Summer in Reverse

So I know it's been a good while since the summer, and an even better while since I posted, but I thought I would do the 4 of us that read this a service and post a quick recap of the summer/early fall '06 in Dallas as it occurred through the eyes of one Allen Rogers.

Let's start, June 1: I moved into a nicely equipped apartment adjacent to the American Airlines Center and down the street from the uptown area with my long-time college roommate/good friend/nemesis, Alex Brownstein. (I'm just kidding about that nemesis part Alex, everyone knows your nemesis is Rick and mine is Amy Graff). At any rate, when I say nicely equipped, I'm talking about a seemingly unnecessary opaque glass-cube wall and a ceiling-mounted pot-hanging rack which currently holds only a beer bottle opener, not to mention a pea-green painted accent wall that I was forced to repaint a dark hue of slate when my dad gave me their entire former furniture set that is a sort of dark sea-blue/green to fit in our 12'x8' living room. After living here only 5 short months, we (and by we I mean me) finally got a few items of decor on the wall, which include 4 framed black and white photographs of different types of apes from the San Diego Zoo and a large framed print of an old-time shot of the NYC skyline as seen by Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront"; two motifs that inexplicably go together. Ok, enough of that nonsense.

So, we moved in and it could be considered slightly below fiasco on the Richter Scale. Then, it was off to work for poor Alex, who after finishing a tour in Neiman Marcus' Women's Intimates office, decided that perhaps panties is the only place he is truly happy.

Shortly after, I used two free plane tickets I won by attending the Mavericks regular season finale to book a flight to St. Louis for a weekend with me and the Britt. St. Louis doesn't seem like the city of choice to go to for a weekend with the lady so-to-speak, but it was very enjoyable. The Arch is better than advertised, as its magnitude is translated only in a personal meeting, much like the Grand Canyon or Mark Foley. We also attended a St. Louis Cardinals game at the New Busch Stadium, and while there were privy to the best Bratwursts of all time, as well as an exquisite Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. The Americana food and locally brewed beer gets a 10 in St. Louis, MO. The awful nature of East St. Louis, IL however, gets a 0 in the department of feeling safe, as after a late night at the casino our cab driver drove us through possibly the most crime-ridden 2 blocks in all of America. Despite it all, we made it back to Texas safely, as you might have inferred from the existence of this diatribe.

Next, my parents had a housewarming in their lovely new home they moved to after leaving Pearland. It was really heart-breaking for them to leave Pearland, and by heart-breaking I mean resoundingly joyous. They are doing very well and just trying to find new adventures to attend to now that they've shipped all their kids off into mire of the real world.

Despite work and bills and no Saturdays off, life is pretty good here in Dallas. When not working, which seems like 8 minutes a week, I've found time to pursue some new interests and delve into some older ones. I did see The Departed, the new Scorsese flick, and it was brilliant; so I've got that going for me. Also, I'll be headed to Las Vegas for a bachelor party in two weeks, so I'm sure there will a post coming up; but I guess I can't say too much because apparently the pundits have decided that what happens there stays there. Oh well...we'll see you then.