Stupid people and bears

Well, the wedding came and went without a hitch. We had a great time at the wedding and then at the reception. And the honeymoon was great fun. We went to Tennessee right near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We drove a couple of the auto tours and hiked to Abrams Falls. It was beautiful, but when they say 'moderately strenuous', they mean it. We hiked up and down some very large hills in high 90 degree weather. But, at least the falls were really pretty. On the same day we were able to witness really daft people harassing bears. I don't think that people realize that even though it is a National Park, the bears are WILD. They are not pets. There were three scared baby cubs up in a tree and a harassed looking mama bear stalking around the bottom of the tree and people were still leaning over the very small fence with their kids and grandmas to take pictures. And they wonder why the bears attack...

This girl that Mike works with in the History Department gave us a hamster (with cage, bedding, food, and wooden house) for free because she couldn't take it home. Instead of dropping off the hamster, Dulce, when we were home, she decided to drop off Dulce when we would be at work and just put him in the backyard. Well, I guess that after you get a Master's Degree you forget that the Earth actually rotates and that the sun moves throughout the day because by the time that we got home at 5:15pm, the animal had been in the sun for about 4 hours. The poor thing was all swollen, sweaty and everything in the cage was hot. It felt like a scene off from Animal Planet where they rescue abused animals. Surprisingly enough, Dulce survived. Although he now has an eye infection, but Mike is sure that we don't have to pay a vet bill to fix him and he will just get better... we'll see.
He doesn't do much, unless its 2 am. But I like him.

Well, here I am at graduation day.. Finally. I was in the ceremony that was the shortest (thank goodness because it still seemed too long.) And my future Mother-in-law was able to give me my fake diploma, which was really neat.
We survived our first pre-marital counseling session last night too. It was surprisingly not bad. We have a Reverend that is very laid back so the meeting consisted of us talking about his dog, his travels around the world and ours, and a little bit about the ceremony. No personality or compatibility testing! Mike was very excited.

Well... after my long 19 year stint as a student, I am finally entering the "real world" this weekend. Granted, I am graduating with a degree and won't be using it for a while, but such is life. Either way, I am excited to FINALLY be done with college (at least for a short while.)