Adventureland- Dallas edition

Dallas! You grew on me a bit!



sent to my sweet HP!



Even though I started off a little grumpy towards
the Lone star State, I ended up having an overall enjoyable experience. Yay!

Okay, if I could redo one part it might be the hotel- I almost got stuck on the one working elevator twice. When I mentioned it to the front desk they said "yeah, it's kind of funny". Yes. Yes it is.

I ended up really using the rental car, which I hadn't anticipated. Although I only drove 70 miles in the 3 days I was here I found it really helpful navigating around the complicated roads/trains/elevated onramps.

The West End area

I found some delicious meals. I ate breakfast for dinner at Ellen's Southern Kitchen, got chatted up (in a totally non-creepy way) by an ex-patriot from Japan, and walked around downtown Dallas.





Embarrassingly I was looking for the infamous 'grassy knoll' and well...it was right by my hotel. Not until I noticed a bunch of people walking through and around this monument did I actually read the placard.

That is one big memorial.













Opening Bell Coffee Concert

 I surprised myself by going to the yummy cafe, which I hit up in the morning, to grab a beer and listen to a guitar concert. The artist was from Lansing, how about that?

Little steps of bravery :)

So now I sit here at DFW airport waiting for my plane homeward. I plan to scoop up little HP immediately. It has been a long time apart for me. The longest I've ever been I think.

The good thing is, I have 3 weeks to stick around home base before heading out to NYC. Woohoo!

Jet setter (sort of)

I am on my first buisness trip that involved real travel (I guess I don't really count the driving trips?). But anyway, here I am in the huge city of Dallas. It's a blustery day but still really humid, maybe 60 degrees, a welcomed change from the snowy Grand Rapids tundra I left on Wednesday. I came here for a TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) Conference. It's an international organization so the draw is enormous. I couldn't tell you how many people are here by the number but it feels like I see them everywhere I've gone in this city.

I have this giant handbook they gave in our goody bag, outlining the 4 day conference in detail. In true teacher fashion I have circled and tabbed all the events and sessions I find interesting. As I was circling 'A Whole School Approach to Integrating K-12 English Language Learners' I kind of had a realization that this is quite a specialized field. And also, I am surrounded by a world of people all similarily interested in this particular corner of the educational world.

So, that being said, it's not likely that detailing these sessions here would be very interesting for many, so let's just say that on the whole the sessions have been really intetresting and engaging, along with one complete snooze fest.

I have 2 days left here to soak up some Dallas eats and sights. So far my eats are doing well, my sights not so much.

My view as I write this

I can tell you that I have enjoyed some delicious food yesterday, but you will not see any pictured evidence of it. Mainly due to the fact I have a secret annoyance of food pictures. Not truly the pictures themselves, but rather the act of taking the food pictures. While sitting at a lovely restaurant I do not want to pull out the phone regardless of how incognito I can be to snap a picture. I just can't do it. So use your imagination and know I ate like a queen.

Let me leave you with a list of things I've seen/learned/enjoyed/hated-
- I brought my reusable coffee mug (on my list of things to do this year was to use less disposable cups) and brought it to a Starbucks for a Skinny Cinnamon Dulce lattee, yum. The girl proceeded to write up my order on a paper cup saying she didn't have stickers to write the order. I got my drink in a paper cup sitting in my cup. Ridic!
-Upon arriving in Dallas, my hotel told me the only hot food around was McDonalds. What!? I spent a hungry night with chips and a cliff bar from 7-11.
-I discovered Yelp with the help of Jon, they led me to 3 wonderful food destinations
-I am so thankful for my gps on the Iphone. Period.
-Dallas has a parking structure on every block, it's like a giant parking lot.
-I got to wear a sleeveless shirt for 20 minutes at lunch basking in the sun before the clouds came back
-If I had to move to Dallas it would be to Highland Park. Lovely!
-I should have brought some flats, my feet are blistered like no ones buisness 

Hello...it's me Laura

I spoke about my little long lost blog yesterday and thought...why have I neglected it! Well, short answer is I've drained my creative and blogging reserves on a different project; my work blog. It's hard to love both of them equally, and although I can and am more candid and less like a suit here on this one, I find myself updating work once a week.

Bad and sad excuse. However, maybe the mood will strike like it did today and I'll pick up this worn out mac book to sit and reflect about me and my life, as opposed to my ever increasing work life. Which I love, don't get me wrong.

I am anticipating more me time as March moves along. Next week is the first week of travel-Laura. I'm headed over to the Detroit area for "work". Even though I'm eager to explain what it is I actually do, I think I'll just leave it ambiguous as I don't want to talk about it here, at least not a whole bunch. So, "work" brings me over near my Alma mater once again for 3 whole days. Me, a rental car and a 2 night stay at a hotel. That'll either be a relaxing me-cation or....well, not.

The week after that finds me in the great state of Texas for 3 days for more "work". I haven't been to Texas since....forever. I have memories of passing through it in my family's big brown van on our epic trip to Mexico. It was hot, and we were bored.

In April I get to re-live my glory days in NYC. I am so very excited about that, even though most (all) my actual work is located in Brooklyn and Queens you can bet I'll be staying in Manhattan. I'm already planning on visiting my favorite eats (if they haven't closed shop in the last 4 years!) and meeting up with my girls from the days of Teaching Fellows :)

And also I'm going to Ohio. Eh...

So. There it is. 2 months of tripping and surely I'll have to work on finding things to do in new cities by myself. Any suggestions welcomed :)

29 Things to Do While 29

Whoa.

1. Visit a state/city I've never been too-Dallas, TX March TESOL Conference
2. Balance personal fitness with work better family membership to YMCA Februaury
3. Attend my friend's weddings Kerry and Ilya 10/5/2013 in NYC
4. Do an improvement on the house Carpeted the basement mancave March
5. Go on monthly dates w/Jon
6. Get my makeup done professionally once (just to see how I could look!)
7. Sister's weekend although not really a weekend, we were all here and together over Christmas
8. Renew my passport
9. Swimming lessons with H Fall YMCA
10. Participate in the Halloween run and Turkey Trot
11. Earn a bonus at work Yeah buddy! September 2013
12. Volunteer at a new location
13. Do 29 Random acts of kindness
14. Get H's hair cut at a real salon with Jon at Jude's Barbershop
15. Cut our debt in half paid-off 2 CC w/tax refund
16. Pay off car done and done February
17. Ride a bike race with Dad The Holland 100, a century! Took me all day
18. Mom and daughter day
19. Update my garden with new plants peas, lettuce and spinach
20. Build a backyard compost
21. Take more opportunities to dress up
22. Make more friends
23. Purchase/renew a family pass to a Grand Rapids attraction YMCA family pass
24. participate in a cooking class in Rockford with my co-workers
25. open an HP savings account
26. Get excited about a new book series and read it
27. Try my best to use my travel mugs when buying coffee Excellent, comes with me everywhere
28. Actively pursue dinner dates with friends maybe not with regularity, but enough to count!
29. Get a magazine subscription

Okay I finally did it! Help keep me accountable now :)

Thank You 28!

I love this idea almost as much as my to-do list :)

This past year I was thankful for;

1. my new job within the same company- not only for a pay increase but for a truly interesting and challenging opportunity 
2. Jon's career move; 40 hours 
3. HP's speech therapy; he was evaluated this summer and had like 6 words, now he has near 100. Feeling confident that he'll be up to speed and happily chatting away shortly :)
4. my parents; for not only being willing to watch HP whenever but happily doing it 
5. my health; if you don't have your health...
6. my friends; participating in our dinners and get togethers over the year
7. successful Friendsgiving, after a few years break we've had the chance to start it up again this past year
8. running my 2 annual 5Ks with Katie in record time (even if my stomach was about to break)
9. realizing that I did not in fact have a weird growth/tumor in my stomach after a trip to the doctor- apparently my stomach muscles are permanently(?) separated due to having HP and occasionally my aorta can be felt through my stomach....to much information? sorry :)
10. having my NYC bestie meet me in Chicago and hang out in GR! 
11. coaching soccer for my old school- even though we ended poorly we had a great time and finished with a game of parents/coaches v. kids. Made me want to play again! 
12. Volunteering at adult ESL for 2 hours a week; loved my groups and getting to know them more. Sad I cannot do it again this year.
13. Successfully shedding 10+ pounds, thanks to WW, lets hope I can keep that in check better this year :)
14. Launching an ESL blog for work, I do weekly blogs about ESL strategies and love getting feedback! 
15. Trick-or-treating with HP and Jon, so happy to have Jon be able to participate this year!
16. Watching HP interact with his cousins and friends, winning hearts and minds :) 
17. Finishing the Game of Thrones book series, awesome. Now patiently waiting for the next book to be released. 
18. being able to purchase the little things that no one notices but you; towels, nice shower curtain, coffee maker- when you have extremely limited resources purchasing things like these do not happen, so it's been more than a relief to be able to now 
19. Face time with Kellie and Katie; thanks to the new phone we can actually see each other more :)
20. a new and improving wardrobe; making myself look presentable again
21. Sledding at our neighborhood park with HP and Jon, even though we had only an infant sized sled to work with we managed some great times 
22. 6 weeks of summer vacation with HP and me; it will be a painful wake up call when summer rolls around again and I can't do that again, but we really made the most of it! Glad I captured the highlights in my Summer Series :)
23. attending my 10 year HS reunion! A blast from the past and it was actually pretty fun!
24. Hosting another NY bestie in the Spring; we got to show Kathryn around town and even to a quasi-family reunion in Alma complete with Highland Festival excitement 
25. Celebrating HP's 2nd birthday in style- surrounded by friends and family and sports-themed cupcakes 
26. celebrated my birthday again with a fantastic group of girls and always delicious San Chez brunch 
27. the who-knows-how-many Annual Poker Party; saw some old and new faces and played some serious poker 
28. the health of my family and friends; going strong :)

The Final 24

How I spent my last day of 2012:

Waking up at my parent's house next to a slightly damp 2.5year old
Grocery shopping with Jon and H- finally, we'd been living on take out and xmas cookies for too long
Cleaning the house like a mad woman- did you know in many cultures this is a customary New Year's practice? Rids your house of old-chi, ready for a clean slate
Eating tuna melts that Jon grilled up
Drinking an entire pot of coffee
Sledding on an infant-sized sled with HP on my lap- we were a sight! Although, I really should have gotten a picture of Jon as he balanced on that little blue sled while flying down the hill
Watching Jon and H snuggle while watching Toy Story 3
Wearing my new polka-dot sweater from Katie, comfy slippers from Mom and Dad, my Abuelita's plastic yellow necklace, and feeling extra-snug in my jeans (Xmas cookies....)
Watching season 2 of the Walking Dead, not really sure this is a great NYE movie choice, but I'm too far in to stop now
Drinking half a bottle of red wine
Watching the ball drop from my little t.v. screen in GR
Waiting for Jon to come home after his evening shift to wish him a Happy New Years
Bed time

Happy New Year! 

onwards and upwards

I am not abandoning my blog! However, I've been busy with the new job. And not in a terrible, worked-to-death way.

I'll update you with some goodies :)

What a peach :)