Friday, April 29, 2016

I'm all over the place today.
Then I saw this post...and so this:

Jamie was grumpy, I was grumpy
Family trip next weekend so naturally last minute drama is starting up from the most expected source...
More tornado and egg sized hail warnings.
I don't get the obsession with the football draft? Rugby is a MILLION times better and no one cares.


Maybe its the pregnancy hormones in the air? - LOTS of people pregnant or carrying babies around lately it seems.

And so tonight we're gonna go find wine somewhere cause that's what jamie wants. Watch the Stars playoffs. Roughrider game tomorrow and then go to a crawfish boil Sunday to see the REBIRTH! If that won't set the mood right I don't know what will...




Monday, April 25, 2016

magic strings world stuck

read the Magic Strings of Frankie Presto and loved it. Definitely now a favorite .
I'd imagine even more meaningful for the musically talented.
One of those, after finishing the book you're still stuck in the world hours/days later....


Finished Sarah MacLean's The Rogue Not Taken - I like how she opens the eyes of her characters.

Alissa Johnson - Tempting Fate - a pretty good childhood to adults with the cliche drama added in.

Finished KMM's FeverBorn too and I'm finding it difficult to imagine how she can keep going like this. Just stop with the Mac line and move on with the rest already... I certainly do like Barron though....

again a nod to Beyonce's smart marketing strategy. It's really quite remarkable if you think about it.
Can't speak to the new music yet - couldn't really hear any in the :20 video I saw - (really it led back to baseball for me) all I thought is she needs to learn how to hold/swing a bat properly.
In more ways that one...
(*insert deep thoughts* ha) No doubt a powerful woman, I just hope it's cathartic for her, cause all that rage/energy is just adding to the frenzy that this year has already kicked up.  and it's steadily getting so exhausting...

#victoryrising and that's all I'm gonna say about that
cause I saw Dallas Housewives County - or whatever it's called, (peripherally, i was reading) -  and I realize it's television, I hope it's not real cause Dallas needs something much more worthy to represent itself than that. 

and back to music (since this is apparently a music-ish post) can't say I was the biggest merle haggard and/or prince fan, I just have a few songs here and there.... still - even more after reading "the magic strings"- the music appreciation is certainly there.
How amazing to have that talent and affect the world that way...

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

buying swimsuits thinking one of them is gonna work.

two weeks til the beach. I keep buying swimsuits thinking one of them is gonna work.
I just don't get it ....i feel like I look so much better than I actually look in pictures most of the time....



moving on (cause ugh just one of those days I guess) .... I'm half way through KMM's Feverborn - I'm not sure why there's such a lovefest for this book (and the series really)- though I think she writes characters well, the story line just plods along. I think if it were edited by 25% it would be more my kinda pace. We'll see I guess.
weeks plans - LaLa's bday dinner, Adam Hood?, again the race track....

It's a mike mcclure day. Not sure why this guy isn't even more well known? - especially with his Great Divide stuff...
ask about my problems, I won't tell you no lies
everyday I'm getting older and the more I compromise
I've got debt and doubt and worries piled up outside my door 
makes me wanna ride my old bicycle down to the grocery store
and buy me some baseball cards and stick 'em in my spokes  
and ride around the old gym and sneak a couple of smokes 
then cruise around the car wash, till the sun goes down                
that used to be enough to make my world go round




Monday, April 18, 2016

i see you lonely across the board

The Arkansas Derby in Hot Springs was interesting (and very crowded).
I wore my fancy pink fascinator. Jamie and i even matched - nerds yep ha. but fun!
I banked on a $36 winner (score!)....not so lucky money otherwise. 
And thanks to random strangers Diane and her friend for giving us a ride away from the track - nice people are the best. 

Besides that, the group we sat with (friends of friends) had a strange vibe.
Arkansas nice  - the southern that dallas has lost -  but all I think is it must be very difficult to bear the weight of most everyone around you knowing that you come from/have/are connected to a lot of money - and only seeing that...

My introvert observationist (is that a word?) always comes out in these situations - 


I see it time and again -  the expectations, calculating, hangers-on - and probable doubting of authenticity of everyone around them must be exhausting.
They're constantly surrounded and still, for the most part, it seems a lonely (and...jaded?) existence to me -  makes me wonder if they're ever truly happy

Finished - Kresley Cole's - The Player - and I'm thinking maybe if I read it again I'll like it better? I just couldn't sink in with this one like I usually can with her? Not bad but ....i can't place it.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

there's a hole in my eye and we're off to the races!

well there was a hole.
my routine eye check up on Saturday turned into a laser eye procedure to stave off retinal detachment and blindness yesterday.

Lesson learned:
lattice degeneration + strong near-sightedness = bad news bears.
Things can turn serious fast - catch it early. And don't be a brat to your eye doctor about not wanting the "inconvenience and additional $25 fee" of being dilated. 

It's weird, it stung a little didn't hurt -  (just a mental image kept popping up of the bubbling that happens with a lighter and spoon meth addicts use,  during the 5 minute procedure). What can I say...my brain is weird.

Moving on ......I bought Jamie a Mizzen and Main shirt - he refuses to wear it cause he found out JJ Watt is their spokesman. *seriously. shaking my head*

Not surprised...but I am a little more conscientious about wanting to buy local though. That's another weird thing about getting older. In your 20's you don't care about anything but yourself really...buying local would never have been a thought...so weird. 

I have like 5 books to read including the new Kresley...think I'll give my retinal tear a break for a bit though- RoughRiders baseball game tonight and we're off to Hot Springs tomorrow for the Arkansas Derby.

Feelin a little Cross Canadian Ragweed-y
Feel like you're the only one,
Who's ever been in a bad situation.
Now you need to take yourself a love vacation,
'Cause after all, what's done is done. 




Friday, April 8, 2016

Be sweet as honey girl don't be mean - We're gonna have a good time!

Ok so I had a shit week at work - adulting/the business of advertising did not mesh well for me.

All I can say is if I never hear the words "custom content"
or have to wait on one more person to get me what I need  -  it would be wonderful.

I'm over it (and being pissed off or tired most all the week is exhausting).

so GOOD NEWS is it's Friday PLUS I decided to make an effort today - I'm looking really cute with my scootin' boots on.

We're likely going to see Charlie Robison over Grapevine way tonight, giving the Rover app for BB another try tomorrow, maybe a festival of some sort and winery tomorrow night in McKinney?

About half way through reading Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner - good storyteller so far. childhood to adult story.

Well, a lot of people talk -  shut the hell up
Sneak out a beer in a styrofoam cup
I'm gonna start singing so don't interrupt
We're gonna have a good time
Well, live in the country, live in the town
Come out tonight gonna burn them all down
Don't let the bastards get yourself down
We're gonna have a good time



Monday, April 4, 2016

welcome to Texas! are y'all doing it right?

Mississippi to see the nephew's game fell through so we stayed in town (and I recovered all day yesterday from fun-ness oy)

Jamie made a couple uber drives - one of them was a Brit who flew in for wrestlemania - seriously who knew it was still a thing? but to fly in all that way specifically for it...and there were like 110k people there last night! crazy. All I ever recall is Randy Savage and the Heartbreak twins? I thought it died back in the 80's. 

Regardless - the Brit was staying in a terrible part of town and was ubering cause the "public transit took too long."

From talking to people and reading travel feeds...I really think a lot of people are doing Texas tourism wrong.

I was talking to a colleague in New York  on the phone the other day and she says she pictures mountains and desert for Texas.
That's West Texas only! oy...they have no concept that to see all of Texas you have to cross time zones! Levelland to Hill Country to the Gulf etc. 


no wonder they go back home and go "eh Texas." I said the same thing about New Orleans the first time I visited and now it's my top 3 favorite city!!! ya gotta research or at least ask questions...especially with the magnitude of options!

So I thought ok - for next time someone asks about "doing Texas"  below's what I got...

March/April/May/September are probably the best months. 
Why? cause summer is freaking hot so unless you're around water of some sort you'll be miserable AND there's a ton of festivals and almost every sporting activity going on. That's what we do here. 

Land DFW - rent a car or if you'd rather not - uber. Taxi's are ridiculous.

Public transportation is an option but EVERYTHING is spread out  it will take a while to get anywhere. 

- Dallas - I'd stay at the Belmont - it has personality - and still close enough to our "mostly boring " downtown that connects all major street arteries. 

Def don't stay in Arlington! AirB&B -  maybe? never tried it?
and so JFK memorial sure but festival (food, balloon, flowers, paddy's day, music, beer, state fair, arts - look it up) or major sports all here. 
Best bar hopping - Deep Ellum or lowest Greenville Restaurant hopping - trinity groves or lowest Greenville. Best local food places - babes chicken dinner house, neighborhood services, mama's daughters diner, meso maya, blind butcher, el pueblito in Plano -  and queso, the Bob Armstrong @ Mattitos. Old school Dallas steakhouse? Dunston's on Lovers.   

Fort Worth way - Sundance square, Woodshed smokehouse, Stockyards sure... 
Shopping? - as in this case NOT downtown - Galleria, North Park Mall or Highland Park Village for pricey things. Quite frankly I'd steer someone to Richardson Mercantile for local regional things. Can't think of anything else. 
Don't plan on staying more than 2 or 3 days in North Texas, there's not really much else to see here.


Austin- from Dallas I'd take Vonlane bus (pricey but worth the nice/easy. Heard megabus is ok DON'T greyhound -  scary) to Austin, check out 6th street/rainey street/soco, good shopping here/capital? then rent a car and drive down and stay near Gruene Hall (pronounced GREEN) and use that as your base for the next 2-3 days. Why? Day trips to hill country Fredericksburg wineries, Luckenbach? and San Antonio (the riverwalk - good cocktails at "Esquire Bar" overlooking it)/Alamo/mexican food  - nothing else to see here...unless you want to see missions?). Really though...imo Gruene /New Braunfels is still real Texas. Especially Gruene, good shopping and best music venue. Wurstfest, or Float the Comal river too, if it's warm enough.  Return car in Austin and Vonlane to Houston. 


- ugh Houston - there is a fun crawfish festival up in in Spring in April though. Their renaissance festival way up north is fun...and apparently their "rodeo" is the thing to do? The Woodlands is alright. Spring has ok shopping? NASA is pretty cool, Kemah is nice, Galveston eh.... That's all I got. Houston brings me down... get on a plane and fly to El Paso do not drive, the 10+ hour drive is brutal and BORING. 


 - ah EP my hometown - honestly what i miss? the mexican food, the mountain and the desert sunsets. So Scenic drive i guess sure, 4th of July off i-10 is awesome. Those small catholic church festivals were fun too. Jamie liked the bars across from UTEP. Really a lot of people get together on weekends...if you're friendly and curious enough there's a chance you'd be invited. I've never met a not nice person from El Paso. Carlsbad Caverns? White Sands is apparently really cool during a full moon...i still haven't done it. Juarez used to be really cool - no longer and it's such a shame.

Besides that EP county eh....

It's 4? hours to Big Bend - heard it's great and that Terlingua is definitely unique, never been that way or even an of the rest of border cities - I do love ruidoso though (not TX but much closer and glorious mountains, cool, fresh air.)

I missed all the middle parts of TX - the state is freakin big...what can i say. Panhandle's boring but Lubbock Tech football games and Spanky's across the street for the best fried cheese ever. A good idea is to go BBQ hopping across the state also go see college football games in the middle parts like College Station...thats an interesting experience. 

Moving on -
saw Me, Earl and the Dying Girl - didn't think I'd like it but I did! good movie!
Books:
Terri Meeker - Not Quite Darcy - I do like the time travel books - she had a good way of turning a not so interesting character interesting with the male lead
Sophie Jordan - Wicked in Your Arms - liked that they didn't like each other at first but I didn't really believe the 180
Lillian Grant - Male Order  - pony stallion bleh
Lora Leigh - Forbidden Pleasure - she knows how to write male leads it's the story i lose interest in...and one without the other i lose interest.

Rangers opening day today #nevereverquit....and so of all the Texas songs why not this one?
But at a dance hall down in Texas
That's the finest place to be
The women they all look beautiful
And their men will buy your beer for free