Airport Debacle

I'm just gonna get straight to it - I had an awful experience with the airport yesterday.  Here's how my day went:

5:00 AM (4:00 AM Dallas time): Wake up, shower, pack.

6:00 AM: Head to Boston airport.  Completely misjudge how long it will take to get there and...

6:20 AM: Arrive at Boston airport.  Check in, peruse the bookstore, pick up a new Jodi Picoult novel, head through security, and arrive at my gate to find...

7:15 AM: 7:55 AM flight to Dallas via Chicago postponed.  Twiddle my thumbs until...

7:20 AM: Pull out my work computer and sift through my emails decreasing the number of "unread" mail from 87 to 0.  Eaves drop on pretty attractive, yet extremely arrogant, guys next to me.  (I bet they didn't know their company was my company's client - their supposed insight was...interesting).

9:00 AM: Announcement is made that our flight is cancelled.

9:02 AM: Receive an automated voicemail confirming my rescheduled flight at 6:00 AM the next day.  Not gonna fly.  Annoyed, pick up my stuff and head to the back of the ticket counter line until...

10:15 AM: Rebook my flight for a 1:15 PM to Dallas with a layover in Houston through Continental instead.  Head down to the baggage claim office to grab my bag before switching terminals.

10:25 AM: Check in with baggage clerk and am assured my bag has been re-tagged and pulled onto my upcoming flight.

10:35 AM: Grab a bus over to my new terminal, go through security again, grab a disgusting Wendy's hamburger of which I ate three bites of and threw away, and read the rest of 'Blue Like Jazz.'

12:35 PM: Begin boarding my flight to Houston.  Find that I am sitting in the middle seat between two large, burly men.  Hairy guy to my left decides he'll spend this flight sans shoes.  I do my best to huddle my carry-ons together so as not to let his disgusting, probing feet touch them.  Learn that guy on my right has apparently decided to forgo any sort of teeth-brushing, mouth washing, general bad breath prevention plan.

1:45 PM: Find that bad-breath guy on my right also never learned to cover his mouth while sneezing.

4:30 PM (Now switching to Central Time): De-board plane and catch the tram to another terminal.  Grab some half-baked Schlotzsky's and arrive at my gate just in time to...

5:10 PM: Board new plane and discover Ron White wasn't telling a joke when he said they make planes as small as match boxes.

6:37 PM: Land in Dallas and jet off the plane as quickly as possible.  Meet up with my Dad and wait for the luggage carousel to start.  Discover that of the five bags unloaded from the flight, none of them are mine.

7:10 PM: Head toward the second Baggage Claim office of the day.  Learn my bag is lost.  Am told they'll call me when they locate it.  Ask if maybe they could try tracking it now.  Find that supposedly it got on a Boston-Houston flight at 4:30 PM instead and should ::hopefully:: make the 9:00 PM Houston-Dallas flight.  Am assured it will be delivered tonight by 11:30 PM.

7:45 PM: Head out of the airport sans luggage.

11:30 PM: Pace my apartment trying to stay awake and anxious to brush my teeth.  No call, no knock until...

12:00 AM: Call the "baggage assistance" number and find that my bag did, in fact, make it to Big D but that it cannot be delivered until tomorrow.  Ask if there is any chance of getting it before I go to work.  Find that my only alternative is having it delivered via the 'night shift' between 4am-5am.  Begrudgingly agree.

12:15 AM: Go to bed sans teeth brushing.  Set alarm for entirely too early.

4:00 AM: Alarm goes off so I'm awake when they call or knock on my door.  Repeatedly wake up every 9 minutes between 4am-7am.  (i.e. I never really slept).

7:30 AM: Call the "baggage assistance" number and find that my bag is, in fact, still sitting in the airport and that I had been wrongly informed a few hours earlier.  Learn they do not make night runs to residential areas and my bag will be delivered between 8am-12pm.  And no, they cannot narrow that time frame down at all.

7:45 AM: Begin the process of getting ready for work.

Getting ready for work was a bit of a...challenge, if you will.  Amidst tears and a few bouts of intense frustration, I discovered I had very limited options in every department.  Time to get creative.  I had no razor and no tights so had to wear slacks.  I only had dark colored dress shirts clean but light colored under-clothing.  I had no make-up except some old, crusted Revlon cream foundation and dried-up MAC mascara.  Both had easily been buried in the depths of my "just in case" bag since easily Junior year of High School (point for being a hoarder!).  I had no brush and, after a sad attempt at trying to get my fingers through my knots, settled for a pronged potato masher and noodle spoon, instead.  Had no toothbrush or real toothpaste so instead flossed and mouth-washed twice and found some hotel toothpaste (if it even qualifies as such) and brushed with my finger.  And so on, and so on...I think you get a pretty good idea of how my morning went.  And I even made it to work on time!  Award for most dedicated employee, anyone?!


9:30 AM: Get a call from some guy confirming he had my luggage to deliver.  Redirect him to my office address instead.  Learn he will not be there for another two hours.

11:20 AM: Get another call and happily learn that my luggage is waiting in my office lobby.  Oh, happy day!

6:10 PM: Get home from work and immediately crack open my suitcase and brush my teeth.  Twice.

So I'm obviously not too thrilled with my airline experience.  But now that I have my luggage back (and realized how big of an impact a hair brush and a razor have on my daily routine), I find my stressful and annoying day almost comical.  Still not sure I'll be booking with United again anytime soon, though...

Boot. Camp.

Last night I experienced what might possibly be the hardest workout of my life.

Ok, that might be an exaggeration.  I did some pretty intense stuff back when I was dancing all the time.  But last night was definitely the hardest workout I've done in a long time.

My friend Brittany and I signed up for this outdoor bootcamp class.  We headed to the park last night, yoga mat and weights in tow.  Right as we get to the meeting spot it starts raining.  A couple other participants suggest to our camo and boot glad instructor that class be postponed due to the weather.  

His response?  "I don't know what you're talking about...I hold class in the rain."

What?!  Ok...

Brittany and I decided to stick it out.  I mean, how awful could it be, right?  Ha!  The next hour continued to be the most painful, miserable work out experience I've had in a while.  I'm slipping on wet grass while I'm doing sprints, I'm falling in mud while doing push ups, and rain is stinging my eyes as I do sit ups in a puddle of freezing water on my yoga mat.  I quite literally felt like I was in a real, true army bootcamp.  

Miserable though it might have been, I felt accomplished once I finished and proud that I stuck it out.  I am definitely feeling the side effects today, though, being that it's hard to lift my arm to brush my hair and almost unbearable trying to walk down a flight of stairs...

...until next week (since I'll be galloping around Boston and NYC for the next seven days), Hooyah!

Relationship Woes

There are a few words that come to mind when I think of AT&T: awful, unaccomodating, disorganized, annoying...need I go on?

Last week was a crazy busy work week.  To paint a picture, I left the office between 10pm-1am every night and worked through both lunch and dinner.  (This is when I shoot up a little thank you for working with awesome people!).  However, on Wednesday of last week, I decided I needed a little change of scenary so I left the office at ~7pm with the plan of grabbing some grub and finishing my work at home with the comfort of my sweatpants and couch.

I get home and bam, no internet connection.  Strange.  I rifle through my stack of mail and find a letter from AT&T.  I rip it open and glaring back at me is the phrase "Did you forget to pay your bill?"....let me rewind.  This has been a constant issue with AT&T.  Every single month I have had my cable and internet disconnected for one reason or another - none of them being my fault.  One month they over-charged me by $200.00, another month they didn't see my payment had gone through two weeks prior, etc, etc...on top of that, I'm on automatic bill pay.  I can't NOT pay my bill!  So as I'm staring at the annoying little phrase, I'm thinking..."No...did YOU forget to pay my bill?!"  Pissed off and stressed out, I call AT&T with the intention of getting this resolved ASAP as I have a lot of impending work to do.  After spending entirely too long on the phone and after listening to entirely too many automated options, I finally hear "I'm sorry, this office is closed, please call back between the business hours of 8am-5pm."  Are. you. kidding. me?  I obviously don't have the free time this week to lolly-gag on the phone with you folks.  Especially during the hours of 8am-5pm.  Nor is this a conversation I'd like to have in my office amongst all to hear (I think the 4th month in a row is my breaking point...the conversation will not be pretty).

So alas, five days later I am still sans internet and cable.  I'm leaving for Boston/NYC tomorrow so I think I'll take a few days to think long and hard about how to approach AT&T and whether it's really worth it to keep them as my provider.  This relationship is obviously not going to work out if things keep going down this path.  I've played nice up until now (because honestly, I feel sorry for the poor guys that have nothing to do with the problem and everything to do with hearing the complaints) but I think I'm about to whip out the "B" card...

Interesting Fact: I ran into a friend later that night who told me she had been on the phone with AT&T for over an hour earlier because they had turned off her cable as well!  After a less than pleasant conversation, she was reconnected and hooked up with free HBO and movie channels for the rest of the year.

AT&T I can assure you, I will never do business with you, again.  (Although I haven't heard much better about Time Warner...)

Oddfellows

In keeping with the "trying new restaurants" phase I'm in, I took on a new one over the weekend.  Friday night Taylor, Alan, Stephen, and I headed to the Bishop Arts District in search of some good food.

Standard Ashley-Taylor photo.

After our dreams of dining at 'Tillman's Roadhouse' were crushed with an hour long wait, we refocused our appetites and stumbled upon this little gem:

Oddfellows.

Famous for their breakfast which, unfortunately, is not served all day, I was a little leery of what their dinner menu might hold.  But alas, it was already 8:30pm and our tummies were rumbling.  We decided to give it a shot.  And good thing we did!

The boys started with beer while Taylor and I got these babies:

"The Great Escape."  Crevasse vodka, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, simple syrup, pink peppercorns, mint.  Yum.

Check out the ice cubes; they're huge!

Our entrees were equally as appetizing.  Alan got some fried chicken, which I failed to get a picture of.  Taylor and Stephen both got this delicious Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese:

And I conquered something I've been wanting to check off my food bucket list for quite some time now, Chicken and Waffles:

It was all absolutely as delicious as it looks.  The drinks were creative, the food was unique, and we definitely ran into some strange folks which was the cherry on top of the whole night out.  In case you're unfamiliar with Dallas, The Bishop Arts District is smack dab in the middle of Oak Cliff.  Oak Cliff is the hood.  For realz.  Although the few blocks that comprise this booming arts district are fine, it's still not a place I would venture after dark sans guys or sans large group.  So when we ran into some folks that I'm pretty sure were missing half their teeth (and their heads), I felt like our trip to 'the other side of the railroad tracks' was complete.

Although I'm not sure it quite rivaled The Meddlesome Moth from last week, it was definitely money and time well spent.

A Chapter Closed. Quite Literally.

Tonight I finished something that I've been working on since the 6th grade.  (That's 12 years, ya'll!)  I completed the Harry Potter series.  I started reading these when I was 12 and instantly fell in love.  I was the kid who begged, and succeeded in persuading, her parents to take her to the bookstore the morning the new book hit the stands.  I would then proceed to read all day, stay up all night, and finish the 400-700ish page books within 36 hours.  I was a nut.  And I loved it.

But soon I got busy and the timing between book releases lapsed so inconveniently that, given I had read the previous book in such little time so retained hardly anything, I soon couldn't remember where in the story I had left off.  This frustrated me.  I considered picking up the series again in college but knew I wanted to read them straight through from beginning to end and, let's be honest, given the opportunity to read Harry Potter, or the book assigned for my Middle English class or Chaucer Senior Seminar, HP would easily win out.  So I neglected to re-engage this series.  Point for Responsible Ashley!

Alas I graduated and decided it was time to dig in to this long-shelved treasure.  I started last February and, with only a pause to read 'Water for Elephants' (and start half a dozen other books), have read the series straight through.  I don't even have time to explain what I thought of it all...

...what I do know, however, is that throughout the series I've laughed, I've cried, I've loved, and when I finished that last chapter and turned that last page tonight, I felt a little piece of my childhood drift away.  Call me dramatic and cheesy (I won't deny it; I am both!), but it was a really sad moment!  I usually get a little nostalgic when I finish a good book; a novel that's really done a great job of drawing me in and connecting me with the characters.  But don't even get me started on how lonely I felt while saying goodbye to the people that, after hundreds of hours and thousands of pages, I kinda wish were my real friends.  Now don't think I've jumped off the deep end or anything; I didn't get sucked into this fantasy world quite as bad as some World of Warcraft addicts out there, but I'm not gonna lie, it was probably pretty close!

So, sigh, now I must set out to watch all 8 movies, in order, beginning to end.  I'm sure I'll cry at the end of the 8th movie, as I did during the last book.  If the last few movies are as alarmingly close to the picture created in my mind as the first few were, it is shaping up to be a great (and lazy) Christmas break for me!  Oh, and after the movies?  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, of course!  Anyone else on board for an Orlando vacation?!  You bring the 'Any Flavor Beans,' I'll bring the 'Butterbeer.'

Cheers to you, Harry Potter!  And cheers to a childhood chapter closed!

Lately.

For any of the rest of you out there who, like me, cannot fathom how it got to be mid-November without me realizing it, you are not alone.  These past few months have flown by.  I think it's a combination of working long hours, filling my weekends to the brim with fun things, and, for the first fall ever, not being "in school."  I keep waiting for midterms and research paper deadlines to clue me in that it's nearing Thanksgiving and well, thankfully I just don't have to do that this year!

Being that time has flown by and it is almost Thanksgiving and we are smack dab in the middle of 'the month of thanks,' I've done a bit of reflecting on the things I'm grateful for.  A lot of what comes to mind are the people I share my life with and the fun things we are able to do.  My computer was on the fritz a few months back and I eventually just bit the bullet and bought a new one.  However, I still don't know how to use it.  Because of such, my blogging has been limited and often sans pictures, and I have omitted many of the adventures I have had over the past three months.

So in a combination of "I have all these photos and exciting moments I want to share" and "I want to express how grateful I am for each one of them" I will now present to you some of the highlights you've missed.  Here's what I've been up to "lately":

I went to College Station for our first A&M football game of the season:

Visited La Bodega, one of my all-time favorite restaurants.

Made a stop at the Sake Bar and took a Kyoto Sunrise, a group favorite.

Ran into some of my best friends while tailgating.

Reminisced on college memories.

Danced to a few songs at our old stomping grounds, Daisy Dukes (no longer the 'cool' place to go).

College Station was, and always will be, one of my favorite places to be.  Combined with my best friends, fantastic tailgating, bars and restaurants that I miss so much, and a couple hours of football, I am so thankful I was able to make the trek down for a game!

I celebrated my 24th birthday:

Had a great dinner (complete with margaritas!) at Joe T. Garcia's.

Was surrounded by some of my very best friends.

Scooted on over to Billy Bobs for a night of dancing to Robert Earl Keen.

Went to Midnight Yell in the Fort Worth Stockyards (and introduced a few non-Ags to this crazy tradition!)

Received such thoughtful gifts from my friends (not pictured: my FAVORITE bottle of wine.  also not pictured: the "redneck wine glass" Taylor got for me!)

Birthdays were always made so special by my parents so I've really grown to love them.  I was so blessed to be able to spend my 24th birthday with SO many of my closest friends.  It really means a lot that I have so many fantastic people in my life to share special moments with!

I went to a wedding for two of my friends from college:

Had a fantastic date, Bryan, and caught up with some friends I haven't hung out with in entirely too long.

Learned to love white wine and appreciate the fact that, given we each ordered three drinks upon "last call" of the open bar, we will never grow up from our frugal college ways.

Cody and Ashley were two of my closest friends my first few years of college.  We eventually saw less and less of each other as our lives took us down separate paths at A&M, but it was so awesome being invited by Bryan to join in celebrating their special day!  It was also fantastic to spend some time with the guys who were like brothers to me when I was just a wee little freshman in college.  Cheers to old friends and new beginnings!

I went to Oktoberfest:

Battled the rain and mud for our German steins of beer!

Joined in the festivities with a little German folk dancing.

Caught up with some "work friends" outside of work.

One rainy, cold Friday night we trudged through the rain and mud to celebrate this awesome 'holiday' of Oktoberfest.  The one in Addison is supposedly quite the realistic re-make of this German tradition, so a few friends from work made the trek.  I'm thankful I work with such a fun group of people that enjoy each other's company so much we choose to spend our weekends together, too!

I went to 'Fright Fest' at Six Flags:

Rode the Titan first and realized roller coasters affect you way differently at 24 than at 14.

Ate some deliciously unhealthy amusement park food.

Got really excited for acting like we were 15 again.

Played some games and won some prizes.

I got some discount Fright Fest tickets through work so Brad, Chelsea, Zac, Cody, and I braved the costume-clad middle schoolers and made a fun night of high speeds and whip lash.  We discovered, after coming off of each ride a little woozy, that roller coasters definitely have a different effect on us now than they did ten years ago.  Leaving the park with weakened stomachs, however, did nothing to overshadow a fantastic night of thrills!

I went to a birthday party for 3-year-old twins:

Matching girls calls for matching presents.

Swung on some swings and took some pictures.

Blew out some candles and ate some cake.

Ate some more cake then opened some presents.

Brittany and Kennedy might just be the most precious girls I've ever met.  October 15th was their third birthday so some close friends and family gathered around to celebrate.  The kids ran wild in the park, soaking up every moment, while the 'adults' admired their free-spirit, care-free life, and the minimal amount of effort it takes to entertain them.  After hamburgers and hot dogs, some cake, and opening presents, we called it a day.  But I am so thankful for these two little girls and the opportunity to share in their lives as they grow into beautiful people!

I went to the State Fair of Texas:

Rode the Dart train to save time and money and ended up wasting both.

In our long wait for the train discovered we matched with both girls in Toms and both boys in Vans.  It's really the little things in life... ;)

Ate some delicious fair food: Fletcher's corn dogs and lemonade.

Ate even more delicious fair food: Fried Snickers and Fried Oreos (not pictured: BBQ sandwich, Loaded Baked Potato, Fried S'mores, Lemonchill)

Walked through all the exhibits, checked out the Midway, and enjoyed some of the shows.

Took the signature picture at Big Tex.

Admired the Texas Star, my favorite of all the fair attractions, and cursed the long line that inhibited us from riding.

The State Fair of Texas is one of my favorite times of year.  Good food, trashy people, new exhibits, and old favorites make this such a fantastic adventure.  Although I had to drag the group and convince them they would want to stay more than their suggested 2 hours, they left the park 9 hours later with smiles on their faces and an extra 3,000 calories on their belt!  Successful Saturday, I must say!

I helped Taylor celebrate her 24th birthday:

Went to the flying saucer for dinner.

Was introduced to a fabulous new band, The Dirty River Boys.

We ended up getting pictures with, and talking to, the band for quite some time but all of them turned out awful so I'm neglecting to post them.  As mentioned at the top of this post, birthdays are some of my favorite times of the year, so it was wonderful getting to celebrate Taylor's with her!

I went out again for Taylor's birthday.  And also for Lauren's:

Caught up with one of my very best friends, Lauren, who is still in grad school at A&M.

Helped celebrate my two dear friends' birthday with some drinks at one of my favorite Uptown bars, The Nodding Donkey.

Chatted with this ridiculous friend, Stephen, who insisted on holding my camera on his belt loop.

I love birthdays.  I adore my friends.  Explanation enough.

So there it is, just a little glimpse into the happenings of my life these past few months.  The reason I started this blog was to have a diary of such that I could some day look back upon my adventures, my thoughts, and my hopes and dreams with.  I've been severally lacking on keeping up with this so am making a point to do better.  Life really is about the little outings with friends, the realizations you come to about life, and the hopes and dreams that turn into reality.  I'm so thankful for the opportunity to experience all of this; the good and the bad!  Cheers to even more adventures and learning in the future!

The Meddlesome Moth

Last Friday, before my flight out to Houston, I went to this fantastic restaurant in Uptown called The Meddlesome Moth.  I had heard some great reviews of the place and several people had recommended it to me, so it's been on my list of places to go for months.  I've been wanting to branch out on the restaurant front considering there are so many good ones here in Dallas, and this was definitely a great start.

My friend, Stephen, was dropping me off at the airport so I convinced him to come along.  Most of the meals are served "family" style so we ordered a meat and a side and called it a day.  Our plates were soon consumed with:

Shin and Mac

with pistachio pesto and roasted yellow tomato

Seared Sirloin

with pumpkin seed pesto

Is your mouth watering, yet?!

A couple fantastic beers (I got the Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale), a chic ambiance, and delicious food was all it took for this place to jump near the top of my 'Favorite Restaurants in Uptown' list.  If you haven't done so already and/or are ever in Dallas, you should definitely check it out.  And if you'd like to just peruse the website to see the fabulousness yourself:

The Meddlesome Moth

Weekend Wedding

As introduced in Friday's post, I had a wedding in Houston this weekend.  It was for two of my sweet friends, Angela and Richard, who met when we were all in Camp McBryde (Fish Camp) together three years ago.  Quite a few of us made the trek down to H-town to share in the celebrating, and had quite a fun time doing so.

Late Friday night I flew into Houston and my old DG partner, Tony, picked me up from the airport.  We met some of my friends at a fun bar in Montrose, Royal Oak, to grab a drink.  The ambiance was great and it was, of course, wonderful catching up with these great people that I see entirely too little of.  Caught up in great conversation, we completely forgot to take pictures until the ride home:

Loved seeing you, Alex!!

And when we did, some people were less inclined to cooperate:

Typical - intentionally ruining my photo.

I was staying with Tony all weekend so Saturday morning we woke up and walked down to this fantastic breakfast place, Baby Barnaby's, where I had the most scrumptious migas and potatoes ever.  Topped with a cup of coffee, an english muffin, and a great view of the artsy neighborhood, I was a happy girl.  The rest of the day held a quick trip to the Galleria, watching a heartbreaking Aggie game, and a little stint of working before we hopped in the shower and headed to the wedding.

The ceremony itself was super long but super awesome.  The church was beautiful and everything went smoothly.  The priest even sent out a special blessing for us "single people" in the crowd.  I wasn't sure if I felt grateful or offended.  We were also told that, being non-Catholics, if we were to take communion, we needed to cross our arms in front of our chest when we approached to receive it so he knew to give us a special blessing.  Hmm...maybe I'm confused at what God they're praying to, but mine likes me just fine as my non-Catholic self.  Rude.  I refrained.

The reception was at a country club and also quite fantastic.  There was plenty of wine and a really cute 'library' theme:

We sat at the "Great Gatsby" table.

It was also a really classy reception (think: fruit in champagne glasses/chocolate covered strawberries type).  Quite a few of my friends from college were there (split between the "Great Gatsby" table and the "Romeo and Juliet" table) so we met on the dance floor to 'wobble' the night away:

Not the wobble, but equally as fun.

Camp McBryde picture.

Overall the night was wonderful.  The wedding was beautiful and I got to hang out with some of my great friends I had really been missing while working so much the past couple of months.  A successful night for sure:

Jessie and Jeremy...they might just have the next 'McBryde wedding'...

My fantastic date and former DG partner, Tony.

Mr. And Mrs. Richard Harris.

Once upon a time I was a wee little counselor in her camp...

The 'Ashley' picture.  Typical.

Cheers to a great weekend!  Now it's back to a week of work...