Friday Five

1. Crawfish again this weekend!! I can't wait. I love crawfish. It's not just about the crawfish, it is about the whole experience. You always eat with friends or family. It's always a pretty day and everyone is always in a good mood. I mean, how can you be in a bad mood with crawfish??!

2. 2 weeks of class left! Whoo hoo!

3. When school is over, I am not going to know what to do with myself. I am working on a camping trip though...

4. I got a haircut yesterday. I love haircuts! A fresh new "do" makes anyone feel good.

5.Tomorrow is May 1. 20 days until my birthday!! Seriously, another year has gone by?!? I'm getting old!

My Work

Today is my work's annual meeting. Except to avoid legal, logistical, confusion, we are going to call it our Annual Community Celebration! It resembles a typical annual meeting. A meeting of the members, new officers in, old officers out, a couple orders of business and out the door. The Foundation is "on the move" though. We want to have more of a presences in the community. We have started doing lots of collaborative events and public forums. We want to be an organization that can link you to the causes you care about and get you involved in our city. This year's celebration will actually take the form of a celebration! We are focusing on education and children and students! There will be musical productions from there very different youth organizations. There is a lovely (if I do say so myself) slide show that features a lot of the nonprofits the Foundation gives to in Shreveport-Bossier. We will have "snack lunches" after and cookies and juice! A true celebration of our city and what The Foundation has done in the city for the past 49 years! We also will hand out our 2009 annual report.

Cute invitation, right???? ;)

Next year is our 50th anniversary and we are planning big things for North Louisiana.

Why I love my friends

This past weekend the girls and I took off on a trip to Baton Rouge and New Orleans. We stayed in BR Friday night then headed to Nola Saturday morning to watch baseball games and shop and eat and have fun!

After the baseball games we finally got to our hotel about 8:00 and were starving. We decided to go eat "real quick," then go back to the hotel to get ready and head back out. After numerous failed attempts to find a place to eat, we settled on the famous New Orleans eatery of... Arby's. Yeah I know, real exciting. But it was good enough for us and we just wanted to eat.

After we got out food, we dived right in and started eating. Not even half way through our meal a homeless woman, came in and sat right next to us. Out of all the tables in the completely empty Arby's, she sat next to us. We all noticed and took note of how sad it was. Two police officers walked in and the lady jumped up to get ketchup and such like she was a paying customer. She didn't want to get in trouble and if ketchup was all she was going to get for the evening she was ok with that.

About that time, Jessica said there was no way she could finish her sandwich, so she would give it to her. At the same time, Crystin and Amber said "I was thinking the exact same thing!" Crystin went ahead and gave the lady her fries. She said thank you and began to eat them. After this the lady had another homeless friend walk in. She immediately asked if he would like some and began to share. This lady, who clearly on the outside has next to nothing, offered him her food that was just given to her! It is extremely humbling to see her share what little she had, when it can be so difficult for us to share even a little when we have all the resources in the world! Our very, very tender hearted friend Jessica shed a few tears. Ok, no, she was seriously crying. And we were seriously trying not to laugh at her. The situation was sad and what we did was nice but that many tears didn't need to be shed. We tried to make light of the situation and cheer Jess back up but she had to get out there. We picked at Jessica the rest of the weekend for tearing up, but she "just couldn't help it!" No one ate much else and before we left we gave her another container of fries, and the rest of Jessica's and Amber's sandwhich.

I don't tell this story to show off or brag about what we did. Because there is really no need in that. It really was nothing big, just a small gesture of giving. I tell this story because I am proud to have these ladies as my friends. I really played no part in the story. I was more of an observer, if anything. It was humbling to watch my friends give and care in such the way they did. None of us are perfect, but I know we did the right thing that night. And wouldn't this world be so much better if people just did the right thing?

I love these girls and so thankful for their loving hearts!

B.A.B.S.

You may, or may not, have noticed I changed the title of my blog. Blonde Among Brunettes or Babs. Ha! I'll tell you how I got this name and then why I decided to stick with it.

At work, I am the only blonde among the brunettes in the office. Our computer guy, who is crazy funny, took it upon himself to start calling me Bab. Not Babs, just Bab. I had to ask why he was calling me Bab. He explained the obvious (which was not so obvious to the blonde, of course). I am the only blonde head among the office. I asked if I could be called Babs instead of Bab and he said no. But this is my blog, and I make the rules here, so I am Babs. :)

I kept the name because it is so true about me. I am the only blonde in my close group of friends. The only one at work. Not the only one in my immediate family (mom and brother- except brother just shaved his head which is a whole other issue with me). But in the big extended family with cousins aunts and uncles, me and mom (we'll just count Mom because I am upset with brother) are the only blondes.

I love being blonde. Yes I hear the jokes, and they are funny and lots of the time true. But that's ok with me; I love to make people laugh! HA! In all seriousness though, this is what I strive to be. Someone different in a world full of the same. I don't always get it right and I'm not sure what my "something different" is going to be. I'll figure it out one day. In the mean time I enjoy being my blonde self and lighting up the world of brunettes!

Disclaimer: I love all my brunette friends! But seriously - BLONDES DO HAVE MORE FUN! :)

Friday Five

1. I hate when I have 2 Friday Five posts back - to- back. It makes me feel like a slacker because I haven't blogged in over a week. Except in this case, when it has been 2 weeks! oops.

2. Girls trip to Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Beginning in T- 1 hours. Enough said.

3. Trust. I think trust is one of the most important qualities any person can have. It is valuable in a friendship and relationships.

4. My grandfather had a pacemaker surgery yesterday. I hate hospitals and seeing him down. It's just not him. But he is out of the hospital and on his way home today. Knowing him, he was so ready to be out of that place he ran out the door!

5. I continue to the God for the beautiful Spring weather he has given us!!! I think I ate dinner outside twice this week! Fabulous!

Friday Five

1. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. Scary, I know. I feel like a quarter life crisis is around the corner. (Dramatic, maybe.) I'm finally hitting that "I'm out of college, now what" phase. I have 4 classes of my Master's left. Then what?

2. Speaking of Master's, the Holy Grail of golf tournaments is being played in the Holy Land of Augusta, Georgia (At least that's what Dad always says). I am by no means a golfer, and at times it can be the most boring thing ever, but I do enjoy it. I love to be outside and watch Dad and brother play. Dad and I went to the Zurich Classic in New Orleans last year and I loved it! We might go again this year, we will have to see. I would love to go to the Master's but I think Mom has dibs on the next trip to Augusta.

3. Tonight I am going to the Hank Williams, Jr. concert. Eric Church, who I love, and Jamey Johnson will be opening. I think the last two names are the only reason I am going. I like country music and all, but Hank Williams, Jr?? A little too old school country for me. But I'm sure we will have fun anyway.

4. Before the concert tonight, I need to finish writing an 8-10 page paper. I'm halfway through page 1..oops. Because if I don't finish it I will have to be completely lame and come home on a Friday night and finish it. Woo. Hooo.

5. I have been enjoying the spring weather this week. I ate dinner outside Monday. Well we were going to eat on the patio at the table but it was yellow. Seriously, yellow because it was covered in pollen. So we moved to the front yard and ate on the tailgate of the truck. I just love being outside in warm weather, just soaking it up. We had a nice little spring shower Wednesday to wash away the pollen. Even I can appreciate a good thunderstorm.

One cast too many...

I finally got to go fishing last Friday. It was Good Friday and Dad and myself both had the day off. I slept late (9:30) and woke to a text from Dad. He was fishing on Cross Lake and would pick me up at the dock if I wanted! What a great text to wake up to! So I grabbed my brand new purple fishing pole (that Chris had bought me), stopped at Circle K for essential snacks and made my way to the lake. I got there and Dad picked me up and we took off to a spot on the lake. This was my first time using this pole, so I was a little nervous; one- because I like to get everything right, on the first try and two- because I didn't want to get a big ole tangle and have to have Dad spend all his fishing time untangling my fishing line. But I did well almost the whole time. Dad did comment that I was doing well though. But he knew when he heard "oops" or "uh oh" what had happened. He would say "Uh oh, where?" and motor over to my latest catch (usually a large tree). All good fishermen lose a bait every now and then (right?). So it was getting into the afternoon and we were thinking it was time to call it a day. The fish just weren't biting; Dad had caught one though. But Dad said he was going to start cleaning up the boat to go back in. Well, I had just cast once more... oops, straight into a tree/bush/log thing. So we muddle over there to get me unhooked. Well I had really done a number this time so there was no unhooking from this log. Dad decided that bait wasn't expensive anyway and we could just break the line. I had handed over the pretty purple rod and reel to dad to unhook me. He gave a good tug and...

Oops!! He snapped that pretty purple fishing pole right in half! I yelled "DAAAAAD!" But all we could really do is laugh. He said Chris had just bought me a cheap pole. Ha ha. It was a good, Good Friday though, for everyone but my fishing pole.