It Could Be a Bowling Alley!

I had a great day yesterday.
At work, I was given what one might call...A Major Award!
It was major to me anyway.  My boss nominated me for it, which was flattering.
My co-workers struggled all day long to make sure it remained a secret to me until the big reveal during a town hall meeting that was teleconferenced to over 20-something corporate sites, and it was touching that they cared so much about me having a nice surprise.
The Division Manager (who is like my boss's boss's boss's boss....waaaaaay up the totem pole from my little peon self) announced that I had won it and said a whole bunch of nice things about me (well, read a bunch of nice things that my boss had written about me) in front of like 1500 of the Division employees was UBER flattering and a little humbling.
My boss called me afterward and told me that the award came with a few bucks and I was REALLY digging that.

I got to top the evening off with a lovely dinner with a great friend.  This is Tina:

 

She is smart, sexy, funny, beautiful (as you can see). You want to talk about angels among us?  That's Tina.  She runs a non-profit organization called Family Links through the Calhoun County Sheriffs Department.  She left a pretty prestigious position a couple of years ago to take this position.  Family Links works with at-risk youth in our area.  They have programs for parents to learn how to parent better...it focuses on parents of kids that are "out-of-control" and teaches parents how to get their heathens back under control before they slide into REAL mischief of drugs, violence, etc. (I'm paraphrasing here).  There's a "Success Academy" to get the kids back on the right track academically. There's a program that offers therapy for the kids...and a bunch more.  Frankly, it awes me because I don't know how she does it.

She is understaffed, overworked and underpaid. (I don't care what she IS paid, it can't be enough).  I don't know how she does what she does without burning out.  She is AMAZING.  And she is always in need of more money to help more kids...to make her programs more effective...to make more of an impact.  Right now, Tina is involved in getting together a fundraiser for Family Links.  It's called Run for FUNds and you can read all about it here. 

 

It's a 5k run/walk on April 25th, proceeds go to Family Links.  You can register to do the run for $20.  Or you can sponsor the run.  I haven't decided whether I want to actually do the run (or in my case, aggressively walk). But I did decide to become a sponsor.  Since I had just been given my MAJOR AWARD, I was able to hand Tina a check that evening over a plate Masaman curry and plum wine.

 

It was the very best part of my awesome day.