Thursday, March 20, 2008

A long drive, a cup of coffee and Toad and the Wet Sprocket

I've been in training all week down in Houston. I actually like going to Houston because Legs lives down there and I can always stop and see her and the boys on my way downtown. I also have some cousins down there that will feed me great food and always have a cooler full of beer. That's right peeps, I have rednecks in the family. Dads side of course. Anywhoodle, I drove down on Sunday night and stopped at Legs' house to see her kids (that would be one son and one husband) and mooch dinner off of her. She always makes good food or has great places to go to if she doesn't feel like cooking. Sunday night was a ribs and mashed potatoes night. Oh yum! The drive TO Houston was pretty uneventful, just the usual dumbass people that insist on driving the speed limit. For goodness sakes people - THAT is what open country roads are for...to SPEED! Anyway it took me a little under 3 hours to get to Legs' house. When I arrived the boys were playing outside (way too cute) and she was inside thinking about dinner. She asks me, "What do you want - Ribs or soup?" Hmmm, tough one. "Ribs, are you kidding?" She smiled and said, "Yeah, that's what I thought too." I had some wine and dined and made my way downtown a little later that evening.

The hotel was nice, nothing over the top, but the bed was fabulous. That's all I need when traveling - a good bed. Of course I couldn't fall asleep...that first night away from home thing. Always happens to me. And of course the morning came too soon. For those of you who know me...remember...I am NOT a morning person. Nothing has changed there.

Training - this was the most ridiculous training I've ever attended. First off, I was the ONLY person in the class. So then the instructor decided that he should sit next to me instead of the traditional instructor up front. Well, this poses a problem for me....how the hell am I supposed to surf the internet and write my blog if he's sitting right next to me? Come on dude! Second, he was reading directly from the training manual. PUH-LEASE! They could have sent me the training manual and I could have read that crap myself. Isn't the point of training to learn things that are between the lines? Tips? Tricks? Riiiiight....not so much. Anyway, the good thing about training (again) is that I'm in Houston. Not at work with Title Girl and Plain.

Monday night I went to see my cousins that live in Sugar Land, that's just South of where I was at. These are my dads "cousins" which would be my second cousins and then their kids would be my third cousins. My third cousin, the middle kid, was leaving for Alaska in the morning, he's in the military and was just back from the Honduras. So they were having a good-bye craw fish boil for him. I didn't think I'd like eating craw fish, but surprisingly it's really tasty! The only bad part, if you could even call it that, was the discussion of politics. I'm a Dem and they are VERY Republican. I just kept my mouth shut for the entire conversation. And shortly after that I left, I needed a shower...

Tuesday night was uneventful, just had some really tasty Greek food. Wednesday night was KICK ASS. Legs came to my hotel to pick me up after she got off work. In fact, she excused herself from a very important meeting to come and get me. Ahhh, the power of the Galleria in Houston. It'll make you do strange things.

Before we shopped we needed some fluids and food to get our strength up, so we stopped at this place called "The Tasting Room" (at least I think that is what it was called) and yes, it's a wine bar. OMG, so tasty. We had wine and cheese...what could be better fuel for shopping? Then off to the Galleria. We went into Nordstrom's first. I L-O-V-E Nordy's. The one in Austin is "far" away (meaning that it will take me longer than 10 minutes to get there) so I never go. We decided to try on designer jean. MISTAKE! Oh, they fit like a glove and made me look 10 pounds lighter and my legs about 5" longer. I tried on '7 jeans' and 'Humanity for something' that I can't remember. Both fit. And even when I looked at the price tag I didn't freak (thanks to the Merlot)...Legs was having the same "problem." Lucky for us we were together and it took both of our brains to make us PUT-THE-JEANS-DOWN and walk away. I mean $200 for a pair of jeans? Seriously...and I was considering it, not just considering it but walking up to the register! Yikes, it was close. After that we saw Ann Taylor Loft, much more reasonable. We each found several items of clothing to purchase and it still didn't come to $200. Now I have some shorts a really cute black weekend dress that can be worn with flip flops. After shopping we needed to refuel so we went and had this amazing pizza at a small chain called Colina's.

Wednesday night rocked - Good friend, good wine, good cheese, successful shopping and pizza. What more can a girl ask for?

Since I was the only one in class I got done early. An entire day early so I slept in Thursday morning, waited until after rush hour was done and started on my way back to Austin. I stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and some water and turned the Tahoe towards home. The drive was beautiful and I put in some Toad and the Wet Sprocket and let my mind drift. I was thinking about my blog and all of the things that I should write about. Then I was thinking about Trainer and the fact that he didn't know that I was coming home early...hehehe. Not that he was going to be home when I got there anyway, but a surprise never hurt anyone right? Then I stopped thinking as 'Windmills' started playing and I let myself just enjoy being on the road with the wildflowers starting to bloom and the wind blowing through my hair.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

come back anytime hooch... LEGS