goat cheese and possible intestinal explosions

This is how I chose to spend my Sunday Funday:

It's been 3 days (almost) and I feel totally fine! Welcome back goat cheese! Glad to see you don't hate me like your cow cousins. 

be phenomenal, or be forgotten

I have been struggling with what to say for the past 2 weeks. I am still struggling, so I will use some of the words I heard a week ago to help say what I want to say. 2 weeks ago a good friend was killed in a car accident. His wife is my best friend Jillian, and as their relationship grew, my friendship with Karam grew. He became a part of our family, just like Jillian has been a part of our family since 1st grade. 

I have never wanted to live in Houston more than I do now with everything going on. Karam's funeral was a week ago and it was great seeing everyone that loved and was touched by Karam all in one place. There were over 650 people there celebrating his life. The amount of people sitting and standing together was incredible.

Karam was the type of person that lived life large. When you were with him, he was there with you 100%. He looked for ways to have fun in any situation, and knew how to lift you up when you were down. He loved to dance, with or without you. He was a great friend, and I miss him deeply.

One of his friends that spoke at the memorial service quoted from a Pearl Jam song called Just Breathe:

Yes, I understand that every life must end,

As we sit alone, I know someday we must go,
Oh I'm a lucky man, to count on both hands the ones I love
Some folks just have one, yeah, others, they've got none

Stay with me...
Let's just breathe...

Nothing you would take
Everything you gave
Hold me til I die
Meet you on the other side...

Karam had more love than he could have ever counted. 

Tell those that you love, that you love them every chance you get. Don't take life for granted, because life is more fragile than you can imagine. Always laugh. Be with your friends, your family, your loved ones 100%. Live life large like Karam always did. 

Karam was phenomenal, and he will never be forgotten.

things i've learned

Remember when I had to take the bus to Austin? And then I had to borrow a friends car to drive to College Station, and then Fredericksburg the same day? And then I had to take the bus to Dallas to get a ride with my cousin to Shreveport for my grandfathers funeral? No? I do. I hate my car. But, guess what?

I got a new car! Well not totally new, it's my grandfathers's practically new car. But it is AMAZING! Here are things I have learned from driving around my new pimped out car:

1. Cars aren't supposed to overheat.
2. When you turn on the AC, it's supposed to blow cold air.
3. Your driver seat shouldn't rattle or rock when you drive.
4. All windows should be able to be rolled down.
5. If you press unlock, all of the doors unlock automatically instead of you having to unlock them manually.
6. Headlights are supposed to shine more than 2 feet in front of your car. Oh, and the light is pretty bright!
7. The fabric on the roof of the car is supposed to be attached without duct tape.

Be on the lookout for me and my new car!

the knight bus

I was in Houston about 2 weeks ago, and had to find my way back to Austin since my car is a piece of crap and can't handle long drives. My mom was nice enough to come and get me and bring me back, and I couldn't ask her to do that after a few days, so I decided to bite the bullet and take the bus back. Luckily there is this thing called the Megabus that goes straight from Houston to Austin for only $10 last minute! It's a double decker bus and I immediately expected this when my dad and I drove up to the bus "station":

Sadly that wasn't what it looked like, and that's not how we drove to Austin. However, it was still pretty nice! As I was waiting in line to get on the bus I see dad over there sticking his head in, and then just walks on the bus. Typical. When I get upstairs I see him chatting away with his new bestie, also my driver. After talking for a few minutes my dad says bye and leaves. The bus was really clean and nice, with wifi, plugs at every seat, and even tvs throughout if they wanted to play a movie for longer drives. So I'm sitting up top waiting for the bust to leave, and about 10 minutes later (we were about to leave) I hear my dads laugh and realize he never left! He just kept talking to his bestie. My friend Sheri said he probably was trying to get all the info about driving a bus so he could have a job like that where he gets to talk to people all day everyday.

About halfway through the bus ride I check my email and got this from my dad:
"I talked with Mr. Gobchuk, your driver, (name is Russian.  Used to be a Petroleum Engineer in Canada.  His brother was a Greyhound driver for 46 years and convinced him to become a driver, when he chucked being a P.E..  Lives in Conroe).  It is amazing how monitored the bus is by his home office.  They know his speed, how close he is driving to the car in front, even if he is sitting in the seat.  If (when) there is a fight on the bus, he hits a button which turns on cameras at each seat, the home office sees what is going on, he will get a message on his screen to pull off at a certain exit, and the police are waiting.  Pretty cool.

So my friend, Mr. Gobchuk, said he will get you to Austin safely, so you are in good hands."

Thanks dad.

I got there safely, quickly, and I didn't have to drive! I also loved being able to stretch out over both seats on my way there. Who knows, I might even take the bus back to Houston sometime.

wild wood bakehouse

Another day, another cupcake. This place was pretty awesome because the entire bakery/cafe is 100% gluten free! That's right. You heard me, EVERYTHING THERE IS 100% GLUTEN FREE! Looking at their goodies case I couldn't help myself and got a lemon coconut cupcake, and a chocolate strawberry frosting cupcake. I know, I'm crazy!

The lemon coconut was pretty good. The lemon cake was better without the frosting in my opinion, which makes it just a muffin, or a sad cupcake. The frosting was good, but the only coconut taste I had was from the decorative flakes on top. They should have pumped up the coconut flavor in the frosting, and if they had I would have been in love! Alas, they didn't ask my opinion.

The chocolate one was very disappointing. The cake was almost too chocolaty and a little bitter because of it. The frosting wins points because they had actual strawberry chunks in it, unlike the Sugar Circus strawberry cupcake. However, the frosting, even after sitting for a long time to warm up, never softened. It was like a big lump of hard...frosting. Sorry, I tried to come up with something clever and am blank. 

I am definitely going back! But for the cafe, and not the bakery. 

Grade: A- (lemon coconut), B (chocolate strawberry)

field mojo

My friend Laura, who is new to Austin, started joining groups on this site called Meetups. It's a really cool idea. There are all different types of groups; singles living up north, geeks who drink, couple outings, wino Wednesdays (yes, I joined that group), etc. and it's a way to get to know the city, get to know new people, whatever. She asked me to go with her to play field mojo on Saturday, which after reading a little about it I was quite confused. But I thought, why not, I can meet new people as well! I also dragged Sheri along which she was thrilled about. She tried to get out of it, but I didn't allow it.

So this game is a cross between kickball, dodgeball, and tag. Oh, and keep away. It's insane. There are also 6 different colored balls in case you weren't already confused, with chasers, kickers, and fielders. We also played with 3 teams. Confused yet? Yeah. That's how most of us were even after an explanation, a demonstration, and us playing. I feel I finally got a handle on it when the game was over.

Anyways, the whole point is to kick a ball and get from one end of the playing field to the other without getting tagged by a ball. You also have chasers which are your bodyguards that can knock balls away, whatever they need to do to keep you from getting out. So my first time to kick I start running with a chaser and get beamed really hard on my arm, but the chaser guarding me said he tagged him out first and I was safe so I should keep running. Well this started a huge argument between both teams on what happened first and the game had to be paused. I didn't even understand what was happening and was starting drama. Then on my way back to try to score the same chaser was guarding me and grabbed me at one point and spun me around to not get hit by the ball and then he pushed me in the direction I should keep running. It was all quite stressful. In the end though it was a lot of fun, and I would totally play it again! Just not with crazy people that are competitive and just want to win.

After the game, and our team coming in a respectable second, they tried to convince us to play another game. I just wanted a beer after running around for 2+ hours in this crazy heat and we told people where we would be after the second game if they wanted to join us. To my surprise, at least half of the people came! Sheri, Laura and I had a really great time, and we even got the number of this super funny gay guy that is going to take us to some club where they twerk. You should look it up, it's hilarious. All in all, well done Meetups and Field Mojo!

rib counting

I remember as a kid always being excited to visit Joe and Marion (my grandparents) in Shreveport for 2 reasons. The first was getting to play with their awesome toys. My favorites were the Atari, if Rebecca would let me do more than just watch her, and this weird ball you could thread a thick rope through which I would pretend to go fishing with off of their front porch. I probably did this when Rebecca kicked me out of the room for annoying her while she played Atari. I'm also pretty sure I did this sulkily, and hoped Rebecca would come and find me and beg me to play with her. I don't think that ever happened.

The other reason I loved going was what happened when I first got there. Joe would "check to make sure I had all of my ribs." As a doctor it was a very serious job and as a growing kid it was important I didn't lose any ribs. I would excitedly jump up on his lap and he would count each one, and tell me to stop squirming when it tickled because it would mess him up. I can still picture his big grin, trying to keep a straight face while tickling me, and making me sit still and take it. I don't know why I loved this rib counting ritual we had, but I loved it. I'm sure part of it was this was the only time I truly had one on one time with him as a kid. Thinking back on it, I wonder if he did this with Rebecca or any of my cousins. 

As I got older the rib counting stopped, and it was replaced with long conversations on their porch or around their kitchen table. I'm going to miss that.

From one of my favorite picture books I read to my class every year:

     Trisha’s grandma used to say that the stars were holes in the sky. They were the light of heaven coming from the other side. And she used to say that someday she would be on the other side, where the light comes from. One evening they lay on the grass together and counted the lights from heaven. 

     “You know,” her grandma said, “all of us will go there someday. Hang on to the grass, or you’ll lift right off the ground, and there you’ll be!”

     They laughed, and both hung on to the grass. But it was not long after that night that her grandma must have let go of the grass, because she went to where the lights were, on the other side. And not long after that, Trisha’s grandpa let go of the grass, too.

Thank You, Mr. Falker; Patricia Polacco