lone star state of mind

san antonio. a city i generally enjoy, although the river walk is a bit played out for me.  despite finally getting cooler temperatures at home, and knowing i was headed towards hot and humid, i was still excited about this trip. some of my favorite work girls and of course, getting to see the bulgarian for the first time since march!

and, while waiting for my flight, i got a call from my eastern european friend, asking when i'd be getting into town.  since it would be late, we made plans for breakfast the next morning. i arrived safely and without incident, taking up residence in the lovely and oh-so-familiar hilton palacio del rio.

after re-connecting over breakfast, we headed to the exhibit hall to get our respective booths set up.  mine was done relatively quickly so emil joined me for lunch before i made my way back to the hotel and he back to the hall.  i spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on emails, and when emil was finished for the day, we headed out to the river walk for dinner.  

he continues to be someone who's company i enjoy greatly, even though our opinions are almost always at odds with each other. not contentious odds, mind you, but our perspectives are almost always on two completely opposite ends of any spectrum.  in fact, i am constantly surprised at just how well we get along.  

okay, if i'm being honest, and introspective, i'd have to admit that there must be some part of me that appreciates having my ideas challenged.  even though he doesn't directly challenge them, just by virtue of his differing opinion, i'm forced to question, re-evaluate, articulate.  and, because i tend to be a get-along to go-along type, it's a healthy refreshing change of pace.

the exhibit hall opened the following day and i had big plans for the evening.  my new jersey coworker, sam, and i had gotten tickets for a haunted house (my first of my favorite season)! this particular haunted house had been listed on several 'best of' lists, and i was eager to see if it deserved the hype!  

phew! *sigh of relief*  it did not disappoint!  though we needn't have paid for the more expensive 'fast pass' version since it was pretty quiet, it was obvious pretty quickly that this would be different than my previous haunted house experiences.  we had to enter by going down an enclosed twisty turney slide in the complete darkness. 

awesome.

and the rest of the 'house' offered plenty of surprises and scares.  sam and i were glued to each other the entire time, and the threesome going through with us weren't far behind.  in fact, when we finished the experience, my shirt was stretched to three times it's normal size as a result of one of the other girls hanging on for dear life! it was a perfectly lovely way to spend a friday evening.

the following morning in the hall was uneventful. emil joined sam, vanessa and i for lunch, which continued the theme of decent food but terrible service on the river walk. our lunch took almost an hour to arrive at our table!  but at least the company was good. 

afterward, we decided to take one of the river walk boat tours. vanessa had never been, and emil had mentioned wanting to check it out, so the four of us headed to one of the boat landings, bought our tickets, and climbed aboard.

it was pretty routine (i'd done the tour two or three times before) other than the speed talking guide, until about half-way through when an elderly woman became limp and unresponsive.  needless to say, there was an emergency docking, and her family and a couple of the other patrons carried her off the boat while ems was called.  i still don't know what happened or if she is/was okay, but i'd guess that it was a response to the heat, and hope that once she got some fluids and cool air that she made a full recovery.

after finishing our interesting adventure, emil and i headed back to the hall for closing time. and then it was downtime at the hotel for a couple of hours before meeting up again, with the rest of the girls, for dinner.  i had wanted to take everyone out to gruene (pronounced: green) -- a little town about 45 minutes outside of san antonio -- that a few of us had discovered last year when we went tubing.  i was really done with the river walk.  the food hadn't been great and the service at every meal seemed to get worse and worse, and i had been dying to get back to gruene.  i fell in love with it last year and wanted to do more exploring.

but, when a couple of the girls wanted to stay 'local',  i decided that it was nice to not have to be the 'planner' for once, so i sucked it up and prepared for another questionable river walk meal.

it was worse than i could have even imagined.  a disaster on almost every level.  the food took almost two hours (i still can't believe we stayed), and it was terrible.  i was irritated and annoyed and a little embarrassed that i had the bulgarian along for this ugly experience.  he's typically a bit short-tempered, and, maybe because i was feeling that way, he surprised me with his continued attempts to lighten the mood and calm my increasingly fraying nerves.

eventually we were done with that horrid place, and as we were leaving he asked if i had picked the place.  i told him no, but that i was trying to encourage others to not rely on me so much for their extracurricular conference activities.  sometimes i need a break from planning everyone's lives, and they don't often give it to me when we're on the road.  his response; 'everyone has a role. see what happens when you don't fill yours?'

i couldn't help but laugh.  at the very least, i've developed a reputation for finding and selecting good restaurants, so i guess i'll try to stop being annoyed when people want me to do just that.

after dinner we all needed an attitude adjustment, so we cruised the walk looking for a soft and happy place to land.  we were more fortunate than in our dinner location and spent the next few hours chatting, dancing, and laughing before calling it a night.

the following day was the last of the conference.  after successfully shutting down the booth and with the afternoon open for play, i convinced sam to join me for a road trip to gruene.  and she too fell in love with the place, commenting several times that we should have come the previous night.

it has a relaxed, small town america feel, as well as having a rich country music history.  gruene hall has long been a regular stop for some of country's most well recognized performers.  and, even in the middle of the afternoon, as we explored the town following our amazing meal (with excellent service!) there were several venues with live bands playing on stages and outdoor patios.  it was bliss and i will have to make this a regular stop anytime i'm in san antonio!

with an early flight the next morning, we headed back to our hotel to pack and settle in for the night. and thus ended another trip to the lone star state...where i'll be heading back to next month!  oh well, at least i get a three week travel break to catch up on laundry and dog snuggles.

the neon lights are bright

i'm aware that the song refers to a different broadway, but for my purposes, it still applies.  broadway, after all, is where you will find 'honky tonk row' in nashville, a two-three block stretch of fantastic, free, live music. mostly country, but you'll definitely find smattering a of rock if you're looking.  and you can be sure whatever the genre, it's going to be good.

there is so much musical talent in nashville, that unless you've earned your stripes elsewhere, you won't be allowed on a broadway honky tonk stage. and it's why this is always one of my favorite cities to visit.  but before we get to that...

the exhibit hall opened at 7am.  which meant that the wake up call was for 5 am. which meant that my body thought it was 3am.  and that was rough.  the exhibit hall was also painfully slow, which did not help.

there was a mild flurry of excitement mid-way through the day when kix brooks, formerly of brooks & dunn, who was the keynote speaker at the conference, spent some time in the hall signing cd's and taking photos.  and i, of course, couldn't pass that up.  he was a normal sized nice man, partly responsible for a number of great country hits over the years, and i was pleased to have met him.

but the energy levels dropped significantly after that, and it was all we could do to stay awake at the booth. my co-worker, kevin, had never been to a honky tonk before and knew i wanted to go, so he suggested that we retire to our respective hotels for a pre-dinner nap.... he's a smart one, that kevin.

we reconvened a couple of hours later with our other co-worker, sonya, and headed to dinner where we were joined by bobby, a 'local' I met last year through my various trade show interactions. he works with a company that we work with and, something about that southern-ness made me instantly like him. (by the way, he's married and mid-sixties, so not THAT kind of like).

he told us lots of nashville stories, had us laughing 'til our stomachs hurt, and insisted on treating us all to dinner. I tried to explain that we were all on the company dime, but you just try talking a southern gentleman out of showing hospitality in his hometown, and see how successful you are!

needless to say, i lost that 'disagreement'.

after our meal had concluded, he drove us, in his fast, sporty, muscly type car, back to broadway, where I headed straight to the second fiddle -- my favorite joint on the strip.  the crowd is always diverse, the staff always friendly, and the music always good. we spent the next three hours there, and i was delighted to discover that sonya (originally from tennessee) is also a big country fan. kevin, not so much, but he enjoyed the ambiance and the live music element.

we called it a night just after midnight with the promise of another ugly early morning to follow.

and when that ugly early morning arrived, i just couldn't bring myself to head back to the exhibit hall. I had originally planned on staying only until noon before catching my flight home, but i had some urgent emails to respond to and a suitcase problem to figure out.  

both of these things having been successfully accomplished, when kevin called to see if i wanted to join he and sonya for their lunch break, i suggested we try 'arnold's', a cafeteria style southern eatery recommended by bobby the night before, highly rated on yelp, and also on the diners, drive-ins, and dives list. They came and picked me up and we made our way to the restaurant.

it was the best possible way for me to conclude the short trip to the city. I had the chicken and dumplings (made me feel like I should be sitting in y grandma's kitchen on a cold winter day), some excellent slaw, and chocolate pie. we sampled each other's selections, and kevin's hot pepper chocolate pie was a treat.  likely made with chili powder, the slow creep up of the 'kick' as the brownie batter like pie and homemade crust made their way down my gullet, was amazing.  i've always liked mexican hot chocolate - made with chili powder - so i was a big fan.

one thing i noticed this time around is just how successfully nashville cooks manage their spices. our dinner the might before included hot wings, different from any i'd had before. rather than being sauced, they were dry-rubbed. and again, the spiciness crept up on you, building slowly, and stopping at what i felt like was exactly the perfect level of heat. i'm going to have to remember that when I'm back in march!

after our tasty meal, they dropped me back off at my hotel where i picked up my bags and the rental car and headed to the airport, where the costa rican hertz agent told me that for sure i could get a boyfriend in costa rica, and the american agent upgraded me to first class on my direct flight home. a nice way to end a nice trip.

things i've seen and learned in nashville

1.  a 20 ounce diet coke is difficult to come by, but 24 ouncer's are plentiful.  i didn't check, but i suspect the same holds true for sweet tea.

2.  passing a mile and a half's worth of bikes (everything from crotch rockets to harley's) is pretty cool, but what makes it special is the guy on the side of the road doing wheelies in his wheelchair while giving the passing bikers a big thumbs up.

3.  in 2010 heavy flooding ravaged the nashville area (most of middle tennessee, actually) including a seven foot wall of water that surged through the gaylord opryland hotel, opry mills mall, and the grand ole opry. the storm and flooding cost 23 tennesseans their lives (total death toll was 32 including neighboring states).

i've been here a small handful of times since then and during my visit early last year, everything seemed to be mostly back to normal. -- except that opry mills mall had yet to open. one anchor store (outdoor world) seemed on the verge, but otherwise, it was a shell of a building surrounded by empty parking lots.  it had that abandoned 'ghost town' feel, and it was a little depressing.

i'll admit that i hadn't followed the progress, so i was pleased as punch to discover that the mall (next door to the opryland hotel where my event is) is fully operational again.  parking lots are crowded and there seem to be a lot of smiling, shopping bag toting, people going in and out.  seems like things are finally getting back to the way they were before!

san diego: the fun stuff

my recent work trip to san diego was as successful as a work trip can be, but let's just talk about the fun stuff, shall we?

after my friday morning mani/pedi, i packed my 100 pound suitcase (if it's not getting weighed, i just don't know where to stop) and loaded the bike on the back of the car to make the hour and a half drive south.  the first miracle of the trip was that it was actually and hour and a half, free of the usual slow-downs that plague this particular stretch of freeway.

i arrived at the hotel (one of my favorites) a little too early to check-in, so headed downstairs for lunch.  almost immediately after i had finished my meal i got the call that my room was ready and checked in to my beautiful corner king, with views of coronado.  then it was time to don the swimsuit and head to the pool.

a couple hours later, my co-workers julie and sam were finished with the conference service project and joined me poolside before heading to dinner and calling it an early night.

saturday found me up early and cruising the promenade to the hyatt down the strip for booth setup, which went quickly and well. and then it was time for more sun!  julie and sam had headed to coronado for some beach time, and since i haven't been at the beach all summer, i decided it was high time!

we landed at silver strand state beach where the water is filled with flecks of 'gold'.  a little research informed us that it was actually mica that had migrated from the mountains of mexico, and it made for a really uniqye experience.  what also made this beach trip stand apart is that i got in the water.

i know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but for a girl who grew up going to the atlantic ocean, the pacific is downright freezing.  in the almost six years i've lived in california, i've only ever been in the pacific one time. and learned my lesson!  but, the day was really hot, and the water just enough further south to make it bearable, and refreshing even.

we enjoyed the water and were eventually joined by my friend and former co-worker, vicki, who came down to see us all while the girls were in from various parts of the country.  we played with jade, who i haven't seen since shortly after she was born, and were impressed by just how fearless she is.  the water didn't bother her at all, even when she ended up with a mouthful of it.  and i was grateful to see that vicki has not turned in to an overly paranoid mom who wants to shelter their children from every tiny little irritation (i have little tolerance for those moms i'm afraid).

about an hour after vicki arrived, we decided to head back to the hotel for pool time and dinner, but shortly after i had pulled out of the parking lot, i got a call from vicki saying that her car wouldn't start.  i turned around and after an attempted jump, then a wait for a tow truck, we finally said our farewells when i dropped her off with friends, who would take the second leg of the 'get vicki back home' driving tour.

it was more of an adventure than any of us had bargained for, but mostly a disappointment because it cut our time short.  nonetheless, it was great to see her, if only briefly.

the rest of the trip was filled with work, good food, work, some more pool time, enjoying the work commute on my bicycle, discovering that my bicycle needs a tune-up and some re-aligning, and more good food.  all in all, a very successful long weekend!

labor day

the weekend was dominated by sleep. blessed sleep. sweaty hot sleep. but sleep nonetheless.

sunday night found me spending time with my donahoo cousins, which i try to do as often as possible.  with nicole off to byu it did feel a little different, but rachel and i made sure to drown our sorrows by doing what we love best -- taking selfies!

today brought more opportunity for sleep, but also an opportunity to catch up with some old friends.


i have several friends from high school who migrated out here (before i did) and unfortunately we don't take nearly enough advantage of our close proximity to get together.  i'm ashamed to admit that it's been a couple years -- which, given that we live only 30 miles apart, is truly ridiculous!

i'd reached out to brandon and michelle to see if they'd be in town this weekend, and they mentioned our friend bronwyn and her husband were having a cookout--which would also be attended by our other friends andy and kevin.  a perfect opportunity to see some old familiar favorite faces:)

the man of the house was quite a skilled grill-master and my creamsicle fruit dip was a huge hit.  the breezes were a welcome relief from the weekend's hot hot temperatures, and it was awesome to be able to catch up with friends who have known me since i was 16.  a little taste of my east coast home is always appreciated in my west coast home.