Friday, November 09, 2007

Shut it, Texas, I am totally going to mess with you.

So here I am, in San Antonio, Texas. I've been here since Sunday for work, sent here to help a judge conduct hearings for veterans who live in the area. So far, Texas seems a lot like the western towns of Northern Virginia (Manassas, Herndon, etc.), just a lot browner and a lot scrubbier. Basically, there is a small downtown area surrounded by miles and miles and miles of urban sprawl. And scrubby trees. And dirt.

While I was sent here presumably to work, since more than half of our veterans either cancelled or just failed to appear for their hearings, we basically got done around 1:00 every afternoon. Which means I got to nap, watch movies on my portable DVD player, walk around downtown, and do nothing all week. Every evening I would meet my judge for dinner and we would walk down to the Riverwalk and eat at the really nice restaurants there. Because, hello, per diem. So, thanks for the paid vacation, federal goverment! Although now when I go back to work and I have to write up my travel memo (basically describing what we did and how many hearings were held), it's not going to look very good.

But the best thing about Travelboard trips is that I can request to go places near people I know. Like in May, when I went to Seattle and got to see Jennifer, I asked to come to San Antonio because Cheryl has moved to Texas and we are hanging out this weekend together! Which is awesome since I haven't seen her in like 3 months. I'm not sure what we'll do, since there isn't a heck of a lot around here, but we will definitely have to take one of those boat tours of the Riverwalk and maybe walk around the Alamo. Which is plop in the middle of the city surrounded by hotels. It's kind of depressing actually. I've also heard tell of a club called Polysters (isn't there one of those in DC?), and and some place called Howl at the Moon.

Did I mention my hotel is next to a gay club? Ru Paul is going to be there this weekend! I guess red states aren't all bad...

No comments: