January 1, 2011

I realize that I'm not off to a good start with my blog...already a day behind.  BUT that wasn't entirely my fault.  I was at a hotel that claimed to have wireless access, but didn't.  Or, at least, I couldn't make it work.  I had brought my computer and everything, to make sure that I could get my first post yesterday, but it just didn't happen.  So, my first one is late, but I promise to make sure that the rest of them are actually posted on Saturday.

2011 started off amazingly well.  I went out on Friday after work with my boyfriend, Pete, who you will be reading lots about, I'm sure.  We went to dinner at Vickery Park downtown, where we had our first date.  He's so cute the way that he remembers things like that.  Anyway, we went, had some amazing food and took some great pictures (which will be added once I find my stupid USB cable).  They had funny hats and necklaces to wear, so of course I made Pete put them on and I took pictures.  He had way more fun with the horns.  I finally had to take it away from him. :)  My brother, Michael, met us there later, and refused to wear anything that looked stupid, so no funny pics of him.  Well, not until he got good and drunk later, and I got some shots of him leaning heavily against pretty much anything that would support him. hahaha!

After Vickery, we walked across the street to the 32 degree bar, which is a smallish-bar on the rooftop of Urban Crust.  It was completely packed in there, and the DJ was decent, so Pete didn't complain about the music too much.  Okay, he did, but once he had some drinks, he was breaking out his **ahem** awesome dance moves.  I had a great time there, took some shots with Michael and Pete, and found myself a really cute feathery tiara that said "Happy New Year."  Yeah, I took it home with me, and many more pictures were taken.

After dropping Michael off, Pete and I headed to our hotel and drank some more.  It's funny, because he doesn't normally drink much, but I guess he made an exception for the evening.  Either way, it was a lot of fun.  The next day he woke me up at some un-godly hour (I actually think it was around 10:30, but whatever) and we went to brunch back at Vickery Park.  He was craving their eggs Benedict, and we'd missed the free bagels, or whatever they had at the hotel. 

After brunch, (and a really good Bloody Mary), we headed to the Dallas Museum of Art to see the Mourners exhibit that I'd been dying to see...it was amazing.  The detail of the statues was incredible.  The faces, the cloth of their robes...they looked like real people.  I realize that's the point, but it was still awesome.  Pete said he felt like Gulliver in Lilliput.  That made me laugh, and people look at me all frown-y.  Whatever.  We wandered to the gift shop where I mentally did my shopping for people for the next few years...seriously, they had some amazing stuff in there.  And then we went and checked out the Roman and Greek areas.  That was just, wow.  Looking at these busts and jewelry that were made in the first century.  The detail.  I don't know how they did it by hand.  The mosaics where just staggering.  I can't believe that people were able to create things that like so long ago.  The same with some of the impressionists.  I saw one painting by...I can't remember the name right now, but it was pointillism...okay, Google has just informed me that the painting was Comblat le Chateau by Paul Signac.  The sky is what really got me.  All the dots of blue and white, but from far away look like this amazing summer sky.  Brilliantly beautiful.

Afterwards, we caught a trolley/streetcar named Rosie and took it to Uptown Dallas.  The streetcar is 101 years old (102 in September) and in terrific condition.  I loved the velvet seats and the wood sliding doors in the front.  What I thought was really cool was that when the car changes directions, the seat backs are simply slid to the other side of the seat so that you're facing forward, no matter what.  Here's Rosie.  I also found out that it is the oldest running streetcar in North America.  Pretty cool.



The day wound up with pizza, beer, and TV at the hotel.  We both crashed around 8pm, and slept until about :8:30 the next morning...clearly we are too old for partying all night and walking around Dallas all day and into the evening.  Now I'm home, and just thinking about all that we did is making me tired again!  It was a great weekend and a perfect start to 2011.  I can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store!