I woke up yesterday morning feeling slightly like I’d been hit by a bus. I wasn’t sure of my name or where I was and I’m pretty sure I had several dreams that involved me being at a nearby Chinese restaurant in town. Which is particularly odd because I do not care for Chinese food unless you count fried rice and hot and sour soup. I used to be obsessed with General Tso’s chicken back in the early 90’s but then I got a hold of some bad General Tso’s and that put an end to my love affair with the General.
Anyway, I’m sad to report that I didn’t feel much better as the day went on. I don’t know if it’s allergies or the beginnings of Bubonic plague, but my throat is really sore and my eyes feel like I can’t keep them open. This should make me super appealing to the group I’m speaking to later on today.
But I want to finish my recap of last week because if I don’t do it now then it will never happen and someday I will want to turn on “The Way We Were” by Barbra Streisand and let memories light the corners of my mind as I read back over these posts.
When I left off yesterday, Tiff and I had stayed up until 2 a.m. talking, so you can imagine how refreshed I felt when P woke me up at 7 a.m. the next morning. I packed Caroline’s lunch and gave P a quick recap of the rest of the night before and then he left to take Caroline to school while Tiff and I drank coffee and talked some more until she had to get on the road about 9:00.
The original plan was for Gulley and me to ride back to Dallas with Jen and Jamie and then fly back to San Antonio on Friday morning, but Jamie informed us a few days before that she needed to be on the road to Dallas by 6 a.m. Thursday morning and Gulley and I were both like NO THANK YOU. So we decided just to drive to Dallas by ourselves and back home to San Antonio the next day. You don’t have to twist our arm to make a road trip.
Gulley and I left San Antonio around 11:00 which is our preferred hour of the morning and began the slowest trip to Dallas possible. I don’t know why it took us so long but it might have had something to do with the fact we made 84 different stops for gas and bathroom breaks and Whataburger and, finally, a DQ Blizzard in Hillsboro. And while we were in the parking lot of the DQ, we received a text from Jen and Jamie asking where we were along with this picture they’d taken as they made the same drive earlier that morning. They challenged us to get our Thelma and Louise on.
And so we did our best, but stopped short of jumping off a cliff.
However, we did have a bit of excitement when we left the DQ and a light came on my dashboard indicating my oil level was low. I don’t know much about auto mechanics, but I felt like this probably wasn’t the best sign. So we did the responsible thing and drove immediately to an auto place when we got to Dallas. We ended up getting an oil change and some new radiator fluid and I felt a little bit like I was being scammed but when you might think your car needs a new flux capacitor and you’re five hours from home, I just decided better safe than sorry and stranded on the side of the road in Waco.
Gulley and I went straight to our hotel after we got the car taken care of because we both felt like we may not make it without a power nap. So we got in a quick twenty minutes of downtime before it was time to get ready and head to Jamie’s house before we went to Barnes & Noble.
Then we made our way to Barnes & Noble for the book signing. And none of the following people were there which is a shame because DALLAS.
(Can we talk for one minute about Lucy’s red jumpsuit? And the fact that I used to watch Dallas with my Me-Ma and Pa-pa almost every Friday?)
I will tell you that Dallas blew me away. I was supposed to go to Dallas for a book signing two years ago and ended up having to cancel because I had a stomach bug that we can never speak of again, but this trip more than made up for it. I got to see so many dear friends including my first college roommate, my dear friend Meredith and her brother and other people that I’ve just emailed with and been dying to meet in person. One sweet girl even brought a handmade sign that said, “You’re My Gulley!” to send to her best friend who lives out of state. It was the most fun and I was totally and completely overwhelmed by it all.
This is Gulley and me with our roommate Mer who we lived with our last year in college.
And this is Jamie, Jen, Gulley and me.
And this is Jamie’s sister and her daughter along with Sheaffer who some of you might know from her blog Pinterest Told Me To.
Meanwhile, as I was signing books, Jen decided she was hungry and ate the pizza some of her friends had brought her.
And I will confess that while there is no photographic evidence of it, I absolutely shoved a piece of pizza in my mouth as soon as I was finished signing books because it was after 10:00 p.m. and I was starving. I have no regrets because it was absolutely delicious. Then a big group of us met up at The Front Room next to the Lumon Hotel for a late dinner. I had a Croque Madam sandwich that was basically a grilled ham and cheese with a fried egg on top. I cannot even express how much I loved it except to say I’d eat fifteen of them right this minute.
By this point I was way too busy eating my sandwich to worry about pictures, but Gulley and I did get one with our dear friend Hite who will be quick to tell you he is mentioned in Chapter 11.
Shortly after this we made our way back to our hotel and basically fell into bed. It was almost 1 a.m. which means that was the second night in a row we’d been acting like we were in college instead of forty-something year old women and we could barely stand up for being so tired. We set the alarm for 9:00 a.m. and that’s the last thing I remember until I heard the alarm and Gulley said, “Man, my fingers are so swollen this morning.” And I had to remind her that’s what happens when you eat a fried egg and ham sandwich at midnight.
We threw on some clothes, made a quick stop at Starbucks and then hit the road to head back to San Antonio. The trip home went much faster and we only made a couple of stops, including one to take a picture in the bluebonnets because why not? It’s the Texas thing to do.
I was so glad to get home to my people and to catch up with P who had been a master at holding down the fort and keeping everything running smoothly while I was gone. We picked up Mexican food for dinner and just caught up on the last few days until we couldn’t keep our eyes open. Then on Saturday we went to Caroline’s soccer game and then straight to my book signing at Walmart where Caroline and Jackson roamed the store while I signed books. Also, Caroline found a nice hand that we ended up buying. I can’t even tell you how disturbing it was when she came up behind me and grabbed my shoulder with it.
Then Sunday morning P and I drove Caroline to Austin for a soccer game and Caroline and I had an afternoon meeting and then I wished desperately for Monday so I could get some rest.
And, with that, I think we’re pretty much caught up on life.
Now if I can just get caught up on sleep.
***A few quick book related things. I’ll be signing books at River Oaks Barnes & Noble in Houston this Saturday, April 18th at 7 p.m.. Also, the book is still in stock online at Barnes & Noble and is less than $10 which is practically free. Also, you might notice at the top of this post that there’s a place to sign up if you want to receive my email newsletter. This is a totally new thing but I plan to make it lots of fun with content and things that aren’t on the blog. Feel free to sign up if that interests you.***