Austin

Michael is at a convention in Austin this week. I drove down with him Saturday after my patients and made a weekend out of it.

Saturday night we went to dinner at Iron Cactus and then went to listen to live music. I now truly understand why Austin is the live music capital of the world. It was impressive. What's odd is that Dallas has the exact same potential in Deep Ellum that is a big fail. I guess Dallas just doesn't have enough "weird" in its city limits to keep an artsy area like that going. We listened to a band made up of elderly men (seriously one guy was missing his teeth). At first, we didn't know what to expect. We just went somewhere without a cover hoping it would be good. When we saw the men shuffling their way up to the stage Mike whispered, "Let's stay for a few songs to be nice." When they started playing, they blew us away! We ended up staying until we just absolutely couldn't keep our eyes open because they were that awesome.

On Sunday, we drove out to the Inner Space Caverns. It's been years since I have been to any caverns and what a cool experience it is! We paid extra for a whole 20 minutes of "unpathed caves" where you get a flashlight and go back in the caves as far as you can without crawling to go under something. I wouldn't suggest anyone doing that. It was just a part of the cave with the lights off and they gave us a flashlight to wander around for a few minutes. But seeing the cave is such a cool experience. We saw plenty of little bats and they are surprisingly cute in person. :)

Mike had to start his conference on Sunday afternoon so I rested in the hotel room while he had to work. :P That night there was a little get together for his conference so I got to see some of his co-workers that I knew and meet others for the first time. And guess where the get together was? Iron Cactus! We were apparently destined to eat there. Good thing their food is awesome!

I had to catch a flight at 7:30 this morning. :( Mike drives back on Thursday. I'm grateful I got to spend some time with my hubby even if we can't be together for the next few days.

Why Would You Ever Waste Your Day Worrying?

I woke up today with a new sense of purpose. Isn't it funny how easily it can get lost? In all of the "what if's," "wish I had's," and "waiting on's" I sometimes forget that today is the now. Life is not the past or the future but the present.

This seems to be a practice that I'm not very good at. In the past I have so focused on when I graduate, when I have my own practice, when I get married, when we own a house, etc. etc. etc. and have forgotten that waking up with my pug snoring louder than any human, worrying that I won't have time to brush my hair before I fly out the door to the office and wondering if I'll have enough money at the end of the month to pay my bills is all part of life. Life that no doubt can be stressful, hateful and spiteful but joyous all the same! It's easy to say "life is what you make of it" and "change your attitude and it will change your life" but honestly, I don't feel this is 100% accurate. I do believe that sometimes we can wake up and put on a fake smile and make the day better with the "fake it to make it" attitude but sometimes we just have to wake up to the "Really, God, really?" of it all and enjoy the ride.

Today, I am learning to be grateful for the now. For the miraculous now. Stress, pain, suffering, all of it. Thank you Lord for the joy of pain, for the lessons to come and the knowledge to be able to acknowledge the what the heck of it all and still enjoy it.