Everything Is Bigger In Texas

For the weekend, I was heading home to Dallas, so I had jam-packed my weekend from the moment my friend Stefanie would grab me from the airport and rush me to an American Heart Association cocktail party, up until Monday morning at the crack of dawn, when my dad would drive me back to DFW airport. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for me. 

It all started when I decided to take Spirit Airlines The Worst Airline In The World. I had booked my ticket last minute so unfortunately beggars can’t be choosers. The flight boarded on time, yet left Boston 45 minutes late. Then upon arriving at DFW, the pilot announced that the weather was bad and that we were diverting to Houston. So the plane landed at Houston International for a hot second, where we refueled, and then waited on the tarmac along with a bunch of other planes to take off and head back to DFW. I ended up landing at about 10:00 and had been on the flight since 2:30. I am not even going into details about the upchucking women who sat across the aisle from me because it will only make you nauseous. In DFW my bag took 45 minutes to come out on the terminal and finally Stefanie and I were on my our way into the city. There was no hope in attending the cocktail party which ended at 8:30, so instead we went straight to our friends who unfortunately had been waiting at a Dallas restaurant for us since 9:30. The restaurant was Komali in the Knox-Henderson neighborhood of Dallas.

Komali hated us because they wanted to close, but unfortunately my amazing friends held off the dogs just long enough for Stefanie and I to get to the restaurant and stuff our faces with the loads of appetizers they had ordered. The food was spectacular, although a bit cold since we got there so late.

We ended up walking from the restaurant to Knox Street Pub for the remainder of the night where we ingested jell-o shot filled syringes that at the time tasted like candy but in the morning made us regret every last one of them. All in all, we salvaged the evening and I was so thankful to see all my best friends, whom I have been missing so much!

In the AM, a not, not, hungover Catherine woke up and headed to brunch in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas with Stefanie and Hannah; the rest of the crew was dying a slow painful death from the syringes and were unable to make it. There, I also met up with a great friend from college, Katherine. The brunch place was called Anvil Pub; my friends and I had seen the drinks all over instagram and had been dying to go there. You order the brunch special drinks (the name actually includes a derogatory word), which cost a whopping $20 but includes a drink with a meal on top. I got a Bloody Mary, with a fajita, some taquittos, stuffed jalapeños and a bunch of random fruit. Katherine’s toppings were the best, where she got a mimosa with a breakfast egg sandwich on top, some fresh fruit and a giant cinnamon roll.

In the afternoon, I finally headed home and saw my family. We were going to the Hilton Anatole for the night to attend a gala hosted by the American Heart Association called Cotes du Coeur. Since my boyfriend lives in a not so commutable distance to Dallas, my friend Madison filled in as my date, and we had a spectacular time.

The evening started with a cocktail party that had great drinks and not so great hors d’oeuvre. Then we headed inside to the banquet, where there was a multiple course meal concocted by the best chefs in Dallas and headed by Richard Chamberlain from Chamberlains Steak & Chop House. All the food was also paired with wine, all donated from vineyards around the world. Lucky for us, the Bookwalters, from J Bookwalter Vineyard in Washington, were sitting at our table and also brought some extra bottles of their good stuff (which was also featured on the pairing list) so the wine was flowing while we indulged in the best food Dallas has to offer.

The evening ended at the after party, which was only supposed to go until 12:00am. Well the DJ’s and a bunch of crazily fun, generous American Heart Association donors had different plans. The donors wanted the party to never end which resulted in the DJ declaring that she wasn’t going to end the party “until I get unplugged!” This of course caused security to come running at around 1:30 am where they told her to end. Madison and I headed back to the table to put our shoes on and go home and then 5 minutes after security left, thinking they had finally put a stop to the debauchery, the DJ starts blasting the song “I don’t  f*** with you!” Everyone came running back to the dance floor and screaming the lyrics to the song. Keep in mind, at this point, Madison, myself, my brother and his girlfriend, were probably the youngest at this party by about 20 years, but holy moly these geezers wanted to party! But finally at 3 am, multiple security guards showed up, literally unplugged the DJ, a mild altercation happened, and Madison and I knew it was time to leave, but not without snatching a giant bowl of chips and dip that we shared with our fellow partiers on the way up to our room in the hotel elevator.

For such a wild evening, Madison and I were incredibly shocked by our lack of a hangover. I guess that’s what happens when you attend a classy bar that uses Kettle One instead of Taaka. Go figure! We rallied my family and we all headed to the Iron Cactus downtown for brunch. After brunch, I had hopped to take my boat out on Lake Grapevine, but the weather was looking questionable and we decided not to risk it, so instead I headed home and lounged with my family until the evening when we headed to the Mavericks game! The game was an adventure in itself, where the mavericks played the first quarter terrible and ended up coming back and then some to win, keeping them alive for another game in the playoffs! After the game I went home, went to bed and then woke up at the crack of dawn for my flight back to Boston.

Kerrianne, Stefanie, Marie, Maddi, Hannah, Katherine and my family: Love you guys and thanks for making my weekend home absolutely spectacular!