GWTW = one happy girl!

since i have been sick as a dog (yes, i've been diagnosed with chronic sinusitis and a deviated septum), my doctor has ordered me to slow down. he says i'm much more fragile than i care to admit and that 12 consecutive weekends on the road has worn me down. so i'm staying in every night this week and trying to heal. (if anyone knows some good immunity boosting tricks, let me know! i'm really into homeopathic medicine...)

so i settled myself on the couch and started flipping through the channels and imagine my surprise when i landed on turner classic movies and the screen started scrolling with:

"there was a land of cavaliers and cotton fields called the old south. here in this pretty world, gallantry took its last bow. here was the last ever to be seen of knights and their ladies fair, of master and of slave. look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a civilization gone with the wind..."

ah sweet fate...

so here i will lie, for the next uninterrupted four hours of pure bliss. if only i could explain how much this film means to me, but my words cannot do it justice. i've seen it so many, many times, but i never grow tired of it - although i'm sure the boyfriends that i have forced to watch it sure have! while the movie is probably my favorite of all time, i think my real fascination rests with the book...let's face it, that's the way it always goes. i remember reading it the first time in 6th grade and being absolutely captivated by the world margaret mitchell had painted in front of my eyes. i become obsessed with this author and researched everything i could about her. when i discovered that we shared the same birthday, somehow, i knew that i could be like her someday...silly i know.

i've been chastised by serious intellectuals for claiming this work as one of my favorite pieces of literature, they've told me it's bad writing or it's trash, but i don't buy into that. no it's not war & peace or atlas shrugged, but i have yet to find a book that has such dynamic, rich, colorful characters. i think that's what truly make the story; for anyone could have written a historical novel about the old south and the civil war - and many have, but this one's the best because of the detail and imagination that goes into the role players.

for example, first you have katie scarlett o'hara. she can be as mean as a junkyard dog and she really does have some bite, but i love that tenacious spirit about her. she's shrewd, spoiled, and heartless at times, but she's a survivor. and i like that about her. i do think she was a damn fool for being so pent up on that dim-witted ashley wilkes when she could have had the dashing rhett butler, but then again, women are crazy. i think that vivienne leigh is fantastic as scarlett and i can't picture anyone else playing her - and can you believe that southern accent despite being a brit?



and of course it goes without mentioning that i have been ardently in love with rhett butler most of my life. they say that rhett butler was based on a man from charleston named george trenholm and if that's true, he must have been quite a man. like scarlet (for they were always of the same kind), he's a roguish devil and quite the schemer, but unlike her, i believe he always possessed a heart of gold. it's too bad that clark gable wasn't nominated for an academy award, but they say it's because he wasn't acting - it's because he really was rhett butler. oh my!



i do LOOOOVE that banter between rhett and scarlett. don't you just love these scenes? they're some of my favorites:





and now we come to the tragic, heartbreaking, painstaking ending....



it's a faultless ending, yet i'm always left wondering whatever happened to rhett & scarlett? i'll always believe that they ended up together...of course only after captain butler was through carousing and tearing up charleston, but still i think they worked it out. i think margaret mitchell might have written a sequel had it not been for her untimely, sudden death of getting struck by a taxi cab. some idiot wrote "scarlett" and tried to pawn it off as a second installment, but it was always completely unauthorized by the mitchell estate. so yes, we're still left with an open ending and a longing for the way society used to be...how wistful. and perfect.

(ok, i apologize. i'm a total nerd. i could write a doctoral dissertation about this stuff.)

holy smokes! my parents have been married 25 years!

in light of the fact that today officially marks bill & sheri's silver wedding anniversary, i thought i'd pay tribute to the best couple i know. (yeah, so what, i'm biased.)



it all began with a chance encounter at the idalou, texas dairy mart back in 1977. though they had known of each other for years, my grandmother wouldn't dare consider letting my mamma date that "older catholic boy!!!!" however, persistence prevailed and he became the only boy she's ever been with in her entire life. (note to parents: you would've never let yours truly date a 17-year-old having barely turned 14! just sayin...)



daddy went off to a&m, but still, he only had eyes for that little high school girl. how they made it through all of that i don't know. i know he tried to transfer to texas tech several times so that he could be closer to her, but granddad madison wouldn't let him.



after seven years of dating, they finally decided to get hitched. hope the engagement photo will suffice, sure wish i could show you a wedding photo....you would laugh your head off, i promise. they had a - what else? - old south wedding, complete with parasols and hoop skirts.



as newlyweds, they were unexpectedly greeted by the arrival of their first baby, but it didn't take long to realize that baby girl was the apple of their eye. though more children would come, she would always be the most special. hahahaha



it became quite clear that the little princess was becoming too egocentric, so they gave her a little brother.



although the little brother sure was nice, they really blessed her when they gave her a little sister. now she finally had someone to turn into her little protege.



and somehow, after raising those three crazy children and various other mishaps, those two kids are still in love. congratulations B&S! you make monogamy, getting old, and the ball and chain look good.

it happened again...

went to alamo music store last night to check on some things in vinyl and peruse the guitar section (of which i covet a new one so badly!) and got told again by two seperate employees how much i look like paula nelson and/or terri hendrix.

weird. before i moved down here, nobody had ever told me i looked like anybody even quasi-famous in my life. now it's always paula & terri.

but hey, that's cool; both of these women happen to be song-writing, guitar-playing, strong-willing, non-conventional, uber-talented, take no bs kind of gals...i don't mind being in their company in the least.

hmmmm...do you see the resemblance?

"they call it the hill country, i call it beautiful..."

"i'd call it progress if it could be saved. they call it the hill country, i call it home."

gosh i love that song and after living down here for seven months, i have come to know those randy rogers lyrics all too well. i'm feeling particularly fond of this territorial paradise tonight as i reflect on an excellent weekend spent on the banks of the frio river in uvalde county. as most of you know, i hail from west texas and i do believe that that area has its own mystique and allure (which i will tell you about after i visit next weekend), but there is something about this little strip of land known as the hill county that has me captivated. for those of you wondering what exactly constitutes being considered tx hill country land, see map below, but i don't really go by any maps...you just know when you're there, you can feel it.



this land and its charms is something i'm extremely passionate about, so i've decided to tell you why i love it so:



first of all, as i've stated previously, this is the texas country music capitol. the live music venues are endless! i'm on a one woman mission to visit them all, but i do have my favorites. obviously gruene hall (pictured above) is the most revered on the circuit, but i'm also partial to floore's country store, cheatham street wharehouse, whitewater amphitheater, and a newfound favorite - the house pasture in concan.





and did i mention that at any of these fine venues, you're pretty much guaranteed to find good company and excellent dancing? God bless this poor old man who was trying to teach me some kind of texas polka?! it was truly an unfortunate sight, but my redeeming quality is that i have been told that i am one mean two step teacher. (gentlemen, do you want to know the secret? you need to be a forceful leader with the hand on her back. have a firm push and pull...it will make all the difference.)



don't even get me started on the food...so good!! but then again, lonestar faire in general is just divine. today, i had lunch at the original rudy's in leon springs and i swear, i don't know what it is, but it was significantly better than any rudy's i've ever been to before.



additionally, i do love the people that inhabit this area. there are some real characters! this man i call gus (doesn't he look like augustus mcrae???) and he works out in luckenbach. i have met several "personalities" down here that i shall remember for my next book. everyone from rebel rousers and good 'ol boys to aging beauty queens and desperate housewives. i shall confess that someday i aspire to be one of these small town local legends. someday, i'll live in one of these little anthill communities and drive my red cadillac down main street, while all the little kiddos whisper about that eccentric old lady they call miss shannan. i guess i've got somewhat of a start...i met these european tourists out in luckenbach one afternoon and they could not stop marveling over meeting a "veal texees cahgill."



i'm also crazy about hill country architecture and its aesthetic...madly in love with all of it. in my humble opinion, nothing beats that austin limestone, some hardwood floors, and something from the taxidermy mounted on the wall. add in the unmistakable scent of leather furniture, some wrought iron, and a flagstone wrap-around porch and we're in business. for me, it's the attention to detail that really pushes it over the edge. there are so many intricacies laced throughout the design of this look and there are so many ways to personalize it. someday, i will build this dream i have in my head.









finally, as predicted, i love the land and its rich, rich beauty. this morning when i was driving on US 187 through utopia and bandera, the majestic magnetism of driving up and down through those rolling hills left me stammered..it always does. we've got the prettiest lakes and rivers too. my friend harrison always says that people go insane if they're not by water, he says that's the reason that people from lubbock are so out of their wits. harrison's half crazy, but i'm starting to believe him.



as is foreshaddowed by the randy rogers song i mentioned at the beginning of this post, the hill country is in real danger of extinction because it's being so rapidly developed. hell, i don't blame real estate investors and builders for wanting to snap up this property and create subdivisions and strip malls, but it does hurt my heart a little. sometimes, i just hate modernity and expansion...

but i must focus on the treasures that are still here and preserved. what i do know is that all is well and as it should be when i get to drive out on an FM road, buy some fredericksburg peaches, and sit underneath the gruene arbor rocking away in my swing.

a question i ask myself tonight:

is possessing a restless heart a curse?

excuse me for my thought provoking inner-discourse, it's not an attempt to sound pseudo intellectual, i assure you. the real truth is over the last four days, i have watched both lonesome dove and legends of the fall and damn both of those movies, they stir up in me that old familiar longing to seek adventure and exploration. oh, i do pine for it. if it weren't for mamma's robertson genes that stabilize me and give me a sense of maintaining some roots, i'd be in real trouble. i'd quit my job tomorrow and perhaps return to south america like i'd always planned or better yet, move up to that cattle ranch in montana that i dream about ever so often.

but it is only a dream i suppose. there is no "wild frontier" anymore, but what i would give to ride out west over uncharted territory...crossing rivers and streams, mountains and plains, canyons and caprocks - i do have a love affair with land, it seems to me it's one of the only things in this world that's really worthwhile.

shoot, it is quite the travesty to discover that you were born about 150 years too late.

having this threadbare gypsy soul isn't easy. if only i weren't so affected by whitman's words, dylan's lyrics, and hemingway's narratives. but the truth is i am. the truth is i could never be indisputably happy living in a cutesy suburb with my corporate america husband, our requisite canine, and our 2.5 well-mannered children. believe me, i've tried to buy into that and embrace it and maybe someday i will, but that day is not today.

one of my favorites, william faulkner, once said that tomorrow night is nothing but one long sleepless wrestle with yesterday's omissions and regrets. if he's right, then i don't want to struggle with that regret, i want to do everything i could while i could.

so here's to my next big quest...much obliged to you, tristan ludlow, for being my inspired muse.

my life according to george strait

my dear friend yvette passed this along to me and i thought it'd be a good waste of time. thanks darling.

Using ONLY song titles from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to [at least] 12 people you like and include me. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "My Life According to (BAND NAME)"

Pick your artist: George Strait

-Are you a male or female? That's My Kind of Woman
-Describe yourself: How 'Bout Them Cowgirls
-How do you feel: Unwound
-Describe where you currently live: Home in San Antone
-If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Marina Del Rey
-Your favorite form of transportation: One Foot In Front of the Other
-Your best friend is: True
-Your favorite color is: Red River Valley
-What's the weather like: Blue Clear Sky
-Favorite time of day: One Night At a Time
-If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: We Really Shouldn't Be Doing This
-What is life to you: Love Without End, Amen
-Your relationship: A Fire I Can't Put Out
-Your Fear: Murder on Music Row
-What is the best advice you have to give: Give It Away
-If you could change your name, you would change it to: Adalida
-Thought for the day: What's Going On in Your World
-How you would like to die: It Just Comes Natural
-Your soul's present condition: The Best Day
-Your motto: Lead On

ha wow that was fun.

great website!

for those of you who don't know, i'm about to embark on a pretty big trip to a pretty exotic place in the next few weeks. AND I'M OVER-THE-MOON EXCITED ABOUT IT! i want to tell you all about it and tell you what i'll be doing there, but that would take more time than i have right now and i really want to do a good job of explaining it.

the subject of this post is that i found this amazing website that exclusively carries outdoor clothing and accessories for women! if you are at all interested in camping, hunting, fishing, etc. and you are a girl, you know how difficult it is to find cool gear. cabela's and bass pro have come a long way, but there is still a major gap in the women's market. (guess they assume chicks are just too delicate and dainty to do all of this stuff?) well, not this girl.

anyway, i recently discovered shesafari in an issue of field & stream magazine and i love all of their products. i bought a few things for my trip and some other stuff for hunting season so i thought i'd show you a few of my faves:

south texas coast = AMAZING.

it was the 4th of july. we ate lobster, crawfish, and shrimp all day, every day. we quoted "the hangover" relentlessly and sang "we are the 5 best friends that anyone could have" way too many times. we all got third-degree sunburns. we made friends everywhere we went and everyone in port aransas knew our names. we laughed in a gut-busting, eye-tearing way.

all in all, i'd give the weekend a perfect ten.