I was in Dallas last week for a few days on a strategically planned trip to combine work responsibilities with wedding festivities...and a haircut, since it fit into the schedule. I think I may have trust issues with my hair. Anyway, as part of my rotation program here in D.C., PwC pays for two home office visits a year, so I opted to schedule trip #1 to conveniently coincide with College Friend Wedding Weekend. I flew in Wednesday afternoon with enough time to meet friends for drinks and then indulge in amazing meal #1...Manny's. Oh, brisket taco and spinach enchilada, how I've missed you.
Work all day on Thursday, complete with presentation to my group while I attempted to share somewhat helpful tidbits of knowledge. Ding, work requirement fulfilled! We must celebrate at...Gloria's! Major props to dear friend Diana for organizing a rather large group of us a month ahead of time so we could gather en masse and consume excessive amounts of bean dip, coupled with chile rellenos and chicken enchiladas. Yes, I feel my waistline expanding. I'm ok with that...I need this the way people crave nicotine. Are the pharmaceutical companies working on any food patches? That could conquer your cravings? I think there's a lot of money to be made there.
On Friday, I managed to squeeze in a little more Tex-Mex in the morning hours by meeting dear friend and fellow Pdubber Molly for brunch at Cafe Brazil - she went a more traditional French toast route, but I was still dealing with my Tex-Mex tapeworm and needed the breakfast relleno. It was awesome. And it was even better spending quality time catching up with a friend. After kicking off my day with an Anaheim chile and a plethora of chorizo and still needing my fix, I indulged in a Chuy's extravaganza for dinner. Chips with creamy jalepeño and a steak burrito the size of my face. I'm grossing myself out a little bit by reiterating what all I ate last weekend, but what's done is done. I accept the consequences to my personal health and wellbeing and the damage done by excessive amounts of cheese and grease.
Saturday was wedding day! The Vaughns had a full house for the weekend: Diana + Trinity + Duncan + Hazel = the usual gang. Add in me + Thomas + Jessica + sweet baby Addison + Finn the beagle and you've got quite the party. Diana and Jess both had bridesmaid duty all day, so I hung out with the boys and Addy for the morning and afternoon. This included a trip to Rosa's where I exercised little to zero self control in consuming the vast majority of my taco plate dinner. Oh, and I bought a piece of chocolate cake, too - I at least had the decency to bring that home and pretend it wasn't there for a full twenty-four hours before giving in to the chocolate goodness.
The wedding!! I met Jen and Mike, also known as "bride" and "groom" on one July 11, 2009, through Diana and got to know them during and after college, and we've spent many a fall weekend together cheering on the Red Raiders or just hanging out. I'm so glad I was able to make it to Dallas to join them for their wedding day - everything was beautiful, and Jen's smile just had me smiling all day long. Congratulations, you two! Oh, and your festivities also provided us with motivation to go to Whataburger in the wee hours of the morning and enjoy some taquitos. I'm going to add that to the Tex-Mex tally for the weekend. Bacon for me, of course.
And for the awards portion of my presentation...first place and a very large number of gold stars to Carolyn for joining me on three of the four major legs of this Tex-Mex binge. I could eat this stuff all day every day, but I realize we don't all have that genetic makeup (I owe thanks to Dad for that one!), and she was an enthusiastic, willing, and brave partner in these gastronomic endeavors.
"Texas...feeds me body and soul." Ok, feeding of the body has obviously been discussed, what with all of the excessive calories mentioned in the paragraphs above. But feeding of the soul? I had the chance to spend quality time with dear friends and share in the joy of Mike and Jen's wedding, and that did more for me than the food ever will. And you know how much I love the food.
5 comments:
We had such a fun time!! We were glad that we got to see you all and spend the weekend together.
Something something Rosa's taco dinner something something.
I miss Rosa's. There is nothing like that kind of stuff in this part of the country, alas. The real, autentico Mexican food you can get is sometimes just as good, but the fake Tex-Mex stuff doesn't exist or is horribly realized. Glad you had fun in TX!
Oh, how was Harry Potter? We don't get out much these days, you know!
I had a blast with the Reynolds and Vaughn clans - hope we can all get together again soon!
Oh, Jason, I know how you must miss Rosa's - there's just something about those atrocious pink buildings with the smell of mesquite smoke wafting on the breeze...so, so good. And Harry Potter was awesome! I'm sure I'll find fault with it when I re-read the book, but definitely entertaining.
Hay Erin Its your little cousin Claudia i love your blog its so funny!It rocks! I love ow you talk about food! Now i want some i am craving mexican food! :?)
Hi there Claudia! So good to hear from you! Thanks for the blog compliments - hope everything is going well with you. We'll have to catch up!
And I am CONSTANTLY craving Mexican food.
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