Muse & Musings

GOOD MORNING!

I can not begin to tell you how long I've been waiting for today to come. Well, thats not true. I've been waiting about 11 weeks. Thats when I purchased tickets for Dan and me to go see MUSE in Houston!

I could not be more excited. I get off work at noon and Dan gets off at 1. We are going to head down to Houston shortly after to try to get a bite to eat before the SHOW OF A LIFETIME.

Maybe you think I'm being dramatic. Maybe you have different taste in music. As my Grandpa always said..."Some people like chocolate, some people like vanilla."

I just don't understand people that don't like MUSE...err...I mean chocolate.

Gosh. I really should have taken the whole day off. Trying to sit here and work (which is clearly not happening) is like giving a kid a mug of coffee and a bag of skittles and then expecting them to sit down and do algebra. Not gonna happen.

Here is my concert buddy:

I just realized I have not properly introduced you to my boyfriend, Dan.

Dan and I met through a friend almost 3 years ago. We actually talked for about 3 months, on the phone, before we met in person.

Our whole relationship has been full of travel and adventures. I love that about us. I love that I know he always up for doing something exciting, but that he's also content just watching old movies with me, some nights. He truly is my best friend.

He's always willing to be goofy with me and he's the first boy I've dated that I truly feel loves me...just the way I am. All my crazy-ness included.

Like this time:

When I was living in Florida, the thought of hurricanes totally freaked me out.

Which is funny because most Floridians just see them as a wonderful opportunity to have a "hurricane party." What a bunch of weirdos! I mean, HELLO! There is a HURRICANE headed our way! Pack the bags! Board up the windows! Get the heck outta Dodge! As soon as I got word that hurricane Ivan was headed to the panhandle, I flipped out. Dan calmed me down and convinced me to stay inside before I began a massive panic amongst all Pensacolians (is that what y'all are called?)

Well, the electricity went out and the only interesting thing in the house were two little containers of Play-Doh that I happened to have in my purse. (yeah, you'd be surprised what you'd find in there) I invented a game called "as-soon-as-Sarah-calls-out-a-word-you-have-to-shape-the-play-doh-into-that-object"

This picture was a result of me calling out the word "Glasses!" I clearly won that round. Look at my sturdy glasses! Poor little Dan had to hold his on his face while mine stayed stuck to mine. Nice try Dan, maybe next time.

Oh, and how about this time:

This was during a walk on my parents ranch, last Thanksgiving. Dan was such a trooper when I kept telling him certain ways to pose while my sister took pictures.

See! Look how good this one turned out! I think its officially my favorite picture of us. :]

The first year Dan and I were together, I was still in Texas and Dan was still in Florida. After a few trips back and forth, I flew down to meet his Family on Thanksgiving. I told Dan that I would only fly to Pensacola if he promised me we could have root-beer floats on the beach before I left. I don't know why, but it just seemed so perfect and summery at the time. Well, 2 weeks came and went and honestly, it was one of the best trips I've ever made. We had so much fun! The last day I was in Florida, Dan was suppose to drive me to the airport. He started driving to the beach instead. I, having the worse sense of direction EVER, had no idea what was going on. Well, we got out to the beach and starting walking out to the water. Dan had his messenger bag (man-purse/murse) in tow. After we sat down, Dan pulled out a gallon of vanilla ice cream and a liter of root beer. :] The funny thing is...I had had so much fun on the trip that I had completely forgotten about the promise. He didn't.

So 2 hours before I flew back to Austin, we sat on the beach eating root beet floats with our hands and laughing about how sticky we were. It was perfect.

So there's my "meet my boyfriend" post. After all that was said I'm even more excited about going tonight. I always know its going to be an adventure when I'm out with my Love...

Laziness overcame me.

Okay. How did this happen? I'm a new blogger and I'm already slacking!

Let me recap this weekend for ya.

Friday night: SXSW

Friday night was the opening night of South by South West so we had to go downtown and partake in the festivities. Its just part of being an Austinite. I mean... check out the line up of shows. And thats just tomorrows schedule!

There was something I did, however, notice about SXSW that I believe gets overlooked by most passer-byers. The street performers.

These guys are.....dedicated? Is that the right word? Or maybe its crazy? Either way, I always appreciate someone who is willing to work for their money, and boy, do these guys put on a show.

It doesn't matter if you don't usually become awestruck over wig wearing, bearded, crazy and a little creepy guitar players. They draw you in. Well...they draw me in at least.

It's impressive the things you see people do for money.

Like this guy, for instance. Was he just sitting around in his living room one night, thinking: "How can I make money? What talent do I have? OH YEAH! I can balance a guitar on my face and I can hula-hoop! Lets run with that!"

But there are the creepy ones. The ones that pretend to be statues but stare at you when you walk by. Yeah...those.

CREEPY

What do you think this guy tells his daughter when he tucks her in at night?

Daughter: "How was work, dad?"

Grim reaper: "Oh you know, just another day collecting peoples souls on 6th street."

I don't like the statue kind. At all.

When we were walking back to the car a kind pedicab driver took pity on me and Lisa. Maybe we were limping a little to much, but thank you Mr.Pedicab. My throbbing, high-heeled feet are forever grateful.

Saturday: Boston Day

I hate that Boston has to live in an apartment. I never meant for it to be that way but things are what they are. To make up for it, I try to take him to the dog-park as often as possible.

Saturday morning I woke up to find him cuddled on the bed with me. I don't know why, but Boston ALWAYS faces the end of the bed, so you can imagine the lovely view I have when I wake up. I think he does it on purpose. Anyway, he was so darn cute that I started talking to him right when I woke up. Bad idea. He started wagging his tail and popped me right in the eye. So I did what any normal person would do, i cried.

After I got my coffee fix and the swollen eye had gone down, we put on his "name tag" (collar) and headed to the dog park.

p.s. I got his collar at Dogologie in Fredericksburg. They have the cutest little treats, collars, and toys for dogs. Check em out!

We had a good, albeit exhausting, day at the dog park. We succeeded in making new friends, chasing squirrels, finding the only muddy patch in the entire park and getting every square inch of Boston (and me) dirty, fetching and making ourselves completely exhausted. Phew.

Boston, dear sweet dog. I love the stuffins out of you.

No matter how big you get, you will always be my buddy, roommate, park-date, pre-dishwasher-plate-cleaning, lap dog.

I love you, B.

...another mans treasure.

I have a Saturday morning ritual. Every Saturday morning, I wake up at the crack of dawn and roam around town searching for the perfect garage sale, coffee in hand. They are hard to come by, but once you find a treasure, you'll be hooked. I promise. In fact! If you want to preserve your Saturday mornings as "sleeping time,"

I highly recommend steering clear of garage sales all together.

Trust me folks, its addicting.

I found this table at a thrift store in Austin.

When I so graciously saved it from its dusty corner at the Caring Place, I knew just what I wanted to do with it.

Here it is looking ugly, dusty and tacky in my kitchen.

(Please note my beautiful cabinets.)

First things first: Sand that sucker!

Then I painted it with a high-gloss, indoor/outdoor, white spray paint. I prefer to use Krylon.

I didn't bother coating the top of the raised area or the bottom shelf because I had a little something special planned for them!

Something like this...

I found this fabric at Hobby Lobby for only 4 bucks a yard! Heck yes!

Here's what it looked like once I got the fabric stretched over the bottom shelf:

And now for the finale....

...drum roll please...

no?

okay, here it is.

I love it! It goes perfect with the chairs I re-did last summer, without being too matchy-matchy

Alright, my brain is officially mush.

Must...get...sleep.

I hope you all had a perfect Thursday and have an even better Friday!

Destination

There are few things I love more than a good old adventure. I remember my father walking into the living room almost every Saturday morning, when I was a child, and telling us something along the lines of, "Pack a bag! You will need 2 changes of clothes, a swimsuit and hiking boots."

We called those days "Adventure Days"

I loved how spontaneous my parents were! I remember getting so excited thinking about all the places we could possibly be going. Sometimes they were short trips. A day trip to the zoo, or to a museum. But other times, my favorite times, were always out of town.

We would all scurry around the house for about 20 min after my dad made the announcement of Adventure Day. Once we had everything loaded into the big brown and tan suburban, we would get on the road. My dad never spoiled the surprise of where we were headed. We would spend hours trying to guess our destination. Little did I know, but my dad was teaching me that sometimes, it's not about where you are going, but who you are going with and the anticipation and excitement that comes along with an adventure.

Boy were my parents brave. Not only did they take us on small adventures, but on large ones as well. And please remember, at the beginning of our traveling years, I was 2, Rebecca was 4, David was 6 and Heather was 8. I don't know how they did it, but they managed to backpack, camp, bicycle and road trip without ever losing a child. Kudos, mom and dad. Seriously.

So this all has me thinking about all the places I have been to. The many locations from which I have viewed the same sun set.

Here are a few of my favorites.

(Grand Canyon National Park)

(A waterfall we found on a hike down to the Colorado River, from the South rim of the Grand Canyon)

(Petrified Forest National Park)

(Santa Fe. Oh, and apparently I love to wear bandanas when I travel)

(Pensacola, Florida)

(Colorado)

(Chotebor, Czech Republic)

And don't worry, Texas. You will always be my first love.

Okay, I could keep going but for now Ill leave you with that. Well, that and a little quote I read from Mark Twain.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."