"I mean Big D, litte A, double L, A- S," as the song goes.
But first there was the week to get through. It was a fairly busy one, except Monday which I took off for a job interview at another company. (Which is busy in another way, of course.) I won't say much about that, except that my experience of interviewing always seems so different from what I hear other people go through. In general, I've found that by the time I'm being interviewed, they're pretty sure I'm qualified so it's more of a matchmaking process, i.e. seeing how well I'd fit in. They were far more concerned with answering my questions about the company than in asking me much of anything. At any rate, I think they're likely to make me an offer.
I'd hoped to have time to get into the city to see one or more shows in the Capital Fringe Festival, but I was too tired after work on both Tuesday and Wednesday. And Thursday I had a meeting close to home, so it didn't really seem to make sense. Instead, I got a few errands taken care of, notably buying a new bedroom lamp.
The Fringe ran through the weekend, but I'd made plans to go away yet again. This time, it was off to Dallas. It took ages to get from DFW to downtown, largely because you first have to call for a shuttle and then wait for them to show up. I called Super Shuttle on the grounds of familiarity and decided it was unethical to go with another company (City Shuttle) which was trying hard to poach passengers. (And which, incidentally, actually charges a couple of bucks more.) Still, it wasn't like I needed to do anything but go to sleep once I got to the Hampton Inn. I had actually tried to get in at the Hyatt, but it was all booked up. It turned out that there was a huge Mary Kay cosmetics convention in town. I found myself thinking of it as the attack of the pink makeup fiends.
My major plan for Saturday was to do the downtown historic Dallas Volksmarch. The intense heat was a concern, but there really is something to the old saw about it being a dry heat. The walking route included lots of historic buildings and monuments, with the Pioneer Cemetery and First Baptist Church beng notable. An interesting tidbit was the Belo Mansion (now the Dallas Legal Educaiton Center) which was once a funeral home where people lined up to see the body of Clude Barrow, as in Bonnie and Clyde. There were also a couple of sculpture gardens to circle. And, of course, there are the sights associated with the assassination of President Kennedy. All in all, I can't say that downtown Dallas is a particularly attractive or distinctive city. But it was a pleasant and interesting walk.
If I'd had more time I'd have checked out the Conspiracy Museum, but I needed to retrieve my bags and get back over to Union Station to take the Trinity Rail Express back to DFW airport. I'd booked my second night at the Hilton Arlington, on the grounds that it had a free airport shuttle and was on the Arlington trolley route to Ameriquest Field. Yep, this was another ballpark to check off.
Arlington, Texas is a very weird place, what with the ballpark and Six Flags (possibly the original Six Flags) and a Six Flags owned water park making it one of these destinations oriented towards families with young children. The ballpark has a large children's play area, but the only other unique thing is the Legends of the Game Baseball Museum. I didn't think that was worth ten bucks more, since I've been to Cooperstown, but those who haven't made the pilgrimage may feel otherwise.
Beyond that, Ameriquest Field is more or less a standard modern baseball stadium. As for the game, they were playing Kansas City and neither team played all that impressively. It was close enough to be interesting, with Kansas City winning 5-3. The Texas fans were loud at times, but there were also a lot of people who didn't seem particularly interested in the game. For example, the three people sitting right in front of me (one man, two women, all looking twenty-something) drifted in around the 3rd inning, left at the top of the 7th, and spent the whole time they were there talking about their preferences in men's underwear! There is a mascot, but at least it's somewhat relevant (a horse) and not too intrusive. There was only one chorus of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," which more than half the crowd didn't even stand up for. Which struck me as especially odd as there had been more people than usual joining in to sing the national anthem and the crowd was reasonably vocal for a sing -along of "Deep in the Heart of Texas" in the middle of the 5th. (Which, by the way, I thought was cute. You can sing whatever you want at other times as long as you don't mess with the traditional 7th inning stretch.)
I had a long wait for the trolley back to the hotel and more or less collapsed when I got there. The Hilton's shuttle was more efficient in the morning and I managed to get standby on an earlier flight than I was booked on. Overall, a fun but tiring weekend and I'm glad not to have any serious plans for the next few weeks.
Copyright 2006 Miriam H. Nadel