After weeks of planning, Ashley and i took the trip to Chapel Hill this past weekend (Aug 17,18,19) to "see Barnes" and "have dinner with the Wards." My original plan was that our excuse to go down that weekend was to help Kelley move in, so i had to rearrange a little, but nothing too big. i called Ashley's pastor weeks ago, Dave Ward for he and his wife, Angie, to invite us for dinner to give us legitimate dinner plans for Saturday night.
Friday night, we arrived in Chapel Hill and made it to Linda's for cheesy fries and drinks with my college friends, Melissa and Jen. It was pretty late when we left.
Saturday, we met my college roomie, Barnes, for lunch at Kurama, the Japanese hibachi place he used to work at. It was great.
Saturday evening, we headed to the Wards for dinner. When we were in the car, i got a call from Angie. She said she was sorry but they couldn't do dinner because they were at the ER with their son who had broken his arm next door. She apologized profusely and recommended that because the weather was so nice, that we should walk around campus. It was actually Kelley with a pre-written script. Ashley was fairly convinced. We had already talked about going to Franklin Street to go check on some possible reception locations and it was beautiful out, so we went over to campus.
We were strolling through the upper quad and talking about memories from college and when we first/last strolled through the quad together. The quad was full of new students back for the start of school and some folks playing frisbee. As we walked by Davie Polar a girl came up to us with her camera and notebook and asked to take our picture for her magazine article. She said she worked for the Blue and White and needed a picture of someone on the bench. (For those readers who don't know the history of the Davie Poplar Bench, the legend is that those who kiss on the bench will be destined to marry one another) Actually, the girl was my PCM friend, Anna, who i had asked to step in and get us to the bench and keep it clear of other lovebirds. So we sat down and she took a few pictures. She took our names in her notebook and that with the other notes she had convinced Ashley that it was legit.
Ashley stood up to go and saw that i was lingering and asked what i was thinking. i told her what i had planned to say and got down on one knee to give her the ring. That's when the "frisbee" players came over. They were the half dozen Achordants that my college roomie, Barnes, was able to recruit from his days in the group, with Barnes singing lead solo. They sang Stand by Me while i proposed and slipped the ring on.
She was thrilled and actually said yes. We called my folks and then hers and a few friends and took off for 411 West. We called a bunch of relatives and swung by the Wards to have dessert and then a party that Jenny Hodge and Rob Patchett were hosting. We even got by Linda's again to see Jess Patchet and Page Mowery before we called it a night.
Sunday morning we got to the Chapel Hill Bible Church and then to Brunch with the Trumbulls at Elmo's in Durham. We shot back to Richmond to move Ashley out of her storage space and into her new house on Hill Monument, about a mile from Union. We got to the U-haul at 4pm (they close at 5) and got out 10' 24-hr rental truck. We stayed a bit past closing and between me and Ashley and Kyle, got about 70% of her stuff into the truck and over to her house.The plan was for me to take the truck with my buddy Charles and get the rest of her stuff over to her house, unloaded and the truck back to the U-haul by 4. We went over at 9am to discover that they had no power and couldn't open the storage rooms. They didn't get power back until 2pm and Charles and i had to run up to her 4th floor storage space in this warehouse, load all of her remaining things onto pallets and down to the truck, unload them at her house, gas the truck back up and get it over to U-Haul by 4. We barely made it. The upswing... she's ALL moved in to this great house. Pictures to come.
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