Happy New Year, 2013

Happy New Year!

It’s only the first week of a new year but it’s been exciting.  First of all, I delight in seeing my daughter, Beth Blair, in her first appearance in SHAPE magazine. Throughout 2013 she will be in each issue writing about her exciting weight loss journey. SHAPE Magazine is providing her with a trainer, dietitian and life coach to help in her success. I have already bought a few magazines to pass around and I have my own subscription.  Every time I buy a magazine I open it to page 122 and show the check out clerk my daughter’s page.  So far I have shown people in both Dallas and Ft Worth. When I get home from my road trip to Dallas, I’ll start on the Denver area. That will start tomorrow. I don't waste time in taking advantage of a Mother's bragging rights.  You can also follow Beth on Twitter @ShapeWLDiary and read her blogs at Shape.

Also in this first week of a new year, I have already been on a 800 mile road trip to Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. I hope this is the first of many other wonderful travels this year.  By going to Dallas I was revisiting an area I had lived in for five years. My home was in the northern suburb of Plano. I loved living there. I had a lovely model home with all the decorative extras. I  especially enjoyed the hot air balloons that floated overhead in September and other times of the year. Plano is "The Hot Air Balloon Capital of Texas" The balloons always brought excitement to the neighborhood. The elementary school that my children attended was  a Blue Ribbon school, meaning one of excellence. While living in Plano, I met our family friend, Wayne. I had known his mother while living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. When I told her I was relocating to Texas she asked me to look up her son. I tracked him down and we've been best of friends since. 

Wayne didn’t exactly bribe me to come visit him this week but he did specifically ask me to come, in a car. During these 23 years that I've known Wayne, he's teased me that he wanted to leave me his exquisite collection of Christian Dior china from Neiman Marcus when he died. For years we've had running jokes about the china. I always told him if he died I'd be too sad to eat off the china so I wasn't seriously setting my sights on it. Truthfully, I would truly be devastated if my friend died so I never have considered such a depressing thought. Instead every conversation is filled with lots of fun and laughter. Wayne is a master jokester and I have been the recipient of many of his antics.  I have never been able to give him back his just dues. And I do owe him big time. One common bond we've had all these years is a love of entertaining, parties and fine dining. I still use Wayne's recipes for special events. They are now requested family favorites. Wayne is not just a friend, but a part of our family. As you might have guessed by now, this trip to Dallas was an invitation from Wayne. He wanted to hand over his treasured china service to me. It's too fragile and pricey to risk shipping so it had to be hand carried, while carefully packed for traveling.  I feel a mix of emotions becoming the recipient of these lovingly cared for china settings. However, on the light side, the jokes continued even as we drove away from Wayne's home. On the phone he said he wanted his china back and I said we were stopping at thrift stores to see who would give us the best price for them....and since I dropped them I wasn't getting very good offers. I hope we have many more years to razz each other! Thank you, Wayne!

While in Dallas, I had the opportunity to take one of my favorite drives around the city. When I lived in Plano, I loved  driving at night through downtown in our convertible. I could look straight up at the lighted outlines of the tall buildings.  On this trip I didn't have my convertible to look straight up but I still delighted in seeing the lighted buildings. 

The Bank of America Plaza is the tallest building. It's accented at night by green argon lighting that runs along all of the building's edges. The Renaissance Tower, the 2nd tallest building, has two large X patterns on it. 

Another landmark of the Dallas skyline is the Reunion Tower. The lighted geodesic dome creates a unique flashing light show. This week it was blinking red, white and blue. I reminisced about my numerous visits to the top of the ball to see the city in all it's glory. No wonder I enjoy Dallas' night time skyline so much.

An unexpected surprise on my evening drive was the Omni Hotel Light Show.  I encourage you to watch it here on You Tube as my simple photograph wouldn't do it justice. It was a total delight to  see. 

Driving back into Denver, Colorado, I was keenly aware that I was looking for lights in the skyline. After a trip to Dallas, it's a bit disappointing. At least Denver has the outline of the gorgeous mountains to take our breath away. Maybe the city doesn't want to compete with God's creation.

As a final note, I leave you with this picture of a truck chassis I saw on the interstate coming into Dallas. It tickled me and I wanted to leave you with a smile!