Unfair Racial Profiling or Just Being Cautious?

Good morning, and Happy Tuesday peeps!  How are you?  Great, I hope.  Being back to work after vacation is killing me already.... I work for a law firm in the banking and finance dept. in downtown Houston and we have several closings going on all at once - which means early early mornings and extra late nights for me.  I was here until after 9 last night and started my day here at 7 a.m.... sigh.... like I said - extra lonngggg days.  :(

Anywho - regarding the title of my post....like I said, I work in downtown Houston and it was after 9 p.m. and clearly after dark and I was ALONE walking across the street from my building to the parking garage to my car.  As I was approaching the outside of the area that leads to the parking garage, which by the way, you have to have a key for, there was a big tall black guy carrying a gym bag and earphones in his ear talking with someone.  I don't really know why he scared me SO bad last night, but as I got to the key pad to get into the building, he was closing in on the same area.  Out of fear, I immediately scanned my card, jumped in the building and pulled the door closed behind me fast.  

Once inside, I hit the elevator button and looked at the door - he had a key card and was sighing a bit as he dug it out to get into the same building.... *whew*...  Once I noticed he also had a key card, I relaxed and held the elevator for him.  However, he said no worries that he was catching a different one instead.  So I got off the elevator and RAN to my car and got in and locked the doors.  I had to leave out of a different exit because of the after 9 p.m. issue.  As I pulled up and stopped at the light, I looked to my right and there he was in his car with the window rolled down and he smiled and waved.  So I rolled my window down and apologized for my hastiness of locking him out and told him it truly was nothing personal, but I was alone and afraid that time of night going to my car.  

He was very nice and said he completely understood and not to worry and that was the exact reason he had chosen to take the other elevator, so that he wouldn't make me more nervous and afraid.  He also proceeded to tell me that he is the CVS manager across the street and had just gotten off work and changed clothes and was on his way to the gym.  (Which I WILL be checking his story out about the manager part)  Anyway, I was in tears all the way home and very anxious all night to say the least.  A part of me felt VERY bad for profiling him unjustly (though his color was of no concern to me - I would have done the same thing if he had been a big tall white guy), and the other part of me kept kicking myself telling me that I should never have even rolled down my car window to talk to him as he could have pulled out a gun and shot me right there on the spot! 

So... what do you think?  Unfair profiling on my part, or valid concern and being cautious since you never know nowadays in this world we live in?  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  Please leave a comment telling me what you think.  However, as our department is now getting into our most busy season of the year, I am off to find some pepper spray just to play it safe.....

In the meantime, I am dreaming of days like this:

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! :)

Lots of love and hugs,

HOME SWEET HOME

Happy Monday, ya'll!  Hope you had an awesome week last week and an even better weekend.  We officially arrived home yesterday about 9:30 or so and have been running ever since.  It was VERY HARD to get up this morning at 5 a.m. after sleeping in all week....  Back to life - back to reality... right?  Anyway, we had a fantastic trip that I can't wait to share with all of you, along with the pictures.  This has already been a crazy day at work just trying to play catch up, but I promise I will get the blog posts with pictures up very soon.  All I can tell you is that it was truly an UN-BELIZEABLE trip! :)

Have a great day and I will catch you on the flip side!  On my way to catch up with your blogs now to see what I missed out on last week.

Thanks for stopping by and please say hello.

Lots of love and hugs,

Vacation Time and Finish This Linkup

Happy Hump Day ya'll!  TWO more desk days until I am OFFICIALLY on vacation for a total of 9 whole days - OMG I can NOT wait!  We have had this trip planned since February this year and it has been a LONGGGG time coming for sure!  We are headed on a cruise to Hondurus, Belize and Cozumel for 8 glorious days and 7 wonderful nights.  Hubby and I are celebrating our 17 year anniversary and our besties who are going with us are celebrating their 20th year anniversary and his birthday.  Anyway, needless to say, I will be out of pocket again for those 9 days and hope to catch up after that and get back on a regular blogging schedule going into the Fall.  Hard to believe it is middle of September already and all I can think of is SUN, SUN and MORE SUN this next week.  You can bet I will be taking a TON of pictures on our trip to share here when we return. :)  

On another note.... here is another Finish This Linkup with LISA (Coastlined),  JEN (The Arizona Russums), BECKY (The Java Mama) and NICOLE (Three 31).  The link up instructions are simple:  answer the prompts in a post on your blog. 

1.  I am the type of person who:  Tries to see the good in everyone no matter what the situation is.  I try to befriend everyone as I am a very friendly person, but some people just aren't up for being befriended - even co-workers sometimes, which really sucks.  Especially when I am in a place where I literally have.no.friends.or.family and look for people with a common bond...

2.  My favorite joke, riddle, or funny is:  I'm totally stumped on this one and don't have a clue - though I LOVE stand up comedians and love a lot of their jokes so I guess that counts, right?! :)

3.  All that really matters is: Faith, Family and Friends (borrowed this one from www.thejavamama.com (aka Becky) because she was spot on, on this, I thought!  Living life to the fullest, being happy and having your Faith, Family and Friends is definitely what life is truly all about, I think.                   

Well, thanks for stopping by to say hello and be sure to link up if you want to play along with the Finish This Linkup this week.  Have a great rest of the week, weekend and week ahead and I will see you on the Flip side after my luxurious vacation with my hubby and friends.                                              

Lots of love and hugs,

We Will NEVER Forget....

Remembering all of those who died on this day and the sacrifice they gave during this horrible tragedy on American soil.  

Lots of love and hugs,

My Baby Girl, Bella, is ONE today!

Happy Thursday ya'll!  Hope you're having a fabulous short week - even though it DOES seem like the shorter the week, the longer it is.... sigh.....

I had to do a quick post today because I wanted to show you my beautiful baby girl, Bella.  She is full-blood Boston Terrier and is the SWEETEST thing ever!  I never thought I would have any dog besides a Golden Retriever who could tug at my heart strings like she does.  We actually have 3 Boston Terrier's but she was our first BT baby.  

So... Happy Happy Birthday to my beautiful Bella Girl - momma is going to bring you home a special treat today from the puppy store.  I love you sweet baby - thank you for bringing this furmommy such joy over the last year!

P.S. - you think it's hard getting a child's picture on their birthday or first day of school - it's REALLY hard getting a furbaby - doesn't the last picture just say it all??!! LMBO!  I think she had, had enough of her picture being taken this morning (these were just 3 of the only good ones I was able to capture of her) The middle one is my favorite - though the bottom one makes me laugh! 

Thanks for stopping by to say hello.  Have a great day and great rest of the week! :)

Lots of love and hugs,