This weekend we took my little sister to College at Xavier in New Orleans.  My parents are so cute, even after being married for 35 years. My Dad still spoils us by carrying everybody’s luggage and my mom fed him watermelon chunks while he was driving.  My sister jokingly asked me to feed her, and I told her to “get a life,” because her name ain’t Daddy, and my name ain’t Mama! LOL!

That 10 hour drive was a beast, and it rained the WHOLE ride down there and every day while we were in New Orleans.  That is not the city for me.  Rain boots and umbrellas are common attire and the students had to pick a hurricane evacuation plan just in case.  My Sister is staying in the dorm with her friend from High School.  I really liked the small school family vibe at the university.  There were less than 700 Freshman students starting, and the school took great strides to make the family and the new students feel welcome.  They even had a “how to cope with your child leaving” class for the parents.  The first night my sis thought she was staying in the hotel with us, but Daddy’s tough love said nope, stay in your doom room, you gotta get used to it. 

 We did all the orientation stuff, and of course me and my Mama found the mall.  We also did several hours of walking on Bourbon Street, the French Quarter and at local eateries. Me and Mama split a Po’ Boy sandwich from Johnny’s and we all loved the beignet pastries from Cafe Du Monde

Sunday morning we had breakfast on campus and said our goodbyes.  It was a little weird leaving her down there, y’all know she’s my workout buddy and weekend hangout friend.  It wasn’t too sad though, I’m excited for her!  I told her not to do any drugs or get pregnant, and that we could probably work around everything else that might come up. Of course we were texting each other already on the car ride back home.  She’s eager to go to class and I know she’ll make us proud.

Monday, I felt lazy, traveling sometimes makes me tired.  I had a stressful day, and I conjured up this peanut butter fudge brownie recipe in my head.  I prayed that God help me go to the gym instead of the grocery store to buy the ingredients I needed to create my delicious masterpiece.  Yet, I found myself pulling up at the Chinese restaurant.  At least I got broccoli with my rice and chicken.  I was at home defeated, a few bites into my dinner, when my Big Little Sister called.  She asked me to go to the gym with her.   I was in a little funk and I sheepishly said “No, maybe tomorrow.”  Can you believe I said no?! That was so rude.  She replied “Nope, we’re going, I’ll be there in 20 minutes, be ready…”  Sometimes you need somebody as pushy as you to get you off your butt.  She picked me up as promised and we went to the gym.  I got on the elliptical and she got on the treadmill.  I told her that last time I wasn’t sweating nearly hard enough, so she suggested that I speed up my pedaling pace during each of her running intervals.  I also cranked the resistance up from my usual 4 up to level 10.  Then it was time to let the sweat flow. Two skinny girls got on the machines next to us for a just a few minutes and quit.  They kept looking at us in amazement like how are they doing that? Move over skinny girls, us juicy girls are handling these machines tonight!  I burned over 600 calories in just under an hour.  Then we went into the sauna and sweated some more. We had a shared a silly conversation about how sweat is gross, and that we as ladies should “glisten” instead. I felt, relaxed and my mind was more clear.  I’m grateful that even though my regular work out buddy is 600 miles away, my other sister stepped right on in!

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