Nina: May 2008 Archives

My friend Michael, on the other hand, was a wild man...

Then there are these yahoos.  Ya know, I'd love to explain this, but.....there are not adequate adjectives.  Really.

OK, so moving right along...

The following Saturday, the 19th, was an event called do.justice.  This was an event created around community service within the city of Atlanta.  It was an opportunity for three church campuses (all basically the same church meeting at different places) to use the resource of a huge singles community in order to make a difference in the community.  The event kicked off at Buckhead Church will breakfast at 9 am.  From there we divided up into service teams to go out to 9 organizations around the city of Atlanta and participate in tasks such as meal prep and delivery, cleaning, construction, childcare, sorting, landscaping, and construction.  About 700 people paid $10 to participate in this event.  When we were done we met up back at the church to eat barbeque and celebrate all that had been accomplished.  Here's what it looked like...

Key Quote:

"everybody can be great...because anybody can serve." 

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

My assignment was food delivery, and I was partnered with 3 other women.  One person drove, another navigated, and the other two got in and out of the car walking the meals to the door.  We delivered meals to elderly living below the poverty level in downtown Atlanta through Senior Citizens Services.  This particular service is not new to me--I delivered Meals on Wheels in the past and was really touched.  This experience was the same, if not moreso.  It was so obvious by the reactions we got that these people had very few visitors.  As much as I wanted to stay and visit and try my best to brighten their day, we had a lengthy route and a tight schedule, so we had to drop off the food.

Here we are getting our food boxes ready to go...  There were different meals tailored to the recipients:  low sodium, diabetic, etc.  It was very important to have everything we needed before we loaded up the cars and left.

There aren't any photos of us "in action" for several reasons.  For one, we just got really busy--it took a decent amount of effort and concentration to find the houses, not get lost, make sure we had the right box, and walk it up to the door.  But besides that, it really wasn't about us--it WAS about the work being accomplished.  And I didn't want to embarrass any of the recipients or invade their privacy by waving around a camera.  As it was, I really enjoyed setting everything else aside, all my own trivial personal crap, and simply harnassing my time and my energy for a purpose bigger than myself.  It was also a huge perspective clarifier to be in an already crime-ridden and income-challenged neighborhood that had recently suffered some serious damage from the tornado.  One lady was practically home-bound because a tree had crashed into the back of her house, blocking the rear door, leaving only the front entrace with a long flight of stairs.  She has arthritis in her knees and can barely make it up and down.  Heck, we could barely make it up and down--it was a huge and steep flight of stairs. 

Another lady had such severe osteoporosis that her back was basically shaped like a C--her face was only 12 inches or so from her knees.  She grasped my hand and thanked me over and over again, telling me how we'd be "blessed" for what we were doing.  I dropped down on one knee so she could see me and we could chat for a minute, and walked back to the car in tears.  Most of us are so fortunate, so blessed, and we often don't realize it.

The following Saturday was a rare event for me:  a black-tie gala fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis.  My buddy Jim works for Choate Construction, one of the sponsors, so he broke out the tux and asked me to go with him.  We were in a rush to get there, especially since it was across town and we had to drive in a torrential downpour, so I didn't get any pictures.  Once I got home, though, I tried to capture my ensemble.  Bear with me:  math may be hard, but so is self-portraiture, people!

The never-fail Black Dress... it was my bridesmaid's dress for my sister's wedding, and has come in handy many times since.  I feel every woman should have a plain black crepe sheath in their closet!

 A prime example of WHY I adore black crepe is what happened within minutes of our arrival.  But first of all, I have to tell about the chariot in which I rode.  Jim had the Lincoln in to be serviced in preparation for the evening, and of course, it wasn't ready in time.  So he picked me up in a white Choate truck.  Having a decent sliver of country girl in my makeup, I found it highly amusing to arrive at a black tie function in a construction truck!!

After being handed out by the valet, we got our table assignment, and were ushered into the champagne reception so we could peruse the silent auction items.  As the waittress approached us with her tray, another guest picked up a flute, leaving only two glasses at one side of the tray.  It happened so quickly that neither the waittress or anyone else could react before the tray tipped over and sent two flutes of champagne down the front of my dress.  While the mortified waittress ran to get some black napkins, I went into the bathroom, rinsed out the front of my dress, and came back to the party.  You couldn't even tell!

There's a reason women everywhere love the LBD!!