The Morning After....

Couldn't get to sleep last night and I was up way past midnight. I don't know if it was too much tea in the afternoon, or the late dinner we had with our friends K and B. (They live near downtown Houston, so every time they drive into Clear Lake, we all go out to Babbo Bruno's for dinner.) Not that we ate that much dinner.... B ordered an appetizer, K ordered a light meal, and three-quarters of my dinner is now in my fridge, waiting to be re-heated. My husband enjoyed his dinner last night, though, being that he wasn't at the tea party and faced with all those plates of sandwiches and sweets. (Just whose idea was it to make that much food anyway?)

I got out of bed last night and turned on the television for a few minutes. CNN was still showing everything going on in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. I can't watch that before bed-time... gets me too upset. I quickly shut the TV off and went back to bed and sat up on my pillows reading a book. I've got that little book-light that we had found in the bookstore when I took C & L there after last month's Midnight Tea Party. C found the little lights tucked on one of the bookshelves and we each got one... lets you read in bed without having to turn on a bright lamp.

My friend BH has family who lost everything they had after Katrina blasted through New Orleans. BH called me the other day to let me know she was going to drive into Louisiana, and she told me about her son and his wife losing their home and everything in it. They (along with their three children) are now living in Lake Charles (Louisiana) with BH's mother. Thankfully, BH's mom has a house big enough for all of them, plus it puts BH's mind at ease that her mom isn't living in that big house all by herself.

When BH called me, she was at Wal-Mart, shopping for clothes and things to bring to her son's family. I asked her what size her daughter-in-law was, and she told me "just your size." I went through all of my closets and drawers and filled up two big shopping bags with slacks, shorts, tops, pajamas, shoes and handbags. I even looked into my Christmas closet and pulled out some stuffed animals and games and books that I keep here for little kids who stop by during the holidays.... so I filled up a bag with those things as well.

Amazing how many things you can part with around your own house when there's someone out there who needs them more than you do. I drove over to BH's house the other day with the shopping bags so she wouldn't have to stop by here on her way to Louisiana. She was busy enough, trying to get everything she thought her son's family could use. Before she left Clear Lake, she also stopped at the local food bank where my friend A volunteers her time. They've been innundated with donations since the hurricane, and BH was able to bring some non-perishable food to her son and his family.

It's going to be months and months, if not years and years, before New Orleans and the surrounding towns are able to pull themselves back together and carry on with day-to-day life. Such devastating loss over there, and until they can drain all that water and find out what's underneath, they don't even know how many people have perished.