Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Pictures’ Category

The Nederlander Theater on Broadway to be exact!

This weekend, a dear friend and I are making our way by car, by bus, by foot, and maybe by cab if our feet get tired, to see Disney’s Newsies The Musical on Broadway!  After a two hour drive to Northern Virginia, a five hour bus ride to New York City, and a short walk from our hotel to the Nederlander Theater, we will be seeing Newsies on Broadway after months of planning!

Attending a Broadway play is one of the many adventures on my very long bucket list.  You may be wondering how the fulfillment of this adventure has finally come to fruition.  Well, you’re in for a treat, so sit back, relax, and read on!

There once was a little girl named Sarah whose aunt took her and her cousin to see a Disney movie in the spring of 1992.  This little girl fell in love with the story and the characters and became forever fond of the film.  That movie was Newsies, starring the now famous Christian Bale!

Fast forward 20 years or so; that little girl happens to be all grown up and has become great friends and soon-to-be sister-in-laws with me.  One day, Sarah mentions the movie Newsies and after my response that I have never seen it, she exclaims that I HAVE to watch it and that it will be LIFE-CHANGING.  Well she was right!  I fell in love with the movie too and Ben even gave me the DVD for Christmas.

So imagine our excitement when Sarah learned that for a limited time only, a new musical based on Disney’s Newsies would be playing at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey!  So Sarah, our friend Wendy, and I bought tickets and drove more than 600 miles in a weekend to see the play!  It was definitely worth the drive and we even got to meet the up-and-coming Jeremy Jordan who just happens to be a Texan!

 

Jumping for Joy!

Me and my girls getting ready to see Newsies at the Paper Mill Playhouse!

Here I am meeting Jeremy Jordan who plays Jack Kelly and realizing that he is from Corpus Christi!

Here Wendy, Sarah, and I are waiting anxiously for Newsies to start!

We had an amazing trip and the play did so well that they decided to take it to Broadway!

So that is the story of how I came to see my first Broadway play!  Many thanks to Sarah and Wendy for the pictures above and hopefully I will have many more to share with you when I return!

These trees look like they’d be perfect to nap or picnic under.  Don’t You think?

I try to go for a walk during my lunch break a couple of times a week since my office building is located in a semi-rural area.  There are some wonderful views and plenty of plant life nearby.

These are some shots of dogwood trees located near the property.   Dogwoods are Virginia’s state tree and flower and I think they are quite lovely when they are blooming in the spring.

Happy Easter from Virginia!

Halloween can mean lots of different things to different people.  For kids, Halloween is about procuring large amounts of candy and staying up late to enjoy their sugar high.  For many college girls, its the opportunity to get away with dressing like a slut for one night when it is socially acceptable.  For some, Halloween introduces the challenge of seeing how many people you can scare as a undead-like zombie or a 50 year old man dressed in drag (my former step-dad’s costume one year when I was in high school).

For me, Halloween is about creativity.  Since I began working at VGT in the Fall of 2008, I have dressed up for Halloween every year since we are allowed and even encouraged to wear our costumes to work.  We even have a costume contest where our coworkers get to vote for the scariest, most original, and funniest costumes.  I’m not really an extremely competitive person, but I do like to get reactions out of people so I usually try to come up with something that is going to accomplish that goal.

I know it is nowhere near Halloween, but I dressed up for work today (a dress compared to my usual jeans and a sweatshirt) because I am meeting my dad and my brother at some fancy schmancy restaurant in Washington D.C. for dinner after work that has a stricter dresscode than my workplace.  Wearing something “unusual” to work got me thinking about the other times I’ve traded in my casual attire for something intriguing.

*Halloween 2008* I dressed up as the farmer in the dell…box!  I had just bought myself a new laptop so I took advantage of its packaging!

*Halloween 2009* I was Mario from the Super Mario Brothers.  I was especially proud of myself for reusing the GIGANTIC overalls from my farmer costume I wore the year before.  I never knew how difficult it was to find overalls, especially in my size and these were the smallest I could find!

*Halloween 2010* I decided to go with 80s rocker chick mainly because I had just gotten over Bronchitis and didn’t have a ton of energy to go all out on a costume.  I couldn’t find real legwarmers, so I made my own by chopping the bottoms off of a large pair of tube socks.  I used my guitar hero guitar as a prop to give the costume that extra edge.

I have to say that I think I’ve had more fun dressing up for Halloween in the past three years than I ever did as a kid.  Soon I’ll start thinking about what my costume will be for next year.  I know Halloween is still 6 months away, but I’m going to need alot of time to come up with a costume that will top the previous three!

This is one of my favorite spots in the world. I’m spending a weekend at the Island House Condominiums in Padre Island, Texas. My family has been vacationing here most of my life and I’ve been swimming in this pool since I was 4 years old. I hope my kids will one day come to love this little piece of paradise like I do.

I know it’s been a LONG time since I’ve posted anything…I’ve kind of been hibernating for the winter.  However, today is April 1st and we are well on our way into spring so I thought it might be time to break out of hibernation mode.

If you’re reading this blog then you probably already know this, but just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere, I’ll make the announcement:  Ben and I are engaged!  Finally after almost 5 years of dating, Ben proposed on Valentine’s Day.  So for the last two months, I’m been doing some wedding planning and venue searching instead of blogging.

We think we’ve found my venue and picked a date, but I don’t want to announce it until its finalized so I will leave you all with the pictures from our engagement night and a promise to update this blog as soon as our venue and date are official!

Today is a perfect day at the beach filled with waves, sand, sunshine, watermelon, and surf fishing.  I wish this vacation could last longer!

Well it rained all day yesterday here in Chincoteague, but the good news is that’s all the rain the forecast is calling for while we are here.

Above are some rainy day pictures from the first day of our summer vacation.

A few weeks ago, when I was in Dallas for my cousin Megan’s bridal shower and bachelorette party, we wanted to buy some wine to enjoy on Friday evening.  After browsing the wine aisles at her local grocery store we finally decided on two bottles.  One was named Little Black Dress, which we chose for its name, and the other, pictured above, was Mission de San Antonio Valero from Fall Creek Vineyards in Texas, which we chose for its label.

Normally, I don’t judge wines by their covers, and I usually purchase based on taste or recommendation, but I guess being in Texas made me feel a little crazy, and I decided to trust my instinct!

The wine was good, but the label was even better!

Why do I love the label you ask?

Well I shall tell you:

• First, I love San Antonio because it is beautiful, full of culture, and its where I spent my 4 years during college.  I miss it greatly!
• Second, it has an image of the Alamo on it and in GOLD no less!  The Alamo is only one of the most defining images of Texas!
• Third, the Alamo, pictured on the label, has much personal significance to me, besides the fact that it is a part of Texas history.  When I was a freshman in college, I got “stuck” in a semester-long class about the Alamo.  It was ALL Alamo, ALL the time!  At first, I was not enthusiastic about this class, as it had been my last choice.  But it grew on me.  I learned alot, met some great people in the class (some of my first friends in college), and had the opportunity to learn from one of my favorite professors, Dr. Linda Salvucci.  In addition, this class introduced me to genealogy.  As out final project, we had to write a 10 page paper on any topic relating to the Alamo.  I had a great, great, great (ok lots of “great”s) uncle named Edward F. Mitchusson from Kentucky who was the surgeon at the Alamo and fought and died for Texas’ independence!  I got to do research at the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library where I read old letters from my ancestors and I compiled the largest document of facts on my relative.  Not only did I get an A in the class, I also learned alot about my heritage, genealogy, research in general, and Texas!  I also contributed to documenting my family history!

So now you know why I just HAD to buy the wine when I saw the label!