8 lessons from puerto rico!

a week ago today i was getting off a plane at the houston airport. not hobby. the other one. the one with a great food court. where was i flying from you ask......why PUERTO RICO of course!

patrick and i have traveled a little together (branson, fort worth, kc, wichita), but this was our first 'real' trip together (like just us for 5 days . . . no charming family members to entertain us!) here are some of the things i learned . . .

1. if you call my name while we are walking and i turn around and you snap a picture of me, chances are i will look drunk. this would be okay if it were true. in the picture below, it is NOT.

seriously. what is wrong with my eyes?

2. bobby flay is just as hot in puerto rico as he is in my living room in oklahoma.

i have a feeling patrick is more interested in the hot dogs bobby is cooking than he is in bobby's hotness. yes. we watched the food channel while we were on vacation. more on this in a bit.

3. um. i'm short compared to a lot of people. but especially when compared to patrick. (on a nerdy note: we watched the nba draft last night and decided to measure our wingspans. mine is a WHOPPING 5'3". patrick's? 6'8". crazy. i like this because i can always find him in a crowd. except a NASCAR crowd. there are a ridiculously large number of very tall NASCAR fans. um yes. i went to a race. another story....)

but kind of just the right height to annoy him when he is trying to take pictures . . .

. . . and i hold my camera up to get the "high" shot.

4. it rains. even in puerto rico.

5. san juan is VERY touristy. especially old san juan as it is in easy walking distance for the cruise ship crowds when they dock.

but even in the midst of tourist central you can find some great places to eat. our absolute favorite meal was at cafe berlin, which you can kind of see behind the statue of christopher columbus. so. if you go on a cruise and your ship stops here walk a little further up the hill, past the hard rock and senor frogs and harley shop and find this place instead. it's apparently an amazing vegetarian establishment . . . i wouldn't know. we ate meat. and it was goooood. their hummus was fabulous, too. (don't you think i should be a food reviewer? so eloquent with my descriptions of taste and such.)

6. now. there's a chance i have some pretty radical statements and opinions about food. but. such is me. one food i've never been a huge fan of is coconut. the texture scares me and the smell/taste is way too close to hawaiian tropic for me to consider ingesting it. but, since i was in a tropical locale and everything is served with coconut and rum (something else i've never been a huge fan of), i decided to forget my biases and dive headfirst into a pina colada.

now. maybe it's because i drank it on the beach while i was slathered in hawaiian tropic (which ironically IS one of my favorite smells), but i rather enjoyed my first pina colada experience . . . and my second and fourth and fifth . . .

7. we have not mastered taking photos together.

exhibit a - the camera was on zoom when a nice lady tried to take our pic for us.

exhibit b - the WIND!!! like there's A LOT on the beach at night!

8. this was my first real vacation. ever. my family and friends live all over the country, which for the most part (other than the not getting to see them enough part) i LOVE because it means i get to travel to some really great places to visit people i care about. being a teacher has made that even more plausible because i have a big chunk of time to do that traveling. but, being a teacher has also means i don't always have the funds to do "other" kinds of trips. yes. i've done england a couple of times, but i don't really consider that a vacation because, well, i was either in school or traveling with cody. (with LOVE! i say this with LOVE!) she doesn't really stay still. and also my sister and cousin, erin. who also don't really stay still. so yes. i've traveled. but i haven't really vacationed. and that's what we did. and except for our flight back from puerto rico every single part of our trip was relaxing. and chill. and just what i wanted it to be. no real plans. just hanging out together.

even if that meant watching throwdown with bobby flay randomly in the afternoons while we were trying to stay out of the heat.

and this might be why you shouldn't flip people off

i know that i have spent most of my life living 'citified' or 'suburbanized,' but i don't really consider myself either. part of that may just be because i don't want to admit reality, but some of it comes from growing up in a small-ish community (claremore) and from spending large amounts of time in osborne county.  sometimes, though, the influence of my rough and tumble years of driving the mean streets of the dfw metroplex seep into my behavior behind the wheel on the bricks of main street in osborne.  

like yesterday.

mom and i were backing out of our parking spot on main.  stupid me parked next to a VERY long pickup truck and a little too close to the main intersection in town (there's no light, let me remind yall).  anyway.  it was parade day, so there was quite a bit of traffic in town and i was taking my time backing up.  this was especially necessary since i couldn't see around the truck next to me.  i had to wait for FIVE cars to pass by before i could back all of the way out.  (and in capitalizing FIVE, i'm in no way mocking osborne, rather my impatience over something so silly.  'cause really?  what was my hurry???)  so i've waited.  i'm clear.  i continue backing out and here comes a car whipping around the corner.  since i'm already pretty much out of my parking space, i decide that i have the right of way.  i also assume that since this is sweet, kind, peaceful osborne - the place where everyone literally knows my (mom's) name - i'm good to finish, put the car in drive, and move on my merry way.   and THAT'S when i notice that said car has zipped around me as i am continuing to back up . . . inches away from me backing into them.

so.  my reaction.  i'm pretty sure that i raised my hands up in disgust.  i know i did my typical glare at the driver as they went by.  i think i said something like, "SERIOUSLY? WHAT IS THAT?"  but in my mind i had to talk myself out of saying the words i would typically say to that car in a dfw traffic situation.  this editing did not take place because i suddenly became a better person.  nope.  mi madre was sitting right next to me and i'm pretty sure the last time i said those words in her presence i found soap in my mouth not long after.  anyway.  crisis missed.  we moved on down main street toward dollar general.

juuuuuuuuuust like the car i almost backed into.  i parked as far away from them as i could in order to avoid any kind of awkward conversation or glance.  mom "ran in" to the store to get a gift bag saying she'd be right back and leaving me in the car to listen to the radio.  but that's when i notice that the driver of the car is walking toward my window.  and yes.  she is signaling me to roll it down.  (how sad is it that my first reaction was one of anxiety and my second reaction was to get my attitude ready?  yall, i think that means i need to get out of the metroplex.)  so i do the slow roll down with the window ready to call upon my inner 8th grade girl and react with eye rolling and whininess to the lecture i'm about to receive on how to drive in osborne.  but.  no lecture comes.  instead.  this woman apologizes for our almost incident.  she apologizes.  several times and ways.  sincerely.

and in so doing, she may have restored my faith in humanity.  at least until monday.

oh wait.  did you think this story was over?  yeah.  SO not.  because again.  let me remind you.  this is osborne we are speaking of.  

i am sitting in my car waiting for my mom to come back from the depths of dollar general.  in my head while i am waiting, i'm waxing poetic in my head about the joys of small towns and how much better people are and why would i ever want to live anywhere else (i.e. the concrete sprawl that is dfw).  then my mom comes back out quite a bit later, but i'm not even bothered by her 20 minute-one purchase shopping spree, so happy am i still about the apology from a random stranger.

and here's the moral to my little tale . . . there are no random strangers in osborne, population 1600.  mom came out laughing because of COURSE she knew the lady from the other car who of COURSE knew about me because she has known me FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE, we just didn't recognize each other without my mom around.  (for those of you in the o-town know, yeah, it was larry p's wife, vickie.  for those of you NOT in the o-town know, her husband grew up down road from my mom and aunt j, worked for my grandparents forever, and then bought the feedlot AND helps to farm our wheat to this day . . .)  

and now, i am rather thankful for whatever it was (conscience?  decorum?  fear of my mother?) that kept me from flipping off that "other driver" because OH MY GOODNESS i can't even imagine the level of embarrassment i'd be suffering from right now if that had been the climax of this story.

also.  if you are kind of wanting to flip me off right now for making you read such a long post, go right ahead.  i probably deserve it.

dear t.s.a.

to whom it may concern:

typically, thanks to my 2 months of table waiting experience (CHIMI'S!) and 4 months combined of bath & body works and target retail experience, i am typically quite patient and compassionate and grateful toward people who deal with humanity en masse on a daily basis. in my experience traveling, i have never really had an issue with any of the people who work security at airports, nor have i really found a reason to complain about the controlled chaos generally surrounding checkpoints. is it annoying? yes. do i understand? for the most part.

i do believe there are two reasons why i have never had any problems with t.s.a. 1 - i follow the rules. 2 - i have travelled quite a bit and am not as befuddled as some meandering through your lines. however, this morning while making my way through the tulsa airport, my past pleasant experiences in dealing with your employees faded away. when i approached security in tulsa, i READ THE SIGNS LIKE I ALWAYS DO (remember, rule follower here . . .) and saw clearly what my two line choices were. to the left was the "expert traveler" line (which was NOT clearly marked due to the chaos generally surrounding your gates as mentioned above) and to the right was the "casual traveler" line. now, i realize that i was not on a business trip this weekend, but just because i was on a "vacation" does not mean that i am no less the expert in traveling. because i am a rule follower, i didn't just choose the shorter/faster line (expert traveler). instead, i read the sign to make sure that i was going to the right line so that i would not be a burden to my fellow travelers. the expert sign listed these three criteria - understanding security procedures, traveling light, and fly often. i went though my own mental checklist: all gels and such sealed in a ziploc bag and ready to put in the bin, shoes easy to remove, no water bottles, no laptop, etc. judging from the five business men in front of me who had SUIT JACKETS ON, MUCH LARGER SUITCASES, and LAPTOPS, i decided i was traveling much lighter than these "expert travelers," so i followed them into line. i was in this line for about 7 minutes and then i met the t.s.a. worker i will refer to as THE JUDGE. the judge looked at the five men in front of me and allowed them to continue into the expert line. then, the judge put HER HAND ON MY SHOULDER and started to PUSH me toward the "casual traveler" line that was (by this point) FIVE TIMES as long as the line i was already in.

now. i would go into further detail about the conversation i had with the judge, but it really doesn't have to do with why i was frustrated after my encounter with her. (in the end i did switch lines, but that is because i am a KIND AND GENEROUS person and i realized that there were 300 people behind me waiting to meet her judgement as well, so i didn't want to cause a problem for THOSE people - also, i may have been a little scared of the amazon woman you dispensed to judge us as 'expert' or 'casual.') but as i stewed in the casual traveler line, offended because the judge had pretty much done two things that irritate me more than anything - treated me like someone who was clueless (which i am not!) and like i was guilty of something - and stressed because i kept hearing them call my flight's final boarding, i started to notice a trend. nearly 93.4% of the "expert traveler" line was made up of males. honestly, i am not one to wave the discrimination flag around. i take it very seriously. but, i am bothered by how rash this judge was to assume that only males would have somewhere important to be and that they were 'experts.' by deeming them so, she allowed them all to get through security much faster than the rest of us. those five men who were right next to me initially? you remember, the five who had way more "stuff" to be x-rayed than i did? all five of them were through security THIRTY minutes before me. none of these 'experts' had to run through the airport to board their flight just 15 seconds before it pulled away from the gate.

apparently, the next time i fly i need to remember to bring my list of how many times i have been through security within the last year. will that grant me "expert" status like the boys?

sincerely,
sarah - rule follower and quiet feminist

_________________________________

not all of the trip was bad . . . yay jan and paul! yall better get busy making me some ice cream. also, just to prove that i don't hate everyone in the service industry, i'd like to suggest (to frequent dallas flyers)  the parking spot at lovefield or your local airport. it is my new favorite place to park and osmar, my shuttle driver, almost made up for the amazon judge who started my morning. almost.

now, if you'll excuse me, i'm gonna go cuddle with my dog who scored "anxious" on her report card from the boarder. this makes me sad for her.

pretending to be creative

for mother's day, i headed up good ol' i-35 to hang out with my parents.  my sister was the bad daughter that weekend and abandoned us to go to kc for a wedding shower instead of spending time with the family.  kidding!  (sorta.)  even without jessica's awesomeness, mom, dad, and i managed to have a pretty good weekend.  saturday afternoon, we spent some time at the okc farmer's market exploring the antique stores and the fresh veggies and bedding plants.  if you've ever spent time with dad, mom, or me, you know that any one of us could take up a good chunk of an afternoon doing any of these things . . . imagine our powers combined.  it was a day of new okc experiences for me.  we also had the BEST STEAK EVER (or at least this year) at cattlemen's.  i'd been there once before, in college, when i went with the entire town of alex, oklahoma before the state championship basketball game in 1997.  sadly, i think i was in my no red meat phase at that time and only ate a salad.  annnnnnnnnnnnyway.  all afternoon, i was entertaining myself with my camera.  yesterday in an effort to entertain myself and avoid the massive amounts of organization i need to do, i decided to mess around with some of the pictures and see what my new computer could do in the ways of making me seem more photographically inclined than i actually am.  here's what i came up with . . . 

and just for you aunt janet, a picture of the steak . . . 

top 6 things i learned on my trip to chicago (a little late)

1. i found where i want to live if i ever suck it up and move north of the mason-dixon line. wicker park is pretty much awesome. i could have walked and walked and walked around looking at all of the stores and sat and sat and sat outside at all of the different restaurants all day long. there were a few national chains represented, but for the most part, all of the stores and eateries were locally owned and independent. YAY! THE best store, by far, was paper doll. the cuz, sis, and i spent at least an hour exploring all of the cards and bags here. i even found a great new bag to cart around my computer this summer when i decide to get out of the house and go people watch.

2. listen to your mother and pack socks. while saturday was PERFECT, sunday was freakishly cold. now i know a few of you (jan and joy) are rolling your eyes at me right now and saying, "was it really cold or just sarah cold?" um. even all of the chicAAAHgo people couldn't stop talking about it. this was (of course) the day we spent at wrigley for the cubs game. my mom had warned me about how cold she had been when she went to a game a few years ago, but being me, and it being FREAKING MAY!, i ignored her and did not take socks. but, i am now the proud owner of a cozy cubs thermal and some cubs socks. i can't remember the name of the store where we all stocked up, but other than the guy behind the counter who may have yelled at erin, it was a pretty good shopping option . . . not very crowded and rather inexpensive for having doors that faced wrigley.

3. even though i am now officially old, i will STILL get carded. (it's almost a blessing now . . . not quite, but almost.) the 'bouncer' at cubby bears asked me - and only me - to show him a second form of i.d. to get in. no one else in our group, not even my YOUNGER sister, had to do this. my only other picture i.d., though, is my teacher i.d. - will i go to teacher hell for using my **** junior high school picture to get into a bar? when i showed it to him, i did get the traditional gasp of "wow. you teach junior high?" to which i got to say, "yes. that is why i am here."

4. i like tapas. maybe the best birthday meal (not cooked by mi madre) ever. (that could change in 90 minutes as melissa and kelley are taking me to uncle julio's for lunch.) but right now, i truly believe it was THAT good. i think it also helped to go with uber-sophisisticated erin and jessica who knew what the heck was going on. it may have also helped that we spent the hour wait to get into evanston's best tapas restaraunt at ethel's chocolate.

5. my sister is a walking t-shirt generator. without meaning to, jessica comes up with some lines that erin and i have decided should be placed on t-shirts that we force her to wear for our own enjoyment. our two favorite ica-isms (you like that sis?) were "cotton candy is my beer" and "yeah. at the kanye concert . . ." if you don't know my sister, these are probably in no way any kind of amusing to you. but those of you do are probably laughing so hard right now you fell off of your chair.

6. i am really lucky to have an erin and jessica in my life. thanks yall. it was SUCH a great way to spend moving into the next decade.

when did i become this person? (so not as serious as it sounds)

so the flying thing is no better. when did this happen? i don't ever remember getting nervous about flying and the only time i remember feeling sick on a plane there's a chance i could have had help in that direction from a little something called beer. but, nope. yesterday. i got on the plane. i was feeling fine. i was a little amped up about getting to take a mini-vacation. i was jammin' to some eric hutchinson on the trusty iPod and reading my better homes and garden magazine (yeah. did i mention i am old now?). then we start heading down the runway and i suddenly want to leap out of my seat and beg the flight attendants to let me OFF OF THIS HORRIBLE TUBE OF METAL WHERE I AM TRAPPED WITH 100 OTHER PEOPLE. I DON'T WANT TO GO HURTLING THROUGH THE SKY AT A MILLION MILES AN HOUR. PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME!

luckily. i am cool under pressure, so i didn't do that.

i finally calmed myself down. i wasn't able to sleep, which was NOT fun. but like a big girl, i sat back and dealt with my 2.5 hours trapped in the very nice midwest airlines leather seats and i ate their warm chocolate chip cookie when they brought it to me. so i figured all was well. and then we started our descent. i'm not even going to discuss the turbulence. nope. our pilot came over the speaker to tell us we were nearing milwaukee (i flew into milwaukee because it is just as close to erin in drive time and i got a better deal). so i start preparing for the landing, which HAS always been my least favorite part of flying. anyway. i start looking out the window at what i KNOW is the city of milwaukee. i even chuckled at myself because i completely forgot it sits on the shore of lake michigan. but then i noticed we weren't getting any lower. in fact, i felt like we were climbing again. and then the next thing i know we are waaaaaaaaaaay out over the lake and i couldn't see any land. instead of using ration and realizing we were probably going to loop back around and head toward the airport, i completely believed for like 15 seconds that our pilot was lost. or that he was trying to kidnap us.

but. he didn't. or he remembered where he was going. whatever. we landed and now i am snuggled in erin's guest bed wondering where she got her sheets because i really like them. also. i'm debating the eternal question: capris or jeans?

we're meeting up with jessica sometime later this afternoon down in the lincoln park or wicker park areas. happy weekend everyone!

Lupinus subcarnosus

i. am. a. nerd.

cody and i decided to go on a bluebonnet hunt yesterday. while we thought the weather was perfect, we were quickly corrected by the lady working at the ennis visitors' center. after she told us "i know it's april, cuz i'm workin' on a saturday," she gave us a quick botany lesson. apparently, the bluebonnets need a little more heat than what we've had here lately. the warmer weather makes them "pop!" (i guess that's why my parents saw bluebonnets before i did while they were down at big bend 2 weeks ago.) anyway, EVC lady did direct us out west of town a little, off of highway 34 to a park just off the lake where there was a small patch.

(sidenote - how much fun would it be to have the job of driving around texas figuring out where the wildflowers had bloomed?)

for those of you not from around here, lemme fill ya in. people in texas go CRAZY for the bluebonnets . . . especially if they are the parents of young children or are engaged. photo ops galore. since cody and i are neither of those things mentioned above, we have never had the chance to go crawl around in a field and take pictures. until yesterday. and gracious cody even let me bring the pup on our road trip. lucy was WAY more interested in the lake and the dead fish carcus that she found, but for a few minutes she did let us take a some pictures of her.

Here is a view of the little patch we found.

Apparently, a lake is way more interesting that a bunch of blue flowers.

Yep. She found a dead creature and decided to roll in the grass near it.
My dog is gross.

There was no real posing or listening to be had today.
What did I expect?
We were OUTSIDE!!! WITHOUT A LEASH!!!

Finally. She listens.

10 inches shorter in 24 hours

so yesterday, i was driving home from lunch with my friends and somewhere between north richland hills and bedford i decided that TODAY would be the day i chopped my hair off. i've been trying to hold out until the end of school for a couple of reasons. 1 - i figured a full out salon day would be a fun way to spend the dreaded 30th birthday. 2 - when i cut bangs earlier this school year, mis estudiantes flipped out . . . so i was kind of hoping to avoid the whole "they're staring at me" oddness. but, the sunshine yesterday infected my brain and convinced me that the chopping off of the hair had to happen NOW.

as soon as i got home i measured by pony tail again to make sure i had the 8 inches needed to donate to pantene's beautiful lengths program - i had 12! way more than enough. so this morning, i headed over to my favorite area in fort worth: camp bowie and found myself as the first appointment at shampoo. like many other things in my life, i can't commit to a regular hair salon. i've always wanted to try this place out and figured a new funky 'do was totally worth it. within two minutes of walking in, i was minus 10 inches of hair and then ally was off. i LOVE my new hair. (i'd post a picture here, but i'm not quite use to the idea of having my picture floating around in cyberspace.)

i will definitely be going back to shampoo for future hair cuts and colorings. i'd already pretty much decided that when ally figured out a way to fix the GREAT BANGS DEBACLE OF 2007-2008, but they sealed the deal when i tried to leave her a tip (great new cut AND no more sticky uppy bangs? well-earned tip, i'd say) and they told me, 'yeah, we don't accept tips here.' WHAT? how cool is that? (not that i mind leaving tips, but i always am so unsure of what to leave, so i end up leaving too much, which makes my hair cut crazy expensive.) they said, 'just tell your friends to visit us.' soooooo, that's what i'm doing: if you are in fort worth and need a salon, go to shampoo!

top 5 lessons learned from a weekend trip to kcmo

1 - i'm not a very good flyer anymore. on my flight too kc, i had a serious case of motion sickness. on my way back, all i could do was think about getting off of the plane. it's weird. i never use to be bothered by planes, but the last few times i've flown, it's been torturous. hopefully, this - like my positive feelings toward having bangs - will pass.

2 - the world would be a much better place if we all knew which of the following categories our friends/family/coworkers/adversaries/etc. fell into: phone person or not a phone person. i, as many of you could testify, am definitely a phone person. i LOVE talking to people on the phone and tend to panic if my cell is not within reach at all times during the day. apparently, there are people in the world who do not like to whittle away their days by chatting on the phone and apparently i am friends/related to quite a few of those people. so all those times i thought you people were irritated with me or bored with what i was saying, you really just wanted to get off the phone before it molded to your ear. hmm.

3 - i only seem to like young children if i am related to them or if they belong to my oldest and dearest friends. for example, i spent all weekend with my cousin's kiddos whom i heart with the biggest heart possible. within 10 minutes of them dropping me off at the airport, i was surrounded by strangers' kids roughly about the same age and i quickly became THAT lady at the airport who glares at the mom who should totally be doing a better job of shushing her child when she cries because her ears hurt or the woman who totally rolls her eyes in judgment at the mother who let her two children sit by themselves on the plane while she and her hubby snuggled in another row totally ignoring the kid who was banging his toy cars together incessantly while i was trying to read a mary higgins clark book. HOW DARE HE BE - gasp - A CHILD. :) i'm NOT that lady normally, which is why i am amused at how limited my patience with these random children was.

4 - God leads you in the right direction. ever since i quit my job in kc two years ago, i've been bothered by the continuous question of "did i do the right thing?" not that i am not happy at the place where i've ended up, but i guess you always have those moments of self-doubt . . . especially when you have to leave students as amazing as those i left behind in kc and especially when your choice moves you away from family you completely cherished being near. so. questions beget answers, even if those answers are two years in coming. yesterday i spoke with a friend connected to my situation in kc and in hearing her experiences over the last year, i finally saw clearly that God did guide me in making the best decision.

5 - hanging out at joy's kitchen table is still one of my favorite things to do. ice cold dr peppers and yummy guacamole. what could be better?

and . . . i'm wearing socks

saturday. perfect afternoon. nearly 80. sunny. hangin' in the park with the pup and one of my favorite books. a little bit of a tan forming on my legs. totally rejoicing in the fact that yes, i live in texas.

monday. barely 48 hours later. it starts sleeting. and now, i am doing something i hate to do . . . wearing socks.

earlier, i think i had something else to write about. but now whatever that thought is has left my brain. oh! before the perfect saturday afternoon, i did try to go see the hillary clinton rally in fort worth. it wasn't very organized, which - and i know this might surprise some of you - is actually a very big annoyance of mine. why bother to gather people en masse without a way of communicating what you want them to do? . . . stand in this line, watch the long horns, nope i mean stand in that line, take your purse down that way, but don't take your purse that way, NO CAMERAS, etc.

so. i went for the experience and instead just got frustrated and ended up eating my favorite bbq turkey at risky's and finding my favorite wine (which is hard to buy outside of the vineyard) at lone star wines in the stockyards. so, i guess i created my own experience. i'm glad i went down there, though, because i definitely was reminded of why i love fort worth. sometimes i forget that.