Hanging Out in Dallas

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Hello, my little chickadees! We're in Dallas, at our New Favorite Dallas Hotel--the DoubleTree at Campbell Center. Whew. I'd almost despaired of finding a place that was 1) convenient to where we like to go, 2) reasonably priced (<$100 a night) and 3) not skank city. As y'all know, I'm officially boycotting La Quinta, which means "hairs" in Spanish, never mind what they tell you about the translation.

Long, long ago, we stumbled upon a motel out on LBJ, the Terra Cotta Inn. It was owned by a mother and daughter, I think, and not part of a chain. Each room was different, and there were resident cats. Lots of plants and greenery, like a little oasis right off a busy highway. We loved it and were hideously disappointed when it closed. Since then, we've generally stayed at the LQ Inn & Suites at DFW North, where we could often get a big room with separate bedroom for a good price. But it was ugly out there, and far from everything except Grapevine. And now, with the boycott, well. We liked the Doubletree in Milwaukee last year. Why? Cookies, of course! So we tried this one, and so far (2 stays) we're very happy. Weekends gave good rates--I think it's probably more a business hotel, as the rates seem higher during the week. For about $85-90 a night, you can get an upgraded corner room with floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, which we love. We're on the 13th floor this time facing southwest, so the lights at night are fabulous. And even cooler, the staff has all been amazingly friendly. Nothing like some of the people at some La Quintas, like the guy in Houston who, when I pointed out some error on his part, responded, "So what does that mean to me?" And I said, "Um, that we won't be staying here?"

Anyway, so we got here yesterday. We first made a trip to DFW to hook up with the fabulous Christi Friesen, and if I had a clue how to add a link to BlogWriter on the iPhone, here I would direct you to cforiginals.com (and you can tell I like Christi a lot because I actually remembered that URL without having to look it up (and if it's "net" rather than "com," I'm going to have a little temper tantrum).

Anyway, she's on page 106 in the new book, and she's here this weekend teaching in Southlake, which is, like much of Dallas, like a whole nother country: far, far away. We met in the bar at the Grand Hyatt and visited until her ride came to collect her, and it was the best conversation-- work and travel, creativity and teaching, workshops vs. art retreats, energy levels and laziness. You know: the good stuff. Although hooking up with other creative people is often difficult, it is so, so worth the effort to sit down with a glass of wine and talk about the stuff nobody else gets, you know?

Then we shopped for shoes. A pair of running shoes for The EGE, who still gets to run (I love him anyway), and groovy shoes for me, including a pair of Born sandals, regularly $99, for $8.99. No, I'm not talking second-hand shoes. I can't handle those unless they're 1) actually new and haven't been worn or 2) vintage cowboy boots. I can't wear used shoes. Nope, these are new, from Nordstrom's Rack on I-75, my favorite place to shop for shoes. Best of all? These (and the other, um, 2 pair I found) don't hurt my toe (the one I broke, which still hurts. But not in these shoes!)

Today we'll go to NorthPark Mall and, maybe, The Galleria, where The EGE will indulge me in my favorite thing to do when we travel: look at clothes I would never buy to see if there's anything cool I want to figure out how to do. The upscale shops in these malls have stuff that actually inspires me--hand-dyeing, or hand beading, or hand-stitching. I'll try to find more examples of knit with handwork. I'm totally jazzed by the discovery that I can sew on knit (t-shirts, The EGE's polo shirts)--as long as it's by hand. I'd tried many times to appliqué with machine, and it was always a fiasco. And I don't like the look of serging, frankly. But there's some handwork that I really like--I've already started in on one of his shirts, snipping and patching. We'll see how that goes. Maybe leather trim--I'm testing some leather scraps in the laundry to see how they behave.

OK, let's see if this is going to publish. It's all typed on the iPhone (with the bluetooth keyboard, of course, which is going to the Apple store with us to see if there's a fix for the sticky "shift" key). If it posts, give a cheer, please--it's been a long, long road trying to find a blogging app I can actually rely on to post for me.