Alice Does Dallas

And it sucks. Probably more than Debbie did.

No, it's not really that bad. Just a little boring.

Sunday. The flight was at 5 out of Philadelphia so I get packed and go to my dad's and we get in a taxi and go to PA. That drive was probably the beginning of the boring since I can't read in cars so I just looked at pictures in magazines. Then we got to the airport and I realized that my driver's license was missing. It just wasn't in my wallet. And I couldn't remember taking it out, so who knows how long it had been gone for! But I get in because I have some other ID card which passes muster. So we're there around 3.30 for a 5 o'clock flight which we don't board until 6.30 and which doesn't leave until 7. Also, word for the wise: don't fly American. They have stopped serving meals and snacks (bag of chips, snickers bar, etc) cost $3. Also, there are no TVs and no radio stations! In short: nothing. But the flight was only 3 hours long and I had "Watchmen" to read. We are staying in a Quality Inn which is the Fair Cleaners of hotels: Quality, but not too much. (Except that I do get a king-sized bed!) We are in Irving, TX, a suburb of Dallas and there is nothing around but other hotels. We eat at the Denny's nearby. Of the server my dad whispers, "Is that a man or a woman?" Oh Baffles.

I spent Monday and Tuesday morning hanging out in the hotel watching daytime television and eating biscuits and gravy at the hotel breakfast. That part rocks. I love biscuits and gravy. Monday my dad and I get lunch at a French bakery (in Texas) which is pretty good. It is there, in Grapevine, that I discover that They aren't joking when They say everything is bigger here. Pictures (and poetry) to follow on the Facebook. Tuesday afternoon we get lunch with some people from my dad's work at the BBQ place across the street. It has a meat-pit. And sweet tea. It was great. Corinne, don't ever go to Texas, or at least, don't expect to eat much. In the afternoons we drive around looking for places for my dad to live. All the houses look the same here. They're all made from brick and it's sort of creepy. Streets and streets of the same house. Then you go to the next complex, and they're all the same as the last one. Yikes. Monday night we have dinner at a steak place and I have a delicious prime rib and a local beer called Shiner Bock--yum! Tuesday night we go out with my dad's boss and his wife to a seafood place that gets their scallops from 10 miles south of Sea Bright. I have Nigerian shrimp. They are called U-2s because you get less than two shrimp per pound. I wish I could have taken a picture, they were HUGE. Our server was a guy named Josh who looked like a young Alan Tudyk. We are running away together. Sorry Kevyn.

Yesterday my dad was in a meeting all day so I planned to go into Dallas proper. I found a few places that I wanted to visit and figured out the public transportation enough to have a day's worth of stuff to do. I drive (license-less) to the train station and realize that it is not 60 out like the weathermen said and also that there is no one else around. That's because the next train isn't for 40 minutes--who would have thought to look up the schedule?? So I go back to the hotel, put on more clothes, and resign myself to watch TV and wait for the next-next train. I get into the city no problem and make my way to the Sixth Floor Museum which is the JFK museum in the former Book Depository. It's a really good museum made better by the 6-year old French boy running around. However, don't ever go there by yourself, or at least bring tissues. It's really sad. After that I find a place to eat and get served the thickest slice of French toast I've ever seen. Yum! After that I discover that Dallas is not a tourist town. You can not walk from one place to another and the free trolleys that all the maps say exist, don't. I wander fruitlessly for two hours before deciding to just leave. So I get on the train and come back to the hotel, dejected. But then a Texan in his pick-up truck hits on me and I feel loads better! Sad but true. My dad and I go out to a chain-Mexican restaurant and I get a weak but good pomegranate margarita which I stumble through ordering, ending up saying "pomegrant margareety". Oh yeah.

Today I get up and do the old morning routine: biscuits and gravy, daytime TV. I decide to go to a local mall to get some new jeans because I discovered on Monday that, in addition to the hole in the knee that I knew about, there is also a hole in the crotch that I didn't know about. However, I haven't done that yet. I'm at my dad's office posting this blog. I bet this afternoon we'll do more house hunting. This evening my dad has a work-dinner so I'm going to go to a different mall (because that's what there is to do around here). Tomorrow we're going out with a real estate agent to look at townhouses and then we're coming back. I pretty much can't wait. I keep trying to loudly address Baffles as "Dad" in public places so that people stop thinking I'm his date. Yikes.

The trip (except yesterday) has been more fun than I'm letting on, but I'm bored right now, so everything is seeming extra boring in retrospect.

Also in case you were concerned, my mom found my license and sent it here. I have it now.

Well, that's all I suppose. See you all soonish.

PS. Texas is really flat.