It is good to be home. Good to be able to have big hair, sunshine, no wind or humidity and not a Tex-Mex restaurant to be found, to tempt me every day and gain back every pound I had lost to go to Texas. It was good  to come home before I had to buy a second seat just to fly home. From the time I landed in Texas, it was rainy and windy so my hair was flat and straight the entire time.  Didn’t take an umbrella so my clothes were wet and wrinkled. If you are like me, you are always hoping that you will look good for the people you don’t get to see but a couple of times a year, so I was so excited about having lost a few pounds before getting there only to be disappointed that no one was noticing the weight I had lost, all they saw was that my hair looked, “just awful”…really, awful….so much so, that I only went to stores and restaurants that I knew I wouldn’t run into anyone I might know. It was embarrassing and I didn’t want them to think, “poor thing, she moved away to California and look what she has become, a left over hippie with straight flat hair and wrinkled clothes” After a week of having the worst hair, I bought a hair clip to pull it back, only to have it make my face look like I had gained about 30 pounds. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to come home and have fluffy hair that was still a little fluffier than my rear end and I didn’t have to wear a sign that said, “I don’t always look like this” around my neck. The sign got wet from the rain, and the word “don’t” disappeared. The sign now read, “I always look like this”. Coming home couldn’t get here fast enough.

Before coming back, I flew to Houston and stayed a couple of days with friends, Cathy and Cindy, (twin sisters, who I have known for 33 years) which treated me to some of the best food around Texas. We had Tex-Mex 3 times and seafood from Monument Inn. Isn’t it wonderful how you can see friends who you haven’t seen in a couple of years and the friendship just picks right up just like you had been together every week. Friendships that make you forget about flat, wet hair are the friendships that we treasure our entire lives.

Since it was Rodeo days in Texas, while I was driving from Houston to Corpus, I passed the group of cowboys in covered wagons pulled by horses. This is the annual Trail Ride that happens every year and ends up at the Rodeo. I had lived in Texas for 60 years and had never happened upon this sight. It was exciting to be driving down the highway and look over and see this huge group of people riding along on wagons or horses. It was really such a treat to be able to say I had seen them; had read the write up and saw pictures in Southern Living Magazine, but never in person. Made me want to pull into the next truck stop for smoked beef jerky and chew on that, driving down the highway: so that’s what I did….I just hope none of the old Northwood Women’s Club members were driving down that same highway. I can only imagine what they would have thought seeing me chewing on beef jerky,  waving and yelling “ye haw” out my window to the cowboys in their covered wagons, with flat, straight hair. My only saving grace was that hopefully, they would have seen that no matter the hair, the yelling and the beef jerky, I still had on  my earrings and pearls. To Texas Women’s groups, you can get away with a lot as long as you are wearing pearls and earrings, matching pearls and earrings, that is.

Tomorrow, will resume the chocolate recipes till the end of the month. Share a recipe and a smile….Trudy

What a gorgeous day we had today. Began our day at church, where we were so blessed and then headed down to Newport to take in the wonderful sunshine and scout out some new restaurants for when Don and Janece come in from Dallas next month. Randy had had me google seafood restaurants in Newport on the way down and after reading the menu, decided on what we thought would be a great discovery. We headed down there with the directions on our phone and were excited as adventurers could be..we drove into the parking lot but didn’t see any cars. I went back to their web page and then I saw the hours…..Sun 5-10 p.m.   He just looked at me and shook his head…guess I should have looked a little closer, It is now 2 and we are really starting to get hungry. I mentioned that we had driven by a place called 333 several times before which overlooks the water, and suggested that maybe we go there. We were starving by this time and thought to ourselves, even if the food isn’t grand, we are so hungry anything will taste good. So we head down PCH 1 and drive into the parking lot to find it extremely busy, which to us was a good sign. We walk in and they take us to a table for 2…well, actually it was more than just a table, it was one of those tables that you need 6″ spike heels to climb into the chair, but after a few attempts at jumping up, I finally landed on the edge of the seat, not wanting to look conspicuous, just ended up sitting on the edge the whole meal, as I never could scoot back into the chair; BUT it did look out over the water, so we were excited and hungry. We then began to look around and noticed that we were the only ones in there over the age of well, let’s just say that we were probably the only ones in there that had Tums in their pockets and needed the food not to be spicy in order not to upset our tummies, which would interfere with our sleep tonight. But…it was rocking and rolling in there with young ladies which apparently hadn’t realized that it is still cold outside. We saw the shortest skirts and the lowest necklines we had seen in quite a while. Randy remarked that if they were wearing this now, he couldn’t wait till summer. After I glared at him we ordered, as we were too embarrassed to walk out, we didn’t want them to think we weren’t “cool” enough to be in there, so we stayed. Actually, our fish tacos were really good, but by the time we left, we both had headaches from the loud music and all the laughter coming from all the “youngsters” around us. I wonder if their mom’s knew where they were. We watched young men, out canoeing and beautiful yachts coming and going. We both played and texted on our iPhones, so everyone around us would think that we were “hip”. The afternoon gave us some laughs and showed us that, no matter our age, no matter the place, we enjoy new places and new adventures. We feel blessed to be able to have days like today to get out and walk in the sunshine, have eyes that can see and enjoy the beautiful ocean. But…after we stopped for ice cream, we headed home to our little quiet abode to catch up on Wheel of Fortune that we had recorded from Friday night; and to refill our pockets with a few more Tums.

I am leaving for a week but will try to find free wifi spots do I can write updates or new recipes I come across. Have a blessed week, sharing friendships and recipes with someone …..Trudy