Where are you summer?

Quick, think of the word "summer." What comes to mind? Is it the image of children at the pool, memories of family vacations past, or perhaps it is the image of someone relaxing on their front porch sipping on lemonade.

My summer is a bit different than that. It is...in one word-Busy!

Sunday's --My favorite day of the week! This day keeps me on the road as I travel from Gardendale to Forestdale to Gardendale to Kimberly to Gardendale to Forestdale to Gardendale and, if need be, a few more pit stops along the way! But I get to see some of my favorite people on Sundays! Worth the drive!

Monday's--Starting June 1st I have Blazerette practice at 7:15 in addition to my VP responsibilities! I love to dance. I took two years completely off of dance, I realize now that it was a huge mistake to stop. I realize now that you have time for the things you WANT to do. And as corny as it sounds, I am never more happy than I am when I am performing!

Tuesday's --DEPTH practice--6:30 till 9ish!

Wednesday's--USGA meetings!

Thursday's--Second favorite day of the week! VP practice 6-9 with group ballroom at 8:00...if you haven't been, you really should! www.bhamdance.com

Friday's and Saturday's---Finally free!

This is in addition to those other things that might require some attention over the summer! JORDAN'S WEDDING, APAC, my independent research!

This post is not a complaint! In fact, I am luck that I get a summer that I can pursue these interests! And, as I said before, you make time for the things you want to do. I made the choice to do all these things. This post might, however, explain why sleep is a rare commodity!

Weapons, Spoons, and Bannanas

As most of you know, I returned Sunday from a weekend trip to New Orleans. I must say that my first trip to New Orleans was not as I expected it to be. I had been told repeatedly that I would see and hear all sorts of unholy things. And while I am not saying that New Orleans was the cleanest city- there were some stores that seemed quite sketchy and I did see some unusual outfits-I didn’t see but a few things that were inappropriate. And like I’ve told some already, I have had worst things said to me at Walmart (really). That could be for a number of reasons. I could have been overly prepared for the unexpected. It could have been the areas we went in, the timing or the people I was with-especially considering I was the youngest person in our group by a good three years.

Though there were a few things that seemed to through a wrench in our plans, I could not have asked for a better trip. In addition to making some new friends and exploring a new city here are some of the highlights:

The professor we went with is the WWII professor so of course we went to the WWII museum. The exhibits were amazing. If you are ever in the area you should visit. Yet, little did I know that Dr. Tent knew everyone at the museum so we got to go into the archives of the museum to see all the artifacts that weren't on display. Beyond amazing! Who gets to do that! The highlight of the archives is when we got to hold weapons actually used in the war-German, Russian, American, and Japanese. Above is me holding a German gun-it makes me look so small!

The lovely man with the red tie is Dr. Tent. He really liked the band "Steamboat Willy" that played at this open air cafe. He other two gentlemen in the picture are members of the band who apparently invited Dr. Tent to come back and play spoons. For some reason they thought that Dr. Tent was German (he's not) and started talking to him in German (luckily he does speak German.) Dr. Tent came up to our table and told us "just to go with it" and play along that he was from Germany. We called him Mien Tent the rest of the trip.

For brunch Sunday morning we went to Brennan's a very nice resturant-so nice it had a bathroom attendant. We had the better service here than we did anywhere in New Orleans. The waiter came over to tell us to get our cameras out. As I dug through my puse looking for my camera the waiter took my purse away from me and put it on the table, "You don't worry about it," he said, "your comming with me." He took me up to where the strawberries and bannanas were sitting at the end of the table and made me begin preparing the banana's foster.

It was pretty much amazing!

I'm black

My sister is a brave, strong girl. She is a kindergarten teacher at Adamsville Elementary.

Wednesday I decided to visit my sister at her school and read to her class giving her time to write in agendas and work on any testing she needed to get done. All day Jordan had been reminding her class that they had a special visitor coming that day so they needed to be on their best behavior.

I walked into a room full of hushed five year olds. As I walked to the front of the room one of the girls told Jordan that I that her and I looked a like. Jordan did the teacher-y thing of asking why would we look a like and then explained that we were sisters. The kids thought that was the coolest thing!

We all gathered on the carpet and I read a cute book called A Bad Case of the Stripes. While reading the book, and for the rest of the day I had so many funny questions and comments.

One boy asked repeatedly if I was a rock star. About the 50th time I told him that I was in fact a rock star.

I was asked if I was Hannah Montana? If I had a mom? and other such questions.

Yet, by far my favorite part of the day was when a little African-American girl came up and put her arm next to mine and gave me a skeptical look saying, "You ain't Miss Duchock's sister. Miss Duchock is white!"

Later when I told Jordan about it she said that a boy asked her what I was mixed with.

I find this interesting not only because it is amusing, but because it is not the first time that it has happened. While observing at Parker High School several students asked if I was mixed, then more recently, when I was visiting my mom (who now works at my old high school) the students later asked my mom what I was mixed with.

Where did this come from? I had finally gotten use to people asking if I was a foreign exchange student (yes, this really has happened) in addition to my "Yes, I was born in Alabama" because apparently I do not talk southern enough. But that's another topic.....

"Special? Like stop eating the paste special?"

For the past couple of nights I have been spending some quality time with my sister watching her all time favorite show, Gilmore Girls. Thanks to Adam and his parents she has the entire series of the show. I am not near the GG fan that she is I think I have seen 10 episodes total. But don't worry, Jordan is going to change all that.

It is so great to have a sister. She is truly one of my favorite people and one of the most fun people to be around, ever.

Red Bull, huh?

As I woke up this morning to the rude blaring of the alarm on my cell phone, the idea of getting up and going to school really didn't appeal to me at that moment. After all, nothing significant was going on today: Notes can always be borrowed, right? Thus, the snooze button on my phone quickly became the most popular button on my phone for the next thirty minutes. Eventually, I came to the realization that although a day out of school would be nice, I wasn't really going to skip class.

So with very little motivation I got up, fixed breakfast and got dressed for class. (Saying that I got dressed for class here is very misleading. Really, I put on a long sleeve t-shirt and sweatpants to complete "the college look" I put my hair in a ponytail and neglected to put on makeup.)

My first class was predictable- a few notes, interesting discussions, etc. Before I knew it class was over and I was glad I came. Off I went to my second and final class for the day. Once in class, I had the regular disscusion with those sitting arround me concerning finals and topics for our final papers in that class.

The professor walked in and began setting up for class, so there was the end of all the classroom chatter. As she was begining lecture, in walks a guy with a FedEx hat carrying a case of Red Bull. He asks if Alexa Duchock was there. I somewhat hesitantly raise my hand. He walks over to my desk and sets the case of Red Bull on my desk and tells me they are for me. Crazy....somewhat embarrasing....confusing. Then, he handed me his clipboard (a standard, brown, not standard FedEx equipment I am guessing) and tells me to sign for them. So I signed the very unofficial piece of paper that just had my name written at the top with a line for my signature on the bottom. I am at least observant enough to notice that this guy wasn't from FedEx. This is a prank right...where are the cameras...you can come out now Ashton!"

Once Mr. "FedEx" had left my professor asked me if I knew where they came from. I didn't. I was so confused. In my mind I was going through all the possibilites-when had I ever given my name to Red Bull? what have I done wrong or right? and who did this? I attempted to give away some of the Red Bull to no avail. When it became obvious that the mystery of the Red Bull was not going to be solved, my professor began class. Yet my mind was far from feudalism, I wanted an explanation. It was not that I minded being called out in front of the whole class, after all I got something for free, but I just wanted to know why.

About half way through the class the girl who sits next to me, who always asks to borrow my notes, tells me I should drink one. She tells me that they are the new Red Bull Cola's that aren't even for retail yet. I turn to face her and smiled as I asked her why I got them. She explained that one of her best friends (Mr. "FedEx") works for Red Bull and that it was a promotional campaign. She put my name down becuase she thought it would be funny-which it was. After class, she told me she wished she had not told me it was her, but that I just looked so confused that she had to tell me. I was glad that she told me becuase if she had not I would have most likely spent the evening interrogating all of my friends.

Again, I tryed to get rid of some of them. Again, I had no such luck. So, I got my work out for the day carrying a case of Red Bull the two blocks to my car. They now rest peacefully in my refrigerator. After writing this I am going to try one-only 23 more after that! Any Red Bull fans...I might just be your new best friend.

...and I thought nothing blog worthy would happen!