Everything's bigger in Texas

It’s been almost a year since I posted last, although, that was a sorry excuse for a post. It was written in my safe, comfortable home in California. I was probably sitting in front of my parent’s huge TV watching House Hunters and eating ice cream. Now, I’m sitting in a Starbucks in Texas feeling slightly uncomfortable as there are some very questionable people (men) sitting around me.  Including two guys who are drinking bottled Starbucks coffee. Can you even buy that here and why wouldn’t you just buy the fresh coffee drinks? And the old guy next to me is also writing a blog post and looking at the class schedule for the same fitness center I attend. Time to reduce my font to size 10.  Anyway, a lot has happened since my last post. No need to rehash in writing the boring/stupid/irrational moments – I manage to do that very well all on my own. All the time. (And enter creepo number 6 - Awesome). So, work is going fairly well and despite pretty general annoyances, it can be quite fun at times. And, I get to have some pretty entertaining conversations with the kiddos, which can really put life into perspective.  This isn’t exactly my dream job, but at this point I couldn’t tell you what is, so I guess it’ll work for now.

I’ve managed to snag a few gigs, which have also resulted in some entertaining and educational moments. This weekend I played for a wedding in a very stereotypical Texas town about an hour and a half away.  The location of the wedding itself was quite beautiful and you would have never imagined that a place so beautiful could exist in this podunk town.  The wedding was held in a fairly large garden on the edge of town, kind of tucked away.  There were ponds with koi fish, several lovely fountains, bridges, trees and wonderful shade from the Texas sun. My friend and I arrived early so we wandered around until it was time for the rehearsal. The rehearsal went well and I was happy to see we were playing the typical easy (boring) wedding music. People started to arrive a bit later and take their seats so we started to play the Prelude music. Somehow, I got lost in one of the pieces and just sat there until I figured out what happened. Not a big deal and I’m sure no one really noticed. And in fact, I set the trend. The violist lost his place in another piece and so did the violinists. Cool. So everything is going well and finally we see the bridesmaids. We start playing Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring which usually isn’t played all the way through because most people walk at a reasonable pace and get to the front of the altar area quite quickly. But, this wasn’t the case at this particular wedding.  I have never seen bridesmaids walk so slowly and so far apart from each other. So I’m thinking “ok, well, at least I’ll have had the chance to play this thing all the way through” and then I feel things crawling on my feet. It’s a horrible feeling especially when you’re trapped in your seat and can’t run away or at least flail around. And yes, I’m wearing flats that offer absolutely no protection to the tops of my feet. I looked longingly at the guy next to me who was wearing real shoes and think socks.  I tried to shoo whatever was on my feet away without attracting too much attention because we’re seated right where the bridesmaids are entering and all eyes are in our direction, including the photographers.  It seemed to work for a few seconds and then the little demons were back. I gave up all hope of propriety and violently wiped my feet on opposite legs because it’s starting to become painful and I can’t really look down to see what in god’s name is happening to my poor feet.  I end up bringing my feet up to the bar underneath the chair to save what’s left of them.  After what seems like an eternity, the last bridesmaid reaches the front and we stop playing. Thank goodness. My feet were stinging all over and I was a little afraid to look down. I ended up with 15 red, horrible, disgusting, already swelling, bug bites on my feet. If someone just looked at my feet at that moment, I swear they would have though I had small pox, or the plague or leprosy. And somehow I also had a bite quite far up on each leg. How that happened I don’t even want to know.  The best part was that I was the only person in the quartet that was so viciously attacked, even though there were others wearing flats. The rest of the group looked horrified when they saw my poor, pathetic feet, but were clearly thrilled that it didn’t happen to them. I’ve played in many weddings, mostly wearing flats and this has never happened to me before. So I painfully learned that apparently even the bugs (and their appetites) are bigger in Texas. The following day I learned another valuable lesson about trash chutes…but I’ll save that for later. Sometimes I think I was supposed to move to Texas just to experience bizarre and strange events such as this one…

bringing fashion back

Somewhere along the way, my sense of fashion left me. I'd like to blame it on my high school (where we had to wear uniforms), but I think I just stopped trying. At some point, I probably decided it was better to fit in than to stand out. Well, not anymore! I'm moving to Dallas and am determined to regain my fashionable self. I recently went shopping with my mom and spent a fortune buying some great work outfits. Here are some of my purchases.