the big d.

People in Texas can handle the heat. People like me cannot. So when I booked a trip to Dallas in mid September, I thought truly how hot can it be? Welp – that’s an easy answer: HOT.

Dallas/Fort Worth was hot off an almost recording setting 40+ days of temps over 100*. How lovely, she thinks sarcastically.

My flight was set to get in around 10:15 last Friday night so I could purposefully avoid heat for at least one of the days I was there. However, in booking one of the later flights, what I wouldn’t realize is though Texas hasn’t seen rain in a while (and Lord knows they needed it), I would be flying in during the first night rain decided to grace the south with its presence in months. Unfortunately we were on the plane for a total of 5.5 hours – including a pit stop in Tulsa, Oklahoma to “refuel.” Needless to say, I arrived a bit later than anticipated but arrived to cooler air and a pre-poured glass of red by my thoughtful cousins.

Saturday greeted us with some cloudy skies (false alarm! Still hot) and a trip to the always fanatic Blinn household for a bagel breakfast. Conversation flowed of pride for America, emoticons, bagels and Uncle Rick’s impending surgery (including him showcasing his new hospital slippers and glasses).

Meghan and I spent the afternoon tasting about five hundred and three different wines at the Grapefest in Grapevine, Texas and met up with good ol’ Megsters and her parents. The afternoon was a whirlwind but I do know we managed to make a pit stop to admire overly priced blown glass and the ultimate Texas flip-flops.

Sunday was the September Blinn birthday bonanza featuring pizza, football and trying to coax Debo to share her Saturday night with the entire household. Before arriving at my aunt and uncle’s though, we made Kerri history. For the first time ever, I got to go to a Sonic. Yep – SONIC. I’d seen the commercials. I’d loved the commercials. I’d never been…until Texas. It was all I could have hoped for…and I was so overwhelmed by all of its offerings: crushed ice, tater tots, individual drive ups, that I couldn’t even pull it together to order one thing.

Despite the three hour delay on the way home too (seriously, I made it rain – similar to Meghan’s “make it rain” dance where she polishes the silver), the weekend was a success. It makes me grateful that the events of the past have brought together family and makes me wonder how we were all blessed with this quirky sense of humor. Everything clearly happens for a reason.