I Got Crabs in Texas.

Quesedillas in honor of the great mexican food I had in Texas.

Everything is bigger in Texas...including my swollen gums. I have a chipped tooth that is infected at the root & needs to be removed. It started bothering me on Friday night & was pretty swollen by the time I met momma & sonya. I hope they didn't think I just had a wad of tobacco in my cheek. :-)

Dallas Report:
The weather was lovely and the conference was great. Our presentation went fine. We didn't have a huge crowd in our session because it was the same time as the Ohio v. Michigan football game. The rest of the sessions were very useful. Unfortunately we were in sessions from about 8-6 every day, plus a few evening "interest group" schmoozing things, so not much time for sightseeing.

Saturday night I went out with a bunch of doctoral students...some in our nursing program, some in our school's medical program. The three glasses of wine & two cosmos before dinner might have been a bad idea. When we got to our restaurant, the waiter immediately elected me head of the table, as he could tell I was in an extra good mood. :-) Two pomatini's later, I was in a REALLY good mood. I spilled some on my shirt & whipped out my Tide stain remover pen. They made me sing like Kelly Rippa does in those commercials. *hangs head*

Fast forward to Sunday:
Momma and Sonya were going to meet me at 5 pm near "the big horse statue" in my hotel. As I walked up the the big horse, I could see they'd arrived first. I was greeted by these great big Texas hugs and smiles. I knew it would be a great night.

First thing I learned: Sonya is pronounced "sawnya." I thought it was "sownya." Who knew?

Second thing I learned: Just because they are from Texas, it doesn't mean they know their way around Dallas. :-)

We decided to walk down to the West End Historic District, where all the restaurants are. When I realized where we were headed I said "Oh yea, I know how to get there, we had dinner down here last night!" So the girl from Wisconsin guided the girls from Texas to the restaurant mecca. It's the cutest area...brick streets, horse drawn carriages, christmas lights, the whole bit.

On our way there, some man said that momma was "so beautiful." It's true...she is! She has the most beautiful blue eyes.

We couldn't decide where to eat until they heard I'd never eaten at a Joe's Crab Shack. Unfortunatley, despite Sonya's best efforts, there would be no crazy dancing at this location. She tried to get the manager and waiter to dance to no avail.

We all ate crab (Kim's Peep Meet Rule 43: Apparently you must eat crab with peeps and you must all order the same thing from the menu). Yummmmmm! We also went shirt shopping at Joe's...Sonya & I wanted the one that said "Good Girls Get Crabs," but it only came in a small. I did, however, find Chris a neanderthal eating crabs t-shirt and a cute beer bottle cozie for me. I also got a bag of awesome Texas themed gifts from the girls.

I learned a lot about the wild days of sonya and momma. They swear they are homebodies now. Should we believe them?

We then went for a few drinks at Gator's. We think our waitress might have been interested in sonya. :-)

It was SO nice to meet momma & sonya. They are two of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I only wish it wouldn't have been Sunday and sonya wouldn't have been on-call for work. I have a feeling these two could've shown me a wild time!

*smooches* to sonya & momma...the best things in Texas!