A Baby, a Bunch of Cowboys, and a Double Double in 24hrs

Wow! Is it really a new year already? Someone please give me the remote that will slow things down! Sheesh. My boy will be 13 and my girly will be 10 this year. So not ready. But before that happens, I’ve got another adventure to share!

I know you don’t know this, but I’m a huge Oklahoma State University Cowboys fan. Having gone there in the late 80’s, at the same time as the best RB ever, Barry Sanders, when Mike Gundy was the QB. Needless to say, since Gundy’s taken over as head coach, things have changed for the better and the Cowboy Nation couldn’t be happier. It’s nice when you get to step out of big brother’s (OU) shadow and show the world what you’ve got.

That said, I’ve really loved screaming at my tv every Saturday afternoon this football season. Yes, I really do scream. To the point my children gripe at me and tell me to be quiet! I tell them to go outside or join me! When we were chosen for this bowl game, the Heart of Dallas, we were pretty disappointed, feeling our bowl should’ve been better. There was actually a chart listing which teams should go to which bowl, based on their ranking in the conference. That chart showed us potentially heading to one of two, the Alamo or Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. Heart of Dallas is a new bowl game, only been around 3 years, and not high on the list of bowls. I’ll stop there, because I go off on a tangent and get really upset. So I’ll spare you my rant. Anyway, if you haven’t heard of it, Heart of Dallas bowl takes proceeds and uses it to help the homeless in Dallas, which is a terrific thing. I haven’t been to a game in a very long time. The ticket prices are ridiculous, being a stay at home mom w/two kids, it’s difficult to spend $200 on two tickets to a football game when I can watch on tv, right?

Here’s the cool part. I was on the Heart of Dallas facebook & twitter pages. They had challenges and different things and they were giving away pairs of tickets. I did several things, but didn’t win. Then they posted a question, ‘Tell us why you love your school’ and they were giving away 25 pairs of tickets. So, being me, I answered it and told them why I love Oklahoma State. This was on Sunday evening. Monday morning, New Year’s Eve morning, when I looked at Facebook, I WON! I ran upstairs to my still sleeping husband and asked if he wanted to go bowling. He lifted his head, cracked an eye and said, ‘what?’ I excitedly told him my news. Needless to say, he was not as excited as I was. He didn’t go to OSU. Don’t get me wrong, he cheers for them, but just not with as much enthusiasm as I do.

So we packed our kids off to my mom’s house and hit the road for the 4 hour drive to Dallas. We got a hotel room no problem. As if all the hotel in Dallas would be full. If you haven’t been to Dallas, it’s incredibly enormous and very spread out. We had plans for where we’d eat. First we wanted to go to Babe’s Chicken Dinner House. OMG. The best fried chicken on the planet. You choose your meat and all the sides are served family style. We ate there a few years ago, there was so much chicken on the platter, that three of us ate dinner that night, and it fed all four of us lunch the next day! Amazing. But when we hit Dallas, it was 7PM on New Year’s Eve. There’s no way we’d be able to get into Babe’s. It’s a very well known and loved establishment. So, we picked the next best thing, In N Out! Double Double Animal Style and fresh cut fries. Yum-o-rama!

Checked into our hotel and set off in search of beer. What? Yes, I said, it. I do occasionally drink beer. My favorite we can’t actually get in Oklahoma b/c of archaic liquor laws. Fat Tire. Love love love it. Surely it wouldn’t be hard to find a liquor store and get some, right? Yeah, so wrong. We drove around for 15 minutes and stopped at some ‘convenience’ stores that were a little on the seedy side. The kind that have the huge bars on the windows and the ‘Pay your bills here’ signs in the window. After a couple of those, we decided to head back on the other side of the tracks, thinking getting mugged might not be the best end to our year. I think we were in a dry part of the city (Yes, they have those too, in the DFW metro if you can believe that). Finally found a decent looking gas station and found my Fat Tire. Yea. New Year’s Eve was in a hotel room with my favorite beer, my favorite guy, and watching the ball drop in NYC. There was a huge party in downtown Dallas, but it was cold and damp out, and we had to be up early. So we just packed it in. Happy New Year!

The game was an 11AM kickoff in the Cotton Bowl. We debated, train vs car, and ended up just driving there. Parked and were inside the gates by 10. Holy crap it was cold. About 40-ish, cloudy, damp, windy. I had on three layers under my down parka, scarf, down mittens, & stocking cap. It was a blow out game, and really cold, but we had fun. I’m so glad we got to go.

We thought after the game, we’d hit Babe’s for an early dinner and get back on the road home. Yeah, it was just not in the cards this trip. We’d seen a Babe’s on the map near Garland. Stopped for gas, and this is hilarious, asked for a pen & a PHONE BOOK. The girl behind the counter looked at me like I’d just arrived from another planet. ‘I have a pen, but no phone book.’ What? Seriously? I know I’m old school, I don’t own a smart phone, but come on! Everyone has phone books. I have a feeling I’m not the only one refusing the smart phone thing as long as I can. Fine. I called 411 and was put thru to the Babe’s we were trying to find. The cheerful voice on the other end told me they were closed until 5!! Now I felt like Charlie Brown just after Lucy picks up the ball. AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH. It was 3:15, we were starving and had a 4 hour drive ahead of us, waiting 2 hours was not going to happen. Crap. So we headed home, and found a place to eat on the way, it was ok, but not nearly as good as Babe’s. Oh well, we’ll just have to make a return visit, right? Ok.

It was an exciting end to 2012 and a terrific beginning to 2013. And now, in a few days, we’re off on a quest for rest and relaxation, to a bed & breakfast in Eureka Springs to celebrate our 15th anniversary.

Happy New Year to you! I hope your holidays were merry and bright and 2013 brings you much happiness and prosperity!

Life in the Renaissance (Faire)

I’ve read books and watched a lot of movies about the Renaissance period. It’s really interesting and intriguing and violent and so many things that our time now is not. Maybe that’s why it’s so interesting. The men were men, very forceful and manly. They settled arguments with a sword, or a dungeon. The women were subservient and crabby from wearing way too many layers! No wonder they never smiled in the pictures of the ‘olden days’, not only did they not have running water, air conditioning or clean water, they had to wear 12 layers of wool!

We have a really great Renaissance Faire here, in a small town that has a castle of all things! There are different things there throughout the year: fireworks in the summer and a haunted castle  in October. This Ren Faire has been going on for a while now and they do it well. There are different sections of the park: the children’s realm, the pirate’s lair, the Scottish lowlands, a royal arena, the castle and more. There are shows galore and people in costume wandering all over. If you feel so inclined, you can even rent a costume and really partake in the fun. Strolling minstrels, royalty, soldiers, fools, artists, courtiers, gypsies abound.

What I find interesting is watching everything. Yesterday the weather was fabulous, mid 80’s but cloudy and breezy and the people watching here is top notch! In case you’ve never been to one, here is my interpretation. Close your eyes and take a virtual tour with me!

The park is wooded and the roads are gravel and dirt, watch your step, there are horse drawn carriages around and the horses don’t care where they are when they’ve gotta go.  We were lucky enough to witness it first hand during the joust, one of the horses was walking away from us across the field, and well, he made meadow muffins right there during the joust!

Some people were just born during the wrong century. They wear the costumes and speak with an accent and using the speech of the time (or at least their interpretation of it).

Most of the people in costume and working the faire subscribed to the dental practices of the time, as in not. A woman who was at the petting zoo area said she felt she could have a conversation with me because I was wearing my  Oklahoma State visor and she had a degree in agriculture. But when she smiled, I felt myself cringe and give a ‘eeww’ when I saw her teeth!  I suppose being the proud owner of a college degree doesnt’ mean you’re smart enough to take care of your teeth. I get the fascination with the period and all, but really, do you have to forego the advancements in dental care?

You know, when I moved to LA, I was in the minority at work. I never knew what it was like before then. I experienced it again yesterday, but in a different way. I never thought I’d be in the minority of un-inked people. I think every person there above the age of 18 had at least one tattoo. I’m proudly pasty!

I’m sorry, but corsets, ack! Somehow, I don’t think they were truly intended to make the lady parts look like a shelf! Or a baby’s butt! Or maybe they were. There were some rather, ahem, well-endowed women squeezed into corsets that looked like they would’ve fit my 14yo neighbor! I have no idea how they were able to breathe in them or kept the girls from falling out! Not to mention they looked bloody painful!

As always, I feel I must say you should follow the rule ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you should’. There were so many people (mainly women) wearing things that were in style 20 yrs ago, or would’ve fit them 20 yrs ago. Or the guy, he looked like the smurfs cousin, about 5’5″, wearing a bright neon green shirt that hit him mid thigh and ‘man-pris’. He probably weighed 250 at least, he was just stumpy, and not nice. he was mad at his kid for running off and when he finally finds said kid, rather than give him the fatherly speech about staying together in a big crowded place, he ripped poor kid a new one, in a very loud voice, and dropped several   F-bombs on the way. He’s got my vote for father of the year. not.

Some people take it way too seriously and create their own costumes.  There was a guy there who was really creepy, wearing all sorts of leather- gauntlets, shin protectors, a shield and some wild helmet that had horns on it going different directions. He looked more like one of the Huns rather than a Renaissance character, like maybe he ate babies for breakfast and nails for lunch.

Yes, we’ll go again next year, it’s become one of our annual things to do. It’s loads of fun, and almost Disneyworld-level people watching! If you get an opportunity, I say go, they’re way fun! But I’ll stick with our current century, thank you. I enjoy running water, a climate-controlled home, lights, refrigeration and modern medical practices!