The Best Chauffeur I Ever Had

Yay! Another birthday blog! December 1 is my friend Kendra's birthday (okay so as I type this it is still November 30, but hey an extra couple hours to celebrate Kendra is fine by me). Happy Birthday Kendra Martin!

Kendra is one of my former Busey co-workers. She recently left to work at another bank, and I must admit I really do miss her. It was particularly poor timing too, because she left about a month before the Season 4 premiere of Project Runway so now we are forced to discuss every episode by email... it just isn't the same.

There are lots of reasons to love Kendra, one of my favorite for some reason is that even thought she is a rather petite lady... dang that girl can eat! You would think it would be annoying- a skinny girl that pound it back like a man and stay thin...but on Kendra it is endearing.

Kendra was a godsend to me this past spring. When I was in a cast and on crutches for six weeks, and could not drive because the cast was on my right foot, Kendra picked me up every morning, drove me to work, dropped me off at the front door, then parked the car, then after work went and got the car, picked me up at the front door, and drove me home. She did this for six weeks, and it is a kindness I shall never forget. The best part was that I did not have to ask her to do this, but she volunteered. It was kind of funny, after about a week we had our routine down to a science, how to maneuver my back pack, she would carry in my mail every night when I got home, she would hand me my back pack when she dropped me at the front door of the bank, I took to saying "Thanks Mom", it was like she was a mom dropping her kid off at school. Thanks again Kendra you have no idea what a blessing you were to me.

Kendra married Wyatt a couple months ago (their wedding post is back in September)... she married a Cardinal fan... she has good taste in men. One of my favorite Kendra stories when Kendra, Allison and I were heading off to "Girls Lunch" one day. We were going to cut through an area of the bank that is restricted from customers so we needed to go through a door that we had to punch a code on the key pad to get through. Kendra arrived at the door first and then just stepped aside, Allison and I didn't think much of it, figured Kendra couldn't remember the code, punched it in and then just went on through. A few seconds later Kendra said that she realized that she had just stepped aside to let us open the door for her out of habit because she is just so used to being with Wyatt and he always opens doors for her. She was slightly horrified in case Allison or I thought that she thought she was "entitled" to having us open the door for her. We just laughed and said we thought it was so sweet that Wyatt always opens her door and that he shows her that kindness. Now that didn't stop us from teasing Kendra about this endlessly and taking every opportunity to race ahead of her and open every door for her in a most dramatic fashion.

I have lots of Kendra stories, but those are a few of my favorites. Happy Birthday Kendra!