Hangin' with Big Tex

Friday was the big opening of the State Fair of Texas and I was there for it! After work, Casey and I went with our friends Kyle and Jennifer (who also happened to be on a blind date this particular evening). We all met up at my place and then we piled into my car and made our way to the fair. After stopping for gas and finally finding some parking, we made it. The first thing that we hit up was the car show. Casey found several trucks he was interested in of course. I was looking around to see if they had a Nissan Morano there because that’s the car I’ve been interested in and wanted to see one in person. However, no luck, I should have known that Texas would only be featuring American made cars. Sometimes I really do believe that Texas is its own little world. Moving on…I was hungry so we decided to hit up the all the classic state fair food. I started off with a “sausage on a bun” which was so good that after Casey had one bite of mine, he had to go back and get one for himself. Next on the menu for me was a kabob of chocolate dipped strawberries. I had seen these last year at the fair but hadn’t had any, so this year I had a goal of eating some. They were delicious. I had heard from people at work that there was a giant butter sculpture at the fair and figured this was something I had to see. It was pretty impressive. It was King Tut themed and very detailed…for butter. After stopping by and watching a little bit of the Lady Antebellum concert, we made our way to Midway which is the place where all of the games and rides are. I stopped this older man who was with his wife and children and asked him to take a picture of the 4 of us. As he was about to take the picture he said “ok, now everyone say…Sex!” What ever happened to “cheese”? His wife looked so embarrassed and we all couldn’t help but laugh. Kyle and Casey had planned on battling it out to see who could win a prize first, but when we saw the insane costs to throw a basketball ($3 for 1 throw) we decided to skip that idea and go for a ride on the Ferris wheel. The views from the top were amazing at night! Overall, it was a really fun night. I just love going to those types of things where you kind of get to feel like a kid for a few hours.

"Everyone say...Sex!"

LIFE

You'll notice that I have put up a new quote of the week. This one struck me because recently I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do career-wise. Sometimes I wish it could be like the board game LIFE, where you just draw a card and find out what your career is. That might be a little easier than actually figuring it out for yourself. I know I don't want to be an assistant forever so for fun I took some online personality tests that are supposed to tell you different careers that you would be good at. According to the test, I would make a good dental hygenist, teacher, counselor, interior designer, and realtor. Working in the hospitality owrld for the last year has also made me think about being a meeting planner. I just feel like there are so many things I could do out there and I guess I just need to decide what it is that I want to do. Easier said than done, right? I've been praying about it though and figure that God has a plan for me. I'm excited to see where His plan takes me in life because I know it will be great, wherever it is.

The Gummi Bears

I’m sure that a lot of you will have a hard time believing this announcement but here it goes…I am now the proud owner of 2 Fantasy Football teams. Before the season started, Casey had a couple teams which meant that we watched a lot of football on that starting weekend so he could “watch his players.” Personally, I did not particularly care to watch that much football but the whole fantasy team thing did look kind of fun. So I told Casey that in order for me to enjoy watching TONS of football games each weekend, I wanted to have my own teams. Now, the leagues Casey is in are very exclusive and they have waiting lists, try outs, or something like that to get in so he set me up in a public league and started a private league with his family so he could play (and lose) to me. If you hadn’t guessed yet, the name of both of my teams is, drum roll please…The Gummi Bears! Doesn’t that name just strike fear into your blood? So last weekend were my teams first games. Let me tell you, having a couple fantasy football games really does make watching the games on TV a whole lot more interesting. In fact, I actually stood up, screamed, and jumped for joy when DeSean Jackson ran a touchdown last week, only to find out in replay that he had been a little cocky and threw the ball for a victory dance before entering the end zone. As his manager, I of course was furious and believe me, I thought about benching him. So I can now name a lot of players in the NFL and tell you which ones are good and bad. Apparently if you want me to take interest in something, just turn it into a competition!

Mystery Date

So last Thursday, I told Casey that I wanted to do something romantic this weekend. Earlier that week, he had mentioned that it would be fun to get ice cream and take it to the lake to watch the sunset and I had talked about going to Cowboys Red River to go country dancing. I figured that we would do one of those things and I was excited about that. Well, Friday, Casey sent me an email at work that said "Be ready to go at 6:30 tonight." That was it. No clues or anything. Since the dancing would have been on Saturday, I assumed I was getting ice cream and a sunset. I told him I was excited about ice cream and he let me think that that's what we were doing. I was convinced that's what the romantic moment would be. My suspicions started to change when at 6:15 (when I was still on the couch in my comfy clothes because how long does it take to get ready for ice cream?) Casey went into my room to start changing and came out with a bouquet of a dozen roses (see the pic to the right). Now I had been in my room since I got home from work and never saw the roses and still he won't tell me where he hid them. That was when I thought it might be something more than ice cream. I decided I should actually touch up my make-up at that point. Then I saw what he was wearing: nice jeans, a collared shirt, and his dress boots. Ok, so this probably was going to be more than a trip to Braum's. I put on my nice jeans, a blouse, and my new shiny heels and believe it or not, I was ready exactly at 6:30pm. We started heading down 635 heading toward Dallas which just really confused me. We ended up at a place called Bruno's which is an italian restaraunt that overlooks the canals. Quick flashback: On our way to the Cowboys game a few weeks ago, Candace and Ryan were talking about when they lived in Las Colinas on the canals. I mentioned that I had never been to to canals and how it would be fun to go to eat there sometime. Well let me tell you, Casey remembers everthing and he remembered that. We had a table reserved for us in the glassed-in patio that overlooked the canal. It was such a nice dinner and I just enjoyed talking and spending time with him. After dinner, we walked along the canals for a bit which was also very romantic. I was just so surprised and impressed that he came up with the restaraunt and everything on his own. A girl could get used to nights like that!

Ode to the Trolley's

For those of you who do not work with me, you might be surprised to know that for that past 4 months I have been riding a trolley to work every day. No, you didn't misread that, I said trolley. How many people besides people who work in San Francisco can say that? Well, after 4 months of riding a trolley, I have some things to say which I feel would best be communicated through a poem I have written:

Ode to the Trolley’s

Each morning we meet at the second stop
Your automatic doors open to take me away
What a bumpy ride you are!
With your artic air conditioning blasting at me
As I sit in your wooden seats with thin cushions
Your wide turns and sudden stops toss me about
Eight hours I spend away from you yet we meet again
I wait for you in the blazing Texas heat each afternoon
My heart rests on the hopes that our time together will soon end
Oh Trolley, how I loathe thee!

California Dreamin'

Thursday Casey and I headed off to the airport on our first real trip together. I was so proud of myself for getting everything together so we would be really organized. I packed snacks, printed boarding passes, and looked up our gate. We were ready. The only thing that I wasn’t looking forward to was paying $15 to check my suitcase. The guy who was checking us in held on to my ID for a little longer than normal which made me think something was wrong. He then said “I have a question. Do you always smile like this? [pointing to my ID picture].” I laughed and said yes. Then I got out my $15 dollars and he smiled back and said “Just the tip today.” I thought I had scored! Just because of my smile I had saved Casey and me $30! Come to find out later that Casey and I had booked our tickets outside of the “you have to now pay $15 window.” I was kind of bummed to find out my smile was not as magical as I had thought. So Casey and I went to gate A19 and sat down waiting to board our plane. Over the loud speaker we heard the lady at the gate say something about a delay in West Palm Beach. I told Casey our plane must be delayed because of a storm in West Palm Beach. This was a bummer since we should have been boarding at that moment. Casey took out his blackberry to see how long a delay we had. However, when he checked on our delay he found something more interesting out…we should have been at gate A18. Whoops! Our plane was boarding at that moment so it’s a good thing he checked. I have been informed that I am no longer allowed to be the point-person of airport travel. (The above pic is the view from my from my front porch in SD)

Once we landed in San Diego, my parents took us out to the Gaslamp District. The Gaslamp District is the hip area of downtown where restaurants line the street (kind of a large scale uptown for your Dallas folks.) We went to an Australian restaurant called Bondi where all of the waiters have real Australian accents. It has a real contemporary look to it. The large windows out front were like garage doors so the whole face of the restaurant was open (FYI Dallas Folks…you can do that in San Diego because it’s not 95 degrees, 80% humidity, with monster size mosquitoes biting you!) and the food was really tasty! Another cool feature of this place was this group of giant hanging wicker bird cage looking things. The ones that are not being used are raised to the ceiling and the rest and lowered to the ground and you can sit in them. After dinner we just walked around the Gaslamp District and checked out all the cool restaurants and people watched.

Fabulous Friday

Friday morning both Casey and I woke up really early so we decided to get our site-seeing tour on its way. The first stop was Balboa Park which I think is one of the prettiest sites in San Diego. It has all of these old buildings that are now museums and a ton of pretty garden areas you can walk through as well. Being early didn’t really pay off here since nothing was open yet but we still got to walk around which was nice. Next was a driving tour of downtown. Casey had to see Petco Park so we drove around there and then over the Coronado Bridge and past the Hotel Del Coronado which is a historic landmark in the SD area. After driving around downtown, we drove up to Mission Beach which is the beach all of the tourists go to. The people there are let’s say…colorful characters. It’s typical to see people doing a choreographed roller skating routine or a guy who dresses in a thong that is themed for whatever is going on in the world (i.e. stars and stripes for 4th of July). We walked along the beach and had breakfast at this place called the Wave House which is right on the water. It was Casey’s first time in the Pacfic Ocean. We forgot a towel so we didn’t get in (plus it was kind of chilly).

Friday night, my dad cooked a delicious dutch-oven dinner for us. Our good family friends with Kuptz and Woodley’s came over as well. Sherry Woodley and Cheri Kuptz had already met Casey but it was their husbands first times meeting him. My dad sent Casey and I to the store to get some last minute ingredients. I was kind of bummed I had to leave the party but quickly cheered up when the Woodley’s offered us their convertible Porsche to drive on our little errand. I of course took them up on their offer! I was really hoping to see someone who was mean to me in high school while I was driving, hair blowing, in the sleek black Porsche, but alas, no such luck. Dinner was chili, cornbread, and pineapple-cherry cobbler for dessert. It was good as always and it was nice to see all of the extended fam again.

Relaxing Saturday

The Hill Hilton is a really great place to stay if you are visiting San Diego. Complimentary breakfast comes with the stay! Saturday we woke up to my dad cooking breakfast. We had eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, and blueberry pancakes! Saturday morning was pretty low key. It mainly consisted of a lot of lying on the couch and watching football. In the afternoon, my mom and I left the boys to nap and watch the game and we did what we do best...SHOP! It was nice to have some mother/daughter time and as usual, the shopping trip was a success. That night we drove down to Del Mar and had dinner at a place called Sbicca. We got to eat outside on the roof of the restaurant which overlooked the ocean. After dinner, we walked down to the beach and watched the high tide. The waves were really big that night. The beach really is a very relaxing and peaceful place.

The view from the front porch of my SD home

Sunday in San Diego

Sunday we took Casey to church. I was glad he got to see the church I grew up going to. After church we went to one of my old fav’s for lunch, Oscars. We met up with one of my best friends, Brandon, who also happened to be in town from LA. I hadn’t seen him since Christmas time so it was a well needed catch-up. I know a lot of Casey’s friends from high school since most of them live in the Dallas area so I was happy he got to finally meet one of my old friends. After lunch Casey, my mom, and I all drove down to La Jolla. La Jolla is a high end area of San Diego that has really neat coves where you can snorkel, swim with tiger sharks, and watch the seals. I took several pictures of the seals sunbathing on a giant rock. One of the seals in the water was putting on a show for us doing random jumps and such. When we got back home my dad had dinner all cooked for us and then Casey and I headed out to catch the sunset over the ocean. Unfortunately, this was not meant to be since the foggy marine layer beat the sunset so the sun just set behind a layer of fog. Luckily, I had a plan B. I took Casey up to Mt. Soledad which is in La Jolla and is the highest point in San Diego. You can see everything up there. You can see the ocean, Sea World, downtown, even the mountains in Mexico! It looks really pretty at night. Plus, on the drive up to the top you get to drive by a lot of nice homes.

Monday on our way to the airport, we had to stop by Rubio’s because I had been craving one of their fish tacos (which are really hard to find in Texas). We went to Rubio’s all the time in middle and high school. Rubio’s is kind of a Baja California style of Mexican. It’s really fresh. So I finally got my Rubio’s fix which is going to have to last me until December. I am happy to say that we got on our flight back to Dallas with no problems thanks to our newly elected Airport Navigator, Casey. Overall it was a great trip to San Diego. I can’t wait to go back!