Thursday, October 13, 2016

TX/OU Weekend 2016.




I would just like to start out this post by stating that it is currently 1:02pm on October 13th and OU still sucks. 

For those who don't know, I am a diehard Longhorn fan (HOOK 'EM). I attend the University of Texas at Austin and I absolutely love being a Longhorn. I went to an academic only high school and I grew up going to concerts and music festivals. 

In other words, for the longest time, I was a born and raised Texan who knew and cared nothing about football. That was until I started school on the Forty Acres. For the first time in my life, I understand and love football. Granted, I only understand the v e r y basics and I only care about UT football. 

This past weekend was the Texas/OU Red River Showdown at the State of Fair of Texas in Dallas, Texas. The University of Oklahoma is Texas' biggest rival and the Texas v OU is a B I G deal around these parts. It was my first time going as a student and I had such a great time! Hayden and I made an entire weekend out of it and it was a much-needed mini-vacay from school. 

We left for Dallas on Thursday afternoon and made a few pit stops along the way, including Buc-ee's, a Texas road trip staple, and Czech Stop, a famous little kolache factory in West, Texas. At both places, I loaded up on snacks and was one happy little travelin' Texan. 

We made it to Dallas in time for a late dinner and found this amazing gourmet grilled cheese place in the Bishop Arts District called the Dallas Grilled Cheese Co. We had their caesar salad and a plain ol' grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, and it was all delicious! Highly recommend this cheesy place. 

On Friday, we explored Dallas a little. We had lunch at The Zodiac in Neiman Marcus in downtown, wich was a treat. We casually walked by some evening gowns priced at a low $10,000 after lunch and I felt bougie as hell. We also found this little ice cream shop called Milk & Cream, which was delicious! I had cinnamon and pumpkin ice cream topped with chocolate chips, all stuffed in a yummy glazed donut. 

We also went to the Dallas Arboretum pumpkin patch and that's where a lot of the photos taken above are from. I L O V E D this place. I'm allllll about fall and pumpkins, and this pumpkin patch was just the cutest. We walked around most of the gardens and it was really peaceful. Definitely a nice way to spend an afternoon. 

And then on Saturday was the big game! I decked myself out in burnt orange, cowboy boots, longhorn stickers, and a lil' face paint. I had to be gameday ready, y'all!! The only important thing I forgot was sunscreen (and boy did I regret that). The weather was absolutely beautiful on Saturday, with the clearest and bluest skies and a cool breeze (and can't forget that bright, bright sun). 

The game was crazy! We lost but the experience made it all worth it. The stadium was split almost evenly in half between orange and crimson, and school spirit for Texas was as high as a kite. It's moments like the OU game that make me really happy I decided to go to a large, spirited university with a big sports program. I've never had these experiences before and I'm so happy I'm getting them in college.

One of my best friends from working at Kidventure over the past couple of summers goes to OU and he met me after the game. We've trash talked about each other's school all the time and I was pleasantly surprised when he didn't gloat about the win (at least, as much as I expected him to). I think we both agreed that neither team played too well so winning didn't feel all too great (or, in my case, losing didn't feel all too bad). 

After the game, Hayden and I explored the state fair, trying all sorts of fried food. I left with a bag of cotton candy and couldn't have been happier. All in all, it was a great weekend filled with lots of school spirit and delicious food that I'm already missing like crazy! 

OH and if you'd like to see more of the Dallas adventures I had this past weekend, Hayden made a short little video with clips from everything we did. It's basically just three minutes of me eating (just kidding...kind of). You can watch it  here!

Until next time, H 

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

ACL 2016.



 It's the most wonderful time of the year y'all, it's ACL!!!! This past weekend was the first weekend of the Austin City Limits Music Festival and it was absolutely amazing! The weather was almost perfect, musical performances were top-notch, ACL got flushable toilets AND I GOT TO MEET KACEY MUSGRAVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like I said, it was GREAT weekend! 

On Friday and Saturday, I spent most of my day camped out at one stage at the front rows watching amazing performance after amazing performance. The highlights from those two days were the Cold War Kids, M83, LL Cool J, and Kendrick Lamar. I waited in the same spot for over six hours to see Kendrick Lamar and, BOY oh BOY, was it worth it!! That man, his music, his energy. I love it, I love it all. It was an absolutely killer show.

On Sunday, my dad, the man responsible for my deep love and appreciation of music festivals, came to spend the last day of ACL with me. I absolutely loved having him up here with me and we saw some incredible performances together.

One of the most notable performances was St. Paul and the Broken Bones. My dad and I saw them a few years ago in Nashville, before they had a big following, and they were pretty remarkable back then. But at ACL, they were definitely the standout performers. The lead singer gave himself up to the music almost completely, performing as if his life depended on it. It was definitely something special to behold.

Kacey's performance on Sunday was quit magical as well; she is a one-of-a-kind country queen and put on one hell of a good show. She was funny, real and, most of all, she was herself. It was amazing (did I mention it was amazing?). And meeting her after the show was just the icing on the cake of an already amazing (AMAZING!) weekend. My signed LP of Pageant Queen is by far my most prized possession now.

All in all, I had an incredible weekend. Even when I'm standing in the middle of thousand person crowd, pressed up against sweaty strangers, I hardly ever feel more at home than when dancing and singing along with some of my favorite musicians at Austin City Limits. It's always a much-needed getaway from reality.

I love ya, ACL. Until next time, H