Tag: rodeo

Rodeo Closing

Tonight, we said goodbye to RodeoHouston until next year. We hung in the wine garden, meandered and looked at school art in Center, hung in a couple clubs to have drinks and watch the rodeo, went into the Stadium to watch more of the rodeo and then Luke Bryan’s concert – including his current dad-bod – in great seats, ate some grilled meats and a funnel cake using our discounted food cards, had drinks and danced in one of the clubs, and then wandered around in the crisp and cool air after they closed down the club and kicked out everyone – and I still managed to be gifted a couple extra drink tickets that I never got to use, which was exciting!

My man danced with me – real dancing – and it was spectacular. It was spectacular.

He also danced with my friend who was with us. And he danced with this other lady. Her friend came up and asked us if she could borrow my man, not for herself but for her friend, just for one song. I told him it was a polka, and he then accepted the request – he could do polka decently enough for the task. I told the lady it was a polka and that it was just triple steps the whole time. They succeeded in dancing together. While they danced, the original lady who’d made the request explained to us that her friend had wanted to dance at least once. However, she was worried about guys grinding on her and humping her. So, her friend had said they just need to get a respectable guy. ‘He looks like a respectable guy and like he knows what he’s doing out here,’ she said about my man. ‘As long as she doesn’t get her ass smacked and tits grabbed, she’s good,’ she said about her friend. Fair enough, ma’am. Fair enough. 😛

Anyway, so, we had a great night. We used the rest of our drink tickets. We used a couple extra drink tickets that were given to us. We got to have a small adventure, the three of us (and my mom and stepdad earlier in the day, until we went into the stadium – they’d stayed in the club to watch the whole rodeo before going home). And it was really great.

Thank you, God. Thank you. Please, continue to keep us safe. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Date Night

Date night went well. Crazy traffic for both of us to get to the rodeo. I was way late to get to the sign-ups, and he was way late to show up for the actual thing, but we both made it onto the last fire truck for the Grand Entry, he with only two minutes to spare before we drove off, and it was awesome. He had never been in the Grand Entry before, and the final fire truck gets the whole head of the horseback folks following it out of the stadium. So, it was like we were seeing the big entrance setup as we were leaving the stadium, flags and fancy and all, up close and personal. It was great.

Then, we chatted with some folks before going to sit to watch some of the rodeo events up close (as close as you can for that). He, not realizing that the line doubled back on itself, wanted us to take the escalator, which we never do. As we were on the final portion of that line, we cross paths with his mom and her husband. So, we stepped aside to wait for them, and then chatted with them on the escalator a bit. Then they continued to the next escalator for their club level tickets, and we went down into our seats.

He had been worried about meeting up with them at the rodeo tonight, because he didn’t know how to end the time with them in order to continue our date night. However, this way made it simple and easy, and they were the ones who ditched us, anyway(!). Ha! It’s always silly and wonderful when things just work out like that.

Then, when we didn’t have seats anymore, and a lady had been kind of nasty to my man for being in her seat – remember that volunteers are allowed to sit in any open seats until the ticket-holder arrives to the seats – so we opted to walk over to the club we both like to watch the concert.

On the way, we passed a cinnamon roll stand that was closing up shop. There are two massive cinnamon rolls just sitting there. So, I told my man to ask about them. The owner of the stall told us to take them, as they were the last and leftovers. He told us to heat them up, and they’d be ‘real good’.

My man couldn’t wait, though. When there wasn’t a microwave at our headquarters nearby, he slowly downed his roll. I asked when we got up to the club, and then patiently waited. After about ten minutes, the door volunteer came and snatched up my cinnamon roll paper boat. She brought it back a minute later, nice and hot.

I shared it with my man. 🙂 (I offered some to the lady first, and she declined with gratitude.) We both enjoyed it very much.

And then we enjoyed the concert. Kenny Chesney performs happy – he was in a great mood, and it was fun and infectious. And his voice sounds great. He also looks great. It was awesome, and I am grateful we had the lovely night together.

We both got home safely, and I just now sleep. Much to do in the morning to prep for a friend of mine to stay with us tomorrow night. That whole use-the-guest-room-for-storage idea that started when we cleared out my apartment recently has been backfiring this week. Got a lot to deal with in a hurry. I’ve accomplished much already, but there’s plenty more to go, in addition to sorting out all the changes and tidying in the rest of the house, and having to leave by noon-thirty for my afternoon shift… whoof! That’s a lot to manage! But I can do it. My man had the morning shift, so I’m hoping he’ll be able to get our sink installed before my friend arrives (like before me) tomorrow night. I have faith in him. ❤

Thank you, God. Amen.

P.S. I love grilled cheese sandwiches, too, Mr. Chesney. I love them, too. Mmmmm…

Post-a-day 2023

‘Til the pigs come home

My man had rodeo shifts all weekend. 5pm-1am Friday night; then 2pm-11pm Saturday night; then midnight-7:45am Sunday morning (that one was helping move-in for the pigs, so he was literally helping the pigs get into their temporary homes!); and finally 1:30pm-10pm Sunday.

Basically, that means he slept maybe six hours Friday night, then he slept an hour this morning from eight to nine, then took another hour nap after Church, from roughly 11:30-noon-thirty, and that was it for the whole weekend. Granted, he’s the one who scheduled himself for everything this weekend – he had other choices for how to do his shifts. But this was what he picked. I have a feeling he won’t be doing another weekend like this in the future, however. I think he learned that such a schedule just doesn’t work out for him anymore.

He barely made it to the rocking chair when he got home tonight, then talked to me intermittently for about fifteen or twenty minutes until he passed out in the chair. I finally got him up a couple hours later to brush his teeth and shower and get into bed. He resisted fiercely and definitely still half-asleep, giving me lots of nonsense declarations about, ‘Why are you starting there?!’ and the likes. Eventually, though, he did it. When he got into the shower, the massive sigh of relieve that he emitted made it all worth the hassle – I knew he would feel better and then sleep better if he had gotten to shower and then get into bed instead of sleeping all sweaty and sticky on the rocking chair all night. He would have woken up so miserable in the morning… I don’t know that he would have been able to get much work done.

At that, I’m setting his morning alarm and then going to sleep myself, now. Goodnight!

Thank you for a safe weekend, God. Thank you. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

A Good Friday

I have a very full day tomorrow. However, it is all stuff that is really good for me, in some way or other, and can produce very positive results. I have the workout at the gym at 7:30am – boy, do I want to sleep in instead(!), especially looking at what the workout is. Then shower and change at home to be ready at the gun range at 11am, so I can test out shooting a bunch of 9mm pistols (that TERRify me, mind you) and see if there is one we can find that doesn’t make me ball upon use. Then I’m rushing to a birthday party, where I’m hoping to be in time to take a professional level photo with my man (while he’s on his way to another rodeo shift, which is where he already is right now until 1am…), and then enjoy hanging out and meeting the other people at the party for this meet friend of mine. Then I’m going to the rodeo 1)to check up on my man and see if he needs or wants anything special for his shift, and also 2)to deliver and gift some hats to some of the police officers who work with us all at the rodeo and who make all the difference.*

Then, I guess, I can go home.

However, our committee has a club crawl happening from mid-afternoon into the evening and night…, so I might attend that or just part of that, after I deliver the hats, of course.

Then I can go home.

Now, a couple comments about today. 1)A security guy asked me how I was doing, when he was checking my bag at the rodeo. I answered that I was okay and ‘kinda hot and [something I can’t recall right now; ugh!]’. He, quite casually and calmly replied, ‘Well, that makes sense – I do believe you are rather attractive.’ Not even joking. I laughed, and told him it was a very good response, and I thanked him, too, I believe, before I walked away.

Now, I must sleep. Goodnight.

*I was talking with a couple of said officers today. The women, I noticed, had two sets of handcuffs on the back of her belt. The man, I then checked, only had one set of cuffs. What gives? So, I asked them why she had two and he only had one. Their response? A short pause, and then, “She works in the courts, and I work with corpses.”

I kid you not – he said that. And he meant it, too. Apparently, he does crime scenes for the main part of his job. And she said that, in her role, she genuinely uses handcuffs every day, and, even, multiple times a day.

Can you even imagine?(?????)(!!)

Post-a-day 2023

Steak Night

Tonight was steak night for my man’s other rodeo committee. We had a great time. And the steak and the rest of the food truly was awesome.

Tonight was, apparently, also the ‘run into everybody by odd coincidence’ night. I just happened today see an old buddy getting out of his car as I walked up to the committee tent. He had no association with the committee until just this year, so I was surprised to see him. But I was not surprised to see him, because his mom had just posted on Facebook about how he was doing so much with the rodeo this year, and I had wondered just today what she’d meant by that. So, I got to ask him and found out.

The people who eventually sat with us at our table and stayed – others came and ate and left, that buddy and his girlfriend included, but they came back way later – not only were tied to girls form my high school, but my mom had run into one of those girls last weekend at something else entirely. I was able to tell them something their niece had done that they hadn’t been yet known. (Good, not bad stuff.) And then, come to find out, these people live down the street from and know reasonably well my sister… and her husband.

Now, my sister’s husband does this po’dunk country growling kind of mumbling yell whenever he’s fussing at the kids or at the baseball boys or, well, yelling in general at times. Somehow, within fifteen seconds of their learning who my sister was, both of the men, who are brothers, and my man are all standing over the table in a sort of crouch, imitating very effectively this growling-mumbling-yell that my sister’s husband does. And, frankly, it was hilarious. 😛

Anyway, now I must sleep. Early rodeo shift for me tomorrow morning. Goodnight!

Post-a-day 2023

Volunteering

Nothing quite like being yelled at by angry people who thing you’re responsible for their problem, when, really, they just didn’t read the directions in their e-mail to download the ticket app and to create and account… It’s actually quite easy to do, really, yet loads of people struggle with it. And why do they struggle? They DO NOT READ THE SIMPLE DIRECTIONS THEY RECEIVE IN AN E-MAIL.

Uuuuaaaagggghhh(!!!!!!!!!!!)!!!

Glad I get to go to sleep now.

Post-a-day 2023

Phew

Well, we made it through the week. Now to survive Sunday, after being out at the rodeo late tonight for the Ranch Rodeo Finals. They were really cool, of course. But they wen until after ten, and we were already exhausted, especially for me, after helping with tear-down for a bunch of stuff all afternoon/evening. And I had only shown up to take some photos of parts of that process, so we could have a guide for next year’s set-up. I had slept in this morning, then gotten breakfast and snuggled on the sofa with a blanket for a while longer before sitting a few minutes in the sun, and then getting dressed and heading in.

Once there, I surprised my man at his shift, and I watched him work just a little bit before heading up to my own stuff. That was just plain lovely. Mm!

Now, I can barely think straight, I’m so tired. I had mostly caught myself up, but then stayed up too late tonight to finish catching up. Now, we have to be there to start at 6:30am for the other committee tomorrow. Yikes.

God, thank you for this day and week. Please, grant me wonderful rest tonight, and get me there on time in the morning, please. And the same for my mom. Thank you. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Being of service

This week, I chose to be of service. I was only signed up for work on my rodeo committee on Sunday and on Wednesday. However, I was there and working every day this week. I didn’t have to be there. I just genuinely wanted to be there. And, once I was there, I always asked what our leaders needed. Usually, they had an answer. Oftentimes, I didn’t even need to ask – just by seeing me, they would ask me to go do this or that. Why? Because I’m reliable and I get stuff done, they said.

And I am grateful for that. All of it. Thank you for this amazing week, God. Thank you. Please, help me continue to be of service and to learn and to better myself and to make a positive difference in the world. And, if you would, help me to do that while earning lots of money, please, so that I may care even more so for my family and loved ones . In your name, I pray. Amen.

P.S. I hope everyone had a happy Texas Independence Day today!

Post-a-day 2023

Two birds, or two stones?

One of my best friends in high school once asked why the saying was, ‘Kill two birds with one stone’. ‘Wouldn’t it make more sense,’ she said, ‘if you were killing one bird with two stones? It’s much more effective and less work than collecting and re-throwing the same stone…’

And I had to give it to her that she had a point there.

So, tonight, I killed two birds with one throw. At first, I was stressed to find that boy of my rodeo committees had meetings in the same week… and then on the same day… But then it occurred to me that they’re in the same building and hallway – perhaps I can do both. And it is so far away from where I live now, it’s a major hassle to get to an evening meeting there, especially with rush hour traffic. So, this way, I only had to drive once. I went early and avoided most traffic. That also allowed me to get stuff done for both meetings ahead of time, socialize at the social meeting a bit, then go to the real meeting of the other one, and then go back to the social once to finish out. It was actually really cool.

And now I’m utterly wiped, so goodnight.

Post-a-day 2022

Meant to be

Naturally, I didn’t want to go to the meeting, as it was so late in the evening (6-8pm) and far away from home, both on a school night.

Naturally, I didn’t leave until almost 8:45pm, because I was having such a great time.

I guess that’s how it goes when we end up where we’re meant to be.

Thank you, God, for such a blessing as this new rodeo committee seems like it will be and already has been so far. Amen.

Post-a-day 2022