New Life

Well, San Antonio was awesome. The convention itself was amazing. The opening ceremony was 30 minutes of pure goosebumps all over my body. Did you know there are more countries that participate in Drunks Like Me than are in the United Nations? And when Iraq brought out their flag, the whole Alamodome full of 60,000 people jumped to their feet and cheered for at least 10 minutes. That. Brought tears to my eyes.

And since I have not yet processed what I want to tell you and what would be appropriate to tell you about Drunks Like Me, I give you food. Yes. Food. Symphony Date is quite the foodie and we had asked around for suggestions of places to eat while in Texas. And neither of the restaurants failed us. I bring you Mi Tierra.

It was like a party! Look at the lights! And the pinatas! I went on an enchilada tour of San Antonio. Look! On that plate is a beef taco, fresh guacamole, two enchiladas with red sauce, refried beans, rice and two quesadillas. I ate it all. It was YUMMMM. I would like to say that if I lived in San Antonio, I would want to go there on my birthday every year. Miss M had enchiladas with a mole sauce. I tried it, but I'm glad I didn't order it. The mole was a little too rich for my taste. Two other ladies that were with us ordered goat. I tried that, too. It was nothing special. Very bland. But I tried it.
The next day, we tried something a little more upscale. boudro's.

The man made guacamole right at our table! I didn't get a single picture of his hands without the blur. That's how fast he was going. The secret ingredient was orange juice. Seriously! Fresh squeezed lent it a tang I haven't had in a guacamole before. And it was so simple. Lime juice, orange juice, avocado, cilantro, red onion, salsa and sea salt. Superb. So much so, that we had him come back and make us another bowl full!
And here is enchilada number 3. (I didn't have time to upload the ones I had on Thursday night, but suffice it to say, I was starving, it's what I ordered, and I scarfed it up, but it wasn't anything I couldn't have gotten in Sioux Falls.) Look how different these are! This was so fresh tasting. Not covered in sauce or mounds of cheese - it let the true enchilada taste come through with just a bit of queso fresco on top. I ate it all. Of course. And like Miss M said, "I want another whole plate!" But we refrained and had Starbucks instead.
This sad, sad quesadilla is something I snacked on at the Alamodome one night. We wanted good seats for the evening programs, so we just ate there every night while we waited the two hours for the program to start. It was pasty, pale and squishy. But don't think that I didn't eat it. I did. Every last bit.
One of the police officers told us that this convention was the biggest thing to hit San Antonio since the World's Fair in the 60s. And get this. After the second day when none of the bars on the Riverwalk were getting any business, they started making iced coffee and people flooded in. You know you're doing something right when the bars figure they'll make money off of us with coffee instead of liquor. Apparently, when the Drunks Like Me convention was in San Diego 10 years ago, the entire city ran out of coffee and they were shipping it in from counties all over California. Drunks like their coffee. And whatever Starbucks guru didn't think to open stands all over San Antonio is an idiot.

I know that some of you (cough, cough, melissalion) did not approve of me travelling by bus and I would like you to know that it will never happen again. I did it all the time when I was a youth director, but I think I may just have hit the "too old for this shit" age several years back. My swollen ankles were DISGUSTING. Because there's no way to lie down and the seats are not made for people who are six foot tall. No way to stretch out. It was freaking miserable. So miserable that on the way home, about 4 a.m. I gave up, threw my pillow down on the floor in the aisle and laid down. I didn't care that there was spilled and dried Diet Mountain Dew, licorice, melted chocolate and all kinds of garbage on the floor. Simply. Did. Not. Care. I slept on the floor of a bus. For a good four hours. And I wished I would have just done it hours earlier. Sigh.

And just so you know, my foodie tastes are eclectic at best. Because this. May have just ended up in my bag after a stop at a gas station. (Shhhhh!)Adn this is what I look like when I haven't showered for 24 hours.
But seriously. Just look at my eyeballs and the way that my whole face is smiling. I think that says it all.