Sunday, May 5, 2013

A tale of Three Cities

A Tale of Three Cities

 The MEME to the right describes it perfectly.  I've spent the last 4 weeks traveling to hang out with some of my very best friends.  4 weeks ago it was Austin for a 30th birthday bash (unfortunately I brought pink eye down there with me causing a Typhoid Mary like reaction), then to San Antonio for the Rangers v Padres game at the Alamodome, home for a week, then to Bricktown in OKC.  Each provided for a different experience and they all (less Dallas) had at least one outstanding interaction from a girl I have never met and will probably never see again.  This leads me to the conclusion there is something either wrong with the water in Dallas or a misplaced sense of values.  What else could explain how these cities had so much different and yet their women were all amazing?

San Antonio
As long as you stay away from the tourist trap of the dirty river walk SA is one of the best places in Texas with some of the nicest people in the I've ever met.  I think SA gets a bad wrap from Texas' other larger cities.  Dallas is filled with self important ego's just aching to tell you about their car/ job/ Jerry World season tickets, Houston is (or was) the rap Mecca of the south known for oil money and the Rockets and the Astros, "Austin is weird" and screams "I'm not Texas, I was adopted, look how different I am!!!" while San Antonio just sits there south of Austin casually mentioning how many more NBA trophies they have than Dallas and Houston combined when one of them gets cocky about sports.  If either of them bring up the quality of restaurants or James Beard award winning chefs San Antonio gets a coy smile and laughs... oh, really Dallas you have founded the new Gourmet Taco movement or So... Austin, this whole Food Truck thing and locally sourced produce is your idea right... gotcha.  After 4 or 5 trips trips there in the last 8 months I can also say San Antonio claims the title of Best Looking Women.  No contest, hands down wins.  You're more apt to find a group of very attractive girls anywhere in San Antonio than those 3 other cities.  Not counting the UT Campus, but those girls are TWENTY and have a soul designed by Urban Outfitters and Tom's Shoes without any substance.
My last trip started with a Texas Rangers spring training game at Alamodome.  Watching a baseball game indoors on turf was a little different- the right field was 287'- never playing baseball in my life I'm sure I could drop one over the fence.  I almost figured SA would have chosen the Astro's over the Rangers with it's proximity to Houston, but the fans there were all behind the Rangers.  After the game we went to one of SA's many quick Mexican food places in the hospital district away from the stadium where 80% of the patrons were decked out in Rangers gear.  Here, as usual I saw a good number of attractive women, couples, and friends enjoying the evening while being in the moment and happiness of their friend's company.  There was a pleasant absence of cell phones sitting on the table or people more focused on their social media than the social situation they were presently in.
Saturday we made the pilgrimage to Chunky's burgers (http://www.mychunkysburgers.com/).  After our first experience there it has become a staple of my SA trips.  Besides being featured on Man Vs Food for their 4 horseman burger made with the Ghost chili they serve up a number or fantastic burgers.  My personal favorite is a 1/2 pound patty, fried jalapeno bottle caps, applewood smoked thick cut bacon, house made queso, and placed on Texas toast.  It's a burger I would start taking statins for.  Our routine is to place the burger order, grab a bucket of long necks, and hop on out to the patio to listen to whatever country music is playing while fading in and out of a burger coma.  On this trip we got lucky; due to an ordering mishap we accidentally ordered two buckets.  As we were taking out time enjoying the garlic parmesan fries and finishing off the burgers a group of local soldiers showed up with the intention to finish the 4 horseman burger.  Four attempted it, including one girl (Thomas, who was from the Air Force , and one finished it: Carey Norvell from the Army.  The one hispanic guy who tried puked and one guy who obviously saw Boondoock Saints too many times (he had "Veritas" tattooed on his finger) gave up pretty quickly after deciding the pain to fame ratio wasn't worth it, maybe he should have watched Boondock Saints before coming?  After the burgers were finished we found some Balcones single Malt Whiskey to try out at the house and then headed to 1919 sans one who left to attend a Toga party.

Blackberry Juliep at 1919
RJ heard about 1919 from a friend of their's and the idea of custom cocktails was intriguing.   After my experience at Smyth the previous Thursday I was interested to see the same idea executed differently.  Well, 1919 gets it right where Smyth doesn't.  About an hour and a half in I was sitting next to RJ, using about 1/2 of my stool leaning in to hear them when I felt someone lean against my back.  My initial reaction was someone was ordering and got a little close.  After a few minutes I turned and noticed they, SHE, was sitting in the over half of my chair.  I asked RJ if she was attractive as her back was turned.  Her friends were very cute and RJ confirmed she was very pretty.  I engaged her in small talk and realized she was very nice with a great sense of humor.  When she went to the restroom I described J and asked if she saw her walking around confused looking for the bathroom to please help her out.  Knowing how friendly J is R and and I agreed that J would give us the real scoop on this mystery woman.   As I hoped when they returned they were fast friends with J's approval.  After spending the evening talking with her it came to me as we were leaving that the depth and warmth of the conversation wasn't something that occurred to me in Dallas at any point I could remember.  Unfortunately a drunken friend of hers cut her night short.  In San Antonio I constantly encounter situations similar to that almost every time I go down there.  People just seem less guarded in general.
1919 menu

BrickTown (OKC)
Two weeks after my SA trip I once again hopped on Southwest and made the trip north to land of the (hated) Sooners.  A close friend of mine spends a good part of the year up that way for work.  His home is in Austin but his career requires him to be in OKC for a significant amount of time.  We've been trying to do this guys type of weekend for a few years but our work schedules never allowed it.  This time we just picked a weekend and made it work.  My thoughts about Oklahoma in general revolve around it being a meth heaven and  filled with people that think OKC is a big city with great food.  The flight down was filled with conversation from the two guys sitting on either side of me telling me where to get great Mexican food.  I just smiled uneasily while wanting to yell "I live in Dallas Texas and just spent the last 2 weekends in Austin and San Antonio, don't even attempt to tell me what you think is good Mexican food because I will think it's frozen TV dinner shit"... But I digress. 
About an hour into the trip we ate (shit nachos BTW, confirming my initial l thoughts) and found a great patio on the riverwalk area in Bricktown called Captain Norm's.  It's a pretty simple rum bar with a specialty in cigars.  My friend knew the waitress's working and I became friends with both of them rather quickly.  I designed my own cocktail for the weekend with Cracken rum, simple syrup, a splash of sprite, and a lime.  I also re-ignited my love of a great cigar as I puffed on a Cohiba and watched the sun set.  A local country act, Aaron Newman, was playing so we stayed there for the majority of the night.  At one point the bartender introduced us to some single girls there who just wanted a few guys to talk to.  Even though my friend and I had a few more drinks than we should have I had a great time hanging out with these new randoms.  I even tried to get them a little closer to our level by introducing the wonderfully dangerous Vegas Bomb to them.  They were very nice and kept an engaging conversation going.  When the bar closed we took off to do the whole thing over again the next night.  Saturday started just like Friday did- Capt Norm's patio with Alex and Toni serving us drinks.  We ran into Aaron (the singer from the previous night) and some of his friends and the night started up at around 3 in the afternoon.  With everything in walking distance Bricktown makes for a very fun experience.  We hoped around to a few different spots and then met up with Aaron right before he played at the Bricktown Brewery, after that is was off to JJ's.  For the second night a chance encounter with a girl led to 2 hours of discussing life, politics, humor, and travel.  She wasn't at all what I normally go for; Becky with dirty blonde hair, a swirl complexion, 5'8"ish and brown eyes was very surprising.  Cagey, obtus like conversation and and a fondness for Rachmaninoff and Drake were very appealing qualities.  On a side note as we were leaving the candy shop in Bricktown on Sunday before my flight the bartender said "You know, in the 2 days you've been here you've drank a bottle and a half of Cracken.  This drink is on me".  It was one of those proud yet disturbing moments, but completely explained my level 8 hangover.  I didn't finish the drink.
At Skinny Slims in OKC

Dallas
On each trip the flight home was very short but my mind was constantly thinking about the trip.  I love spending time with my best friends but the same theme about friendly, engaging conversation with girls I had never met kept creeping up.  This november marks 10 years of living in Dallas, yet in those 10 years I haven't met or had such strong conversations with women as I do each time I leave town.  I could definitely be romanticizing each situation since its very likely I won't ever see them again.  Maybe the constant is being out of a familiar element so I'm more free to say what I want but I don't think it's that.  The only other constant is the scene that is Dallas.  Dallas is filled with people looking to upgrade; their car, their job, their life.  I belive drive and ambition are a must and something I definitely look for in a friend or partner.  But at what point does it become detrimental.  Do you focus more on the things that you want to change than what's making you happy right now?  Do you end up settling later in life because your eyes were so focused on the idea of physical beauty that you didn't see how hazardous the other qualities were, do you get into a loveless relationship because it's safe rather than stand on your own, or do things work out wonderfully like RJ where you meet the perfect mate to have a disney like designed relationship?

Yesterday I went looking at new cars; there is nothing wrong with my car, its a great car, but I felt a "want" to see what else out there appealed to me.  I found something I really liked which was completely impractical but gorgeous and the price was decent.  But when the paperwork and numbers started to come through and they weren't going to give me what I thought was a fair deal for my car I decided I didn't want to lose that much.  I had the option to keep mine and take on a new car payment, but the idea of having two cars and two payments didn't appeal to me as much as the ability to use the money and see Columbia, Tokyo  or Copenhagen.  I guess like trading in cars life is a long series of compromises built around the perception of value of what you have versus what you want.