Whirlwind weekend

This was the busiest weekend in quite a while. I felt like I needed a weekend to recover from my weekend. My friend from college, Stacy, was in town for her 30th birthday, so we hung out on Friday night, had a BBQ at Delena's on Saturday, and brunch at my place on Sunday. The brunch was to celebrate Stacy being in town but also a surprise baby sprinkle (smaller than a shower) for our friend Gwendolyn. She and hubby Jay are expecting their first baby, congrats! We did a great job at surprising her and had a good time hanging out and watched them both open gifts. Gwendolyn was my college roommate, hard to believe that it was 11 years ago we first met and I don't even know how long I've known Stacy since we actually went to elementary school together.

During the day on Saturday we went to see Kevin's grandfather (Paw-Paw). He lives in Bridge City (near Beaumont) so he was evacuated for Hurricane Ike to Paris, TX (any connection to Paris, France? - still not sure) and was just now able to return home. Kevin's aunt Danise put together a 'welcome home' party for him, a really great idea! While we were there we went to see PawPaw's house, where Kevin's mom and sisters grew up and all the grandkids spent time over the years. Driving through Bridge City was like a war zone, there were piles of stuff everywhere (carpet, all sorts of household belongings, and appliances - including taped up refrigerators). We even saw some people still adding to the piles. Danise described it well, saying it looks like a giant flea market, with stuff outside of all the houses. We drove over to PawPaw's house, and nearly every house in the neighborhood has a a POD storage unit outside (for what they could salvage, or my guess for tools and supplies). His house had had 4 feet of water inside. Kevin's parents had been there earlier and said that it now looks better because the pile outside his house was there, but much smaller. We walked into the house and it is stripped down to the studs. The only things that make you realize it was a completed house are that the ceiling fans are still there, and there is one place between the kitchen and living room that has finished wooden vertical bars (amongst the studs), aside from that and some remaining linoleum it looks like a house under construction. Very surreal to walk around and see whats left of the house he lived for 40+ years. Thankfully he still has a place to live, but its devastating for him and so many people on the Gulf Coast, it will take some so long to recover and as our lives are largely back to normal its easy to forget.