Happy Tuesday!
Thanks for joining me for yet another Texas trip recap! I'll try to hurry through, even though this is the most I've blogged in forever, so you should be happy to read my overly wordy posts haha
Day 3 started by sleeping in. Yeah, that's productive! We grabbed granola bars for a quick breakfast, then went in search of some local Mexican food. I was hoping for Tex-Mex, but the Internet lies and I couldn't find the place I was looking for. No worries, we totally entertained ourselves at a Allen's Boots, where I tried on very expensive cowboy boots, and I made Billy try on cowboy hats. He wasn't impressed. I may have fallen in love with a pair of Liberty Black ankle boots, but I gave up wanting to own "real" cowboy boots when the price tags were consistently over $200. Sorry, if I end up with boots, they'll probably be from Target and under $50 because I most likely won't wear them all that much. Those aqua boots are pretty awesome though, right? Billy picked them for me to try on because they matched my shorts.
After pretending to be cowboys, we asked the {very attractive, tall, longish blonde haired cowboys} staff for a recommendation on a good lunch spot. They suggested Polvos, on South 1st street. It wasn't Tex-Mex, but it was traditional Mexican food, and had a fun feel. The food was decent, and filling. We left around 1, and made the 3 hour drive back to Dallas. The temperatures in Austin the first 2 days had been in the high 80's with 80% or more humidity, thanks to some thunder storms that caused scattered showers. Wednesday was clear, and thus, we experienced "true Texas heat" that the locals had been warning us about. 105? Standard for April-October. I lol'd. Not really, my soul cried a little at the thought that this will be my reality very soon.
We checked into the Westin Park Central hotel, where I changed, applied some makeup, and immediately left again so I could get to my makeup class at Elan Makeup Studio. Elan is an agency in Dallas much like the one I used to work at back home. The business and marketing class was geared toward artists looking to go out on their own, or just starting in the makeup field, so it wasn't too helpful for me as a 4 year veteran. However, Nicole, the instructor, and Tiffany the other student, were super helpful in answering all of my Texas market related questions. I found out I will need to lower my prices a tad once I start taking clients in Texas, but I can expect to get brides asking for bridal portrait sessions, on top of the engagement session, trial, and day of services. Say what? The bride takes pictures in her dress before the wedding day? Hells yeah! That's not standard procedure in California, but I like it. I also got info on where to shop, how the Dallas and Austin markets differ, and just how much Texans go all out for their weddings. All in all, it was worth attending, and it helps that I get to write off most of this trip as a business expense. Score one for being self-employed!
I met B in the lobby at the Westin, and we had a super tasty late dinner in the restaurant there. Again, we stayed up too late, and hated our alarm the next morning. One of the things we were doing instead of sleeping was applying for pre-approval for a loan so we could put an offer in on the Branding Iron house. It made me nervous, and it was tough to do from my phone, rather than at home where all of my tax documents and stuff were, but somehow, I made it works. Thanks to Google Drive, and saving old emails, I had enough information to give the mortgage lender!
Day 4:
We had plans to meet the Texas regional Optical manager, Chrissy, for coffee. She is a California native, and has risen in the ranks at Costco over the last 13 years to get where she is now. It was incredibly fun chatting with her, learning more about management, and what Billy will have to look forward to.
After coffee, we headed to the Dallas Galleria mall, which was epic, but neither of us felt much like shopping. We opted to grab lunch at Mi Cocina instead while we watched kids ice skate on the indoor rink. While we were eating, I got a text from Realtor Ron, letting me know our pre-approval had come through. In order to place an offer, he needed earnest money and a check for the sellers to take the house off the market if they accepted our offer. We cursed Gail the GPS as she pointlessly took us in circles looking for a bank branch, but eventually found a very helpful Chase banker to issue us bank checks, and then a UPS store to overnight the checks to Austin. It became very real at that moment that we were in the process of putting an offer in on what is very close to our dream home. A lot of exclamations were made by both of us.
I finally let B drive the Camaro when we were heading back to the airport. He put it into manual mode and used the paddle shifters. He was intent on beating the car and putting it through its paces to see just what that 400 horsepower engine could do. I had a headache after the many accelerations that threw me back into my seat, but he had fun. Also, I love my new Lulu Guiness sunnies from Costco! Polarized, movie star big, and super cute. Oh, and like $50. Can't beat that.
After hours on the plane, we finally made it home. Our first stop? In-N-Out burger! Sure, there's an In-N-Out in Dallas, and they are building one {along with a Trader Joe's, woo hoo!} I think in the same shopping center Billy's Costco will be in, but it was nice to have something so Californian after being away. And I wanted quick, yummy, food at 9pm on a Thursday. Next stop was to pick up Sadie, who was quite happy to see us.
And that concludes my epic Texas trip recap! Hope you learned something, or at least had something to read while you were bored ;)