It's a Family Affair

In the city of Muleshoe, TX there is a semi elaborate park dedicated to the glorious town mascot, a Mule.  It is complete with a random chandelier dressed gazebo, park benches labeled with metal descriptors describing that you are in fact sitting on a park bench, and a giant copper Mule placed prominently on a podium as inspiration for this fair city.  Beside this artistic little jem is the BEST gas station I have ever experienced!  This place concentrated on the small details like deciding to forgo the use of generic doors on their bathroom stalls, and instead spicing things up with vintage 70s curtains.  This way the locals can just peek in on you whenever they feel to show a little local hospitality.  The main lobby of the store was where the real magic happened.  There was a buffet table lined with rows and rows of taco fixings AND frozen yogurt toppings.  As in chocolate sprinkles next to chopped onions.  This was mecca. Why did I even continue further?  A little feast for the eyes...

So this was how the trip began.  I was really excited to have my Dad joining me for the first half of the trip.  When I was growing up we would road trip west often, so majority of this drive was through familiar places and memories.  My Dad and I do not live in the same city so the extra time with him was an unexpected but wonderful surprise, even if we had to listen to Tower of Power while driving across Utah.

If you are not familiar with Clines Corner in New Mexico then you have not experienced New Mexico.   It is a gas station, restaurant, but mainly souvenir store.  It is located at the corner of route 66 and US highway 285 and every year we would pass through this amazing adventure in trinkets and parental patience.  My goal as we stopped for fuel on the annual family vacation was always one thing...get the plastic toy horse.  At one time I knew the exact location in the store of the horses.  To save time I could retrieve the horse upon entering, while those less fortunate had to peruse asile after asile of last minute decision making, all allowing more time for me to convince my Dad why this was a necessity.  I was never successful.  The same answer was always given to stop my dreams "Wait till we get to (insert destination) You will find something better there"  Now besides the totally unnecessary $200 dress from Santa Fe that I, post appropriate horse age, attempted (understatement) I never found anything better.  And really what was better than a figurine of a plastic horse decorated in war paint, a real-ish tail made of white "fur", and a feather mane that even a real horse would nea fabulous, WHAT WAS BETTER DAD???  So as my Dad and I walked through Clines together giggling at the racist souvenirs and reminiscing on his own father buying him the little wooden drum/tomahawk set EVERY year, I gracefully retold my memory of summer vacation.  In a perfect father daughter moment I then found my dad roaming the isles in search of the horses.

Meet Larry

Thank You Dad

    More run-on sentences to come...

Ugly vs Rad

Um I am in Lubbock today.  I drove in yesterday, hungover.  I am here with the family till Friday.  I of course cried all the way from Dallas to Abilene, so lame.  AM radio gets an impressive amount of distance though, because as I balled for three straight hours the fellas of the Hardline were able to entertain me one last time.  You know what guys, space IS super gay.  I will miss Mike the cow most of all.  Moo.  Now once I pulled into this little town I was greeted by the extreme beigeness of my mother’s neighbors landscaping.  Pictured below is the decision making of what I assume happens when a person hates their life.

My last week in Dallas was so amazingly terrible and equally full of fantasy that I am still trying to process everything.  Now to save face I can not openly let out my frustrations regarding my many disappointments.  I can however tell you that I am happy to be moving on.  My going away party was fantastically awkward and incredible.  I hung on like a trooper for a solid seven hours!  Asking me for specifics of this night will get you no where.  For me I am just going to say it all felt like a dream (gin).  Pictures I do not necessarily remember taking shown below.

I think I slept for maybe two hours before making my way to oak cliff for coffee and help.  My friends nursed me back to life with sentimental conversations, and the beautiful ability we all have to laugh at ourselves.  I might be crying right now thinking about this, but it is ok, I have spell check.

 

The only thing to do on a day off, in Texas, during the summer, when you are recovering, is get in a pool, and have a beer.  So that is what we did.  Here I have proof.  Go.

My father was so kind as to drive to Dallas my last night and have dinner with my crew.  He is a bit of a foodie so when he comes into town we have to be creative with our dining choices.  Behind half price books is a German place called Hanks.  On weekends they have live “entertainment”.  This Saturday there was an accordion player who after going through every sitcom theme song from the 70s, and his version of Stairway to Heaven, that was a completely serious request from someone, he put on a bandana with fake braids and completed the show doing his version of a Willie Nelson impression.  He was NOT Willie Nelson, thank you David Sedaris.

The night ended with us watching a bit of the movie Hook in the parking lot of Half Price books, which in the summer will show movies there.  People of Dallas if you were unaware of them doing this then please aware yourself now.  They let you know the movie before viewing and people theme dress!  There were pirates, tinkerbells, and lost boys galore!  Hipsters and Rufio dress about the same, so some of those could not have been costumes.  From there I won’t go into the details of the sadness that followed the rest of our beautiful evening.  The following morning though can just suck it!  My plan had been to leave around mid day, but everything fell apart.  True to form I had a dramatic temper tantrum before lunch, after lunch and again around what I would call a post lunch snack time.  I decided to stay one more night, watch the Mavs, see a few more friends I had yet to say goodbye to, and spend one more night in Dallas with people I adore!  I have great love for my friends.  They are all so fantastically different.  We all teach and learn so much from each other.  Please to all those who I love and am moving so far from, let’s just say “Have a good day”.  This little phrase dismisses any sense of permanence from our distance.  It leaves the feeling of a see you later vibe.  I am going to force those who I can not give up to continually and actively be participators in each others lives!  Erika, you are my soul mate so do not fight it!  I would give him up over and over again to have you in my life.  If the reason I was put through hell with him was to be your friend then in that I finally found peace.  You are the Texas sun kid and I will take you with me forever.  Bangarang!  

So...

I moved.

Book Report

Today I attended my final class at Lone Star Circus school. My first one was back in February. It is an aerial art class. For the first one I signed a modest waiver, and then basically was told to try and not die. The classes are held at local gymnasium hidden between some warehouses. It is a fairly large building that the Circus shares with a puppet show house (Slappy’s Playhouse, yeah just let that one simmer for a bit) and then there are some general gymnastic classes for kids as well. I had looked into this years ago but could not find anything closer than Seattle, ironic. So I went and basically cussed a lot and felt shame for admitting to be a fitness instructor. I figured out climbing up the silk, but felt like an elephant during the process. The day after that class I could not open doors or hold anything for a week. I had to just fall into a door hoping its hinges were hung in my favor. I went again a week later a bit more timid since with my last try I was not instantly amazing. It was better the second time but I still sucked. I have now been trying this out at least once or twice a week for the last four months. I do not suck anymore! I am now a beamingly almost average acrobat! Haha so I am still in need of a great deal of strength and skill, but I can do at least 6 awesome to me tricks, get my ass high off the ground, and there is way less hesitation. I really have gotten tremendously stronger with this fantastic sport. I am hooked! It is the most effective form of anti-depressant I have ever tried! To hang in the air, upside down on a piece of fabric you have wrapped yourself in, let go, trusting you will catch yourself again somewhere down the silk is invigoratingly stupid. Today in my final class I grew balls enough to attempt a few more stunts, of course. I will really miss the people that are a part of the school. I have found another one, I think, in Bellingham. They are all different so it might just be a lame pole dancing type class and not so much aerialist school. I am hoping it is similar to what my girls have set up here, because the school is probably next to my friends the thing I will miss most about Dallas. Sorry Lee Harvey’s patio.  No joke when I get awesome at this I will join a circus.

This is the School...

 This is me at my first class being a tourist.

 Here I am a few weeks ago after finishing a trick, still taking pictures like a tourist.

 This is a lovely and patient student

 One of the instructors working on a trick

Here she is trying not to die, aka mid trick

Almost Lemons

I have strep throat. Weird huh? Who under the age of 12 gets this? I thought instead of spending all day crying and being unnecessarily dramatic, why not give one of my buddies a shout out. Also for all of my seven lovely followers, and those of you not legitimately following but are reading this blog, I would like you to know I am very big in Spain and some other non US place I can not remember. Today I noticed in my stats that I have anonymous followers in a sizable part of the pacific northwest, California, and, one in Spain. Huh well hello Spaniard. Yeah I am sure it is probably a fellow yogi connected to my facebook account, but a girl can dream. In my dream after only a few short weeks of rambling blogs a tall bearded Spanish man with strong calloused hands started reading this blog while searching for puppies on the internet, yes puppies. Still in the dream kids. You see because even though this blog has nothing to do with puppies it is in the title and I love puppies, and Spanish puppies are my favorite (whatever). My love of foul language, tacos, coffee, and clothing was unlike any woman he knows (every woman I know) He is hooked, but too shy to make a profile on google and join the ever growing list of followers. Ok just a quick note to my sailor…this is going to be blamed on medications so no angry text messages in Spanish about beards. La la la what was I going to really post today…thinking…rereading…
Oh shout to my homie! Ok so in January I teamed up with one of my favorite boyfriends, not mine, to do a fashion photo shoot. I love being Indian in a very non hipster way so we did a super hot Indian photo shoot. It might be a bit hipster with a semi urban outfitters feel but a super artsy look. Anyway you look at it the pictures came out fucking awesome. I styled, he scouted, shot, edited, and gave me an excuse to act a fool in the woods. I know that lots of folks have seen these on his facebook and mine but now they go global! You’re welcome Spaniard.

For more of these, and a way to have your own freezing cold photo session with a stranger please visit his website.  In true sincerity this man is an incredible talent and a joy to work with.

http://www.jacquemanaugh.com/

Weekend Warrior

I am not a fan of change. I make change happen in my life because I think people I respect have often talked about how important it is. Also I know if I did not change I would probably just watch the same third season of Sex and the City and eat the same three tacos everyday. So I do not own a TV and I only allow myself tacos once a week. That last part might be a lie. I really love tacos. I am in full disclosure eating tacos while I write. As for change I do know that when you decide that you want to move to a new place because you feel the place you currently live has reached its expiration date, that is the time everything you felt was missing magically appears. This makes moving, BIG change, so much more difficult. I am FREAKING OUT. I want to move. No I really really want to move, but I am loving Dallas right now. My job rocks, my friends can not get any better, the city is finally waking up to the beautifully long spring weather we have been blessed with giving me more reason to play outside, and I do not mean drinking on a patio. To be fair I think that Dallas has always had a crowd of festival and fun loving folks running around the city celebrating all types of occasions, but I have been on heavy rotation the last few years of the same people, places, and complaints about what is missing without really exploring. Though this is not all my fault, I will take the blame for not being present to my daily activities. I came out of this fog around February. Since then the people I have met and the adventures I have decided to take on have been just lovely. I did accomplish great things while in my fog. I can not say that the last two years were merely TVs and tacos. I was just not able to look far enough past my single focused ambition to realize how many other things were floating around me.
This weekend was a perfect no fail example of assorted fun. My older sister gracefully stumbled her way into her thirties Friday night at the Belmont Hotel Bar. Surrounded by her impressively diverse group of friends we ate fruit cake, drank just enough to laugh at ourselves a bit more the next day, and helped give her twenties the well deserved un-manicured finger. She looked happy all night. I in my gin haze attempted pictures of her and my dear friend Alex in my first social fashion photo session. Even with three different cameras each one made the beauties slightly demonic looking.

Saturday morning I greeted a semi frantic Erika in Deep Ellum to help her set up her vintage clothing booth at the Deep Ellum Outdoor Market. Being that this was the soft unveiling of Warm Gun Vintage I would mark it as a success.

Sunday offered up a nice alternative to my original plan of napping and yoga with an impromptu appearance at the Oak Cliff Beer Fest. I had no desire to be awake when I showed up, but after tasting a few of the home brews and seeing the parade of pups I was in full fest mode. We ran into a slew of familiar faces, and were entertained as always by the musical King Bucks. At the close of the fest we were cooled off by being rained out, so my ladies and I made our way to the couches of Cosmos to eat some half price pizza. We were not saving the world this weekend but we did have a hell of a time.

Seasonal Beauty

I live in Texas. I have my entire life. I was born in Lubbock, moved to Arlington, then Denton, and I am currently a resident of Dallas. In two and a half weeks I start a journey to a land where the trees are much taller and god help me I hope the men are too. Now if the first thing you think when I tell you where I am moving is something about rain or weather congratulations you are average. Washington state has more to offer than precipitation. I have lost three great friends to the wiles of the pacific northwest and the only thing they find objectionable about no longer being in Dallas is the distance from our sports teams. Come June something, I will be reunited with these three in Bellingham, WA. I do not yet have a job in Bellingham. That is not the reason for my move. Yes moving to a coastal city in a down economy might not be the smartest thing I have ever done. Though I am in a position to do so and well I just need a major change of scenery. I decided after this past year ending as one of the worst, that this year I was going to make big changes. I am trying things that make me incredibly uncomfortable and scare the shit out of me. So how far can I go west without leaving the country? The trip begins in my home town where I will start with some quality family time. From there I plan about a two week wander through the west coast. Then I finish the road trip but continue the adventure in Bellingham, WA.

 

 This is my beautiful friend in Washington on her wedding day.

 This is where I will be spending a lot of my free time!

At this time I am a Bikram Yoga teacher, love. My other great loves is fashion. I hate admitting this and over the last two years I have tried to hide this fact. It makes me feel guilty to love something that is considered so superficial. I recently had some space open up and I want it back in my life. It makes me happy. I spent four of my eight years in college on my design degree, working on and off in the field for a few years, getting burnt out, and ultimately tiring of the people that the fashion industry typically attracts. So I went the other direction completely to find balance. Now that I have solely played yoga the last couple of years the pendulum has started swinging back in the other direction. My small work in the industry before was a big part of what turned me off. The type of work I wanted to do was more homegrown and slower paced than what was offered. Fashion I feel should be approachable and given more opportunity to digest. I know I have always been motivated more by the style of my friends and people I can observe. So beginning now with my last few weeks in Texas, to my journey across the country, and finally at my new home in Washington I will be chronicling those I meet and what I see.

She is a big reason why leaving Texas will be so sad.

Here are the ladies of my design class.  The best friends a girl could have, and even better distractions from actually doing any work.  Our mothers should be so proud. 



Here we all are over three years later and seemingly better behaved.  I can not say the same for some of our boyfriends.