Girls' Weekend

Toting, bending, lifting, shoveling, planting, cleaning, painting, straining, sweating...smiling.

I just got home from volunteering to build a playground alongside other female executives at my company for a local organization called Girls, Inc. We dubbed the playground build, "girls helping girls." It was a really neat experience, and the playground (which the girls from Girls, Inc designed themselves) looks wonderful! While the actual people that provide the playground structure mostly build the structure (for obvious safety reasons - I mean, what in the world would a bunch of corporate women know about ratcheting and bolting millions of steel together for little girls to swing and slide from? Absolutely nothing. So, good call on their part!), the volunteers do various other jobs to help out the site. My jobs? Shoveling mountains of mulch onto tarps. Carrying tarps of mulch to the playground site. Staining the benches. Staining the steps. Staining the picnic tables. Planting flowers. Spreading out dirt. Laying step stones. All in 95 degree heat with a heat index of 105. It was so freakin' hot. But it was all so worth it! Those girls are going to have a great time playing on their new playground, and it couldn't have been for a more worthy cause - helping an organization that actively reinforces self-confidence and strength in (mostly underpriviledged) girls of today that will take our place as the women of tomorrow.

Next on the agenda for the girls' weekend? Huntsville, AL to visit my college roomate!! I haven't seen her since early December, so we've got a few Christmas and birthday gifts to exhange! Her husband (a teacher and jr. varsity football coach at the local high school) will be out of town taking the team down for football camp. What a more perfect time for the girls to get together again for a weekend reminescent of the good times we had while living together at U.A.! Shopping, margaritas, laying by the pool, boys...well, considering she's married now, maybe it won't be just like it used to be, but we'll still have a great time with the shopping, margaritas and the pool!

And finally, the last hurrah for my girls' weekend will be the 90th birthday party for my great, great aunt (my grandfather's aunt!) on Sunday. She's still sharp as a tack, lives on her own, keeps up with current events, does some of her own yardwork, and travels! If I'm around to see 90 years, I hope I'm blessed with the independence and intelligence that she still maintains! May it run in my family!