March 1st, 2nd & 3rd, 2002
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After a weekend in Florida, you'd think I'd have enough of
driving. Guess not. Lauren finally decided that she'd had enough of Kingsport. Time for
a new start on the career path and a serious change of scenery to boot. Sure it's still
Tennessee, but Tennessee is a big state!
The goal for the weekend: to move Lauren & Mike into their new apartment and to help get them setup. The convoy left the Kingsport area Friday morning and unloaded the cargo into the new place that afternoon. My arrival time? 1 AM Saturday morning... just in time to sleep on the nicely cushioned couch. I managed to avoid all box moving and lifting by living seven and a half hours away. The rest of the group was not so fortunate! The group consists of Mike, Lauren, Leslie, Robert, Mr. & Mrs. Hicks, my dad, my stepmom and, of course, Danielle! The next part of the plan was for the guys to disappear on Saturday afternoon for a golf outing. Well that didn't go as planned. It was nice and cold and very wet outside so the plan to duck out of work failed. We put together all the furniture that needed it and then some. After building the computer and entertainment systems it was time for dinner. Lauren and Mike took us all out for a nice feast at a place called The Loft. My cousin Karen and her husband Jim drove in from Cookeville to join us. Karen is expecting triplets by May so the next time I see her, she'll probably have her hands very much full. We had an awesome meal and much laughter... I'm sure the groups at the nearby tables loved us! I whipped out the camera and blinded as many people as possible. The new camera has a really funky low-light focusing system, so there were quite a few startled faces when the pictures took. Just look at 'em cringe! :) After the food we rolled back to the apartment for... more food! There was a birthday to celebrate! Mike was turning older so we celebrated by lots of icing. Leslie demonstrated the medical benefits of shooting water out the nose and then all of us gathered for some group photos. True to Ellison tradition, what shoudl be something simple takes half an hour and by the time we're done, everyone's ribs are hurting from laughing so hard. I learned the disadvantages of trying to bounce a directed flash as you can see from my dark-bottomed pictures. Time to invest in a diffuser for the flash... and maybe a 2nd flash and remote shoe for adding some fill light to the pictures. I'm learning... ever so slowly. Jim and Karen took off after the photo shoot and some baby gift offerings. They're really going to have their hands full. The rest of us relaxed a bit and gathered around the table for some Cranium fun. Leslie and Robert had yet to play the game, so they got the chance to experience it. Everyone crashed after that. The festivities were over the next morning as everyone started going their separate ways. I did not stay long because I had 7 hours of driving ahead of me. I don't know when I'll make it back there again. Probably won't be anytime too soon...
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