 I love the Alamo Drafthouse, a movie theatre chain in Austin and now Houston which not only lets you order food and eat and drink as you’re watching your movie but they also host a few fun themed nights. Deesh told me about how he saw the last Rose Bowl when UT played and won the championship at Alamo Drafthouse. It sounded so awesome that Alan rallied a troop to do so this Thursday.  We picked the Ritz location which is downtown with the logic being we’ll be able to just walk out and instantly be able to barhop in celebration or barhop to lick our wounds. Sadly, we (or they, I was actually designated driver) drank to lick wounds. Such bad luck. Not to be a sore loser at all, but Alabama had an ugly win. They did not have the honor of playing the team that got us to the championship in the first place. Our star QB got injured the first two minutes of the game. I’m still very proud of our football team. Hook Em! |
I’m regretting the fourth slice of pizza I just had….. Had 3 for lunch and just grabbed another one to “snack on.”
Yuck.
I have 4 and a half more hours of work to go! Then I get to go home and make Alan and me Momma food (my mom’s shredded pork with rice) and we get to watch the OU game. I hope OU wins ugly.
Linda | 
Austin, BBBS, Houston, Ink Spots, birthday, football, holidays, love, memory, mo' money, new thing(s) of the week, on the nightstand, pursuit of happiness, resolutions 2008, savory, scary thing(s) of the week, still-frames, the grind, the not so single life, the single life, wanderlust | 
12 27th, 2008| 
4 Comments »January
- Kim came up for New Years. We celebrated downtown with Alan’s couple of friends and Jon and the boys.
- Kim and I wrote on two balloons on New Year’s Day. One balloon of our regrets and things we’re letting go. The other balloon our desires for 2009. Then we ever so poetically, released them on my balcony.
-I went to San Diego for the fourth time. I made it to the zoo and stayed at the same hotel as Jon and Kate plus Eight when they went to San Diego on their way to Hawaii.
- Made Jambalaya for the first time.
-Ate a lot of food with Jon while he was visiting Texas.
At Paradise Pointe Resort in San Diego.
February
- Spent my favorite holiday with Jamie.
- Did my own taxes for the first time
- Found a new hair stylist of of Sixth Street after asking her for a kiss for Bing for his birthday.
- Sent out Valentine cards and packages.
Celebrated Bing’s birthday on Sixth Street. The night I met my hair dresser.
March
- Watched a lot of movies and cooked a lot of dinners with Alan.
- Cindy came up to visit. Introduced her finally to Flip Happy Crepes.
- I got about 3 hours of sleep a night.
- I go to San Diego for work yet again and stay at a hotel that had sex toys in their mini bar available to purchase.
- I search for a Madam Mam’s replacement. (Never found it)
- I celebrated Brandi’s birthday with Jessica. This is the 2nd time in 2008 we managed to spend some time together. We went downtown for her birthday and ate at Hula Hut.
With my girls, celebrating Brandi’s birthday. I wish this year we saw each other more. There was a time a year or two ago we saw each other once a week at least.
April
- I go to Second Chance Prom with Neville. Sweet since I didn’t have a date to my highs school prom. Well.. Liz was my date :)
- I meet my little and take her to celebrate Earth Day at Republic Square.
- I take a fabulous vacation to NYC (originally suppose to include Boston too and visit Mary Ellen but her paper got accepted into a conference). I got to see the Jennifers and Jon. Jon was my lovely host. (entry, entry, entry, entry)
- Had my first Brazilian Wax. Yikes.
- The father of two of the kids I’ve babysat since both of them were born, died.
Jon and I in NY.
May
- My brother graduates college! My parents came up to see him walk.
- Alan and I didn’t renew our lease and I started to mourn the apartment. I was in love with our location and view.
- Continue to babysit for the boys who lost their father. Started with the night of the memorial service and then the funeral.
- Selina asked me to be her bridesmaid.
- My brother turned 23. Making me feel old.
Our view.
June
- Go to funnest book signing I’ve been to with Si Nae and her boyfriend. We went to see Chuck Palahniuk promote Snuff. He threw out blow up dolls.
- I worked a lot.
- I saw a lot of movies with Alan.
Si Nae, her boy, and Chuck Palahniuk!
July
- Alan and I moved out and stopped being roommates :( But it was a good move for us :).
- Went to Florida for the first time to get Mary Ellen married. Flew in a few days early and I joined her clan in cooking, building, bitching, bonding, all in the name of love and the most beautiful wedding I’ve been to yet. It was pretty much a DIY wedding and you can see the labor of love in everything. The baby food jars around the garden sheltering tea light candles, the fireworks/crackers, the dance floor her uncles and aunts built, the cascading fruit basket one of her uncle fashioned at 3 in the morning the night before the wedding, etc. SO many details that were not only beautiful on its own, but also in the labor and thought and love that it represented.
- I take a Thursday off of work and Brandi and Jessica and I hang out for the third time this year. They treated me to a trip to Schiltterbahn for my birthday. Last year it was Sea World.
- Turned 25. Jen T who normally only comes once or twice a year happened to be in town for my birthday :). Si Nae dropped by flowers. I had a pretty birthday cake in the shape of a snow globe. I celebrated with friends. Felt special. Alan took me out to a romantic dinner and bought me a cell phone. It was a good birthday. Though I hate that I’m now 25.
Birthday celebration.
August
- Lily teaches us to make sushi.
- Alan introduces me to Mikados. I mention this because now we go here fairly often for sushi. I’ve yet to take him to Musashinos.
- Cindy comes and stays with me for almost 2 months for her pharmacy school rotation.
- I take my little to her first play. Jack and the Beanstalk.
- Nisreen and Nino get engaged and Nisreen asks me to be one of her bridesmaids.
Sushi making night
September
- I take my certification test and am now certified in clinical research.
- I go to the Domain with Nisreen to study for that test. We go just looking around for her wedding dress and we actually FIND it at St. Thomas.
- I fly to Orlando for work, wishing Alan had gone.
- I take my little to her first UT football game.
- Cindy and I try to learn about football.
So it wouldn’t just be for me why I wanted Alan in Orlando with me. Lookit the golf course!
October
- To my surprise, I’m taken by UT football. Really taken after watching OU game. I thought I had burnt out on football forever, but it’s really quite addicting.
- Alan takes me to see UT/Missouri game.
- Alan had a birthday.
- I dress up as a Hula girl for Halloween.
Kissing Meatwad.
November
- Ran my first 5k with Nisreen, Katambra, and Melissa.
- Jessica has a birthday, so the three of us (Brandi, Jessica, and I) reunite for the fourth time this year. FOUR times. That’s so sad. We go to Pete’s Dueling Pianos with plans to go to ren fest again but Brandi got struck with hives.
- I practically live at work.
- My brother breaks in his apartment by hosting a Thanksgiving meal. He makes his first turkey. Delicious!
- I take my little to the Paramount theatre for the first time. We see The Hungry Caterpillar. Then I have a mini high school reunion.
- I take Thanksgiving week off from work and spend a week in Houston.
- I see fireworks with Kim and kind of Chris.
Nisreen pours everyone a double shot of bourbon at my brother’s Thanksgiving dinner.
December
- I finish paying off my car :) One of my New Year’s Resolutions. I bought in July 2007. Not bad, if I do say so myself.
- I spend Christmas in Houston.
- On the 26th of December, Kim and I for the 2nd time release balloons for New Years. We’re stunned that this time around, we do not have any regrets to write on that regret balloon. Instead, we write what we want to stay away from. Good times with Ms. Kim.
- I get to see my best friend, Mary Ellen. Second time this year. First time being for her wedding in July.
- I go back on Saturday (today) to get some work done and to spend NYE in Austin. With friends and beau.
Our balloons. Purple = wishes. Pink = what we’ll stay away from. Since we didn’t have regrets this year.
It’s been a good year. I read 10 books, ate a lot of Pho, and laughed a lot.
So I experienced two firsts this weekend. I experienced my first football heartbreak. I won’t go any further as to not upset any fellow Longhorns. Needless to say, it hurt. I finally understand the disheartened grumpiness guys experience. I finally understand what it means to be disappointed after being emotionally invested in a team. Honestly, from the outside I always wondered what the big deal was. But man, Saturday night was tough. I did see a LED road sign on campus yesterday consoling us. Pretty funny. I think it said, “It’s okay. They still go to Tech.”
My next first is my first 5k! I ran maybe half of Race for the Cure and walked the other half. It was awesome. We had a good group. 4 of us, 2 by 2 buddy system. Katambra, my buddy and I enjoyed being childish.
Katambra:
“What are we gonna do today?”
Linda:
“Same thing we do everyday… We’re going to SAVE the WORLD!”
Then we’d skipped and hum to the tune of Pinky and the Brain. But the part of the run that I appreciate the most are the signs. The teams. The t-shirts. The signs celebrating lists of special people who survived. The Myselfs, the grandmothers, the wives, the sisters, the aunts. Reading the people they were celebrating was absolutely awe inspiring and humbling. Reading the “In memory of…” signs on the back of tshirts were just heart breaking. And seeing that amount of people banding together to walk, run, raise awareness, raise money, connect was OVERWHELMING. 25 thousand people showed up to run/walk it out.
Kim already emailed me about another 5k in Houston for Thanksgiving day. Am considering. Definitely, Nisreen, Katambra, Melissa and I want to Race for the Cure again next year.
The night before I had 6 hours of sleep and the night before that I had 5 WITH alcohol. It shows.
I had a great weekend, spent mostly with Alan. Friday, we had chill night at Dave and Busters. Saturday, we went to the UT/Missouri game (UT won 56-31!) and then met up with some of Alan’s friends for birthday celebrations. Today, I had lunch with my brother and dinner with Bing, Nisreen, and Nino. Good weekend.
At Dave and Busters on Friday, I noticed a guy putting on a gas mask before doing a dance on one of those dance games. He started to get really into, having the piece memorized, dancing with his back turned away from the prompts and doing handstands. After the song we were going to go when Alan noticed he had a whole bag of costumes. We watched him do one more masked dance. I told Bing and company about him tonight over dinner when Bing and Nino informed me that this guy does it at other arcades as well. Neat hobby.
I took a cell phone video of the performer.
The first picture, Alan wasn’t smiling because he was experimenting with my cellphone. Second picture, I look weird. This is right before we left with maybe 4 minutes left of the 4th quarter. I think I fell in love with UT football. In college, I went to many games without really loving the game. I enjoyed going and cheering but it was more a socializing event for me. Now that I understand the game a little bit more, I don’t get distracted watching. Mostly due to Alan’s patience in answering questions, I’ve learned a lot more about football ever since Cindy and I talked about learning more about football. I find UT football especially addicting since I have an automatic sense of loyalty to my Alma Mater. Dare I say, I’m hooked? Who would have thunk it? Alan got us some amazing seats. Never sat that close before. 30 yard line, 6 rows back from the field. We could see Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens from our seats.
There’s Derek at the game with Minka Kelly, the actress who played the head cheerleader of Friday Night Lights. My good friend Nicole was Minka’s stunt double on the show.
The stadium was packed. 98,383 people. Alan said this is the first home game we’ve had where we were ranked no. 1 since 1977. Pride!
Seriously, though. I like football? How crazy is that?
I leave you with a football joke.
Why are football stadiums always hot after games?
Because all the fans leave.
Texas native. Living and working in Austin, TX. Twenty something. In hot pursuit of good food, adventure, and laughter. Dreams of owning her own place with a big giant library.
