Alan starts work in Plano on Wednesday!

The grocery store I regularly shop at is open 24 hours. Yes! Dallas has officially one-upped Austin.

I love love love my job. Of course, I've only just started a month ago but I like what I have been doing and I like the idea of the things I will be doing as I gain more experience in structural engineering. At the company I work for, there are several Principal Engineers, each one heads up a team of about 6 or 7 people. The team I am on is really amazing...I think we are the most dynamic group in the company. It's almost too easy to get side-tracked talking and joking around sometimes. I feel extremely lucky that I get to work with these people everyday. Now that I'm getting a paycheck, and a nice one at that, twice a month, I have a strong urge to go shopping ALL THE TIME! It's my money and I can do what I want.

Dallas is growing on me. And webworms are growing on my front door. I thought for sure I'd at least escape the humidity of Houston but no. With all the endless rain in Dallas, it's been humid and gross and the rain has brought about these gross-looking fuzzy worms. They're everywhere!!!  But everything's made better by the fact that Alan has been in town. (He wipes the worms off the door, too.)  We went to Fort Worth on Saturday, visited the Modern (beautiful!!!), the Kimbell (lackluster), and the Botanic Gardens (hot). I spent most of my time at the Modern taking pictures of the architecture. We lunched the Cafe Modern and got a great window seat, looking out over the shallow pool that surrounds the building. We met Megan and Ryan for dinner in Arlington; I love Megan! Sunday we went to the Dallas Farmer's Market....what a great place! We bought some really yummy vegetables and fruits and made some delicious meals this week. The Market is easier to get to from my place than getting to a grocery store, which means I'll probably go mid-week to buy fresh produce from there now. It makes cooking much more fun to be able to use fresh ingredients. Tuesday night Alan and I went to dinner with Michelle and Sirynda. Michelle is from Michigan, is in town for work, and we met her in Hong Kong, where she studied abroad at HKUST with Alan. Sirynda's in town visiting her sisters and made time to see me! After dinner we went to find a bar to get drinks and ended up at the shittiest bar I have ever set foot in. I'm surprised my foot didn't fall through the floor actually. Or that the ceiling didn't fall on our head. Sirynda and I ordered frozen bellini's...it was more like vodka, shaved ice, and peach jell-o mix. Gross.

By the way, Dallas drivers are fucking nuts.

I went out to dinner with Victor tonight. It was so nice to see him; I'm happy to know I have one friend who lives IN Dallas. Megan's so far away in Arlington...too far to just get together for a meal and go home. Victor and I ate at La Duni, a Latin restaurant. The atmosphere was trendy, food was okay...I don't know that I'd eat there again, maybe after I try out all the other intriguing restaurants in the Uptown area. Lord knows there are a ton of them in Uptown. And on Greenville, too. He was telling me how he and his roommate have 4 season tickets to FC-Dallas games...I am definitely going to a game with him this season!!!! And I need to go to hockey games too. Soccer and hockey!

I need to find some friends. Maybe I'll settle for babysitting for the children of the people I work with. LoL...that actually doesn't sound too bad. I love children, I've got nothing else to do, and I'd get paid. Oh god, I need to find me some friends...and fast.

My first weekend in Dallas...

Alan and my family helped me move up in the middle of the week and they stayed through the weekend. Although I was going crazy with the five of us crammed into my one-bedroom place, I am very thankful they were here. Now that they're gone....

After spending almost a year of living alone (summer in Austin, fall semester in Hong Kong, and two months of spring semester in Austin), my love for living alone has gone to poo after spending the past three months with Sirynda, my lovely friend of 17 years (holy crap!) and roommate of 2 years. I don't like being alone.