A Little Texas Time

Well I got to spend Wednesday through Saturday of this week in Dallas, Texas at the NAEYC Conference. I was lucky enough to get to go with my dear friend and former star student, Betsy! We soon found out that since we didn't drink, there wasn't a lot for us to do in downtown Dallas, but we did think that these longhorns were really awesome.

Since the is a conference for early childhood educators you could easily guess that it is a place filled with women. Only a handfull of men are in this profession! In fact this slide shows the 5 total men who were attending the closing Rock and Roll concert of the conference! At this point I think that only the guy in the tye dye shirt was really having a great time.

Oh yes, THE CONCERT! How can I forget. This is Greg and Steve! Haven't heard about them before? Well you have if you are in early childhood. In fact I have sold more cd's for them than they will ever give me credit for! They have all sorts of great songs like, "Beanbag Boogie," "The Freeze," and "Animal Action." If you want to be a rock star and sing in front of thousands of adoring fans, all you have to do is to follow their leads. They don't even need to change their names or security personel.

Here is what the halls look like during each session break.

This is the skyline I could see from the conference center. Betsy and I were so happy to find a Subway just a few blocks down the road on the second day. How sad is that? I eat Subway in Roosevelt all the time and that's what I had to search out in Dallas! Oh well, it was so nice to pay 5 bucks for a good meal instead of 10 bucks for a yucky one at the conference!

Betsy and me and the Greg and Steve concert. Can our hearts ever be the same!

A few funny things that happened:

1) The Clown Car: When we arrived at the Dallas Airport, Betsy had arranged for shuttle transportation for us. It was waiting when we got there and we got into the 10 passenger van. We sat there for a while and the driver shut the doors. Whew, that was hot! We were releaved when he finally got in and turned on the air. Then it was time to go. We happily drove for a few minutes and then stopped. Betsy looked out and said, "We're back to the same place." Yep, we were and we didn't know what was going on. Then we saw it. Nine more women were heading our direction..luggage and all! We already have 5 people in the van! Were they coming? Heavens, we all knew they couldn't fit, and they knew that too, but the driver convinced them that they could and they did! I guess Dallas has different transportations rules than other states. As we were driving, the new ladies were counting how many seatbelts were in the car and how many people were in (that's a preschool teachers duty of course) and she was the one who referred to it as a clown car! Needless to say that stuck! We ended up not even getting dropped off at our correct destination the first time around and had to make the rounds around Dallas again before we got there. Thus, our 20 minute trip turned in to 1 1/2 hours.

2) Nieman Marcus: Well we found one shopping place within walking distance and it was Nieman Marcus. So, since we had saved so much money by eating at Subway, we decided to go bargain hunting at NM. We entered and were first drawn to the boots and shoes section because they were having a 40% off sale. Our lucky day. Unfortunately we turned over our favorite pair of boots and saw that they were $1650.00. Forty percent off was not going to help us out! Then we went upstairs to the ladies clothes. I first saw this special fainting couch in it's own special room and thought that that was quite odd. I don't see those in Target or Walmart. Anyway, I mentioned to Betsy, "What would that be for?" Well I soon figured it out. We were looking through some clothes and Betsy jokingly pointed to this groovy jacket that was basically shoelaces sewn to some netting and said, "Boy this would be great to wear in preschool." We laughed at how weird the jacket was and then we looked at the price tag.... $14,000.00! That is NOT a typo. (That's when I realized what the fainting couch was for! It's for the customers to faint on when they see the the price tag and then to faint on again, after they make their purchase!) I immediately took my hands off of it and told Betsy she had better do the same, especially because she had a cookie in her hand! She dared me to try it on so that she could take a picture, but I knew, we would surely be sent to prison! We finally consoled ourselves and purchased $2.00 mints in the candy part of the story. Wow, they even individually wrap and bag each pack of mints! I made sure that I told my family how special those mints were as I gave them to them for their "trip" prize!

3) Hairy Onion Rings. O.k. Betsy didn't think this one was funny...yet. I have confidence that she will someday....when she is very, very old! We went to our hotel restauant for supper on Friday night. Betsy ordered a wrap and onion rings. It was fine until she found a hair baked into the breading of here onion ring. In a very composed manner, she told the waitress and the waitress said they would make her a new meal and not charge her. Wow, that was great. So they brought the new plate to her and she began again. She had eaten half her wrap and one onion ring when she took a bit and, you guessed it, another hair...long, straight and blond! This was enough to put her over the edge. I think it is comparable to me seeing a snake head in my food! Anyway, she told the waitress again. Then we waited and waited. And then, the chef came out! We thought he wanted to apologize, but instead he tried to convince Betsy that it was not a hair, rather it was part of the onion! Betsy and I had already discussed that option, and we knew the difference! Anyway, that did not go over well with Betsy and she made a kind suggestion that they order their onion rings from another distributer. I told Betsy that the next time she comes to my house, I am going to bake her a nice hairy cupcake! Someday, she'll even think I was funny too.... HA