the cool people

Hola mis amigos, I'm sorry that I've become such an infrequent poster of late. Marc and I just started the Perspectives class (a class about the world christian missions movement) and it has been very thought provoking, so I think that I'll have lots to post about in the next few weeks. For today, I just wanted to tell a funny story, and give a little advice.

The advice is this: if you need a confidence boost, visit Wichita Falls, Texas.

The reason (and story) is this: On Friday we took a little rode trip to Wichita Falls to meet Douglas Preston who was doing a book signing at a Books a Million there. Douglas Preston is the author who inspired Marc to read (he was a cliffnotes version kind of guy before a book called Relic by D Preston was handed to him), so we took all of Marc and his cousin Ryan's books written by DP and drove a couple hours north-ish to WF after work Friday evening. (Yes, we're book nerds) We got there towards the end of the signing, so Marc and Ryan got their books signed and chatted with Mr. Preston for a few minutes. Mission accomplished, we head back to the car and decide to find somewhere to eat. Fortunately for us, a Logan's is about a half a block down the way. So, we go to Logan's and tell the hostess that there are 3 of us. She puts us down on the list and then says "I just have to tell you, ya'll look so classy. I think it's the jackets, but ya'll just look really classy." We manage an "Oh, thanks" and a smile and then retreat to chuckle amongst ourselves. In checking each other out, it seems that none of us has become any cooler than we were when we left Dallas...but our jeans and sweaters and chucks and pea coats seem to have deemed us "Cool" to the folk of Wichita Falls. I guess when you live in a city that contains many, many, many people who are far cooler than you, it's a bit of an unexpected role reversal to be the city-cool person in a small town. So this compliment was fun, but that's not all. Later, as we're seated and the waitress takes our orders, she turns to leave and then turns back and says to me "I'm sorry, I just wanted to tell you that your hair is beautiful. Not everyone can pull off short hair, but yours is just beautiful." I think I turned about as red as a tomato, but managed a "thank you". Not only are we classy, but now my hair is beautiful! I've found that pixie short hair isn't all that popular in the great state of Texas...seems the men want women to have long hair, and so the trend is long and beautiful hair. Fortunately I married a man who is a fan of my short hair, so it doesn't really matter what anybody else thinks of it, but I'm not used to compliments, that's for sure.
To make this long story over, we went to Wichita Falls to meet an author, we left Wichita Falls with a little extra pep in our step, newly dubbed the "cool city kids"...that Wichita Falls, I tell you, it's a very complimentary place! Ha ha : )