and because I would see parts of California and Oregon that I would probably never again have the chance to see.  I am glad I did because I saw so much and drove through through very diverse landscapes, it was absolutely awesome.  So lets start at the beginning as I left SF.


 I headed out the I80 east until I reached the I505 just south of Vallejo, CA which sort of marks the northeastern edge of what is considered the Bay Area.  As I climbed over the ridges that surround the Bay Area and made my north on the I505, in order to avoid having to drive though Sacramento, the landscape began to change.  The hills littered with houses gave way to pastures and fields.  I drove through rolling hills of green fertile farmland.  After maybe an hour or so on the I505 I met up with the I5 which would be my main road into the heart of Northern California and I was on that highway for a few hours as I slowly approached the southern end of the Cascade Mountain range.  I made a quick pit stop after getting onto the I5 just south Arbuckle, CA.  I purchased a Mountain Dew and was back on the road again.  As I cruised down the I5 the landscape changed from farmland to rolling hills of brown as far as my eyes could see.

The rolling hills of brown and yellow

If you click on the picture it should enlarge and you can see the Jesus bumper stickers, it nice to see truckers are still religious

My view as I traveled down the I5 towards Redding where the Cascades begin/end depending on your point of view

Another view down the I5 corridor traveling north through the center of Northern California

Rolling hills with clusters of trees scattered around

After driving almost 130 miles along the I5 my route diverged from the major interstates and it was all US Routes and state highways to my stop for the night.  Once I hit Redding, which is in the center of Norther California and about 150 miles or less from the border of Oregon, I took CA299 east which would take me northwest towards Nevada and the south central section of Oregon.  Once I started driving down CA299 the terrain began to change dramatically.  The rolling hills gave way to more rugged terrain and the flowing fields turned into forests.  The Cascades loomed in the distance with the prominent Mount Shasta in clear view.  Because Mount Shasta is just of 14,000 feet high and is not surrounded by any other large mountain peaks I was able to see for awhile I drew closer to my exit for CA299.  Once I started heading east Shasta was in my rear-view along with the rest of the Cascades as CA299 skirts the eastern edge of Shasta National Forest.  The terrain continued to become more diverse as I slowly climbed in elevation and made my way through gorges and up and over small mile high mountains.  I stayed on CA299 for another 150 miles passing through some of the more remote areas of Northern California.  I drove through two very large National Parks with few other travelers in either direction and I had some amazing views.  I stopped every once in a while to get pictures because it was so amazing.  After nearly two and a half hours on CA299 I reached the town of Alturas and my next juncture with US Route 395 which would take me north into Oregon.

On the two lane CA299 there were amazing views of rolling foothills

Mountains off in the distance

More mountains off in the distance

A river cutting through the foothills near the tiny town of McArthur, CA

Just another picture of the amazing views

Yet another view

Another view as I left the foothills in Norther California and approached the elevated plateau and high desert of the south central section of Oregon

As I turned north onto US Route 395 I was not far form my stop in Lakeview, Oregon with only about 50 miles to go for the day.  As I left the mountainous region of northern California, I was beginning to near what is know as the Oregon Outback.  It is called this because if its elevated, wide open land and sparse population.  For most of my ride on the 395 towards the border there was no one else traveling on the road, with the exception of a few trucks.  I was about 20 miles south of Lakeview when I came upon a gigantic glacial lake called Goose Lake.  It straddles the border of California and Oregon and Lakeview, as you can imagine by its name is on the northern end of the lake.  As I approached the lake I was beginning to see why this was called the outback but not yet convinced it was high desert.  Then as I approached the lake a ridge rose up on my right as I hugged it while driving along the eastern shore.  I rode along the shore for what felt like forever and then about halfway up the lake I entered Oregon.  Finally made it to a new state and another one to mark off my list of places I have been.  I continued to follow the eastern shore, stopping to get some pictures, and then finally left the lake behind as I pulled into the tiny hamlet of Lakeview at an elevation of over a mile high.  I found my hotel, walked to the local "drive-in" called the Burger Queen, sampled one of their fine burgers and a side of onion rings and settled into my room for a well deserved rest.  I touched base with my family by texting my brother to let my mom know that I made it safely and I also had a chance to talk with Lauren before calling it a night.  I was excited for the second leg because I had no idea what was waiting for me as my route was going to take me through some of the most remote parts of Oregon and up to the northeastern corner of the state.

The beginnings of the Oregon Outback as the mountainous Northern California gave way to the vast expanse of nothingness ahead of me, yet it was amazingly beautiful...as you can see not another soul on the road, it was amazing to feel that isolation in God's creation

The absence of trees gave me the hint that I was either at a high elevation or truly heading into the outback or both

All by myself in the middle of nowhere

The lake began to appear in the distance

A look out at some trees that lined the area around the lake

The south eastern shore of Goose Lake

Again, no one else on the road with the ridge surrounding the lake rising up in front of me and to my right

A more elevated view of the lake

Another view of the lake

A sign just off the road that shows the many rivers/creeks that flow in and out of Goose Lake

The Safeway in Lakview, I liked the cowboy

Another restaurant popular with the locals but I decided not go there and it was in the parking lot of the Safeway

The little white building is Lakeview City Hall

A closer look at City Hall

The Burger Queen "drive-in"...I put drive-in in quotation marks because to me a drive-in is a place where one would drive their car in to a large lot and watch a movie, but apparently in Oregon a drive-in is another name for a drive-through that sells grill food and ice cream shakes/cones...I was fooled again when I finally got to Cove to find out the "drive-in" that I was told about was not really a drive-in but a drive-through...wuh wuh

The Burger Queen...it did have good burgers

The menu was huge and not one vegetarian option, stay away if you don't like different varieties of cow and pig on a bun

The trip back to Berkeley, moving to Phoenix, and everything in between

This is going to be a long one as it covers almost two weeks of stuff, so bear with me and I hope you enjoy...

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