A REAL First-Hand Account

Anne Gervasi is a licensed psychologist. She donated her time and her talent working with Katrina refuges at first, Reunion Arena and then, the Civic Center. This is her first hand account and reaction to what she had to deal with. This the horror that is Dallas.

There are so many words that come to mind. As a scholar I am thinking Diaspora, social displacement, systemic disruption, mass trauma, pandemic and unbelievable chaos. As a clinician, I am looking at something that we have never been trained to handle in this country--a level of victimization and its resultant psycho-social ripples that mandate a whole new field of clinical practice-mass victimology. Katrina kicked the top off of a racist and social termite's nest that has been growing beneath the ground since Reconstruction. These were deeply religious people who have lost God and for that matter, faith and hope. Hope has been replaced by magical thinking that augurs a second and more terrible level of social disruption and anger not far down the road.
Over and over, I kept hearing a framing of self that puzzled me until I realized that this is how it must have been for blacks after Reconstruction. Over and over, people said, "everyone has been so wonderful, thank you, thank you." When I said, "there is no need tothank us, you are our fellow citizens and we want to help you--American to American," there would be a long pause as if the idea of being the same never struck them before. They are angry and it is growing. The system failed them. For that matter, there is no system because all the safeguards and preparations that we thought were in place aren't there. I have been begging anyone who would listen over the past two years for a program in mass victimology to prepare for the next tragedy after 9/11. Now it is here and the lack of organization, science, and preparation are going to result in terrible consequences for us as a nation.
Imagine sending people who have been assimilated into the most stable demographic population in America into cities and towns all over the US who are as unprepared as the victims to understand their sense of dislocation and their support needs. The lower Gulf States have a language, a history, a social dynamic, a faith, a societal structure,and a ritual system unlike any other in America. These people have lived in and been acculturated to this system for generations. When the dust settles and the mud dries, we are going to see all over America, a nation that will lose patience with the needs of a foreign refugee population. Abandoned once again, the fury and the trauma that have been momentarily quieted by the outpouring of empathy and support post-crisis, will arise larger and more terrible than we have been equipped as a nation to handle. I hear it now, over and over, in the survivor stories, in the loss of self, and the need to reclaim dignity and power.
Right now, numbness is being replaced by magical thinking. "People want me here--here is better. I think I'll stay here." What is going to happen when reality sets in? The bulk of people who are planning to stay don't understand the system here. Even though we a but borders, we are avastly different nation. At least we are southerners. What is going to happen to the thousands being sent to Connecticut or Illinois or NewJersey? They are being offered free apartments, furniture etc, by generous and well meaning people who haven't thought the long term consequences through very well. A lot of the apartments are in areas where they won't have transportation or jobs. What is going to happen six months down the road when the magic wears off and the help slowly fades? How about the holidays for a people who thrive on ritual,tradition, and celebration?
The trauma they are experiencing is so profound that we have no cultural term or machinery set up for it. The dead and nameless bodies by the thousands rotting in the water, arriving dead on the buses with them, ordying next to them in the shelters are a huge festering wound that no one dares mention. This is a true Diaspora the likes of which we haven't seen since Reconstruction. The immediate needs that are being addressed ignore the greater traumas yet to be spoken. No governmental system can survive the number of wounded and disillusioned people that we are goingto see sprouting up all over America. Something far greater and more organized has to be done.
Then to the helpers and what is happening there. Turf wars have already sprung up. In the name of "I know better than you do," chaos and wasted energy are multiplying. The Red Cross was initially in charge of certifying the credentials of the helping therapists. After Oklahoma City and the pretenders who arrived there, this seemed like a wonderful clearing house. Everyone who wanted to help had to go through a brief orientation and a thorough checking of credentials. Only licensed professionals were allowed. Driver's licenses were checked for criminal records. This seemed to be a common sense excellent approach to the question of rapists, pedophiles, and other thugs being denied access to a vulnerable population. Actually, things ran better than I expected at the beginning. Then in came the physicians who I guess felt that their non-existent coursework in this area qualified them to better run things. Immediate chaos, disorganization, and all sorts of ersatz"helpers" began running around. They grabbed our current Red Cross badges and then stopped us from going back on the floor to finish seeing our patients without the new badges, which they just happened to be out of. We had an optometrist with prescriptive lenses but no glasses or readers and no idea when he'd ever see any. We had a deaf booth but no deaf helpers. In the midst of all this chaos, thousands and thousands of the walking wounded mixing with the powerless well-intentioned came the whispered word, pandemic. Lots of people are suddenly getting sick, and we have to have precautions. Don't eat or drink or touch the patients. We only have one bottle of disinfectant in the mental health section, so come back here--the length of the Convention Center--after each patient."What of the people who are being cycled out of here?" "What are we sending into the population?" If people are sick and contagious, where are the precautions to separate the vulnerable? What of precautions such as masks and gloves to keep the medical professionals and first responders safe? All the here and now is suspended in the hope that maybe tomorrow will take care of itself and the worst won't happen. Those are the question we asked on the first day. NO ONE IS IN CHARGE!
Therefore, there is no consistent answer or approach or forethought. I am no infection guru but as soon as I heard on day one that people withno water were forced to drink water with bloated bodies, feces, and rats in it, the thought of cholera, typhoid, and delayed disease immediately occurred to me. What if the fears of disease are correct? People are fanning out throughout America. Where is the CDC?
In the age of computers, we are doing worse than the pencil squibs and the rolls of paper to log in the displaced after World War II. Literacy and computer access seems to be considered as a given for people who have lost it all. Accessing FEMA is through a website. People are in shelters waiting for FEMA to come "in a few days." "Be patient." TheLieutenant Governor of Louisiana pumped my hand and replied to my desperate queries about how to help people find their parents and babies, "Be patient--give us a few days."
The mothers who have lost their children, and there are many, and the children who have lost their parents, have had it with the "be patient"response. The shelters are surprisingly silent. It is hard to find thetraumatized mothers because they cry silently. One mother asked how patient I would be if my five-month-old was somewhere unknown for over aweek. Over and over, others would ask," Do you think my baby has milk and diapers?" "Do you think they are being kind to my baby?" And then, so softly that I would have to ask them to repeat, "Do you think my babyis okay?" My response--the convenient lie. Every time I said, "ofcourse"; I prayed to God that it was true.
I am sure that there is a special ring of hell for the media: The survivor stories end-on-end for the titillation of the public. I heard Soledad O'Brien say something about the still unrecognized need toaddress the psychological trauma. I sent a response to the CNN tip-line that there were hordes of every manner of mental health professional working 24/7. CNN's response? Dr. Phil and the stories of the survivors"on Larry King. They went to the guy who lost his clinical license forserious professional infractions to tell the stories? I could see the"entertainer" down there gathering tales of the already exploited so that he and Larry could both pimp their ratings. The real unsung mental health heroes, the counselors, psychologists, social workers andpsychiatrists dealing with un-medicated psychosis and severe traumatic responses were represented by Dr. "Keep-It-Real"? We don't need tabloid help from the media. Scream about accountability and point fingers forthose who can't. Where is the real help from the media? Help us find those babies and parents and missing family. We have a man in one of the shelters who is caring for four kids. They call him uncle. He is actually the c ousin of the fiancé of the mother who is probably dead.The children are silent. They sit and play and weep with open mouths that can't scream. Where is the media to scream for them?
Finally, to hell with this "no blame game." The stories that I know to be true are enough to make me boil. The compassionate foreign doctors who can't find anyone to validate their credentials, the expensivemobile hospital still sitting parked waiting for federal paperwork to move into Louisiana, the five C130s sitting on the Tarmac in San Diego since the night of Katrina, still waiting for orders to move. Where the hell are the beds? We have some old people sleeping on hot plastic poolfloats with no sheets. They are still no showers for people who have walked for hours through fetid waters. Their skin is breaking out in rashes. Still no showers. Where the hell are the DeCon showers bought with Homeland Security money that can shower 30 pe ople at a time. Theconvention centers have no bathing facilities so the filth and skin reactions are getting worse. What of lice? There are no clothes for the really heavy and large. I was reduced to writing the women I knew who went to Weight Watchers to comb their attics for "before" outfits. When I arrived with the sack of my gatherings, I had to engage in a fullscale battle and puff myself up to all my red-headed doctor fury to get them distributed to the women still sitting there in their stinking clothes.
The survivors are like the Mayor of New Orleans who apologized to George Bush for his anger. "If we tell the way we feel, maybe help will stop."All the apologists on the air distancing George and his co-vacationersand idiot appointees should be impeached. I liked Nagin when he called it all bullshit. He was right. How about Haley Barbour complaining about the lack of support for his state? Did he so soon fo rget his past life and what he did to set up this government of spin artists? If they had acted like a government the body count would be less. The aid would bebetter managed. The days of filth, and feces, and death would have been ended sooner. God help all of the poseurs in charge when these folks finally get in touch with their justifiable rage. Did you see the White House's logo for the hurricane? George and some asshole in a ball cap against a background of Katrina waving the flag. They had the energy and time for a nice logo but no time to get the elements of help in gear?
The tragedy is leavened by some moments of farce, the guy who arrivedwith a case of Gucci shoes in various sizes that he "saved" from his closet. The man wearing twelve expensive watches up his arm. I guess heis a punctual sort. There are the too-poignant-for-words vignettes. I saw a lady sitting on a blanket holding a photo of two children th at she had pulled from the water. She kept crying and looking at it. I thought they were her children. She didn't know whose they were. They were just losses and she mourned them.
Of course there were the criminals, thugs, and mobsters. One of the greatest indictments of the "spin machine" that is going to come from this situation will be the repeated characterizations of the victims aslawless and criminal. Over and over I heard people tell me about how ashamed they were to be portrayed that way. Ninety-nine percent of these people never were characterized as anything but lawful and good citizens. In their most desperate hours to be reduced to taking food andwater to survive and then to be lumped with the television thieves andthe shooters is too shameful for most of them to bear. I heard from hospital employees that survived on a cup of watered grits so that the patients could make it. And then I heard had they had to hide the onesthat didn't in closets to keep up the morale of the others.
The people that survived this tragedy and the people who help them all know one truth. The help and the love and the care that has beenextended to them have been on a citizen-to-citizen basis. The churches,doctors, therapists, and ordinary citizens who are giving all they can in time and resources are managing to band-aid at the most elementarylevel-neighbor to neighbor. The government has failed We are morevulnerable now than before 9/11 because faith in the system is gone. Nosystem can sustain itself as a viable entity when the citizenry are thewalking wounded. Victims implode a system from within and expose its decay. This is the beginning of the end unless we can get a drasticchange of philosophy and restore the government to a system "by thepeople for the people." Right now nobody down here believes we have that.

You're a Poop-Head -- No You Are

What the hell are you talking about, you ask? Well, I WAS going to mow the side lawn on Saturday morning only to discover two huge piles of dog shit in my yard up against the side of my house. I was extremely grossed out and somewhat confused considering I don't have a dog! Needless to say, the lawn did not get mowed. And I was LIVID! Not to accuse anyone of anything, jump to conclusions, or pre-judge (all of which I'm very good at), but I find it a little too coincidental that new neighbors w/ a dog just moved in last week and now I have an issue. Before last week = no dog shit in the yard ever. Post new neighbors = dog shit in the yard. Also, not to get too graphic, but the size of the shit would fit their dog - that's all I'm going to say. Hmmm....it doesn't take a genius does it? Of course I couldn't have found it on a worse possible day. I was still feeling pretty ill and you know how it is when your under the weather - everything is compounded by 200%. I swear if the neighbors had been home I would have either (1) marched over - pounded on the door and screamed at them, (2) marched over - pounded on the front door and had a serious mental meltdown/crying fit, or (3) scooped up the dog shit and slung it at their screen door and all over their front porch. Fortunately for them, and for me, neither of the 3 happened b/c they weren't home. Although I did rant and rave to Tim for about an hour and a half after I found it and I did cry b/c well I was just do that sometimes. Tim, ever the voice of reason, says "don't jump to any conclusions - you didn't see their dog do it so you can't know for sure". OK true but I'm watching you! Honestly though, what's wrong w/ people? Oh they so disappoint me constantly. Just when I think that I can stand the human race, some jackass lets his dog shit in my yard and then conveniently forgets to pick it up. Hmph!

In True Slacker Fashion

Here are my pictures from Jane's Bachelorette Party.

Red, White, and Blue

Another Fourth of July in the Nation's Capital. I wonder how crowded the mall will be this year? I choose to stay away from those crowds these days. I used to think it was fun when I was younger to venture downtown and park it on the mall and watch the fireworks w/ 100,000 other people. Now -- not so much. I'll take tv fireworks over being hot, sweaty, cramped, parched, and crabby, any day. Its always good to go and say you did it once but after that no thanks. Tim and I have been taking it easy on the 4th for the past few years. Last night we were trying to remember what we did in years passed. Apparently 3 years in a row we didn't spend the holiday together as he was off "Phishing" - so who knows what I was up too. The last 3 years we've just had people over and/or hung at a friend's house. So in keeping w/ our "chill" tradition, that's what we are planning for this year as well. Tomorrow night, we've invited Jane and Kelly, and possibly a few others, over for dinner. I've been worried about this though. Out of nowhere on Tues I came down w/ a really nasty cold which I've been fighting all week. Wednesday I stayed home from work sick and yesterday I left work early - all in the hopes of fighting this thing. I tend not to get colds/the flu very often so when I do, I DO. Needless to say I've been feeling gross all week. Wednesday was the firm's summer ice cream social (they bring in Ben and Jerry's and we get all the ice cream and yummy toppings we could want). Of course I wasn't at the office. I know it sounds stupid but I really look forward to these firm events so I was pretty bummed that I missed out. Tim being the good boyfriend left Wed night to run and "errand" and came home w/ Dairy Queen. What a sweet man! There's just something so refreshing about ice cream when you're not feeling well. But I digress. So this morning, I woke up feeling somewhat better but sneezing all over myself and fighting a sinus headache and Tim woke up w/ a severe sore throat. So I told him, maybe we should cancel dinner tomorrow night considering that Jane and Kelly are getting married next weekend and we DO NOT want to get them sick. Can you imagine! What a great wedding present huh? He said no its fine so I said OK. I did write Jane today and told her that I would understand if they didn't want to brave the sick house tomorrow but she said all is well. So we shall see. I'm also hoping that we get to see Batman Begins sometime this weekend. I've heard that Christian Bale is "super-hot" in this movie so I have to go see for myself - you know to see if the rumors are true and all. Sunday, we'll be traveling down 95S (w/ half the country I suspect) to go to mom's. Mom, Dan, Tim and I, weather permitting, are planning a day trip to Lake Anna and then a relaxed bbq that evening. Monday I'm sure we'll just do some things around the house and then it'll be front row seats in front of the tv for the festivities. Before you know it, the long weekend will fade into the past as if it never happened and work will come calling once again.

On a completely different and more serious note. As I have said in the past, I've had a hard time swallowing the Iraq war. But, having said that, I have always been able to separate out my ideological differences w/ this Administration and feel compassion towards and pride in our troops. Our military is filled w/ exceptional men and women. Men and women, some of whom, have been separated from family, friends, and country for months on end. Men and women who selflessly, and without regard to their own personal ideals, fight every single second, minute, hour, and day for others. So I just wanted to let them know, in my somewhat inept way, that I will be thinking about them over this Independence Day weekend. I also want to say thank you for being VERY brave. I hope you all return home safe and sound, and most importantly, SOON, to your families.

Have a save and fun long weekend and 4th!

Whatever Happened to Spaceships in the Year '2000?

I love the idea of using public transportation but I hate actually using public transportation. Take yesterday for example. On my way to work, I had decided that I would use the new park and ride lot at the end of my road. I would park my car, catch the metro bus, and ride it to the Springfield metro station -- completely normal -- used to do it all the time in Annandale. I would be behaving in an environmentally conscious manner and saving a few parking dollars to boot. Go me! So I park - I ride - everything is great. Around noon, my young family friend Rina from Williamsburg calls to tell me that she and her friend Gavin were going to be spending the afternoon at Potomac Mills and then would be attending a concert at the 9:30 club later that night - so in between would I want to meet up? Of course!!! Swing by the house for dinner on your way to the 9:30. So, I figure, I should leave work a little early (5 as opposed to 5:30) so that I can make it home in plenty of time to straighten the house a bit and make sure I've got beverages etc... So I leave work at 5, no problem. Walk to Farragut West, approx 5 minutes. Wait for metro train, approx 3 minutes. Schedule is looking good. Get to the Pentagon Station -- Stop. Start, stop, Start, stop...and not just stop this time but DEAD STOP for oh a good 10 minutes. Train operator gets on the PA, "two yellow line trains will be getting in front of us and servicing the platform before we can". Gee Thanks! So, needless to say, when I finally got to the Metro I saw the bus pulling out of the spot and driving off - without me! So I had to wait another 30 minutes to catch the next one. Oh, I was so livid! I'm sure everyone around me thought I was crazy - all mumbling to myself and shaking my head around. Anyway, by the time I got back to my car I had been commuting for almost 2 hours. 2 HOURS and in 90 degree weather! It was horrible. Fortunately, Rina and Gavin didn't get to the house until around 7:30 so I was saved there. Still had a few minutes to run by the store, straighten the house, and order the pizza. Ummm..,good pizza. I was so starved. Once I was home it was great and even better - cool! Finally, Tim and I got to catch-up w/ Rina and meet her friend Gavin.

They're so cute. Rina is 19 and will be a Sophomore at VCU in the fall and Gavin is a very HOT 17 year old boy. I couldn't figure out why she was hanging out w/ a 17 year old and now I do. HA! Anyway, they're crazy. They were going to see this band called "Love Drug" which neither Tim nor I could remember the name of. On several occasions we asked them what kind of music "Love Dragon", "Love dug", and "Love Dune" played. They just rolled they're eyes at us "God, you guys are SO old!". HA! Hilarious. They tried very very hard, well really begged, us to come w/ but Tim and I were like if we go to a show on a Monday night it'll kill us for the rest of the week. The young'uns just don't understand. They're also as I said before crazy. I asked Rina where they were planning on staying after the concert, motel, hotel, friends house etc. R: "Oh we're sleeping in the car" M: "the hell you are - ya'll are coming right back here after the concert to crash". Okay, scared myself - definitely had the mom voice. But I softened a bit at least w/ "Well there's vodka in the freezer - you guys can have it when you guys get back". Thank God! That mom voice scares me! Apparently, they had a wonderful time last night. I didn't hear them come home but I woke up around 3 and snuck downstairs to see if they'd gotten back alright - both totally passed out on the couch. I tried waking them up when we left the house this morning but they were D.E.A.D. I did get close enough to make sure that they were still breathing and to check for signs of life. I'm totally going to be psycho mom aren't I? I'll be psycho mom and the kids will hate me and Tim will be the cool dad who buys them booze. I can already see it....

Ebony & Ivory; Ying & Yang; Two Peas...Well You Get the Point

Had a great evening last night catching up w/ Troy. It had been entirely TOO long again. Honestly, I didn't think it was going to happen. An attorney approached me at 5:50 (10 minutes before I was running out the door to meet Troy at Levantes) and asked me to help him find some materials that he needed "ASAP". Oh Lord, can I tell you how much I hate that word - ASAP. The little hairs on my arms stand on end - and in every heartbeat I hear "pressure, pressure, pressure, hurry, hurry, hurry". Fortunately, I located the things he needed in record time (pat on back) . I even did a little cheer in his office. I pumped my arm in the air and shouted "YAY - we did it!" (think Tom Cruise on Oprah - V Scary!). And yes, I got a strange look but whatever. I left around 6:45 and headed straight to the bar where I enjoyed a leisurely drink while waiting for Troy to arrive. It was so gorgeous last night that we decided to eat outside. We had so much to catch-up on that we definitely couldn't part after dinner. So I suggested coffee and then afterwards Troy walked me halfway to the metro. Ah...love seeing old friends! And there's more Troy time tonight. We will be celebrating Sai's birthday after work at Cafe Citron so Troy will be stopping by for the drinks "portion" of the evening. OH Lord, watch-out! I believe if Troy were a straight man he would definitely be trying to get in Sai's pants! LOL. Sorry Sai - he's MY gay boyfriend and you can't have him! :-)

Have a wonderful weekend!

In the Dog House Again

Let me set the scene for you. One of the nosy neighbors has sold her house and moved to Raleigh, NC. Last Sunday our neighbors threw her a goodbye party from noon to 7pm in the common area between their front yards and my side yard (so essentially in my yard). Anyway, invitations went out about two weeks before the party. Tim and I RSVP'd saying we would probably stop by. Saturday night, as you know, I attended a bachelorette party that lasted well into the early morning of Sunday, slept a very rough 3 hours on Natalia's couch before driving myself back home at 9:30 in the morning to try to sleep the rest of my MAJOR drunken headache/upset stomach, away. Come to find out Tim and Brad had spent all night Saturday playing poker and drinking (literally everything in the house!) until 6:00 in the morning. So needless to say, but I'll point out the obvious anyway, we both felt like complete ass on Sunday and spent all day in bed. We finally started to roll around a little bit around 6pm Sunday evening, got up, ordered food in, ate on the couch, and stayed on the couch. Still not feeling sociable in any way shape or form nor wanting to see ANYBODY. Neither one of us had showered etc...anyway as you can imagine we were gross. So sometime around 8pm, Tim feeling somewhat normal at this point, heads outside to say a word to the neighbors who were still outside. Tim apologizes for us not coming out, says we were both under the weather, blah blah blah. Apparently, this SINCERE apology did not go over well. They practically ignored him when he apologized and every day since then they've ignored both of us -- to such an extreme that I'm embarassed for THEM. I mean tell me, would you all be mad and hold a grudge?? First of all, we were sick. Second of all, Tim went outside and APOLOGIZED and wished Kim good luck. Third, we are not by any stretch of the imagination friends w/ these people - we say hello etc... if we happen to see them on their front porches or out and about. Fourth, I saw Kim on my way to work Monday morning and wished her farewell and good luck. So the silent treatment? I think its absolutely uncalled for! As far as I'm concerned if they had been watching our house they would have noticed that there was absolutely no movement all day long. I'm just dumbfounded here. Were we rude? Be honest -- because I'm trying to understand where these people are coming from and if their anger is legitimate. In my opinion, if they're going to be angry then they need to be straightforward w/ it. Ugh, I hate dealing w/ people. Thoughts?

Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams

So I have to reflect on last Saturday's festivities. The bridal shower, thanks to the wonderful hostess"ing" skills of Amber, went off w/out a hitch. There were probably 15 to 20 people there off an on throughout the evening. We cooked-out and played games etc... And of course Jane opened her gifts. Which I have to comment on. I was really surprised by some of the gifts that Jane received. There was the usual, gifts off of the registry and lingerie, but some people just got her lotions -- like the gift sets you would buy at Bath & Body Works. I just found that so bizaare. I mean, okay, so you don't want to buy her something off of her registry or maybe you don't know where she's registered but hand-lotion? At least give a gift that the couple will be able to use -- it was a bridal shower after all. Does anyone else find this strange?

After the bridal shower ended, we headed over to Nat's house to get the bachelorette party started. We had all brought our stuff over so that we could get ready together. We all helped each other pick out outfits and put on make-up. It was great -- I miss those moments w/ girlfriends! Before the limo arrived we fixed some drinks, listened to music, and gossiped about everything and everyone. We also unveiled the penis cake which Jane's mom had baked and frosted (very convincingly I might add - no one wanted to think about that!). Of course we all got a huge kick out of it b/c, well, we're silly. Jane screamed and covered her face when she saw it and then screamed even louder when she learned that her mom had made it. V funny! Tim, the limo driver, picked us up at 9:30 on the dot and we were on our way to the city. Our first stop of the night was Coyote Ugly. Boy do they know how to cater to bachelorette parties! As soon as he saw us approaching, the doorman let the bartenders know that we were on our way in. When we got to the bar there were five shots lined up for us. AND they didn't stop there, as we made an appearance on all 4 floors there were more shots lined up. The girls there are really great too. They DON'T make you feel inferior b/c they have goddess bods and you have well....not a goddess bod. V friendly! Of course there was much dancing on the bars and more free shots before we left. We were there for about 2 hours or so and then we took the limo over to IndieBlue. A new, very posh, restaurant bar by the MCI Center. Jane's sister (in attendance) knows the owner and got us our own little VIP section. V nice! We stayed there and had a couple of fabulous Blackberry Mojitos and then were on our way once again to seek out new hotspots. We were thinking Georgetown but once we got there we thought differently. Amber put it best, "everyone is young and looks like a model!". Indeed! So we piled our old, non-model asses back into the limo and went back to Coyote Ugly to shake our derriers for the rest of the evening. One good thing about multiple limo rides around the city? The free beer and vodka that we had brought for the ride. V good idea!! A good time was had by all - esp the guest of honor! And we brought her home safe and sound and not sick (Kelly was SO pleased!). That's not to say that we weren't all extremely buzzed out of our brains -- when we got back to Nat's, Jane and subsequently all of us, started boo-hooing about how much we all loved each other and how great friends are blah, blah, blah... I'm sure you can picture the scene. Kelly was like "what the hell? Ya'll just had a great time and now you're crying about it?". Well duh!! Men will never understand women will they? HA!

Pictures of our night to be posted very soon.