when i'm wrong

So here's the thing...

one of my many flaws quirks is that I very adamantly dislike things. When Sperry's were all the rage back in 2007, I made fun of them. Loudly. When everyone was romping around town wearing rompers back in 2010, I laughed. When Freddie asked me to go bike riding with him from the years 2011-present, I wrote blogs about how much I disliked biking. 

The second half of that quirk up there is that after I loudly pronounce my distaste of things, I eventually take a complete 180 degrees turn and suddenly like and enjoy all the things I formally disliked.  This means that in 2008 I bought Sperry's and proudly wore my shoes of the boat nature. In 2011 I wore a romper. As a matter of fact, I wore one again this past Saturday night. #longhairdocare 

This all also means that I, Emily, have been the one asking Freddie to go on bike rides recently. Talk about the worst! <<<me being the worst, that is. Also we aren't talking about bike rides like biking-around-the-park-by-our-house bike rides, we're talking about long-butt-biking-to-the-complete-other-side-of-the-giant-city-of-Houston bike rides. 

I can't really put my finger on what made me change my mind about bike rides, but let's just say it's in my nature to change my mind. Speaking of nature, maybe the fact that Mother Nature finally brought fall to Houston (read 78 degrees weather) helps a bit. Ain't nobody got time to bike in 100+ degrees weather, but somehow everybody has I have time to bike in non-dying-of-heat-exhaustion weather. 

Oh! Oh! Another fun thing I realized...you can bike TO places. Mind-blowing, I know. 

Places that serve wine. 

Places that serve $1 mimosas. 

Places that have pizza.

Places that have...my heart (Since apparently I am fueled by alcohol and food) (I promise I do more than eat) (Like Pilates) (I do that almost as much as I eat). 

Anyways, things we learned from this post. 1) Biking is kind of fun now. 2) Let's pretend I never hated it. 3) Freddie loves my flaws quirks a lot. 4) Let's all go biking together sometime. 

More scenes from Recent Rides with Rick...

Dear Freddie Ricky Bobby, I'm sorry I was so annoying about bike rides. Now where should we bike this weekend?

SaveSave

TexAnn

By the end of the day I will (hopefully) be sipping on some wine and snuggling on the couch with my SISTER.

My sister! My younger-but-looks-older-and-is-the-coolest-human-ever sister is coming to big, bad Texas. Now I'm not quite sure what we will be doing seeing as the main things to do in Houston all revolve around eating, and my coolest human being of a sister is the world's pickiest eater...

Although who in his or her right mind wouldn't literally turn into the heart eyes emoji after tasting a fresh, Tex-Mex, melt-in-your-mouth tortilla?? Who?? Hopefully all of you are not in your right minds because that just means more tortillas for me. 

I digress...

In honor of today being National Emily's Sister Is Coming Into Town Day I thought it was only fitting that today's post be about my sister, too. Enter Five Reasons My Sister Is The Coolest. 

1) She takes and posts selfies like this and can actually get away with it. 

Meanwhile my selfie album is filled with gems like this...

2) She's the itty bitty baby of the family which means she's the brunt of most of the jokes. I will say 99.9999% of the time she brings it on herself. However 99.9999% of the time she's also a good sport about everyone poking fun of her, and even calls herself out before we/I get a chance. 

On that note, Ann has the handwriting of a five-year old trying to learn to write while their pet dog, Greta the Great Dane, is constantly nudging their arm and knocking them over. But she owns it.

Exhibit A:

circa 2014 in a birthday card from her to me. 

3) As seen in #1, she chopped off all of her hair for the second time in the past three years, and pulls it off better than Ted Mosby's red cowboy boots. HIMYM shout-out, anyone? Anyone?

4) When I say Ann is the youngest I mean the yoooooungest. In this instance, that many o's means she is almost six years younger than I am, and almost nine years younger than my brother. This meant she spent a lot of her childhood around our older friends which meant we were the nicest siblings and made her into our own little dress up doll. 

Meet Troy Bolton from High School Musical. I mean, Ann Bolton. I mean, my sister. 

5) She became obsessed with Lord of the Rings at an early age. Now, you might be thinking Emily! LOTR! That does not make her cool! It makes her #nerdalert!  To that I say...well, you are right. But she taught herself some Elvish and once upon a time three years ago she really, really wanted to come to Charleston to spend New Year's with me and Ricky when we lived there. Naturally we made her life more fun by insisting that she was not allowed to come until she spoke Elvish to us. 

She did it. She came to Chucktown for NYE in 2013. She's the nerdiest coolest. 

And now you know a bunch of random facts about a person you will probably never even meet. Which is your loss. So thanks (mom and dad) for reading this whole post!

Ann, get yer booty on that plane and come see these stars at night.

Happy Friday!

on loving your neighbor as yourself

This weekend was one for the books. The biggest, fattest, encyclopedia-width books. 

You see, this past Saturday at precisely 10am tickets for the Rodeo concerts went on sale.

What's Rodeo? you ask. Good question. I'm still unclear about that, but I am clear on that fact that Darius Rucker is performing at Rodeo and that we had to get tickets to his concert. Had to. Not a want, but a necessity.  

If you've been reading this here blog for awhile then you know that me and Darius are biffles. We were neighbors first, then grocery shopping buds, and now biffles. And biffles support each other by going to each other's concerts. I make it easy for Darius and his crazy schedule by not performing. 

At 9:30 am sharp Freddie and I got ourselves in some virtual waiting rooms for some Darius tickets. You get randomly placed in this said virtual waiting room and once 10am hits, you randomly get chosen to buy tickets until all are sold out. Seems fair, cool, easy, and stress free, right? Wrong.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. 

80% of the tickets were already sold out to season ticket holders which left not a lot of tickets for US.   Who invited season tickets holders to this party??? Get out. 

I was in two waiting rooms, and Freddie was in one. We were serious about these tickets, folks! Seriously serious. 10am came and left. 10:10 came. 10:20 came. 10:30 came. All left without us having any Darius tickets.

post wouldn't be complete without a blurry picture of my virtual waiting room computer screen. 
How are we supposed to support our neighbor/best friend if we can't get out of the waiting room?!!?!? Riddle me that. 

I started doing what any crazy and annoying completely sane and logical person would do and began bargaining. To whom I was bargaining, I'm not quite sure. Maybe the Rodeo gods? Or Darius on some Jedi brain wave power? I don't know, but I was bargaining a lot. 

Pleeeeeease! If we get tickets I'll buy cowboy boots! You know how much I don't want to buy cowboy boots. Whoever you is/are, I hope you did know that. 

We'll stay in Houston for the rest of our lives if we can just get out of this waiting room!

I'll sing all the lyrics to all songs correctly from here on out! 

^^^That's a hard one to keep, people. This proves how serious this thing was. 

Around 10:43 Freddie was chosen to purchase tickets. Freddie. Who had been in ONE Darius waiting room. Not two, but one. I only held it against him for about 0.00005th of a second because it meant that WE HAD DARIUS TICKETS!!!

!!!

They may be super cheap and in the bloodiest nose-bleed section, but I'm going to pretend that they are VIP neighbor tickets and sing my heart out. Maybe even dance in some cowboy boots. Who knows. But I do know that we'll be cheering on our favorite neighbor. Wink. 

Take that, virtual Rodeo waiting rooms. Come on and get here, March! Yeehaw or something. 

Oh, no one is as excited as we are? Cool. Carry on with your Mondays...

6 Things That Define My Summer 2015

Now that summer is officially over (according to those people who are telling me I can't wear my white pants anymore), I figured I would do what any other blogger would do.

Steal a post idea from someone (The Daily Tay) who stole her post idea from someone else (Avoiding Atrophy). So, ladies and gentleme...just ladies (do men read blogs?!), without further ado let me introduce

1. Airports

If I had a nickel for every time I was at an airport this summer, I would have...well actually, to be exact, I would have fifty cents. That's a lot of airport-ing for one summer, let me just tell ya that. From late check-ins (slow Southwest is my favorite), to delayed flights (lighting is my favorite), and from never feeling full off of itty bitty size bags of pretzels to so much reading in the skies, I traveled all over the country. I spent a lot of minutes in airports. Now give me my nickels. 

2. Weddings

Apparently I stand weirdly. The more you know...

'Tis the season to drink and be merry get married! Three weddings down for the summer with one more left for the year. And already two for next year. And maybe more. Have I mentioned how much I love drinking and dancing and celebrating at other people's weddings?! Because white wine mixed with Shake It Off mixed with lots of lurve (mixed with photo booths) make for the best of times. 

3. Selfie Sticks

#winning

I made fun of selfies sticks. I was given a selfie stick. I was happy. Freddie made fun of selfies sticks. Freddie used said selfie stick. Freddie (and our newly taken 200+ selfie stick pictures) were happy. 

4. Sweat

I've already talked about this a lot on this here internet home space, but Holy Satan's Crotch was it hot in Texas this summer. I sweat a lot this summer. I wrote about it here in case you were curious about my sweat. You're welcome. 

5. Pilates

Seven months into my thirteen month certification program and I live, eat, breath (study, practice, do, read) all things Pilates. What that means is I do a lot of sitting and watching for my observation hours and a lot of practicing for my self practice hours. And a lot of reading because anatomy blows, dudes, and I don't care for its terminology.  

6. Google Maps

Let's take a moment of silence to thank Google Maps for all the OMG-I'm-Lost-In-Big-Bad-Houston moments that it has helped me avoid this summer. 

...you should still be silent. Google Maps has saved me a lot, okay?

...aaaaaand another second.

Okay, done.

Thank you, Google Maps. For getting me from the grocery store to Target to the yummy restaurants and back home. Fifty bajillion times so far. Thanks.

Anyone else take sweaty selfie stick selfies this summer? Anyone?

gettin' schooled

In playing Houston visitor these past several days, I have learned a lot about this city. 

Like the #biscuitpaintwall exists and is a thing.

And the beer can house is...just that. A beer can house and not really anything more.

I learned that the Heights is a lot bigger of an area than it sounds when people talk about it, and vintage stores in the Heights are cool. Bro. 

I am now aware that the Motown & More Revue show has been around for twenty years for a reason. The reason being that the show is uh-mazing and spectacular. Even the dog was dancing. Can't wait for year twenty-one. Son.

I learned that my family can kill some Killens Barbecue...

and that Johnson Space Center is pretty cool (but could still learn a thing or hundred from Disney about how to run things) (I was geeking out like no other. Hashtag new space obsession).

I learned that grand slams really do happen in baseball...

And that water walls will make you want to sing Wrecking Ball. 

And finally, my last bit of recently retrieved knowledge is that yes, you will gain ten pounds by consuming an ungodly amount of Tex Mex with your out of town guests. Or even not with your out of town guests. Just remember: a lot of Tex Mex = a heck of a blobby belly. #worthit

Oh! One more thing I learned. GEORGIA IS SO FAR AWAY FROM TEXAS. I already knew that, but shoot! Already looking forward to the next visit! Who's coming this time?

on being a guest and a host

Visitors are like...the most fun. Ever. Like totally! Having visitors means you get to show off your town, why where you live is the best, and why they should move to the best and never leave. Ever!

I tried this a lot in Charleston when we had visitors there. Guuuuys! Move here already! It's the best!

But then PSYCH!, we moved to Houston and now it's one of the best. The only thing about having visitors in Houston is that we are still kinda guests here. We are exploring too many pot holes of the city so it is harder to show it off, if ya know what I mean. 

So this week while my family is here, we're kind of letting the city of Houston prove to us that it is the best of the best. 

It's doing a stellar job, btdubs.

Here's our current Top Five Novice Things To Do In H-town. The H. The H-ston. Son. 

I say novice because we have only been here five-ish months and we have only explored about five-ish percent of the city. 

ONE | 

As soon as the visitors enter the city you must turn the car towards Lupe Tortilla and order the steak fajitas. Don't ask questions. Just do it. <<<motto for Nike and for Lupe. Just. Freaking. Do. It. And eat it and love it and be happy.

TWO |

Look up the free museum hours and go. Go! Why haven't you gone yet?! We live right next to the museum district and I didn't even have any idea that there were fifty million museums here. But there are fifty museums here, at least, so go! They all have various free hours, and what is better than free?

Other than Lupe fajitas...Those are better than everything. But you already know that since you've already done #1. 

THREE |

All that walking in the museums has probs got you hungry, right?! RIGHT?! Choose from the following: Torchy's Tacos, Luigi's Pizza, Kolache Shoppe, Killens Barbecue, Bodega's, and...literally any other local restaurant you pass while hangrily driving through the city. 

FOUR |

Remember #2 up thur when I was like blah blah free stuff? I have another free thing for you to do---for sure to do.  Go see a performance at Miller Outdoor Theater. It is free. You can bring food. You can bring alcohol. This is almost as good a set-up as Lupe fajitas. Almost... Freddie and I kinda sorta definitely have a Miller routine going. 1) Walk to gas station and stock up on wine (me) and Lemonadritas (him)(srsly). 2) Walk to Miller theater and lay out the quilt. 3) Chillax on the quilt while drinking your wine while enjoying the free dance/music/whatever performance. 4) Bask in the awesomeness that is your life. 

FIVE |

One word: Astros game. Okay, that's two words. Here's a better choice of two words: Dippin Dots. I know you know that I know you know how much I love me some ice cream of the future. I can't wait for that future date when this dotty dessert is the ice cream of the present. This Sunday is Star Wars day at the Astros game and my family signed up for that faster than Darth Vadar can choke a boo to death. I might even break out my Princess Leia buns for the occasion. WHO KNOWS. Go, 'Stros (and Braves. Go Braves. Forever ATL).

Well, folks. BRB because we are off to explore the Heights. And Johnson Space Center. And ohmigosh I better stop before I start another Top Five list.

As always, crappy iPhone pictures brought to you by yours truly. #blessed
Happy Friday!

summer lovin

This weekend was one for the books!

What does that even mean, though? One for the books. I mean, sometimes books are scary. Or sad. How do you know what kind of weekend I had if I say it was one for the books? Luckily for you, my weekend was one for the good kind of books which means this blog post will neither be scary nor depressing. 

The good book about our weekend would start like several other of our previous good weekend books:

Once Upon A Time Freddie and Emily packed a picnic and went to Miller Outdoor Theater. While there they ate delicious sandwiches, sipped on wine and Lemonade-ritas (guess who drinks that? Hint: it rhymes with dot flimily and/or neddie), and enjoyed the wonderful performance by _____.

Earlier this year it was Houston Ballet. A couple weeks ago it was MetDance. This weekend we went for The Peterson Brothers. The Peterson Brothers are...wait for it...brothers! Brothers who are eighteen and sixteen and play guitar exactly how an eighteen year old and a sixteen year old should be playing the guitar: with their quick, nimble fingers. They rock, literally. Freddie has totally turned into a groupie. The squealing, giggling, stalking groupie.

Like...he went to the "bathroom" and came back with this picture.

Stalker. 

From there our weekend took us to Jurassic World. GO SEE IT NOW, PEOPLE! My thumbnails are raw from dinosaurs. To be really fair they are raw from my biting them because of scary dinosaurs, but let's skip that long explanation and say they are raw because of dinosaurs. Thanks, dinosaurs. Thanks, Obama. 

From the world of dinosaurs our story took us to Discovery Green for a nighttime flea market. Here is when the story gets REALLY good. 

Freddie has a thing for vinyls. It's almost as serious as his thing for the Peterson Brothers, but not quite that serious yet. There we were at the nighttime flea market, sipping on our free sangrias, when we stumbled upon a vintage vinyl booth. Long story short, Freddie came out with some cool music and some great music. The great music of...the Grease soundtrack! Grease! Is the word! That you heard! Man, I was/am so pumped. I popped that bad boy in the record player yesterday and partied hard-y.

Freddie hasn't come around to singing his Danny/Freddie parts yet, but we'll get there. I told him if it helps he can substitute my name in place of Sandy. Emily, Emily, why, oh Emily??

Like I said, we'll get there. I've got chills that are multiplying, but it's all good because we've got plenty of summer nights coming up. 

Add in some happy hours, some Tex Mex, some friend time pool time (hay, Ellen!) and some BB (Breaking Bad for you amateurs) and you've got yourself a weekend for the good books. 

rain, rain, isn't here.

It has been so dreary here lately. Like I'm almost 50% sure that Mother Nature read my post last week about the Texas heat, and she felt bad so she gave us...no sun. It always looks like it is about to rain cats and dogs, but then it only rains kittens and puppies. In addition to the sprinkles the Weather app keeps telling me there is a 90% chance of thunderstorms, but the Weather app is a dirty liar.

 You see, if you remember from here I am four-year old level terrified of storms. I have to mentally prepare myself for a storm. The weather apps and weather people are making it very hard on me. Woe is me! I think a storm is coming, so I brace myself for the lightning flashes and my screams, and then...nothing happens. Oh wait, yes! Look! I see drizzle! It's drizzling out. Not quite kitten and puppy level, and far, far from cat and dog and thunderstorm level, but the weather app and weather people might be on to something.

 Since the weather has been tres lame-o, I've taken on a new hobby.
Coloring! 

 I mean studying. I've spent a lot of time at the table studying/coloring my anatomy this week. This coloring book is genius. Actually, what is genius is putting this coloring book and my two other textbooks together and then, and only then, I start to understand what the hockey puck these anatomy people are trying to tell me.

 Ricky came home the other day and was all like, Perfected coloring yet? I mean, that is what you're doing, right? Yes, I am working on perfecting coloring. No, I have not perfected it yet. It's hard coloring in tiny bones and also staying in the lines, mmmkay?

 Another hobby I've picked up is using the stairs. What fun!

In preparation for these storms we were supposed to be getting, our complex shut down the elevator because last bad storm time their electrical system was struck by lightning. Struck! By! Lightning! And apparently getting struck by lightning is not only no fun, but it is also very expensive. Who knew? (we all knew).

Oh! Oh! I cooked breakfast on Sunday morning! Like cooked cooked not picked-up-a-granola-bar-and-ate-it cooked breakfast. That's new and stuff.

 So that's what has been going on. I'm coloring, cooking (once), and using the stairs. I've never felt so young in my life (except when I'm out of breath after very slowly walking up six flights of stairs).

Happy Friday!

emily eats

Guess what?

It's one month until my birthday! But, but, but...you good people already knew that, I'm sure. Yesterday afternoon I realized I hadn't even sent out my birthday list yet. That is some crazy shiz! Don't worry, I quickly sent it out and all is right in the world again. 

But that's not really what we're hear to talk about, obviously, because we have the whole month of July to talk about my birthday. Duh!

We're here to talk about this past weekend. This past weekend where we went to an Astros game and I wasn't sure which team to cheer for. Have you ever had a totally mind boggling experience where you didn't know what you were supposed to do? What was expected of you?! Talk about stress. That was me at the Astros game. Sweaty palms, fast pounding heart, left arm ready to chop (Hey, Braves), but I wasn't at Turner Field. I wasn't watching the Braves. I was watching the Astros and the Mariners.

WHO DO I CHEER FOR?!

Listen, all that up there is only half-ish true. Yes, we went to a game, Yes, it was super weird not knowing for whom to root, root, root. But no, I wasn't really worried about it and I definitely wasn't sweating about it because big sporting events usually sell...Dippin Dots.

Dippin Dots!

Dippin Freaking Dots!

The ice cream of the future. The ice cream that brings thousands to sporting events (because, believe me, it's not just the sport bringing fans there). The ice cream of which you are so particular not to drop or lose ANY little dot.

I would go to games every weekend if I knew I could live off of Dippin Dots. 

It's okay though, I just hope I live until the future day where Dipping Dots becomes the ice cream of the present. 

Now that I've given you the secret on how to survive game-day-omg-which-team-is-my-home-team stress I'll go ahead and keep talking about food. 

Pizza.

Pizza was another big part of our weekend. You see, post-Dippin Dots food has to be top notch. I mean the highest top notch. Once you eat Dippin Dots, you can't intake just any food. It has to be good. Really, really, good. 

Which is why we ended up at a hole-in-wall, BYOB, deeeeelicious pizza place. We also ended up ordering three giant pizzas for only seven people, but that's neither here nor there. 

Dippin Dots make the world go round and Luigi's pizza keeps you spinning with the world. <<why I don't come up with my own analogies.  

And that, my friends, was my menu from this past weekend. Now you don't have to stalk Instagram to see what I ate. You're welcome.

Over and out. 

on wearing one's birthday suit

Let's talk about sweat. 

Sweet sweat.

^^^bonus blog points if you can name that movie. 

Back in the ballet days we would sweat a lot. By we, I mean not me. My fellow ballerinas would sweat and their sweat would make the craziest marks on their leotards. My leotard always looked dry and clear. But not my friends'. Nope, their leotards had X-shaped sweat marks in the back, or six pack sweat marks around their abs, and even the ever-so-noticeable under the boob U-shaped sweat marks. Boob sweat, amiright? 

But I had neither boobs nor fun sweat marks. 

Fast forward eleven years and guess what, guys? I sweat now. 

I still don't have boobs, though. Wanh wanh. 

I can hear the thunderous applause--Yay, sweat! Yay, toxins leaving your body! 

But the things is...I don't want to sweat. I don't want to stand up from a nice Sunday brunch and have sweat lines and marks all over my dress. I don't want to look like I wet my pants/dress. I don't want to be sticky all day. 

^^^yes, that was my Sunday.

Texas doesn't care about all those I don't's. Texas doesn't care that you feel like you are dying when you are outside. Texas doesn't care if you hide in the shade, because you will still feel like you are dying. Texas doesn't care that it's only June 10. Texas doesn't care that come mid-August you really will be dead from the heat. 

I can take all the humidity in the world, but the heat...it's hot. No joke. 

So I've compiled four sure-fire ways to survive the Texas heat.

one

Always be within a five foot radius of a pool. Always. Can your bathing suit bottom double as a diaper because you are not leaving this pool's side. I suggest packing snacks, but you should make sure your location also has grills within the required five foot radius. But don't stand too close to the grills because guess what? They're hot, too. <<life lessons from Emily. You're welcome. You are going to sleep, eat, breathe, and survive here until the cooler 80 degree temperatures come. 

two

Carry around something with which to wipe your face. I'm not talking about a cute lil' hanky. I'm talking about a full length, heavy duty towel (or two). Because your face will drench the towel after a few hours. Because your face will literally be dripping in sweat. Dripping in sweat. Have you heard that expression? Yes? I bet it derived here in the hot as h*ll lands of Texas. 

three

Liquids. Drink them. I'm not even going to give a spiel about water because I want you drinking anything that is liquid. That pool water you're living by? Drink it. That condensation on your cup of an actual drink? Lick it off. Get that water. Leftover beers from the party at your new home pool party. Drink it all. You'll be sweating out all the bad stuff so who even cares. Drink. It. All. 

four

Forget clothes. Maybe even forget bathing suits. Heck, spend your time in your birthday suit! Trust me, you might even want to rip off your birthday suit after some time in the sun. There is no cooling down. There is definitely no options for clothes that will cool you down. You will be hot in everything you wear. So forego wearing anything! You came into this world in your birthday suit so you should definitely survive the long, hot summers in your birthday suit and your birthday suit only. 

Obviously I say all most of this in jest. As in, I won't be drinking pool water...yet. And I probably will be wearing clothes this summer. Wink. But serious moment now: 

how do you survive the summer heat?

a texas post

Things I've learned about Texas so far:

Fact #1

Everything is bigger in Texas. This is not limited to the size of the potholes and the number of potholes per square foot. Holy My Tires Aren't Gonna Last Batman, think of the worst road you have ever driven on. Now come drive in Houston and laugh at your memory of said "bad" road. It's almost like they refuse to fix the roads because then Texas wouldn't have the biggest potholes and we can't have anyone winning the bigger contest, now can we?!

But really, my tires aren't gonna last.

Fact #2

The license plates are a snooze fest. No color, no fun, all boring. I kind of like that I still have on my SC tag because I'm pretty sure I just make everyone jealous of my car tag swag when I'm out driving around. Hair flip.

Fact #3

Tortillas and all things Tex Mex are 100% superior here. It's a fact, Jack. They have fresh, warm tortillas everywhere. Everywhere! You don't even have to try to find them! They find you and they make you love them. Have fun eating your gross non-Texas Tex Mex. I'm too busy devouring my delicious fresh tortillas to write more here.

Fact #4

Texas BBQ. Ho. Ly. Cow. The BBQ here is like...

no words. All amazing. Food baby for days. Worth it. It's so delicious that I think I could only handle it like once every couple of months. Because wow. Just come try some. 

Fact #5 

Ricky and I live here now. We are here! In Texas! It's for realsies and I can't even believe it. Sometimes I sit in our living room, looking at the view of downtown, and think Well Fudgesicles, we actually moved to Texas. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Charleston anymore.  So we'll count it as a Texas fact. 

Happy Friday!

Linking up with Karli.

on being an adult. kind of.

Freddie was gone for the weekend which meant I was on my own for the first time in this new big, bad city of Houston. H-ton. Houst. The Houst <<<this is me still working on and failing a Class A nickname for Houston.

 I told myself, "Self, you will get off of the couch and do things because you are an adult, for goodness sake. Go forth and do adult things!"

Let me tell you what. I did what any woman should do and I washed my freaking makeup brushes for the first time, uh ever. No really, go do it now. I've never felt more adult in my life than when I was washing them and thinking Ewww, that was on my face? and No wonder my face has been so full of zits lately... and How did it get so dirty?! Do I wear that much makeup?!

All I'm saying is, you should be embarrassed to be my blog friend because of how dirty my makeup brushes were. Have no fear though! They are now clean, and maybe in a week's time my face will be shiny and clear and clean (yeah, right. I'm not that adult yet). 

Hmm, let's see. What are some other adult things one should do when one's husband is gone and one finds herself in a new city? Oh yes! Do not explore. Definitely not. Want to know why? Because said new city has been flooding a lot and husband left on a weekend when more flooding happened. So don't explore (unless you want to explore Target because I definitely was there exploring twice this weekend). 

I cleaned. I cooked. I read. I read by the pool. I practiced my Pilates. I studied my Pilates. I did my running. I read by the pool again. I got groceries. I read again. I washed dishes. I ate Ben & Jerry's. 

So much time to read when you don't have a full-time job! Shocking. 

And then, right in the middle of my adult-ing, there was the worst thunderstorm I have ever seen. Ever. You know the pictures of insane, ridiculous looking lightning strikes you see in textbooks, and you think Holy crap, that's not even real. Guess what? It is real and it was all happening outside my window on Saturday night. Insane, ridiculous lightning strikes and the world's loudest thunder. This all equaled Adult Emily crumbling into Tiny, Helpless Emily hiding under a blanket on the couch. 

I am just as terrified, if not more, of thunderstorms as I was when I was 5, 10, 15, and 20, etc. You get the picture. THUNDERSTORMS ARE SCARY. My adult solution was to blast the TV and scream a loud AHHHHH or NOOOO every time I knew a thunder blast was coming. 

...

Maybe I'll try the adult thing in a few more years. When I can look thunderstorms in the eye and say, Pooh-Pooh. Until then I will bask in the glow of my face caused by my newly clean and wonderful makeup brushes. 

the stars at night are big and bright

People say everything is bigger in Texas. Up until this point in my life I never really thought twice about that statement. I mean, I can get a supersize meal with a 64-oz. drink and back-pack size bag of fries at McDonald's in any ol' state, so how much bigger can everything actually be in Texas? Then I went to Texas--Houston to be exact--and I think I'm starting to understand just what this bigger statement means.

It means Texans have the biggest pride for their state.

It means Texans have the biggest love for their state. Freddie and I asked just about everyone we ran into (so that means we asked Uber drivers...) whether or not they liked living in Houston and without one second of hesitation they all said, "Yes!" Yes with an exclamation point. A big fat yes. 

It means when Texans do something they really do take the statement, "go big or go home" to heart. So they go big so that they can stay home in their beloved state. 

And yes, the bags of peanut butter M&M's available at the airport were very large and in charge so I can totally get on board with Texas being bigger. 

Freddie and I didn't have a car this trip so our main modes of transportation were our feet and Uber <---when I say Uber I mean it in the way that I'm pretty sure Ricky and I funded 75% of their profits this past weekend. It's kind of fun (in a daunting and not fun kind of way) to go to a new city and have no plans or car and no idea what to do or where to go. The city is yours! Go forth and explore! So that's exactly what we did. We chassed over to Hermann Park where not only did we daydream about napping in the grass under the sun, but we also saw some actual dancers who were chasse-ing in the grass. #1 moment of the trip I knew I liked Houston. Real dancing! Right in front of my face! 

From there we ran across the street and into the Houston Museum of Natural Science because it was Thursday and apparently admission is free on Thursday afternoons. Get on our lucky level! With only 45 minutes left to explore before closing time we managed to make friends with Little Foot and friends. Success. 

The next day we decided to test out our physical fitness levels by walking all. day. long. Walking the seven miles of under city tunnels to find dumplings to walking to Discovery Green to take pictures with sculptures and to do some more grass napping daydreaming to walking into quaint bars with friendly bartenders and pomegranate mimosas. Alcohol helps the weakening leg muscles, okay? I'm a dancer. I know these things. So since our legs were really sore by dinner time (we didn't calculate but decided to go ahead and say that if we had Fitbits they'd be super impressed with our million steps for the day) (wink), we ended the day with more bars and lotsa tapas. Lotsa tapas! That's fun to say. Say it. See, wasn't that fun? It was equally as fun to eat that tapas. 

Our last day was full of friends. We were kidnapped/chauffeured (you decide) by one of my longtime dance friends/wedding photographer who basically spent the entire day talking up Texas. Like I'm pretty sure Randy could get a job either making everyone love Texas and/or just brainwashing them to believe they love Texas. By the end of our day with him we were both big time in love with the big bad Texas. We were also big time full on the delicious sushi and drinks and sights he provided us along the tour. By the end of Valentine's night, after happy hour with this view...

...and finally eating some crisp to perfection pizza, I couldn't help but think how much bigger my heart had grown for Texas in my short four days there. 

Sometimes you just need a little vacation from your beach vacation home to put things in perspective. Life is pretty darn good.

And Texas is bigger ;)

Thanks to Randy and Ellen, and Ryan and Rachel for being big time rocking friends and hosts!