Recent Observations

           I recently went to visit my son, who lives in a lovely town just outside Dallas. It was a delight to spend time with my son and his girlfriend but I have several observations from that trip.

            I am not a world traveler (although I’ve been all over the world between the pages of books). I don’t go very many places but I am learning. So I took my big purse (all the better to accumulate those little bags of roasted peanuts and a bottle of Diet Coke), a fully loaded/fully charged Kindle in said big purse, and several paperback books I thought my son’s girlfriend would like that I stuffed into my small carryon. Oh, and let’s not forget the ziplock bag of frozen homemade spaghetti sauce with meatballs and sausage that was placed in a lunch-pail type insulated bag along with several containers of blue ice so it would remain frozen until I arrived.  This was placed in my carryon under the pile of previously mentioned paperback books.

            First observation. I am not sure what either paperback books or the insulated lunch bag looked like going through the X-ray machine at the airport, but it was enough for the security people to have a conversation with each other with a lot of pointing and head nodding and….well, you get the picture.  Fortunately, the person who looked through my bag was very kind although he did go through each one of those paperback books I had packed. He also went through the insulated bag. In the end though,  I was allowed to take my spaghetti sauce with me….which was a good thing, because my son told me not to get off the plane if I didn’t have it (he was only kidding….I think).

            Second observation. Dallas is a lovely place, but not at all what I expected. What did I expect? Well, you know, I’m not really sure but it occurred to me as my son was showing me the city, that I based all my knowledge of said city on what I research for my historical romances. And since all my research is of a historical nature, most of the pictures and information I see is from prior to 1900. Dallas now looks nothing like the Dallas I see in those old pictures, but I’m thinking, this is a good thing and I’m looking forward to visiting again….next time, I’ll get to see Galveston, another place I’ve seen only in photographs!

As always, happy reading!

Marie