Theory vs Reality. Reality bites.

For Valentine's day, Patrick got us a suite at the Hotel Indigo in downtown Dallas. Our getaway was this weekend. In theory, it was a wonderful idea. . .some quality "Mommy-Daddy time" as we say, and an uninterrupted full night's sleep. 


Things always work better in theory for us.




We checked into the hotel at 3pm. It may not look like much from the outside, but the inside is very cheery, and brightly decorated. It was quite nice. However, they had a lot of writing on the walls, and it was all backwards. . .it's a little odd for decor, but it works.

Our suite was awesome. It reminded me of an English bed and breakfast.






It was a lovely rainy day. Seriously, neither of us minded the rain. After we checked into the hotel, we walked a few blocks away to a little Italian restaurant.

Patrick had some tasty chicken alfredo, and I ordered what turned out to be a massive calzone. . .which I almost managed to eat half of. 

We walked back to the hotel in the drizzling rain, and joked about how rain "fit" our romantic getaway. We spent some time in our room before deciding to go to a movie. The hotel provides a shuttle service for anywhere within a 3 mile radius, so we decided to go to a theater within that distance to see Safe House. 


The movie was at 7:30, so around 6 Patrick checked with the shuttle service. I was craving something sweet, so we talked about finding somewhere close for dessert before the movie. The shuttle was going to take 10 or more minutes to arrive, so Patrick had the brilliant idea to walk, since it was only about 2 miles, and we could find some dessert on the way.


I believe I've mentioned that things always work better in theory. . .


In addition to the rain, it was also rather chilly, and windy. A few blocks from the hotel we decided that it was a bad idea, and I asked Patrick if he wanted to go back and wait for the shuttle. He said no, so we kept going. 

About half a mile away, we realized just how dumb this idea was. . .


. . .walking over 2 miles in the cold, wind, and drizzling rain in DOWNTOWN DALLAS.

Brilliant. . .we started discussing which was more likely; being mugged, run over, or catching pneumonia. By the time we'd gone a mile, I was betting on freezing to death. It's now 6am, and I'm STILL cold.

Patrick started pointing out all the things we wouldn't have seen if we hadn't decided to get some exercise and walk to the theater.

I'm pretty sure I could have lived without noticing weird art, or the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

 Halfway there, we found The Cupcakery. . .so we stopped in to get warm, and have dessert. Patrick pointed out that we wouldn't have found it if we hadn't been walking. . .

. . .however, I'm pretty sure I could have lived without that too. Boston creme cupcakes are surprisingly good, but not quite good enough to risk dying of hypothermia. 


As we walked back outside, Patrick offered to get a taxi. I refused. I didn't walk over halfway there in the cold rain just to admit defeat and get a taxi the last mile. . .and since I was hoping to already be ready to do 5k mud runs again, I decided to just consider it training. So onward we trudged.


Because of all the wind, I hit a few guys over the head with the umbrella as we walked along. . .and eventually the umbrella blew inside out. We decided to give up on it and just go without it.

At long last, we found the place we were seeking. We bought our tickets, and prepared to enjoy the movie despite being cold and wet. I seriously shivered the whole way through. I'm still shivering in spite of laughing about it so much.


We called for the shuttle when the movie was over, and picked up some dinner while we waited for it to arrive.


We took a hot shower and ate when we got back to the hotel, and started winding down to go to sleep. 


We were both wanting to go to bed early since we didn't have to be up with Korvin, but our internal clocks are so used to staying up til at least midnight that we couldn't go to sleep before then. Checkout isn't until 11am, so we figured even though we weren't going to bed early, we'd still get a pretty decent nights sleep.


Once again. . .theory vs. reality came into play.


As we were finally ready to go to sleep, we heard a rather loud confrontation out in the hall up by the elevators. Patrick opened the door to see if he could hear what was going on so we could decide if we needed to call someone about it.


There was a rather sizable family confrontation going on. Birthday party + alcohol + family = physical confrontation, naturally. Hotel management became involved, and it sounded like the police had been called as well. As luck would have it, part of the family was in the adjoining room next to ours. . .so once the confrontation was moved out of the hallway, it of course went into that room.


What did we do? Sat on the couch and listened, of course. It's not like there was anything else to do. . .there was nothing good on TV, we were then wide awake, and it's not like we could help overhearing anyway. They started calming down somewhere between 2 and 3, and by 4 at least were talking calmly.


From what we figured out, two sisters were getting into it, when the husband of one of the sisters stepped in to defend his wife. The other sister started swinging at him, and he reacted and pushed her down. From the sound of things, confrontation at family gatherings is a common occurrence.


I wanted to start making noise so they would know we could hear them. Patrick wouldn't let me. I wanted to knock on the adjoining door. He wouldn't let me. When you can't control yourselves (in public, no less) and are loudly fighting in a hotel after 2am, clearly you need therapy and/or medication. As I'm sure they have not realized this, someone needs to tell them. 


It's now after 6am. Patrick is happily snoring away. I have issues with insomnia. Thanks to the nights events, I have not slept yet at all, I've been thinking about food since about 3, and I'm still freezing.


Oh, and around 4:30am, an envelope was slipped under our door. . .it was a paper showing that we now have a credit of $11.57. . .I have no idea why. But considering what happened, it made me laugh rather hard.


Anyway, so much for a night away to recharge. How's that for a romantic getaway? I think it's gonna take me awhile to recover. . .and I'm seriously considering slipping a note under the door suggesting therapy for the family next door. (You know, before Patrick wakes up to keep me from it.)


Oh well. . .at least this "vacation" didn't land us in the hospital. :)