There's so much to blog about. Last weekend (i.e. The Busiest Weekend Ever) was crazy--so much to do and see, so many late nights, and OH HELL! inclement weather in El Paso, we're talking thunder, lighting, pouring rain and hail. G. and I found ourselves right in the middle of a flooded road and golf-ball sized hail. It was scary-ish.

We attended the big UTEP graduation ceremony on Saturday, plus a smaller honors ceremony on Friday. Inexplicably, both lasted two hours even though the big ceremony had 700 students and the smaller had, maybe a quarter of that (probably less)--really could have done without the rendition of "One Moment in Time." Ordinarily, I am so sentimental when it comes to stuff like graduations. I can't help but feel excitement and anticipation and pride and a big dose of nostalgia. Even I couldn't sustain that level of mawkishness through two ceremonies, crowds, and hot weather. It did get me thinking, though.

Please indulge me by rewinding, oh about five years to my own graduation, December 2001. I had just finished a really tough semester. I was a teaching assistant who still had about 100 exams to grade and, at the same time, was trying to navigate around my psycho co-TA. I wasn't getting along with my best friend. Actually, I thought we were ending the friendship totally, which is not an easy thing to do after eight years. So that was maybe closing at the same time that my relationship with G. was taking off. A couple of months earlier, I informed my parents that I was moving in with G.--who was in Albuquerque--meaning I was moving to Albuquerque. SURPRISE! Besides that, I needed help moving out of my apartment and then moving up to Albuquerque. DOUBLE SURPRISE! I think all of my earlier kooky antics broke in R. & G. enough to handle this news.

In a nutshell, for me, graduation meant lots of changes. I already knew I was going to graduate school in the fall, so career wasn't such a major worry. Everything else, though, just everything seemed to be different. I felt independent and free, yet had to learn how to become part of a couple. And I was moving, too, and would soon meet new people and be put in new situations.

Let's just say it was like a season finale for a tv show. Some loose ends tied up, a few doors close, doors open and all that.