On Sunday afternoon, a team of cop cars surrounded the ilume building and the Facebook posts began.
A Facebook screenshot of one of my neighbor’s posts about the ilume SWAT raid.
The rumors got pretty ridiculous – ranging from a domestic violence dispute to assault.
We took a 12-mile walking tour of the city with the dogs. I was exhausted afterward, but had a hilarious time.
The morning started at Starbucks, where we ran into an adorable chocolate lab puppy.
Ingrid the Labradoodle playing with a chocolate lab mix in front of the Oak Lawn Starbucks.
Ingrid the Labradoodle playing with a chocolate lab mix in front of the Oak Lawn Starbucks.
Ingrid is only about a year old now, but the lab puppy made her seem like a gigantic monster.
We then headed to the Design District, where we passed the Playboy Marfa statue and randomly ran into one of our favorite bartenders in at a car rental place.
Oak Lawn hosts the largest Halloween block party in Dallas. The block party was pretty huge this year, with several pop-up bars along Cedar Springs.
Krystal and some of our neighbors at the Oak Lawn Halloween block party.
A view of the crowds at the Oak Lawn Halloween block party.
These creepy cat costumes were the worst thing ever. Note the t-shirts.
The festival was held at Reverchon Park, which is at the edge of the gayborhood. There was lots of food, liquor, and some salsa dancing.
Mexican tchotchkes being sold at Texas Latino Gay Pride.
Mexican wrestler masks for sale at Texas Latino Gay Pride.
There were pool parties, new brunch places, drag shows, and even a trip to Fort Worth.
It was fun, yet exhausting. I was relieved when the weekend was over.
Perry Heights lined with American Flags for the 4th of July.
Best Week Ever posts are a summary of the past week
You’ll need plenty of water (and a shower) if you are outside for more than a few minutes. This translates shorter dog walks and a lot of laundry.
When we try to become more ambitious with the dog walks, we quickly regret it. Even our walks from Oak Lawn to downtown Dallas get dicey after 11 a.m.
We started the evening with the mean girls at Alexandre’s cocktail lounge.
The mean girls are actually retirement-age men who park themselves at the bar in the afternoon and insult each other into the evening.
Statler: “Did Jack get a haircut?”
Waldorf: “No, it’s just falling out.”
Statler: “Can you hold your head up? You look like a turtle!”
Statler: “You guys are being nice for once. I’m suspicious. Is it my shirt?”
Waldorf: “No, that shirt is nice. It actually fits you for once.”
Well, first I saw the bicycle cops near the Katy Trail.
Then I saw the tired-looking newswoman and the photographer.
A reporter at the scene of a suicide near Katy Trail.
I followed their gaze to the middle of the park, where a bunch of detectives and officers stood around a tarp that covered the body.
What a weekend! There were long dog walks on the Katy Trail, new restaurants, drag shows, and lots of new friends from all over the world.
There was John from Arkansas, Matt from Boston, Walter from Chicago, Carlos from Mexico, Victor, Geoffroy, and Kenneth – all from France… no one seems to be from Dallas, but so many people wind up here.
Well, except for Ty.
Ty is from Dallas. He’s the exception.
Most people are new and open to making new friends. It feels silly to point that out, but this is a huge contrast to Minnesota, where the saying was “A Minnesotan will give you directions to anywhere except their house.”
A full article about that is here, and my whining is here.
Pride flags hang over JR’s bar in Oak Lawn.
Having dinner at Ai Sushi in Oak Lawn (in the iLume building.)
We met one group of people at JR’s. Introductions were made, and people discussed where they came from and what they did for work.
Jack: “I am a Walmart manager.”
Me: “Oh that is so interesting! Our friend Jill works at Walmart too! I think she was Cedar Springs Taphouse. Let me text her.”
Jack: “Oh great…”
Jill arrives and Jack looks alarmed.
Last night, hundreds of people gathered at the Dallas LGBT Community Center to support the Pulse Nightclub shooting victims.
All of the important local politicians spoke – the mayor, the police chief, the county judge – and tried to reassure the Dallas gay community that we are safe. The crowd then marched the length of the gayborhood from the Resource Center to the Oak Lawn monument.
Cops and cameras were everywhere.
Mourners lay flowers and candles at the Oak Lawn Pulse memorial.
Notifications lit up my cellphone like a Christmas tree this morning – a gunman killed at least 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, and everyone was either sharing the news story or asking whether we lost anyone.
After confirming that our friends in Orlando were alive, we monitored the climbing death toll on our phones while walking the dogs through downtown Dallas. There were more than a dozen bicycle cops on the Katy Trail, and a few nervous security guards at Klyde Warren Park.
Later we brunched in the gayborhood while discussing escape plans for each gay club – would we climb on the roof from S4’s second floor balcony? Is there a back exit door at Havana’s? Would gay guys run to their cars and get guns? (This is Texas, after all.)
The morbid emergency planning was broken by a swarm of people who flooded the Oak Lawn bars. There were cocktails, uncomfortable laughs, and armed security guards. We were uneasy, but still out and supporting each other.
Increased police presence in Oak Lawn after the Pulse nightclub shootings.
The memorial in front of the Centrum building.
Some mornings I venture to a Starbucks on the outskirts of Oak Lawn near the Medical District.
This is a unique Starbucks because you can’t go inside – it only has a walkup window and an extremely busy drive-thru.
The walkup Starbucks at the edge of Oak Lawn.
Ingrid the Labradoodle at the walkup Starbucks. She’s being patient.
My regular barista says that the walkup Starbucks has a reputation for making terrible drinks. I thought this was unnecessary shade until the walkup Starbucks botched my usual order of coffee with cream.
Pabst Blue Ribbon is a beer that I fell in love with back in Minnesota.
PBR is the beer of the hipster crowd – a cheap light beer that actively markets to young musicians and artists. You could not go to a dive bar or lesbian dance night in Minneapolis without seeing a sea of PBR cans.
The special thing about PBR is that it comes in 16 ounce “tallboy” cans despite being the same price (if not cheaper) than Budweiser. That’s why PBR is a favorite among broke grad school students.
I ran into one of my neighbors in the hallway today:
Jill: “I am almost done moving to my new apartment!”
Me: “Nice. I hate moving. Are you doing Rug Doctor for the carpets?”
Jill: “Rug Doctor?”
Me: “The carpet steamer.”
Jill: “God no!”
Me: “…but aren’t you cleaning your carpets?”
Jill: “No.”
Me: “…but what if the building charges you?”
Jill: “Then fuck’em. I don’t care. I’ll fight that battle if I get to it.”
I wish I had this attitude to moving – the recent move would have been vastly less stressful.
My mom came to town this weekend for a business meeting, so we showed her how Dallas does Easter.
We had Easter brunch at Quesa MX, which is a Mexican restaurant on Cedar Springs.
I recently became re-interested in Quesa after they hosted a happy hour at iLume – the new manager said that he overhauled the menu and promised that the food was better.
The way we could tell is because there was a guy on the patio laying in his own vomit.
His friend looked so upset…
Quesa was considerably calmer on Sunday, and the food was surprisingly good. I think Quesa will be a nice alternative to Mattito’s and Cedar Springs Tap House, which both get incredibly packed.
After brunch, we grabbed the dogs and went to the Easter dog parade near Turtle Creek.
It was quite the production.
The crowd at Easter in Lee Park / Dallas Pooch Parade.
Guys with matching outfits and bunny ears at Easter in Lee Park
A guy with a matching dog at the 2016 Easter Pooch Parade in Dallas.
A pink poodle at the Dallas Easter Pooch Parade.
Spectators taking a selfie during the Easter Parade – is that Dustin in the background?!
Picnics at Lee Park near Arlington Hall
DFW is only second to Houston as the fastest growing city in the United States.
The hoard of people moving to Dallas spurred a huge construction boom, and cranes are all over the city.
A new apartment project near the American Airlines Arena.
A new apartment building project in the Dallas design district built in the “One Plus Five” style.
Construction in the Victory Park / Harwood neighborhood of Dallas
Apartment buildings are growing like weeds around the gayborhood and many of my neighbors think anything past 3-years is an “old building.”
But there is something strange about the style of the new apartment buildings in Dallas – they look like something straight out of soviet Russia. (We were beginning to see these in Minnesota as well.)
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?
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.