Gunter is almost three years old now, so I thought that I could trust him outside of the kennel.
He no longer cries when I leave the house, which is half the struggle of puppydom. Gunter also hasn’t had an accident inside since last winter, when the weather was so cold in Minnesota that he went on strike – refusing to poop outside.
It was very distressing for both of us.
The Dallas St. Patrick’s Day parade is by Southern Methodist University, which is about 3 miles away from the gayborhood. We were going to Uber there, but that idea was quashed once we saw that Uber surge pricing was five times the normal rate.
Michael started at the Thomson Reuters Carrollton office last week and already managed to score us free tickets to a Dallas Stars hockey game.
We also saw a Dallas Stars hockey game last fall because Michael won free tickets from his gig at 7-Eleven Corporate. The 7-Eleven seats were nice, but Thomson Reuters has a suite!
That is why we are still experimenting fancy cocktails. The coconut cocktail holders were a hot mess, but I found that watermelon is far easier to handle and more reliable.
Here’s the recipe for a Smirnoff Ruby Watermelon cocktail that we enjoyed this weekend at the pool:
And then serve in a watermelon bowl!
Note that the portions may need to be adjusted for the size of your watermelon bowl and booze tolerance.
One of the things that I love about my apartment building is being right across the street from a Kroger.
Sure, I also love being right next to all of the gay bars, but Kroger is there for me when I need rotisserie chicken and Franzia on a Saturday morning. And unlike Whole Paycheck Whole Foods, I won’t go broke shopping at Kroger.
But something is amiss at my beloved grocery store and the nearby homeless shelter public library: a very foul smell.
The smell is an assault to the senses – it mugs us when we trot home from the bars. The stink also bops us on the head during the morning dog walks, and side-slaps us when we guy groceries.
It is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad stench, but what is it?
On Friday, Station 4 hosted a massive Mardi Gras themed party, and we got to see Willam from Rupaul’s Drag Race!
We were hesitant to drop $35/each on cover, but it was totally worth it – Willam sang live and performed on a hover board in heels.
Now that’s talent.
WIllam of RuPaul’s drag race performing live while on a hover board.
Willam performing on a hover board while singing live at Station 4.
Willam performing on a hover board.
I often occasionally find myself distracted by the Joneses – those frenemies with glamorous careers, clothes, bodies, blogs, Instagram feeds, etc.
This leads to the occasional happy-hour griping, which my friend Jill often shuts down –
“Remember that for all of your “troubles” you are still in an elite position,” Jill says.
The Struggle Isn’t Real – I have a law degree from a top school, whereas only a third of Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 have completed bachelor’s degrees or higher, and only 8% of that group had completed a master’s degree or higher.
Most of my coworkers and I make well above the national median for income as well.
Dallas does not handle rain well at all – Oak Lawn floods terribly every time it rains. Potholes turn into ponds, and everything is generally gross and muddy in the gayborhood.
Huge storms also result in power outages, where our bartenders have to serve cocktails by cellphone light.
My favorite bartender serving cocktails by cellphone-light because of a power outage at the Cedar Springs Taphouse.
We aren’t letting the weather get us down however. Michael and I are enjoying the breaks in the rain with a fabulous new cocktail: the Stormy Weather.
We are spending as much time as possible outside because there are only a few months left before Texas becomes hot as hell.
Blooming trees in Dallas, Texas.
This Sunday we had a large grill-out at the iLume Park pool (before the National Showman Pageant) and we got tropical.
Although the go-to tropical drinks are typically rum-based, I decided that it was time to give Smirnoff Coconut a try.
Getting ready to make Smirnoff Coconut Cocktails.
The National Showman Pageant is a competitive stage performance competition for men and drag kings.
There was a lot of live singing and some pretty epic dance numbers.
The level of preparation was impressive. Although not all of the performances were equally as entertaining, this pageant was far more polished than many of the female drag pageants I’ve seen in the past.
I look forward to the next one!
My new state embarrassed itself in front of the Supreme Court last week.
Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller attempted to defend Texas’s anti-abortion law to the court, and it was a hot mess.
Audio of the oral arguments for Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt are finally live on the Supreme Court’s website, and it is worth taking a listen.
This is the court’s first abortion case in 9 years and involves a Texas regulation which dramatically reduces abortion access for Texas women.
Slate’s Amicus podcast did a really interesting episode on the case.
The Atlantic’s story on the case is also a pretty comprehensive summary, but it is worth listening to the full audio of the hearing.
Some of my neighbors and I finally made it to the Cedar Springs Wine Walk. This monthly event has been going on for a while, but this is the first time we got organized enough to actually attend.
And gurl…
For $10, you get a wine glass which the local businesses fill up for free. We made it to about 5 places before we had to start carrying people home.
Well my article is finally out! Although I look haggard a little tired in my picture, I am glad that the interview has finally been published!
Dallas-Fort Worth Relocation Magazine is a publication of the Dallas Regional Chamber and D Magazine. The goal of this publication is to help introduce Dallas to new residents and show everyone what a fabulous place this is to live.
As if the Erika Jayne concert and being selected for the Hotels.com campaign weren’t exciting enough, Michael and I decided to continue the fun at the Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic on Monday night.
Even though we have seen the advertisements for this event for weeks, we did not seriously consider going to it until we bumped into Stoli LGBT ambassadorffat the Erika Jayne show.
Patrik reminded us that the Key West Cocktail Classic was happening and told us to RSVP.
Apparently only Michael got the message – RSVP’s were already closed by the time I got around to the website. However Patrik got me a wristband anyway.
I expected the cocktail classic to look more like a career fair (booths with several sample-sized cocktails.) It turned out to be a full show hosted by Patrik and local gay celebrity Steve Kemble.
Real Housewife LeeAnne Locken was also three as a judge.
The celebrity judges at the Stoli cocktail classic including Steve Kemble and LeeAnne Locken.
The owner of Liquid Zoo was also a participant – she was a stand-in for one of her bartenders who is recovering from cancer.
The performance was everything that we imagined: Drag queens opened the show, and we even got a sneak peek at the Real Housewives of Dallas (including gay favorite, LeeAnne Locken!)
Real Housewife Erika Jayne Girardi singing at Brick nightclub in Dallas.
In addition to an usual amount of WebEx meetings, the power kept shutting off in my building. This made for several unscheduled dog walks, which Ingrid and Gunter appreciated.
After work I made my way down to the iLume Park “Grand Happy Hour” – a weekly lobby happy hour which replaced the daily happy hours from when I first moved in.
Margaritas and beer at the iLume Park Happy Hour
Happy Hour is also a strange thing in this building because angry former residents sometimes show up uninvited to bitch about how much they hate iLume Park (while drinking the free booze at iLume Park…)
The conversation quickly switched to the scene outside of the building – the front entrance to iLume Park was cordoned off because a portion of the building’s brick façade came crashing down.
British therapist Marisa Peer has an interesting take on productivity and willpower – she says that the secret to achieving your goals is effectively communicating with your mind.
“When you collaborate with your mind and tell it what you want, then you get what you want.”
Four things you need to know about the mind:
I had some experiences with these principles during my first winter in Minnesota. Initially, I wore insane amounts of layering (long-johns, 3 pairs of socks, etc.) because I thought the cold was going to be so awful.
Blizzard in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My car was buried.
I was initially very apprehensive about returning to Minnesota. After being gone from a place from an extended amount of time, it is natural to plot a dramatic entrance.
But reality often looks very different.
Despite the awful weather and shady Delta checking agents, it was actually a fun and productive work trip.
The flight from Dallas and Minneapolis was wonderfully short and empty. I did not have anyone sitting next to me, but instead received the gift of seven toddlers behind me.
This is why they invented on-flight cocktails, and Starbucks!
A shot of the Texas countryside from my Delta flight to Minnesota.
The wintry landscape in lower Minnesota.
So grateful for the Starbucks on this Delta flight.
Our annual Account Management meeting was at the Radisson Blu, a swank new hotel attached to Mall of America.
I arrived at the Dallas airport pretty early this morning, and went up to check my bag.
And then shade ensued:
Delta check-in lady: “Ticket and I.D. please.”
Me: “Here you go.”
Check-in lady: “Hah!”
Me: “Pardon?”
Check-in lady: “If you saw someone that looked like you, would you think that they are your age?”
Me: “Are you saying that I look old?”
Check-in lady: “Yep. Just like that.”
Well dandy.