Culture? Yes, please!

Well, I was really proud of my post yesterday..... until I looked at it a second ago. The weird section that's white is really bugging me. The formatting on this website is a little antiquated and hard to deal with (though I'm not a computer whiz either, so I guess I can't complain). The blog yesterday took me about 2 hours, which was mostly wrestling with pictures. I'm really not pleased with the product I put out yesterday, but I guess it's a learning experience (and I'm too lazy to do anything about it now).

It's strangely hard to write every day. It seems like it keeps getting crammed in at the end of the day rather than the beginning which is when I usually like to write. Maybe it's the sense that if I blog at the start of the day then everything that happened toward the end I'll forget about before I blog again...? I dunno. I have to find some sort of happy medium.

Well, regardless of all that moaning, my day today was fabulous. I slept pretty hard last night which is amusing, since there was a HUGE storm raging with a full on tornado warning. When I spoke with my mom about it, she just told me that it was because I had missed the rain. The crazy thing is, I really did miss the rain. It does rain in Crested Butte during the summer, but it's nothing like a full-on tropical storm that rages all night in Houston. I love the insanity of the weather down here, it's so visceral compared to Crested Butte piddly rain.

After sleeping until 11 a.m, which is the longest I've slept since I was living in my old house three weeks ago, I got up and hung around the house for awhile. I have a lot of paperwork to do for my father and for my own taxes, to I puttered around doing that (paying parking tickets, etc.). Then I ended up going with my dad and cousin to a restaurant called Pondicheri on Kirby in the West Ave shopping area. Their website is here. The food was amazing (great salads, and the cooked dishes smelled incredible), and the atmosphere was a very fun mix of the brushed steel/glass modern look and the vibrant colors of traditional indian fabrics.

Pondicheri on Kirby

After lunch we walked around (I commented that it looked like they tried to transplant part of Manhattan into Houston), but the stores were all waaaaay to expensive for me to be interested in. I'm much more of a thrift store bargain shopper than a Tootsie's new spring sale girl.

We returned back to the house to chat for awhile, which was amazing. I love my family down here. They're all so creative and down to earth, while still fully aware of how much they can get done. I hope to someday take that energy to heart in my own life, since that's what I want more than anything else.

After chatting about everything under the sun with my cousin, she and her boyfriend (a pretty well-known artist on the rise) took me to check out some of the art galleries that they like, as well as a fabulous bookstore right around the corner from the place I'm staying. The store is called Domy Books, and it's filled with fabulous art books and lesser known poetry, as well as random plush toys shaped like ice cream sandwiches. Suffice it to say, it's my kind of store. The guy working behind the counter was very kind, particularly when I told him I was from out of town. Apparently they do different art shows there, as well as screening free films in the back. He took me to their facebook page which has all the goods and info on there. The best part about Domy, though? They're right next to a locally owned coffee shop, which is likely to be my new haunt during the late afternoon hours.

The view from the front porch of Domy Books.

It's. So. Green!!!!

Next we hit some galleries which were fabulous (including a John Waters exhibition) and decided we were hungry. We went to a restaurant called Mai's at 3403 Milam St. for Vietnamese food. I had the chicken pho which was so savory and fragrant that none I've had before could even rival it. I will definitely return there with more of an appetite, we didn't even try the spring rolls!

Well, now I'm trying to decide if I should return to OTC to finish off the night. I'm so nervous going out, but I really feel like I should put myself out there. I don't want to limit myself by being reticent, which I have a tendency of doing.

But I don't want to do my makeup.

Dilemma.

That's another whole blog post for tomorrow. City vs. mountain attire. But c'est la vie, I look fab in heels. If only I could find some that fit....

Until tomorrow, readers.

Oh! I forgot to link a song! Hmmm... what's a good song... Probably this one. I think I might hear the singing in the forest...