Well, we know that it's been more than 20 days since our last post... and for that we apologize.
But during those last 20 days, let us see if we can't get you to understand WHY it's been so long by describing some of the events that have happened!
Maybe the best thing to do is take it in chronological order:
April 17th: We went to the Albright Wedding Picnic at Covington Shelter. Not only did we get to spend time with Tina's family, but we also got GIFTS! And not just any gifts... but some of the coolest things we were hoping for (ok, quite literally, the "coolest" thing in Jeff's opinion was the icecream maker). But seriously, we were so grateful for everyone's well wishes for us both. Taking them back to Tina's for storage and inventory for thank you notes was the evenings' activity and then after they were entered into the wedding database, Tina set about writing thank you's (we heard it was much better to get them done along the way rather than waiting until the after the event was over).
April 18th: One day later was the Hawfield's Shower. Oh my - another pile of presents! We couldn't believe the amount of people who were so generous! This has got to stop, though, as Tina took it upon herself to write the thank you notes again - and she had over 50 of them to do this time! (Perhaps it's payback for when Jeff addressed all of the wedding invites?) In any event, moving around the storage room is getting difficult.
April 19-23: We made, addressed and sent the Rehearsal Dinner invitations... made the final floral plans and have to reconfirm some stuff with the cake and catering people. And, as part of the wedding process, Jeff has been planning to sell his home. The house sold several weeks ago and Tina has spent a LOT of her spare time helping Jeff pack up all of his belongings and move them out of the house. Somehow Jeff didn't realize how much stuff he really had. But the entire week was spent boxing up more and more stuff. On 4/22, however, Jeff started to get sick (cold? flu? who knows - it just couldn't have come at a worse period in time). We had to get everything out of the house by Sunday night and there was still a lot to be done.
During the week, all of the utilities were scheduled for shutoff, mail was forwarded and movers were scheduled to come on Sunday morning to move the really big stuff. Waking up at 7:15am on Saturday, we set to work with boxing, packing, organizing, cleaning, sorting and trashing anything that remained. Bedtime arrived WAY too soon at 11pm on Saturday - and we were up again at 7:15 on Sunday to do last minute preparations for the movers.
Again, time moved too quickly - and by 9:30, the movers had arrived and started the process of loading the truck. Now, we can't begin to tell you how efficient these folks were. Or perhaps they weren't tired from moving all day the previous day... or being sick... or having a wedding to plan, etc. But they were REALLY fast and had the entire truck packed with stuff by 10:45a.
Jeff went with them to the storage location and directed the careful balancing act of cramming everything he owned into a 10x20 foot space. But it worked! Tina, meanwhile, was STILL PACKING! She gallantly used her car as a "truck" for the weekend - much to her dismay considering how much she loves her vehicle. And by the time Jeff was done with the movers at 11:45am, he met up with Tina for storing more stuff at her condo.
Upon unloading, we realized that we only had 3 or so more loads of stuff - and that while we needed to eat, we were under a 5pm "new buyer walk-through" deadline with the house. So we went to the cars to drive together to eat... and Jeff's car battery light came on - indicating that it wasn't charging!
OK. Time to panic. First, call AAA. They can have a tow truck there in 45 minutes. Second, go in Tina's car to grab a quick bite at McDonalds. Third, get a call from the tow truck company that they don't have any flatbeds currently available and that it would be a good hour before they arrived. Fourth, start talking at lunch about other moving options - and the car repair bill because we both believed that it was a dead alternator.
Fifth.... take a REALLY deep breath and relax.
OK... sixth, back to the condo to wait for the tow truck and help Tina organize stuff in her condo. Seventh, tow truck arrives and the guy steps out, introduces himself and indicates that he's a Vette owner - and that Jeff should describe the problem. Jeff does... and eigth, tow truck guy says he thinks it's a broken serpentine belt... and it IS!!!! Woo hoo!!! So the total fix isn't going to be too bad... but only one place is open on Sunday and they tell me that they had a slow day to that point and had sent their tech home. They weren't sure they could get it done that day but they would call their tech to see if he'd come back in.
He did... car was fixed and Jeff was back at the condo by 2:45ish. OK. We had 2 hours and 15 minutes to get as much stuff out of the house as possible and then CLEAN the house to make it look good for the walk-though.
We hurried back to the house and moved 90% of the remaining stuff into our cars. We were going to have to make one more trip - but that wasn't even a concern any more. We had about 1.5 hours now to clean the house from top to bottom.
Tina got the bathrooms and vacuuming the upstairs. Jeff worked on cleaning the floors downstairs and had to clean out the garage, too (keep in mind that the garage walls haven't been visible in almost 3 years).
When the buyers showed up at 5:15 or so, we scrambled to grab last second stuff and get out of the house. Back to Tina's condo, we unloaded the cars, let Allie sniff her way around the condo as well... and took a 10 minute break on the floor moaning about how much each of us was in pain.
By 6:30, we were headed back to the house for the final trip. We loaded up the car - took a lot of "farewell pictures" and had a few moments of house reminiscing. Jeff left all the keys on the countertop, locked the bottom latch, closed the door and then used the keypad system to deadbolt the door. Jeff left his house for the last time around 7:30pm on 4/25/04.
OK... so one more task is now complete in preparation for the wedding. Tina and Jeff are both in pain at this particular moment... but we suppose that it's worth it (and we're going to be saving for movers for the next time, too). Oh... and Jeff's still sick, too. :)
The next item on our list was a meeting with the Duke Chapel Organist. This guy is a "requirement" as per the terms of the Duke Chapel contract - we have to PAY him regardless of whether we choose to USE him. Care to guess what we're doing for music? :)
So we went to the Chapel yesterday for our appointed meeting with him. We are taken up a back stone, spiral (small) staircase to the organ loft. Squeezing into the loft, we sat on one side of the keyboard and Tina's folks sat on the other. From our vantage point, we were able to look down on the pews all the way to the altar.
The organ was amazing. Dozens of knobs lined the walls to either side of the three-keyboard organ. Not to mention all the pedals placed right beneath the hovering feet of the organist.
In a masterful display of ability, the organist was able to run though several selection choices for each part of the ceremony. He played most (if not all) of each song - pausing with one hand to quickly change the knob choices to each side of him. From A Midsummer Night's Dream to Pachabel's Cannon to Trumpet Voluntary, he played each (and based on the knobs either pushed or pulled could make the organ SOUND like different instruments as well).
We noticed that the tourists coming through the Chapel would stop and look up to the organ as each piece was performed. It was amazing... not to mention it was all played by memory.
As some of you might imagine, I asked if he could play Take On Me - by A-Ha. Unfortunately, pop music is not allowed in the Chapel in any form, especially as played by the organ. However, I was able to get him to perform Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor in its entirety (if you don't remember the song I unfortunately can't give you any lyrics - there aren't any... but you can download it via Kazaa or Limewire). Scared the tourists at the first moment. Now all that we needed was to have it dark and rainy - and the Chapel decor would lend itself to a black and white horror movie.
Anyways, we were able to pick all of the music necessary for the service in about 45 minutes - and had an amazing free concert as well. I'm actually really excited - I think people will enjoy the music, not to mention the organ itself.
