Wimberley, Texas (something fun)

Yesterday my mom and I spent the afternoon in the little touristy town of Wimberley, taking silly pictures and complaining about the 98-degrees-in-almost-October heat.  Despite the weather not being ideal, I was happy to spend time with my mommy. Weird and funny things happen every. single. time we’re together… I tried writing out some of the odd experiences we had yesterday, but somehow they get lost in translation.  It’s one of those “you had to be there” type of things.

But trust me, it was fun. :) Hence, the fact that I’m using the following pictures to count towards day 11 of the photo challenge, “something fun...” 

 

  

 I want this!

 

  

YES. 

(I’m now half done with book 3, by the way)

 

    Creepy?  Or AWESOME.

    

Happy Thursday, friends. :)

Mommy dearest.

Hands down, my worst fear has always been losing my mom.  I was a strange child and went through various  odd “phases” in which I obsessed over potentially cataclysmic events… such as immaculately conceiving a child, pooping my pants in public, or—worst of all—losing my mom.

True story: when I was around 8 or 9, my mom left me and my sister at home for a few minutes as she drove to the corner store, and my sister, who loved to torment me back then and knew I was obsessed with our mom, woke me up from my nap to let me know that “Mommy is gone.” Then she watched as I nearly flung myself off our third floor apartment’s balcony in a panic as my mom’s little blue Volkswagen disappeared around the corner.

Things have evened out since then.  I daresay I even went through a spell where I didn’t even LIKE my mom that much, as evidenced by the journal entry from eleven years ago I just found, in which terms like “dashing my hopes” and “ruining my happiness” may have been tossed around in relation to my mother.

But alas.  Things between us have now come to rest somewhere between potentially dangerous dependence and bitter disregard, and I’m happy to say that my mom is one of my very favorite people in the world.

And today is her birthday.

So, Mommy dearest, I just wanted to publicly profess my love for you and let you know that losing you is still a thing of my very worst nightmares.  I promise not to fling myself three stories to my death if you ever decide to go somewhere far away and not take me with you, but I certainly don’t like you any less than I once did.  I probably like you more now. 

Happy birthday.

A Very Eventful Day

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: without exception, weird stuff always happens when my mom and I hang out.  And today, we hung out. 

She picked me up at around 11:30, and we headed down to 6th street for lunch at Z Tejas (a yummy Mexican food joint with cool atmosphere and great patio dining).  First, we couldn’t find parking.  We drove around in circles for a while, becoming grouchier and hungrier by the moment, and then finally decided on a parking lot behind a store near the restaurant.  We didn’t see any signs that said the lot was only for a specific store, and I even made the comment that no one is likely enforcing any rules there may be, anyway. 

Not so. 

We got out of my Mom’s car and started walking in the direction of our lunch spot, when a haggard older woman approached from behind and rudely informed us that we couldn’t park where we had unless we were customers of her particular shop.  She pointed out the sign we had missed (since we had entered the lot from a different direction), and she practically followed us back to our car to ensure our compliance with the rules. 

And then I threatened to stab her with my shrimp fork.

No I didn’t. 

But I wanted to.

So we drove around another ten minutes and finally found a spot behind Z Tejas.  PHEW.

Then we were seated on the front patio, with the birds.

I should have known it would be an interesting lunch after a bird practically dive bombed me on the way into the restaurant; I literally had to jump out of its way.

So there we were, sitting outside and minding our own business, and the grackels were having a field day.  They were landing on people’s tables and stealing tortilla chips right out of the baskets, and one bird feasted his little self on BUTTER.  Yes, butter.  Right off a table.  It was the strangest thing. 

Proof?

It was entertaining, at least!  Thankfully, there were large umbrellas overheard, so we didn’t have to worry too much about getting pooped on.  Attacked, maybe, but probably not pooped on.

Here are a few more pictures from the day’s adventures…

 

Suspicious how my Mother matched the decor of the restaurant so perfectly…  

Has kind of an evil gleam in its eye, no? 

Stealing a chip right off our table…

My Mom’s plate when she went to the bathroom…

After lunch, we browsed the nearby shops a bit. This one had a courtyard out back filled with interesting junk…

   

{Ok, if you must know.  The shorts and belt are from J.Crew, and the shirt is from Banana Republic.  Not my most interesting outfit, which is why this doesn’t count as an outfit post.}  ;)

 

So there you have it!

My day in a nutshell.  Now if you’ll excuse, I need to go make dinner for my hungry husband. 

It’s what good wives do (I guess).  ;)

It was wild, and there were flowers.

One thing I really love about Texas is the wildflowers. 

In the dead of summer, when you step into a parked vehicle that has been broiling on the asphalt and sit down only to be scalded by your leather seat, and when you then accidentally grab the metal part of the seat belt and immediately shriek in pain as if you had wrapped your hand around a frying pan right out of the oven, it is helpful to remember how beautiful it is here in the spring. 

The wildflowers almost make up for our sweltering summers. Almost. 

Today my mom and I visited the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center here in Austin, and as a new photographer, I was in heaven. Wildflower season is almost at it’s peak, and the photo opportunities were bountiful.  It is times like these when I consider starting a separate photo blog where it would be more appropriate to post all three hundred and eleven of the the pictures I snapped.  Or at least a third of that.  Or maybe like fifty.

Anyway. Here’s a small sampling.  If you live in Austin, now is the time to check this place out!

   

 

Isn’t my Mommy cute?

   

  

Only in TX do you find a longhorn skull in a flower garden…

     

  

Ascending the tower to view the grounds from up high…

 

Ha ha ha ha ha…

    

Oops.  Think I might’ve gotten a little carried away on the pictures.  But in my defense, I really DID exercise restraint. I wasn’t kidding when I said there were 311 of ‘em.

Happy Thursday evening everyone!