Sooooo, Matt decided he had to attend the world's largest sneaker convention in Houston on July 28th. Really? I thought, Texas in July? I hadn't been to Texas in the summer (okay technically not past May which was in the triple digits last time I was there in May) and was a little skeered. But it's Texas so, umm, yeah I'm going. By the time we made the decision to go the plane flights were way too expensive so I decided we were driving. I mapped the trip so we could go see my longtime, dear, wonderful friend, Tim, who I grew up three doors down from and who lives near Nashville. What a great visit we had with him. Matt had met Tim at our 35th high school reunion in Texas a couple of years ago so it was easy for them to slip into comfortable conversation again.
We went out to dinner then back to Tim's gorgeous home for more catching up. Above is the love of Tim's life, Toby. Toby is like a wind-up toy who is absolutely precious. The way he cocks his head when asked a question, well, you'd just have to see it. Matt fell in love. I think Toby took a real shine to him too. Tim was wise to keep a close eye on Toby as we left; he didn't trust Matt completely not to run off with his beloved dog. The only thing that kept us from taking him was knowing how much they love each other; we'd never come between a love like that.
If there is anyone in the world reading this at all or anyone who doesn't know this, I was asked to be one of the three administrators of my hometown facebook page about five weeks ago. What an honor it was to be asked. I've been a member since very early on which is almost three years now. The person who started the page left long ago and it was not being administered to. We did some digging and finally Jim, above right, had the page handed over to him. He asked John, left, then me. Mostly I was asked because Jim and John know how much I love my hometown and knew how honored and serious I would feel about being an administrator but they also knew that I could pretend to be appropriate enough to handle it! We started out with 3,200 members five weeks ago, now we have over 3,800. You might not think that there's much to do as admins on a silly ole fb group page but you'd be so wrong. Can you imagine making sure over 3,800 people behave, follow rules, not offend anyone else, and keep things interesting all at the same time? Well it ain't easy. We take shifts then we usually are all on at the same time each night. I've really enjoyed working with these guys and getting to know them. I had only met John once at our hometown reunion in February and hadn't seen Jim since he dated my sister (they are five years older than me) in junior high! These guys were so sweet to drive from Houston to Bryan to have lunch with me while I was there. Have I ever mentioned how much I love small world stuff? Well not only did I have that connection with Jim but John and I figured out that we had a really wild connection. John had worked at the Houston Zoo and in many areas with animals and he knows the men who were the animal dealers when my daddy had our Funny Farm, an exotic animal farm we had when I was growing up! We discovered this over lunch; neither of us could get over how coincidental that was.
I wanted us to have our photo taken with our Aggie rings while we were together. Of course, those guys earned theirs themselves, mine is through my daddy. Still, Aggie rings, a bond.
While Jim, John, and I were having lunch at Chicken Oil Co. the guy sitting at the table next to us overheard us mentioning a bunch of names he recognized. He introduced himself as Bill Allen from Hairy Bikers, a t.v. show on the History Channel where bikers do cooking. He had some great stories for us and he was a real nice fella.
And if there weren't enough ways for me to feel like the queen of Bryan, the sweet people from our hometown facebook page invited everyone out to meet for dinner in my honor. What a great crowd we had and the seating, the way people who didn't know other people got to meet, the stories-it was fabulous. You see Greg standing behind me, the guy who I saw in NYC just the week before? Small world, check.
There were other fun times and there were challenging times. Lucas and Kristen were moving into their first "grown up" house and we "got" to help. Of course we were happy to help but we all know how much moving stinks and July in Texas doesn't make it better. Grumpy ruled many times. There was also a family pool party, lunch with other friends, shopping for the show house (next post). Matt shot his first gun, caught a bunch of big fish, and had his first run-in with fire ants. He and I also bonded over great music, close conversation, and seeing a lot of the beauty that is our great country. Plus, on the way home, I took the route to go through Monroe, LA so we could go the Duck Dynasty Command Center. We had the added thrill of getting to see Jase somewhat up close and more personal than just on t.v. It was a lot of driving for one person but, as always, I had no regret doing it. It was very hard to leave but made slightly easier by knowing that I'm going back in just over a month to meet my mom for a football game...smiling.
