Thanks for the fish

be on vacation! We are leaving early tomorrow (6 am or so) to drive to Boston, to fly to St. Louis, to connect and land in San Antonio, Texas. To give you the full background, I lived in San Antonio when I was a wee tot. Born in Alaska, we moved to San Antonio, I *think* when I was but a few months old, and then lived there till I was about 5. But that is probably wrong, because it doesn’t make sense that I would have lived anywhere for that long when I was growing up.

Anyway, obviously I remember nothing about it. My first memories are of California… a wildfire burning in the distance…bugs bunny cartoons… an Alice in Wonderland towel that I used for naptime at Washington Elementary School in Santa Barbara, California. The toilet overflowing at same kindergarten. Was I the one that made it overflow? I dunno. But I know I sure as hell never fell asleep at naptime, and that made me damn nervous. (I’m such a rule follower..I thought I was breaking the rule by not falling asleep!)

I went back to San Antonio in 1998, soon after I started dating J. He was consulting in Dallas and instead of flying back to DC, his company allowed him to fly someone (even new girlfriends who may have no future) out to him, instead of him flying home). We had been dating, oh, a few months? We met in December and I think this was March or so. Two days before I was set to fly out, he got pulled off the project and was sent home. What did I do? I went to effing Texas anyway! My friend A (I have a lot of “friend As) lived in Austin, so she picked me up at the airport, we went to Waco to see some friends of hers, stayed the night. At the time she was dating a bisexual guy named I have no idea what. I didn’t like him all that much. I was afraid he would leave my friend for a guy and it just seemed like if you went both ways, you’re bound to go back to the gay side. I don’t know why I think that. But first, we stayed at a hotel outside of Dallas, in Irving or somewhere. $33 a night and I was 23 and thought it was the best freaking hotel for $33 a night I’d ever stayed in. It was called “the atrium” and indeed it was. All rooms looked out onto a club… not so quiet. But it was “a suite” and I was still pretty psyched. The boyfriend thought I was overly impressed, as I suppose I was.

Then we went to Austin. I remember we went to a Georgia O’Keefe exhibit at the Austin Museum of Art. We had gelato too (before I tasted the real thing in Italy). Then San Antonio. Her parents had just bought a place there. No, they were about to. I was actually staying at her parents place and her mother, who is an Argentina born ethnic Italian (I think) made the best effing gnocchi this girl has ever had. Holy yum. I love her mother. Her fater is ethnically Japanese (and I met her in Japan, ironically), but born in Argentina, raised in American, and through the Air Force ended up in Japan. Anyway, she showed me around San Antonio, we tried to find the house I lived in as a kid (I took a picture…), then we saw the Alamo, the Riverwalk, and the Mexican Marketplace.

I always have a great time with A She is intelligent, unselfconscious, and she just says what she’s feeling. It’s that latin influence and damn I wish I had it. I went to Lollapalooza (I just remembered this) in West Virginia with her. I drove my 1966 Corvair from northern virginia to Morgantown? WV and my car died as soon as we got there. We got someone? to push it into a parking spot and went and enjoyed the show. I remember jumping up and down to the Beastie Boys (and trust me,, I’m not the jump up and down type). I don’t know who else played, but I ran into a guy I worked with named Eddie Perez and it was just bizarre because we were in another state with thousands of strangers. I have a hard time recognizeing people out of context.

So, yes, we’ve gone down memory lane here. And now back to reality. Tomorrow we’re going on vacation, meeting up with A and her non-bi-sexual husband on Sunday and hopefully enjoying fabulous Mexican food and margaritas, etc. etc. So why did we choose Texas? We have a rule: wherever we go on vacation, one of us cannot have been there before. I’ve been there, J hasn’t. Personally, I wanted to go to Cancun, but I felt like I monopolized our vacation plans (ironic considering last night’s post about how he’s totally bossy), so I let him decide. And I’m ok with it.Because also in last night’s post, you see that I cannot make a fucking decision to save my life.

So I picked a new wine up at Hannaford tonight. I lvoe the Bogle Petite Syrah, so I’m trying the Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel (love zinfandel). It’s good, but I like the petite syrah better. Anyway, bon voyage.

I have other things I could write about… horrible public speaking incidents, fights with coworkers who I really love but get on my nerves, etc. etc. But I won’t . : ) Maybe I will blog from the road. I am really really really really looking forward to this. Hope it delivers (no pressure).