Whirlwind San Antonio Visit
Last weekend, I flew to San Antonio for Russ and Sarita's wedding. Russ goes to grad school with me, and he was the CSSA president before me, which meant I got to bug him whenever I had a CSSA question.
I went to sleep Friday night with my window open, listening to the rush and patter of the heavy rain outside. It was so nice. It's been ages since I've seen a good rain storm--since the spring at least--and NC is in the middle of an "exceptional" drought (the most severe type). It wasn't raining when I woke up at 5:45, though. I quickly got ready and drove to the airport, making my 8:38 am flight with time to spare, and having time to talk to Jim K. a bit as well. He goes to Grace Church and works at the information desk at the airport.
I read a good chunk of "Star Wars: Survivor's Quest" by Timothy Zahn on the plane. I also napped a bit. I had to hurry in Houston to make my connecting flight, since I only had about 15 minutes before boarding. An hour later I arrived in San Antonio. I had arranged a shuttle from the airport, but I didn't get the details of how/where I would meet up with the driver, so I sat around for a while, trying to call them and getting no answer. Eventually I got a hold of them and they came, though--when I was literally 3 pages from finishing the book. :-/ Oh, and I rode in style: a shiny new Lincoln Towncar L. The "L" means long, and I actually had room to stretch out in the back seat. It was ni-i-ice. :-)
I met up with my friends at the Casa Rio restaurant on the river around 1:30 pm. I scarfed down some enchiladas, then we all went to our various hotels to get ready. We walked by the Alamo on the way. We were a little confused about how and where to meet up with the wedding shuttle, and we only made it by virtue of our hotel's concierge calling ahead and having them wait on us. This, of course, made us the object of some good-natured teasing by our friends on the bus, once we got there. :-)
The wedding was beautiful. It was at a place called the Patios: a little pocket of beauty tucked away among highways and construction. The wedding was outside, on a green lawn, among those rather short, scrubby, south-Texas trees, and surrounded by old, Spanish, hacienda-style buildings. The weather was nice--about 75 degrees, I'd guess. The ceremony was short, and the reception was on site, so it wasn't long before I took advantage of some cold Shiner Bock. I'm sure it's just in my head, but, being on Texas ground, that Shiner tasted particularly good. :-)
The dinner was good. Most of the UNC students and alumni hung out together, and it was good to see old friends like Vince, Tynia, Karl S., and Avneesh. The dancing was kinda boring at first; they played a lot of slow, old-timey (read: boring) stuff at first, like "Unchained Melody". But Sasa eventually prevailed in getting the DJ to play that "Superman" song by Soulja Boy, for which he had earlier taught us the choreography. When it came on, the guys took the floor and made a mess of the choreography, all kinda looking around at each other, thinking, "what's next?" But it was fun. :-)
After that, we bombarded the newlyweds with bubbles on their way to the getaway car. I mean, we had a serious gauntlet going. I think the soap solution was particularly good or something. Then we caught the shuttle back to our various hotels (trying and failing to get a good song started from the back seat), changed, and went out on the town. It was about 11 pm at that point. We ended up at a place on the Riverwalk called "Dick's". It was nice that we got to sit by the river and that it was quiet enough that we could talk. But, the place was kinda...meh. Intentionally run-down and trashy-looking, for one. The server was quite scantily clad, and intentionally rude/sarcastic--which is part of the supposed allure of the place, I gather (hence the name). I was also kinda grumpy, having had a long day and a headache and being up way past my bedtime. It was still nice to hang out with everyone, and I gotta give 'em points for having Fat Tire on tap, but I was very happy when I finally crashed into bed sometime around 2am.
I got up again at 5:45, caught the shuttle at 6:15, caught my 8:15 flight, and slept all the way to Houston. Then I slept almost all the way to Raleigh. Then I got home, and slept some more. You'd think I'd be caught up on sleep by then, but after a full night's rest that night, I proceeded to take a 3-hour nap in my office on Monday. But, now I'm all caught up. 'Twas a good, fun, full weekend! Congratulations to Russ and Sarita!
I went to sleep Friday night with my window open, listening to the rush and patter of the heavy rain outside. It was so nice. It's been ages since I've seen a good rain storm--since the spring at least--and NC is in the middle of an "exceptional" drought (the most severe type). It wasn't raining when I woke up at 5:45, though. I quickly got ready and drove to the airport, making my 8:38 am flight with time to spare, and having time to talk to Jim K. a bit as well. He goes to Grace Church and works at the information desk at the airport.
I read a good chunk of "Star Wars: Survivor's Quest" by Timothy Zahn on the plane. I also napped a bit. I had to hurry in Houston to make my connecting flight, since I only had about 15 minutes before boarding. An hour later I arrived in San Antonio. I had arranged a shuttle from the airport, but I didn't get the details of how/where I would meet up with the driver, so I sat around for a while, trying to call them and getting no answer. Eventually I got a hold of them and they came, though--when I was literally 3 pages from finishing the book. :-/ Oh, and I rode in style: a shiny new Lincoln Towncar L. The "L" means long, and I actually had room to stretch out in the back seat. It was ni-i-ice. :-)
I met up with my friends at the Casa Rio restaurant on the river around 1:30 pm. I scarfed down some enchiladas, then we all went to our various hotels to get ready. We walked by the Alamo on the way. We were a little confused about how and where to meet up with the wedding shuttle, and we only made it by virtue of our hotel's concierge calling ahead and having them wait on us. This, of course, made us the object of some good-natured teasing by our friends on the bus, once we got there. :-)
The wedding was beautiful. It was at a place called the Patios: a little pocket of beauty tucked away among highways and construction. The wedding was outside, on a green lawn, among those rather short, scrubby, south-Texas trees, and surrounded by old, Spanish, hacienda-style buildings. The weather was nice--about 75 degrees, I'd guess. The ceremony was short, and the reception was on site, so it wasn't long before I took advantage of some cold Shiner Bock. I'm sure it's just in my head, but, being on Texas ground, that Shiner tasted particularly good. :-)
The dinner was good. Most of the UNC students and alumni hung out together, and it was good to see old friends like Vince, Tynia, Karl S., and Avneesh. The dancing was kinda boring at first; they played a lot of slow, old-timey (read: boring) stuff at first, like "Unchained Melody". But Sasa eventually prevailed in getting the DJ to play that "Superman" song by Soulja Boy, for which he had earlier taught us the choreography. When it came on, the guys took the floor and made a mess of the choreography, all kinda looking around at each other, thinking, "what's next?" But it was fun. :-)
After that, we bombarded the newlyweds with bubbles on their way to the getaway car. I mean, we had a serious gauntlet going. I think the soap solution was particularly good or something. Then we caught the shuttle back to our various hotels (trying and failing to get a good song started from the back seat), changed, and went out on the town. It was about 11 pm at that point. We ended up at a place on the Riverwalk called "Dick's". It was nice that we got to sit by the river and that it was quiet enough that we could talk. But, the place was kinda...meh. Intentionally run-down and trashy-looking, for one. The server was quite scantily clad, and intentionally rude/sarcastic--which is part of the supposed allure of the place, I gather (hence the name). I was also kinda grumpy, having had a long day and a headache and being up way past my bedtime. It was still nice to hang out with everyone, and I gotta give 'em points for having Fat Tire on tap, but I was very happy when I finally crashed into bed sometime around 2am.
I got up again at 5:45, caught the shuttle at 6:15, caught my 8:15 flight, and slept all the way to Houston. Then I slept almost all the way to Raleigh. Then I got home, and slept some more. You'd think I'd be caught up on sleep by then, but after a full night's rest that night, I proceeded to take a 3-hour nap in my office on Monday. But, now I'm all caught up. 'Twas a good, fun, full weekend! Congratulations to Russ and Sarita!