Dallas, cuisine, country, & love

I am a bit behind in writing this to be sure, but the thoughts are still there, so I figured I better get down to it.

Last week I went to Dallas to visit a friend of mine, and get out of town to clear my head a bit. I don't really think that anything got resolved, frankly thoughts kept revolving around two different aspects of my life that kept me from having the kind of escape that I wanted, but it was still a good time. I am not the kind of guy to fill pages up with a series of events, but a few interesting things did happen that I should note (all this is of course excepting the concert which I already talked about, but which was indeed the highlight of the trip).

Just to lay it out there, I am not sure if I picked the bad time to visit, or what, but Dallas was CRAZY! Some of the worst storms they have seen in a long time, hours of traffic in directions people swear there shouldn't be any, oh yes, and to top it all off, Dallas caught on fire before I left. I call that timing. Ok. On to the actual experiences!

I went to this restaurant called Texas de Brazil, and it was AMAZING! I bring this up only to comment on how fantastic it was, as well as put out there that I was able to try some new things, which has become a rarity of late. I don't regularly come across something that is completely new. If you ever have the chance to try one of these restaurants (apparently there are several) I highly recommend it. The buffet alone was incredible, providing a veritable feast including… wait for it… heart of palm, which is indeed the inside of a palm tree. I never even knew that they were edible. Quite tasty indeed. After delighting myself there with everything from salad to lobster bisque, the "real meal" started. There are these little cards that you flip to the green side when you want meat brought to your table, red when you are done. And boy did they bring some great things. There were several types of chicken, beef, ham, lamb, etc. all cooked completely differently and for the most part were quite tasty.

Alright, enough food talk. I found myself making an interesting discovery. I have been down and out a little on real relationships lately, and strangely there was little coming my way even among people I knew to reaffirm my faith in love. Where I found this affirmation turned out to be none other than a country bar. Yep, that's right. Going in there with my friends was interesting, and not because of the music. Though it is not on my playlist constantly, I do mix in some country from time to time, and really enjoyed a lot of the songs they were playing. What set me back was the fact that I felt like one of the only single people at the bar. Normally at a bar, gay or straight, I would say the vast majority of people there are single, either appeasing their boredom or looking to meet people. That's what single people do. The random couples out to hang out with their friends are greatly minimalized by the loners surrounding them. This bar, the ratio was completely reversed.

It took me a while to figure out exactly why that was, but I can think of a few good reasons. The least of such reasons being that there were 3 other bars on the same street that were boasting the cream of the singles crop. Even putting that aside, I realized that country bars actually lend themselves to couples. Unless it's a line dance or someone just being silly on their own, the vast majority of country dances are partnered. There are tons of things that you can do two-stepping, or four-stepping, and really you can dance all night just like that- if you are with someone else. A partner is mandatory. Given the closeness of these dances, strangers or even friends doing them together is somewhat rare, so when the dance floor is full, couples abound. Seeing as I was visiting another state and not looking for anyone for other reasons anyway, I decided just to be social. Talking to so many of the people there, listening to their stories, watching them dance with one another really reminded me that real relationships exist, and they do work.

So many times, we look at the people around us and only hear of the bad things. Who broke up with who, whose heart is broken, etc. We forget to celebrate the successes of those people that stay together for a long time or even forever. I have two friends passing their fourth year together, and no one ever really mentioned their relationship. Only when they started having troubles did the discussions ever come up. Looking on a world scale it is even worse. Think of the "sweetheart couples," the ones that seem to capture everyone's hearts. Think about how much press, thought, and time are given them when they are together. Now think about those that have broken up. It seems like the pinnacle of relationships was magnified within them, but only apparent to us after they have crashed and burned. So many bad relationships, and people bouncing around trying to find what they want and need, and all we hear is the bad.

No wonder people get bitter and jaded. We no longer live in a world where survival depends upon finding a mate. To me it seems that such circumstances would make it so that those who come together are happier, and yet the world would like us to think that it is not so. For me, I was thankfully reminded that while the world can look dark at times, it may only take a trip to the nearest country bar to realize that there is a lot of light too.