It has been a while since I have sat down to write anything. I apologize! Its been a little busy, really hot, and I have found a nice routine here. But these past few weeks have been great!
On Friday at work I was asked to head down to the church to receive a large package that was to heavy for Sister Vera to carry. I was a little nervous but luckily I had a dashing young man, who is strong and very helpful, with me to carry the very heavy box. Michael came to New Orleans along with Aunt Susie for an absolutely wonderful visit! They came to work with me on Friday and were big helps at the showers then came to clean up in the afternoon. Michael carried the box for me back to the center and we opened it to see what was weighing it down. It was a box FULL of personal toothpastes! And when I say FULL I mean it. Dr. Rick sent yet another awesome package full of toothpaste. It also looked like some of his other Dentist friends had pitched in to send more. We were able to put personal toothpastes in every hygiene kit this week, and then some! We have some happy smiles this week :)
Aunt Susie and Michael kept me on my toes last weekend. I had a blast taking them around the city! They were great at being flexible when we got caught in a rain storm on a daquari/walking adventure, on Aunt Susie's birthday. We ate more delicious food than I thought possible and some fancy food too! The bananas foster at Brennans melted in my mouth and made me a very happy camper. Drank Mimosas at Aunt Susie's BDay breakfast. They stayed in a beautiful little hotel close enough to the French Quarter that they were able to walk all over the place but far enough that they did not hear too much of the downtown noise. We walked a few blocks of Bourbon St., during the day (still lots of light out!), caught some beads, saw some bars (from the outside), just to say they did it. They went on a haunted tour of the French Quarter. We explored the 9th ward and saw Lake Ponchartrain. They were put to work at the Center and met so many of the wonderful people I work with. And I had a great time with them! I am so glad they spent their vacation time with me!
This past weekend the JV's went on a retreat in Texas: a retreat site right in between Dallas and Houston. We left Wednesday after work, stayed with the Houston JV's that night, then went to the retreat on Thursday. It was a beautiful site and brand new! The land was very flat and open which made for wonderful sun sets, lots of sun during the day, way less humidity than New Orleans, and you could see storms literally rolling in. We had delicious food and a lot of reflection time which we all needed. It has been a wonderful year but a lot to think about and process. The speaker created a space to share our thoughts and feelings with the group and then we were given time by ourselves to internally think about what we had gone through. About a month ago Stephanie and Anne decided it would be a brilliant idea to have Prom at our last retreat all together. There are about 60 JV's in the southern region of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. We have a lot of fun as a big group together. The talent show was Saturday night and was great. For those of you who know what this is: I did the broom trick and it was a big hit! Then after the talent show we had Prom! There was a big open room that we decorated and a speaker system to blast music. It was raining like crazy outside with huge lighting and thunder. It was a little scary but we were all inside having a great time. In the middle of the Cupid Shuffle everyone was on the dance floor when all of a sudden there was a deafening SNAP, 100 times louder than the snap you hear with a whip. We all hit the floor, the music went out, the lights flashed, and bits of plaster fell from the ceiling. The building we were in had been hit by lightning. No one was hurt, nothing caught on fire, the building had been built to withstand this type of weather, the only damage done was a crack in the plaster on the ceiling where the roof had pushed down because of the lightnings impact. It was a bit shocking, to say the least. The fire department came to check the building and make sure it was safe to be in, which it is but the internet cords were hit pretty hard. Now we all have a pretty cool JV Prom story, haha. And I can say that I have been hit by lightning!
Today's quote is, "Julie, if you could bottle your beauty up it would put coke-a-cola out of business." -Benjamin 8:15am
Lots of Love!
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