busy days, bohemeo’s, and crawfish revisited

A little over a month ago, my Facebook status read: Becky is busy until April 12.

I wasn’t kidding. This weekend will be my first free weekend in awhile and I’m really looking forward to it. The husband asked if I wanted to go to Austin this weekend but I told him I didn’t want to because I really just wanted to have a weekend to ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a really great kind of busy. Not the kind where I take my laptop home to work on Excel spreadsheets or where I stay late at work to prepare presentations for executives and vice presidents.

School has been wrapping up really well and I am enjoying my time at school getting to know my classmates better and making friendships that I really hope will last beyond graduation.

This past weekend was the Social Welfare Action Alliance National Conference. There were a lot of interesting workshops and lectures such as Deaf Youth in Foster Care, Immigration Patterns from Colombia and Japan, Healthcare Justice, and many more. There was a luncheon yesterday with one of the leading immigrant activists in Houston, Maria Jimenez and it was an interesting glimpse into the world of activism and political struggle. She made a poignant statement about how when people are most oppressed, people start making jokes. It’s like a natural human reaction to seek humor in dire circumstances I suppose. I’m still slowly plowing my way through From Beirut to Jerusalem and it also speaks a lot of the jokes that are passed around in tremendously horrific times of war. I think that’s really interesting.

Last night was spent at Bohemeo’s for a fundraising concert and it was great. One of our professors from school, Susan Robbins a.k.a. Susan Martin, headlined and invited some of her buddies on stage to play with her. We especially enjoyed the Lloyds and Bill Ward. The shrimp tacos and fish tacos were fresh and spicy, the music was mellow and the company was great as always. I especially liked when they ended the night with Lean on Me (total cheese, I know) and the whole bar sang it together.

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We revisited Bayou City Seafood & Pasta today and the crawfish was not as good as it was last weekend. It was disappointing. So consistency obviously isn’t their strong point. But! We each got a cup of gumbo (after we devoured two pounds of crawfish each) to cheer ourselves up and I’m happy to report that the gumbo is as amazing as the restaurant reviews suggest. I like that they serve the rice on the side and you get to mix it in yourself so the rice isn’t soggy.

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