Back amongst the living

The bird of the weekend for me – really the only truly interesting one I saw – Yellow Crowned Night Heron. One was staring down at us from a tree as we took the Riverwalk Boat Tour in San Antonio.

Well, the weekend was everything I needed. Truly fabulous conversation. Lots of laughs. Entirely too much Mexican food and one truly awesome meal at Ruth Chris’. I am only eating salad and sushi this week! I also finally understand why Texans have so much Texas Pride. It’s the kind of in-your-face pride which has always quite frankly rubbed me the wrong way. But, thanks to the tours and talking to a 4th generation Texan (thank you Suburban Mom!) I think I at least understand its origins. We visited the Alamo, watched an Imax film on the topic and then had a wonderful late night quiz session with our suburban mom who is also a former teacher and high school assistant principal now working in her district office on curriculum development. And yes, a 4th generation Texan who took the infamous 7th grade year of state history. Wow. Quite credentialed on the topic. You see, I either forgot, or never quite understood that Texas had been its own country at one point. The Republic of Texas. As such, they are able to fly their state flag above the US flag and also still own their own mineral rights. That deep seeded feeling of fierce independence clearly still runs strong – and I respect that. I still refused to bring home any souvenirs that were too over the top, but I get it now 🙂

The Riverwalk was really lovely. Gorgeous trees and a lovely meandering walkway dotted with patio restaurants and leading into a lovely shopping mall. There were also artisans with booths along the way during the weekend displaying their wares which attracted many of us to loosen our wallets. The Riverwalk is commercialized a bit of course. Many of the restaurants are the usual chains you would find in these kinds of places. Still, it sort of set a rather leisurely pace for us.

Our hotel had direct access to the walkway. What a hotel! It was a converted bank building and so so beautiful! The architecture was stunning. During the conversion they kept many of the bank features. Consequently when you walked into the lobby it looked and even *smelled* like a grand old bank. There were even vault doors in the downstairs area. The rooms were lovely – our suite had a living room and separate bedroom which made it very easy for an east coaster and west coaster to peacefully co-exist. Well, my roommate and I are fine under almost any circumstances. As we thought back to previous years, there was one year when our entire room was as small as the bedroom alone this year. Yet we made it through. You see, I hit the roommate jackpot 10 years ago. Or, really, 10 reunions ago, which is 9 years. Oct 1998. Our first gathering in Seattle. I had felt a connection online to a mom from Portland Maine so I rolled the dice and agreed to room with her. We’ve been together ever since and I assume will be forever 😉 It’s funny because even on my other list one of the people I am now closest to is from Portland Maine! I think there is some odd pull between our corners of the country! This year, for the first time, she and I did not close the doors on the gathering. Usually we are the last to leave but there were still three in the hotel when we took our cab to the airport Monday morning. But, we did have the fun of sharing the flight from San Antonio to Houston to get to our longer connections home. That was not planned at all, but appropriate.

It seems that while I was gone, everything here was fine. Music Man continued to heal. He had to visit urgent care once due to declining blood levels again, but then that stabilized. He started drinking more water which seems to have helped. He is still in pain of course, but he also seems to be moving better every day. Now he is going through the administrative fun of all this. Interviews with insurance agents and their attorneys. Filling out disability forms since he cannot really start working at any new job until he gets a doctor’s release. Saving his expenses incurred already (as am I) to bill back to the insurance company. Luckily his friend was covered by the same company that we use and the policy does have medical payment coverage for passengers injured – up to $15k. Between that and the work insurance policy which was still in effect until 9/30 this should mostly be covered. So, he plugs along. He took fine care of the house and the cats. The reports I received when I called in indicated that SportsBoy had a very fine weekend too. The Golden Falcons won another game 13-7. They fell behind early and then fought back to win. Sunday there was a baseball double header in which the second game was apparently quite the event. His team one both games, but I gather from later reports that game 2 was a come from behind classic. My dad reported that SportsBoy was hitting the ball quite well – showing the results of his batting sessions. Yay!

There is a bit to catch up on of course, but it was all totally worth it. Fingers crossed please that I am able to get back on track with everything by the end of this weekend. IOW – no new dramas, ok? Thanks.