This Is Hell.

It's the Sunday after graduation, and I feel trapped in a weird time zone, waiting for the newest chapter in my life to begin, while the previous chapter has already ended. I dislike these strange in between times.

After the ceremony, Sean and I went with Dad and Amanda to Roscoe's to celebrate. We like to celebrate at Roscoe's. It's where we went after my Torrey Graduation, and immediately after we got engaged--where we sat in the weird, rosy lighting and looked at my ring in disbelief and had the waitress take pictures of us. Anyway, we went there yesterday and filled ourselves up with chicken, waffles, red beans, and rice. We walked around the much too bright streets of Hollywood reading the names inscribed in the stars on the sidewalk. My conclusion is as always: Hollywood is overrated and I would never want to live there in a million years.

In some ways, last night marked the beginning of Sean and I taking up our responsibilities as an independent couple. We were solely responsible for getting Sean moved out of his apartment, and while I can't say that it was the greatest idea to wait until about 10:00 p.m. to start moving, I probably would have done the same thing. Moving is such an unbelievably awful process that it must be avoided for as long as possible, no matter what the consequences. Still, it was us. No parents and no friends to help. I kept bemoaning the fact that his dad and sister hadn't stayed around to help us. Sean kept saying, "This is hell," and I added, "This is what Jesus died to save us from." (We were not very happy.) And yet, while the experience was sheer and total misery (3:00 in the morning, loading up our car with boxes), it was unifying, and enjoyable in the fact that we were working together as a team. I like solidifying experiences like that--that cement the fact that it's us against the world, and we've got to stick together. I'm sure many people will be sad that they missed the sight of us driving through the dark streets of La Mirada with a 6 foot tall book shelf hanging out of the car, and the one of the back doors wide open with me desperately trying to hold onto everything and keep it inside. And then we crashed into the bushes.

This morning at Church they had a cake for us, and Father David blessed us on our upcoming marriage!

This is a big week: moving, job interviews, finishing up the jobs I've worked this past year (which means saying good-bye to many dear, sweet children) wrapping up some of the final wedding details. But before any of that we are going hiking. For the past few months, the sole desire of my body, soul, and spirit has been to go hiking. Tomorrow is Memorial Day. We are taking the day off and going hiking in Pasadena, and I cannot wait!!!!