Grateful Friday

Fall break is going swimmingly.

I am grateful to be able to spend time with Adam exploring a new city.  That is my favorite.

Yesterday morning he worked and I did a little bit of training to be a mentor.  (I never asked to be a mentor and I have all these online courses associated with it and it's a pain, but that's a rant for another day.)

I also did a little embroidery and read.

We had lunch at Chicken Salad Chick with something like 18 varieties of chicken salad.

I used the bathroom and was so delighted with the signs, I took a picture.

I sent Adam to the men's bathroom (it was labeled Chick Magnets) to see if they had signs in there.

In the afternoon we went to the arena where the graduation will be held.  He introduced me to the commencement team and they were very nice to me.  They even gave me an all access pass which went straight to my head.

Adam did a walk through with them and I tagged along and it is a huge undertaking.  I think they are having about 1400 graduates.

One of Adam's employees, Liz, is an enthusiastic Texan and she had created an evening for us.  We picked her and another guy up at their hotel and went to the Stockyards.  A woman from the events team told us, "You have to go watch the cattle drive at the Stockyards!"  and a woman on the commencement team said, "You have to go watch the cattle drive at the Stockyards!"

We assured them we were going.

After all that build up, it was very anticlimactic.

About five cowboys drove about 15 longhorn cattle down the street.

Maybe if I had never seen cattle or cowboys it would have been more exciting.

One thing I noticed was that they all held their reins like Texans.  When I was growing up, my dad would tell me not to hold my reins like a Texan.  So based on that sample size, I guess it's a thing.

We walked around the Stockyards.  There were touristy souvenir shops and high end shops and lots of boots and hats for sale.  It was like Disneyland for Texans.  It was a fun vibe.

We met more of Liz's team and had dinner at a BBQ place.  We lingered and visited for a long while.  

Then we got ice cream.  A guy stopped me on the street and said, "Where did you get that?!?"

I pointed him to the ice cream shop.  Solidarity.  

We left the young to stay and go to the honky tonk and Adam and I gave Liz (who's about our age) a ride back to her hotel.

We're not the staying out late crowd.  Solidarity.

We talked to Braeden and QE and then Emma, which was nice.

Hoping Mark is still among the living.

I love being with Adam.  I love seeing him in his work element and learning more about what he does.

I'm grateful for this life.