I flew out of SGU on the early AM flt. to SLC and connected to the first SLC-DFW flt. While waiting to board, I got chat briefly my "sister" TMiller, who just happened to be flying that morning. How I miss her sometimes. She's almost as twisted as I am. ;).
Anyhow, I texted Lacey before I left SGU...telling her to leave work early, pick me up from DFW, and go to the Rangers' afternoon game that was scheduled to start about an hour after my arrival at DFW. I fully expected her to have to work and not be able to go...I just sent them mostly to tease...but, it just happened that she was off. She was at E14 baggage claim for me when I got to Dallas and away we went to Rangers Ballpark.
It was such a beautiful day for a ballgame. The beer was cold, the dogs were fresh, and the right field home run porch was a perfect place to be. The Rangers took the early lead and never let up...the won a solid game. A perfect spring day at the ballpark...
In the 5th or so, the ballpark got hazy and it smelled a bit like firewood. When we left, you could tell that there were wildfires to the west...turns out, these fires were deadly and destructive.
After the game, I had Lace drop me off at a MickeyD's off Cooper and I-20 to meet up with Dearing. She complained about it the entire way... ;). I said adios to Lacey, tossed my stuff in Dearing's Jeep, grabbed a Big Mac to go, And we were off...headed out out to his parents' lakehouse at Lake Granbury to fish.
I was beyond beat down, so I slipped in and out of conciousness between Arlington and the Lake. The smoke and haze seemed to get worse before getting better...but it DID clear up back to beautiful blue skies.
We stopped at a little roadside bait shop on the way out to the lake...a place called Alice's. We walked in to find a...ahem...heavy-set woman with a glorious mullet and moustache that made me envious willing to sell us minnows. We ordered up three dozen (Alice threw in a crawdad for free...what a steal!) paid up and got the he'll outta there before it became a re-enactment of the movie "Deliverence". Between my earring and Dearing's mohawk (he lost an academic-related bet with his students), they were starting to look at us all kinds of funny.
We made it out to the lakehouse and it could not have been anymore perfect. Nice, quiet, comfortable, that musty scent of lake...and a fishing platform/dock right there in the backyard. We set up the iPod speakers outside, plugged on the iPhone connected to Pandora (playing Texas country, of course), poured a couple Jack & Cokes, baited...a few hooks that is...and waited for the fish to bite.
After about an hour, we decided the fish weren't biting...and it was in that moment that I got my first bite. I fought with him; I just knew this was that bass I saw jump only a few minutes earlier. Having not fished in years, I was ready to brag about this one. When I pulled this monster outta the water, my allusions of a trophy piece were shot out of the water...it was a 4-inch perch. I guess my line was a little snagged on the reel-in, so it felt bigger than it was. I took a picture of him anyway. I can't believe he swallowed that humongous minnow whole.
The rest of the evening was much of the same...small fish, good music, good conversation with a bro i don't get to see often, and calmness. Something I've needed for a long while. About nine o'clock or so, the dull headache started to come back. I've been having these headaches and fatigue, off and on, for weeks. They suck...and zap my energy. Also, I barely sleep a full night these days.
With all that, I decided to lie down on the couch for a bit. At two in the morning, Dearing woke me to tell me I could use the bed in the extra bedroom. Glory hallelujah...Mama Dearing has created the most amazing bed...ever. I have not slept so comfortably in God knows when. Despite how restful it was, I still slept for another seven hours...and it was good.
I got up...fished a little more and we packed up. We stopped at Babe's Chicken Dinner house in Granbury on the way out. If you've never been to a Babe's...GO! That was the closest thing to home-cookin' I've had in a while.
Dearing took me to get my rental car and we headed to Three Justins HQ. JB and I rocked out to Guitar Hero: Metallica for a while, got dinner, and I was off to Gainesville.
I pulled in at Shaun's place pretty late thanks to a wrong turn near Fort Worth...and, yes, I did refuse to consult Google maps on the iPhone. I just forged ahead 'til I found my way.
Shaun and I caught up for a bit and then decided to knock out the one thing we had planned on doing while I was in town: checking my credit reports.
I was an irresponsible teenager with a credit card at the beginning of this decade...and, as a result, my credit has sucked for years. With the the help of Shaun's amazing knowledge and experience in these types of financial matters, I've been able to claw my way back up to a pretty decent credit situation. The last time we checked, we were seeing the first real signs of significant improvement...this time, I was hoping to see an even greater amount of improvement. Without sharing too many details of my current credit report, I can say that Shaun's methods and recommendations have worked 100%. My level of improvement in the last 3-6 months has been incredible...and my financial goals are within reach. It's a pretty amazing feeling after the feelings of hopelessness over the years.
I got up Saturday morning and headed over to my parents' house. There were a million cars parked out front and...not having seen my little brother's truck there...I feared someone had died and mom forgot to tell me (I have jokingly stated many times since my move to Utah that mom would do just that if a close relative ever should , God forbid, pass away unexpectedly). When I walked in, the place was filled with women and I realized that it was a baby shower for my sister-in-law. Upon realizing this, I td mom I would come back later and made a b-line to get the hell outta there.
I headed down to Denton for the day...got Rudy's BBQ with Lorenzo, got fitted for the tux I'll be wearing in Sammy's wedding, hung out with Cody for a little bit, and hung out with old tailgating buddies at the 6th(?) Annual GoMeanGreen.com Bowl. It was especially great to see Stebo and meet his Emily...it had been too long.
Got back to Gainesville and hung with my grandparents. Papa and I talked baseball for a while...I fixed a few things on Nanny's computer...and we caught up on things. My Nanny & Papa are great to spend time with...I'm so glad to have such a close relationship with them. I think sometimes I take that for granted...:-/
From there, I went back to Mom and Dad's for a historic evening. We hung out, all evening, all together...and, for the first time in our family's history, we didn't get into any kind of argument. You may laugh, but this is huge progress for my family. Of course, all of us had a beer or two in our systems, but that's neither here nor there. To top it off, a pretty awesome storm rolled in during all of this. I needed that to refuel my gypsy soul...LOL!
I nightcapped the evening by stopping in at Chad's birthday shindig at his amazing apartment above the old KXGM-FM studios on the courthouse square. It was an interesting hodgepodge of folks I haven't seen in years. From there, Shaun and I grabbed late-night Whataburger to complete the "Texas Food Odyssey"...which is, in no particular order:
1.) a Shiner Bock beer
2.) Rudy's or Deiter Bros.' BBQ
3.) Blue Bell Ice Cream
4.) Whataburger
This morning...I got dressed in some business casual, loaded up my "dorky, pilot rollaboard" (as Brandon Murray calls it) into my rented Dodge Charger, and went to Easter lunch with the family. I love our semi-redneck family meals at my aunt & uncle's place. The food rocks: my Uncle Jeff's kickass cheeseburgers and deer chili, Mom's baked beans, Nanny's potato salad...I want a second helping just thinking about it. We don't do "traditional" and I love it.
I said my goodbyes after lunch, headed to DFW, and here I am...typing this blog entry on my phone from the Hell Seat on a DFW-SLC flight. Yes, the Hell Seat on a SkyWest CRJ-900...20D. No window, no recline, right next to the crapper, and a CF34 engine screaming on the other side of the wall. To top it off, the aisle seat is occupied by a very fidgety four year old. But, hey, it's a ride. It just irks me that (after a party of five split their reservation and took that almost guaranteed first class seat), with my seniority on a SkyWest operated flight, I get this seat...but the commuting mainline Delta pilot well below me on the standby list gets the best coach seat in the house...5A. Explain that...oh, I know, it's a mainline station.
All in all, though, it's a small price to pay considering it was one of the best weekends home I've ever had.
