My work from home desk looks a little different in Dallas — I figured since I stare at a screen for 10+ hours a day, I might as well get some exercise while doing it.
I rigged a DYI bike desk and decided to decorate the wall a little bit…
My work from home desk looks a little different in Dallas — I figured since I stare at a screen for 10+ hours a day, I might as well get some exercise while doing it.
I rigged a DYI bike desk and decided to decorate the wall a little bit…
Almost exactly three years after leaving Dallas to earn my Georgetown Tax LL.M. degree in Washington, D.C., I was headed back to Texas.
The pandemic triggered an exodus from the District among my social network. Despite the ubiquitous “diversity and inclusion” marketing among D.C. employers, LGBT and brown people are still the first ones to get fired when there’s economic uncertainty. Many of my friends working in politics, nonprofits, and the service industry got the chop pretty early. They abandoned their apartments and moved back to their hometowns at the beginning of the summer.
Then a larger group of people started trickling out of the District as months ticked by and leases came up for renewal. With fully-virtual office environments and most amenities shuttered, why pay a premium to live in the District?
I recently had the opportunity to return to Dallas to speak at a tax conference. It was a great way to meet existing and potential clients. This was also my first time giving a formal presentation on State and Local Taxation, which is not something every law firm allows first year associates to do.
I visited Houston for the first time recently for the Texas Minority Counsel Program. The city reminded me a lot of Dallas, except downtown Houston felt more vibrant.
After a week full of networking, working, and spending way too much on Uber, I feel like I got a sense of the city.
This summer was rough. In addition to working full time, I was also prepping for the Texas bar exam.
I was scared to tell many people that I was even taking the exam — I had been out of law school for six years and taking the exam in a different state. I wasn’t confident that my bar review course would power me through Texas oil and gas law. I was also worried that working 50 hours a week was cutting too much into my prep time.
I did well on the practice tests — but were they like the exam? I heard so many horror stories of people failing the bar one, two, three times even while studying full time. Was I doing enough? Was starting bar prep in April too early? Too late?
One of the many local celebrities in Dallas’ gayborhood is a homeless woman named LaCheryl Wilson (who also known as “Crazy Mary.”)
“Crazy Mary” is mostly an affectionate nickname, but Wilson does appear to suffer some mental health issues. I remember seeing Wilson screaming at people and cars every few weeks when I lived in Oak Lawn.
The tantrums were sporadic however – I usually saw Wilson calmly smoking cigarettes in bus stops or shuffling along Cedar Springs Road.
Crazy Mary of Dallas’ Oak Lawn neighborhood.
My friends spotted Wilson as far as Carrollton and Fort Worth, but she mostly stayed around Oak Lawn, where she was a longtime fixture. There is even a Facebook group dedicated to keeping the neighborhood updated on Wilson’s whereabouts and swapping stories. This is where news of her death was posted last week.
It is July and I am in still in Dallas. I dial my insurance company’s nurse hotline on the way home from work and regret my decision within a few minutes —
“Sir, you need to pull over right now and call 911,” the nurse says.
“What?” I ask. (I can’t believe what I’m hearing.)
“You need to pull over your car and call an ambulance,” she repeats. “Based on the information you have given me, my professional medical opinion is that you are having a stroke.”
It starts in my neck – immediately under my right jaw. It then spreads to the right side of my face – lower lip, then upper lip. Then to my cheek – and sometimes to the back of my head.
This week I undertook the humbling task of reviewing all of my blog entries.
This blog stretches back to my freshman year of college, so there are a lot of great (and not-so-great) memories archived in these pages.
Here’s a look at how I spent the last decade or so, from Miami to Minneapolis, and then down to Texas.
We start in Miami — there were long days in the library, bad drag shows, and misadventures in Little Havana.
Then there was the move to Minnesota, where I started law school and lived in a frat house during my first semester.
The street performers in Oak Lawn vary — from real musicians and performers to people in the middle of drug-induced episodes.
We recently came across a fabulous Michael Jackson-like performer who reminded me of Disco Stu from South Beach.
Disco Stu was this fabulous greasy-haired busker who was well-known on Lincoln Road. He had bedazzled platform shoes and an old boombox that blasted oldies. I saw him almost every weekend in college.
This move was yet another tedious experience in which I was confronted by dog hair balls, poor purchasing choices, and clothes that no longer fit.
One unexpected aspect of this move was the rain — I was leaving Ilume Park with a carload of stuff when the sky just collapsed all around me.
Here’s what it looked like in a video posted by a local weatherman:
A video of a “rain foot” over downtown Dallas.
The technical term is a “rain foot” or downburst, but it really felt like the hurricanes that I left in Miami.
I then made the great life choice of getting on the Tollway during the downpour. Several of the low points in the highway were flooded and traffic was reduced to a single lane. One guy driving a beamer attempted to blast through the flood waters and got stuck. I made it to the new apartment however.
After two years in Dallas, there are still many neighborhoods that I either have not been to, or haven’t meaningfully explored.
University Park is one of those places. Despite being just on the other side of Highland Park, I rarely venture to this independent Dallas neighborhood.
So accidentally coming across Inwood Village recently felt like a special surprise even though some of my neighbors shop there on a weekly basis. (Inwood Village is a shopping center in Dallas immediately outside of University Park.)
I occasionally do reporting for The Dallas Morning News‘ entertainment website, GuideLive.
One of the time-honored gay traditions here in Dallas (and across the U.S.) is brunch, so I decided to a post about the best bottomless mimosa spots in Dallas.
However, in doing my research for the article, I discovered that bottomless mimosas are illegal in Texas.
Not only that, but another publication — The San Antonio Current — did a similar bottomless mimosa article which the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission used as an enforcement hit-list.
Summertime is nigh.
Rising temperatures and tornado outbreaks mean that springtime is almost over in Dallas.
My days are zipping by quickly with extremely early work mornings and a demanding bar prep schedule, but I’m still making time to walk the dogs and hit up the usual gayborhood spots with friends.
Cassie Nova hosting a drag show at S4 nightclub in Dallas.
Gunter and Ingrid on a dog walk in the Perry Heights section of the gayborhood.
Comparing our shoes at an Oak Lawn happy hour.
Gunter, the chiweenie on our balcony one morning.
I’m sitting for the July bar exam here in Dallas, which means that I’m undergoing the bar prep experience that many of my old classmates did years ago.
Back at Thomson Reuters, my positions were J.D.-preferred, so getting licensed was never a priority.
I have a new Texas tax article over at The Dallas Morning News — it’s about a New York tax appeal case involving Match Group CEO Gregory Blatt.
Blatt moved to Dallas from NYC back in 2009 after becoming the CEO of Dallas-based dating site Match.com. Prior to that, he ran the legal department of Match’s parent company, IAC.
We made the trek to Fort Worth this weekend for drag brunch at Urban Cowboy Saloon.
Overall, it was a fun experience and a great show.
Rocky Horror Picture Show-themed drag brunch at Urban Cowboy Saloon, Fort Worth, TX.
The drag brunch cast at Urban Cowboy Saloon, Fort Worth, TX.
The theme was purportedly “Rocky Horror Picture Show” but the drag queens performed at many non-Rocky Horror songs. This probably kept the show more interesting for people unfamiliar with the movie.
The gayborhood feels considerably safer than it did last year, but we still have some bizarre crime stories.
Here’s a running list of notable crime stories in Oak Lawn.
Police documenting the scene of an officer attack in Oak Lawn.
Michael and I were walking the dogs on Easter Sunday when we noticed a bunch of police cars swarming the closed AT&T store across from Starbucks and Eatzi’s.
It was strange to see four Dallas Police cars and two Highland Park patrol cars around a closed store. We grabbed Starbucks and watched as a crime lab van pulled up.
I took a picture of the squad cars and sent it to our breaking news team to investigate. What they found out was hilarious: a Highland Park officer apparently came across a naked woman in the street around 9 a.m.
She was distraught and punched him.
One of my favorite things to do growing up was to read outside on the covered balcony of my grandparents’ house when it was raining.
I went through so many cheesy crime novels on that balcony — mostly P.D. James and Donna Leon.
This was an expensive habit too, because my grandparents live in a village in Germany. I could get English-language novels from a bookstore in a nearby town, but these were nearly twice the cost of German paperbacks.
We finally made our way back to the tennis courts to wear out Ingrid, our labradoodle, and Apollo, the German shepherd that we recently sponsored.
The enclosed tennis courts in our neighborhood are perfect for letting the dogs run around. The speed of our tennis game usually means that they can’t grab the balls — although there were a few close calls.
Apollo the German shepherd at the Perry Heights tennis courts.
By the end of the game, some of the tennis balls were so soaked in dog drool that it felt like hitting a water balloon. (Those ended up getting thrown out.)
And yes, it was as disgusting as it sounds.
We got a sneak preview of the “Q Tacos at Machos Cantina” yesterday – a.k.a. the relaunch of Quesa on Cedar Springs.
The restaurant has been open since at least this weekend, but they were still finishing up some things last night ahead of this evening’s launch party.
Design: The décor is updated, including the removal of that hideous stretched-out picture from above the Quesa kitchen. The patio wallpaper is new as well.
An artist finishing the interior illustrations at Q Tacos at Machos Cantina in Oak Lawn, Dallas
Concept: The interior dining room (Machos Cantina) has more of a lounge feel than it did before. The kitchen (Q Tacos) now has a walk-up window where you can order and pay for your food. It also has a second window facing the patio that will be open after-hours.
Last week we sponsored a German shepherd named Apollo — he’s available through White Rock Dog Rescue.
The backstory: Apollo was taken in by a woman who found him running loose in her neighborhood. The woman couldn’t find the owner and couldn’t keep him because she travels for a living. So she paid to have him vaccinated/chipped and referred him to the dog rescue.