Wrapping Upchuck: 4-16-10 & 4-17-10

Wasn't able to wrap things up yesterday evening for a variety of reasons, but will catch up now. Let's see, Friday morning started out as usual, only instead of catching a ride with my Squirrelly Girlies up to the office, I donned the helmet and pedalled the bike into work. Did some administrative housekeeping in the morning, and then went over to the Center for Public Service to speak with Tulane's AmeriCorp Vistas contingent for about an hour or so. It was a great conversation, and I was happy to share my thoughts and hear from the Vistas about their experiences to date. From there, I hoofed across campus to the student cafeteria where I joined some prospective students and their parents for lunch. I was running a bit late to lunch, but made it to my assigned table to find that there were actually quite a good number of expectant students and parents eating and patiently waiting to speak to someone about the Latin American Studies program. I was pleasantly surprised, as most prospectives, if they do have an interest in any major at this point, tend towards the traditional professional fields -- business, public health, pre-law, pre-medicine, etc. And those interested in the Liberal Arts, tend to thing more along the lines of English Literature, Philosophy, Spanish, Communication, Art History, etc. Very few are thinking of Latin American Studies right out of high school. So, I was happy to have an interested audience. And, in fact, I had a wonderful convesation at lunch with all the students and parents there. I hope they choose to attend Tulane and take my classes!

After lunch, I had a relatively quiet afternoon (as Friday afternoons tend to be), with a couple of student appointments and some end-of-the-week tying-loose-ends up work. The day ended with me trucking on my bike up to St. Joe's to attend our Graduate Students' annual Faculty/Staff Appreciation Party. It was a great party and I felt very well-appreciated -- plied with good Abita beer and some wonderful Slice slices! From there, I biked on home where I found Squirrelly Girlie the elder sprawled out with a friend on our pullout sofabed in full sleepover mode watching a movie and eating popcorn. (It's primarily because of the sleepover that I wasn't able to put up my Wrapping Upchuck posting last evening.) And my Squirrelly Girlie the younger was at a friend's house experiencing her first sleepover (which she had been giddy about for days leading up to it.) So, needless to say, with a 'tween sleepover in progress at the homestead, I just cashed in early, being both useless to the event and wanting to avoid any chance of being an "embarrassment" to Squirrelly Girlie the elder.

Which brings me to this morning ...

Regular Saturday morning routing: sleeping in a bit (until 8:00am) and having a leisurely breakfast with the morning paper. Sleepover guest got picked up by 9:30am, my B-2/3 picked up Squirrelly Girlie the younger from her sleepover by about 10:15am or so; and then I carted both girls off to the regular morning dance class routines. The elder spends basically from 10:30am-3:30pm at the Dance Studio, and the younger joins me usually at the local coffee shop for a mid-morning snack until it's her turn to dance. Today happened to be an open studio day for the tap class, which both my Squirrelly Girlies dance in together, so this meant that my B-2/3 and I got to sit in and watch the hour-long tap class. It was, as usual, an enjoyable experience -- especially since my girls are just wonderful, cheery, and talented dancers.

From there, we headed out to the Fly (which is a riverfront park right behind the Audubon Zoo) for a crawfish boil put on by the St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church (my wife's church). Lots of fun ... and a great boil. I left the boil (and my family who was still enjoying the festivities) at about 1:40pm, smelling of spicy crawfish, to run up to the Children's Resource Center to participate in my Introduction to Latin American Studies class's Storytime program. We did have one visitor for the event, which meant that she got all the attention from the students who planned this event and who read the story. It, too, ended up being a nice event. After that, which brought me to about 3:00pm, I hopped in my pick-up truck and went over the my parents' house, where my siblings, nieces, and nephews were gathering for a belated group birthday party (three of us have birthdays in April within a week or so of each other). Fun was had by all, and my god-child gave me a gift of a big bag of Twizzlers for my birthday -- and this added to the two I had already gotten from each of my Squirrelly Girlies as their presents to me! One guess as to what my favorite candy treat is! Anyway, hung out with my extended family for a while, and got home just a couple of hours ago.

Now, Squirrelly Girlie the younger is tucked in, and both Squirrelly Girlie the elder and my B-2/3 are doing their little pre-bedtime sharing ritual while I'm in another part of the house tip-tapping away at the keyboard writing up this entry.

Tomorrow is Sunday, but it's a special Sunday. It's Celebracion Latina Sunday, and I'll be at the fiesta for pretty much all afternoon. I'll fill you in on the details after all is said and done. And so goes this Wrapping Upchuck!