The past couple of days have resulted in a lot of goodbyes and new beginnings. Some of the goodbyes were to people, some were to furniture, others to offices, and even cars.
Our first goodbye was to our master bedroom furniture. My sister moved back to college this weekend and needed furniture. She moved into a house with four other college friends at Alabama. We actually were happy to let it go, it did not go with our bedding or decor at all. Mom and Dad bought it for me back when I was in 7th grade with the intentions that I would take it to college so if anything happened to it it was not the end of the world. They paid $250 for a headboard, chest of drawers, dresser, and mirror. This is a very unheard of price but the furniture was not worth much more than that anyways so we were expecting it to fall apart in a couple of years anyways. Well 12 years and six moves later, it is still in tact and won't fall apart. Kara successfully moved it into her house and out of ours!!! Meanwhile, this meant we needed to get new furniture. It arrived on Friday and I am in the process of putting all the clothes back in it and looking for Russ a new nightstand.
The second was for Russ. He completed his 1L internship for the summer on Friday. He learned so much and truly enjoyed what he did at the US Department of Labor. It allowed him to gain experience and test out the field of law. Now he is hitting the books since he is taking the Patent Bar this Friday in Chattanooga. His summer has been jammed packed with stuff. Also, as a follow up to an earlier post, Russ made both Law Review and Moot Court. He also received an A in his Intellectual Property Survey Course this summer, so he has had a very successful summer!
I also had to say goodbye to something work related on Friday. My group is moving to another building. We had to pack up all our desk and office area for us to move down the street to another building. It will be nice to see the new office environment, as they are trying out lot of new and innovative ways of setting up office spaces. Before, if you were a manager or above you had an office that was on the outside of the floor, so along the windows and all the others had high walled cubes and u-shaped desks. Our floor, had three conference rooms and a "breakroom" but all that included was a refrigerator, microwave, fountain machine, and vending machines. Our new space, all the managers offices are on the inside and the workspaces are on the outside with the windows. The workstations have a choice between fixed or free space. You can have the same desk everyday or float around. The workspaces are in groups of four with a table in the middle for collaboration and the desk themselves are L-shaped. They only come up to your high hip so you look around and see all the lights and heads. It also has five conference rooms, along with four other meeting types (hard to explain, will post pictures later). Our breakroom is a cafe style, it has booths and tables, along with hightops. It has a very open atmosphere so they put things in the ceiling for white noise. It will be an interesting, yet fun adjustment. It was sad saying bye to the other people who worked on our floor, we will still see them in the occasional meeting but not everyday like we were used to.
Friday night my parents had a going away party for our neighbors, Jim, Darla, Jordan, Stephen, and Austin. They moved in before Austin was born (I think he is eleven now....) so we grew very close with their family. Kara and I both babysat them over the years. Darla was another Mom to us, running us to doctors appointments, picking us up from school or soccer when Mom and Dad were at work. They were great neighbors and friends. Jim got a new job in Columbus so they are moving down there. It was really sad to say goodbye to them on Friday night. Hopefully, with the world of free long distance, email, and technology (facebook) our families will be able to keep in touch.
My other goodbye for the weekend was to my first car, 1997 Ford Explorer. My parents bought the car in 1996, it was the first of many SUVs for our family. It was good to go to soccer practices and games, beach vacations, trips to VA and TN for holidays, and Dad's weekend trips to Home Depot. Like all cars, Dad gets to drive them first then Mom gets them after about a year because it is nicer than our other car to drive clients around. I didn't get a car when I first turned 16, it was about six months later and actually the car I really got was my Granddaddy's Bonneville. As a teenager, I was not going to be seen in this car so somehow I managed to talk my parents into letting me drive the Explorer. In January 2002 the Explorer became my car. I loved that car. I would wash it every Sunday and it was great for all our adventures around town. I took it off to college, which was great for loading up all my stuff to Tennessee. Dad would still use it on the weekends or when I was home for his weekly trips to Home Depot. When I was in Italy in 2005, Dad was driving my car that summer and it died on him. Of course Mom freaked out and said that she did not want me driving it again so that resulted in me getting the a new car and Dad stuck with the Explorer. It was the alternator that went out. Dad drove that everyday until Christmas this past year when Granddaddy once again gave us his car. Luckily, Granddaddy made the decision to stop driving so our family did not have to go through that battle. He was very generous and gave his car to Dad. The Explorer sat a lone on the driveway from January until August 1st when Dad donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. There were many great memories with that car, it was actually sad to see it go. It held up pretty well too!
Our final goodbye, which isn't necessarily a goodbye, goodbye but it was a goodbye for a couple of weeks or months was to Kara. She went back to college on Saturday to get ready for her sophomore year. Over the past couple of weekends, we spent going all around town looking for decor to her new room and boy did it turn out so cute! Sophomore year was probably one of my best years in college and I hope the same for her!
Ocean Isle Beach
Russ and I on the balcony
Russ in one of his outfits I bought him
Playing Skee Ball on the Boardwalk
Rachel and I watched the sunset
Russ and I at Sugar Shack
Russ and I on his last night, he survived a Wilbourne Vacation
