Austin, Texas in Three Days!

I lived in Austin for almost 8 years while attending undergrad and then law school at UT.  I also met my husband there in undergrad.  While the city has certainly changed a lot, it's still near and dear to my heart.  We joke that Austin used to be "hippie" and now it's "hipster" but we still love it.  We'll be flying down on late Friday afternoon (I love the 30 minute flight on Southwest - SO much easier and less stressful than the 4-5 hour drive from Dallas) and staying a short weekend, coming back late Sunday afternoon.  We'll also be staying at my favorite Austin hotel - the Four Seasons on Lady Bird Lake.  I got a good deal on a room as it's a slow weekend.  Here's a few pics of some places we'll be going, eating and staying this weekend!

Congress Avenue - Austin, TX

Congress Avenue Bridge - No bats this time as they show up in May/June

Pool at the Four Season - right on the lake!

Favorite Austin Restaurants:

The Shady Grove - LOVE this place

Perla's on So. Congress - Best Seafood Ever

Fonda San Miguel - Amazing Mexican Food

Our plans this weekend include:

1.Drinks at the Four Seasons Lobby Bar when we arrive
2. Dinner at Perla's Friday night
3. Saturday morning massages and use of the steam room at the hotel
4. Walking down South Congress for shopping and a food truck lunch (weather permitting) Saturday  afternoon
5.  Dinner at Fonda San Miguel Saturday night
6.  Drinks (and hopefully live music) somewhere on a patio on Fourth Street Saturday night
7.  Morning run on Lady Bird Lake Trail Sunday morning
8.  My favorite Austin brunch on the patio at Trio in the Four Seasons with Steve's mom
9.  Maybe a little more walking and shopping on 2nd Street?
10.  Fly home.  Boo-hoo for me.

It's an action packed weekend!

Weekend Art Project

I actually got crafty this weekend. Very, very rare for me to behave this way.

I decided to refurbish our outside bar stools. These are cheapo $12 numbers from Target. After being in the Texas weather for over a year, they were looking rather disgusting.

Don't sit here

So, I decided to paint the stools and show a little school spirit, too. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a stencil of the UT logo so I made one from a magnetic car decal that I bought and traced onto card stock paper. A few cans of spray paint and a lot of patience yielded this result. Not too shabby!

I Am Officially Old

This is sad

My idea of a great Friday night:

A 7.5 mile run followed by 5 hours of Four Weddings and Say Yes to the Dress.

Wow.

What am I thinking?

Just registered to run a 15K race on February 9th.  That's 9.32 miles, which is definitely longer than I have ever run before in my entire life.  I hope I don't hurt myself.

Okay - Let's not start patting ourselves on the back just yet

As of today, I typically run 4 to 5 miles a day, 4 to 5 times a week.  So, some weeks I am running up to 25 miles a week while other weeks it's closer to 16 or 17 miles.  I think the longest I have ever run in one session was about 6.5 miles.  So, this is going to be super hard.  I just have to remember to pace myself and know that it's okay to take breaks or even walk on occasion if I need to do so.

My reward will be going to The Old Monk that afternoon following the race for celebratory beers with my husband and next door neighbor, who are also running in the race.  The Old Monk is one of my favorite Dallas institutions.  If you live in Dallas and have any interest, the race is the Hot Chocolate Run in Dallas on February 9th.  There's also a 5K portion of the race if 15K is too much.

Ahhh....The Old Monk...Sweet relief after the race

This whole thing is so weird b/c 2 years ago I wouldn't have considered even running a 5K much less a 15K. Hell, I couldn't have even run a half mile without dying two years ago.  How times have changed.  However, I am on a big health kick right now (I even turned down beer and pizza last night - shocking) so this sounded like a good idea.  In hindsight, it will probably be a very, very bad idea.

How I think I look when I run

How I will actually look

Wish me luck.

My Views on Marriage v. Dating

I read a post this morning from Katie at My Keep Calm and Carry On regarding marriage and the difference between dating and being married.  She raised some interesting questions as to whether marriage actually changes anything, especially if you are a couple that has dated a long time and lived together prior to getting married.  That got me thinking about my marriage, what it means and did we change after we got married?  I think the answer is definitely "Yes, marriage changes your relationship."

Link to Katie's blog:  http://www.mykeepcalmandcarryon.com/2013/01/on-marriage.html#comment-form

For background, my husband and I have been married over 10 years.  Hard to believe, but true. Last May we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary and I considered it to be quite a milestone and am very proud of the fact that we have such a strong marriage that has lasted this long.  We met in college and dated for almost 6 years before we got married as I had law school and wanted to get settled in a job before we had a wedding.  We lived together for a little over 2 years as well.  We've been through the stages of going to all of our friend's weddings, then the birth of their children, then their divorces and am now starting to attend people's second weddings.  My husband and I do not have any children but it's on our list - we obviously like to take our time with things (6 years dating...10+ years before babies...makes sense to us).

So, how did marriage change our relationship?  I like to do things in list form so here you go:

1.  You look for a way in and not out.  What I mean by this is that when you're dating it's easy to simply end things and move on when the guy ticks you off or acts like a jerk.  When you are married and you take your vows seriously, you do the exact opposite.  You look for ways to end the fight and put humpty-dumpty back together again.  There have been plenty of times when I dated someone for 2+ years and then finally some small act of assholeishness (yes, a new word), sent me over the edge and I ended it right then and there, usually much to the surprise of the guy.  My husband and I take marriage very seriously, which is probably why we waited so long to get married.  We got married in the church, had communion at our wedding as our first act as a married couple (not Catholic, though) and we strongly believe that marriage is a vow.  Unfortunately, I think a lot of people look at marriage as an extension of dating or they get too wrapped up in the idea of a big wedding and a party, which is why some people don't look at divorce as a huge deal.  If you believe in your vows, you will go to the far edges of rationalization to make it work and you always look for that way back into the good graces of your spouse rather than writing him/her off.  That being said, there have been plenty of times I have mumbled "screw him" under my breath but then take a big sigh and start trying to patch things up.

2.  You sweat the small stuff but not the big stuff.  I don't know why this is true but it is for us.  We used to fight over both small and big things when dating but we stopped doing that around the time we got married.  Now, we are far more likely to have an argument over where we store our toilet paper (quit putting it on my makeup shelf, dammit)  rather than our finances, major purchases (house/cars) or our sex life.  For some reason, it's okay to bicker over the small things, like my insistence that we eat wild caught salmon once a week or his inability to rinse his gross shave stubble out of the bathroom sink.  We both know that these fights over little things are not really that important and they don't add up to much so it's okay to talk about them, get annoyed, make sarcastic remarks and then laugh over it later.  The big stuff - we don't fight about it at all.  Ever.  That doesn't mean we always agree 100% all the time but we don't argue, criticize or hold the other in contempt when discussing major life decisions or things that will have a significant impact on our household or finances. That's when you put your game face on and grow up.

3.  It's okay to act stupid or gross...a lot.  I think when you're dating you tend to hold back things.  Of course, we all get more relaxed the longer we date someone or even live with them.  Let's face it, girls.  Most of us did the thing for the first three months of dating where you basically pretend that you never take a crap or fart.  We all tend to let things go a bit as you get comfortable with a person but when you're married, you know that you can discuss your bowel movements, intestinal issues, menstrual cramps, excessive ear wax, etc...without fear of being judged.  Also, now that I am married, I can really act the fool and so does my husband.  We had fun before when we were dating but now we really don't care what other people think.  We do a lot of dancing around and singing stupid songs at our house just because we can.  I know some relationship experts think you shouldn't do or talk about gross stuff b/c that takes the "romance" out of the relationship but I disagree.  It's not about keeping up appearances when you're married and I'm not talking about "letting yourself go" because you already landed a man.  When you really care about yourself and your spouse, you take pride in your appearance and I know that I want my husband to think I look nice and pretty so I exercise, wear makeup and try to look as cute as I can.  However, if I am having an upset stomach one night, he can deal with it.

4.  Your perspective on everything changes.  Before I got married, all of my decisions revolved around me and what I wanted.  Even when I was dating, I still really focused on me and my needs and desires rather than his.  Now, I can't go to the grocery store now without thinking "Will Steve eat this?" before I buy something.  Pretty much everything we do depends on what we believe the other will think or feel about it.  We touch base with each other every day to confirm choices for dinner, what errands/tasks to do over the weekend, how to spend our downtime and what to watch on TV.  Sounds like it would exhausting always trying to guess what will make your spouse happy but it's actually not.  Most of the time we can communicate these things silently and we each know what the other wants.  Like when I put my wrinkled blouse next to the ironing board in the evening and say nothing about it.  He knows that what I want is for him to iron it as I suck at ironing and he is the master.  This morning it was hanging in my bathroom - freshly pressed. It actually lifts the burden knowing that someone is thinking about you and what you want every day.

5. You intrinsically know it's not "just a piece of paper" or "the next step".  I hate when people (usually dudes) say that they don't need to get married because it's just a piece of paper and doesn't mean anything.  Well, if it doesn't mean anything then it shouldn't bother you to do it, right?  Wrong.  It's an excuse to not commit.  You may have good reasons for not committing but don't act like it's because marriage is a meaningless institution.  Some people also get married because they have dated so long that they feel like they have to get married or they just wasted a bunch of time and marriage must be "the next step". My advice is if you're not sure, don't do it.  You'll be sorry you did.  You have to know, in your heart of hearts, that this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with -- farts and all. More than anything, making the commitment to marriage forces you be brutally honest with yourself.  You have to ask yourself whether you really have it in you to be faithful to this one person year after year - both emotionally and physically.  If you can say yes, unequivocally, then be prepared to be held to the highest standard and to honor that commitment.  Not always easy but definitely worthwhile.  When you make those promises you begin to understand how deep the roots will grow over the years and that you are responsible for another person's happiness, which is a HUGE responsibility. So, calling that marriage license a meaningless piece of paper foisted on you by society is pretty damn demeaning.

I think I have waxed rhapsodic about this topic for today.  All in all, getting married was the best decision of my life and I am looking forward to the next 10 years.

2013 Resolutions

A new year so I guess it's time for a few resolutions.  I try not to get too fancy with them so I don't set myself up for failure.

1.  Maintain weight.  Always a struggle for me because of how much I love food, wine and beer.  I prefer to keep myself to b/w 120 and 125 lbs and that's a comfortable weight for me and keeps in a size 4 to a size 6 pants.  I pretty much have to starve myself to get thinner than that and it's not worth it.  Following the holidays, I am hovering around 127 so I need to get back on the program and start running and working out hardcore again.

2. Eat Vegetarian One Day a Week.  I love vegetarian food but will never, ever become a full blown vegetarian or even a pescatarian.  I love meat too much.  There is something about a well-cooked, aged steak or some slowly braised short ribs that I will never be able to give up.  Not to mention barbeque.  Going to a BBQ joint and only having veggie sides is worse than decaf coffee.  What's the point?  That being said, I would like to incorporate at least one 100% vegetarian day into my meal rotation at least once a week.

3. Learn to Make Jewelry.  I try to learn at least one new thing a year and become at least mildly decent at it.  A few years ago it was learning French.  Can't even recall what I wanted to do last year. Whatever it was, I guess I didn't do it.  Anyway, I started collecting sea glass during my trips to the beach and now have a rather large jar of it.  I have some ideas to turn some pieces into some cute, nautical themed necklaces, bracelets and earrings but I don't know the first thing about making jewelry or what tools I will need.  Looks like I will be spending some time at Hobby Lobby with the other weirdo scrapbookers for a few weekends.

4. Grow a Small Vegetable Garden.  This has been on my to-do list for awhile.  I have plenty of space in our backyard to plot out a small box area for a vegetable garden.  Mostly, I would like to grow some tomatoes, peppers and maybe some squash or carrots.  I usually wait too late in the season to start this task and by the time it's summer, my excuse is that it's too hot to do it.  I also have a brown thumb so it may end up becoming that "boxed area of dead things and weeds" within a few months.

5.  Run a 10-K.  I have run several 5Ks with no issue.  I typically run 4 to 5 miles a day, 5 days a week.  So, I think I could do a 10-K without too much issue.  It's just a matter of getting off my butt and going to do one sometime.

Go me!