now i'm just irritated

There are a lot of Dallas haters out there.  They say stupid things like "there is no nice outdoor space in Dallas" or "it's too pretentious".  Yes, there are pretentious people (see:  Most Eligible Dallas for their hangout spots).  There are areas of town that are full of the types of people that get all dressed up and dolled up to go out for drinks, not that I care about that type of thing, it's just not my scene.  I don't care what you are wearing (unless it's cute and cheap and you want to tell me about it) or whose name is on your bag or how much make-up you can pile on your face.  It's not for me.  That scene exists here but it does everywhere (ahem, River North in Chicago, blech).  We've been lucky to find our little pocket of what works for us and it's been great so far.

Today I took an epic bike ride from our place in Deep Ellum, found the Santa Fe Trail and spent the next two-ish hours getting lost on the trails around White Rock Lake.  It's not the same as the Lakefront Path, but it's also not as crowded.  The only thing that bugged me was the people in their cars that didn't obey the flashing signs that told them they needed to yield to me on the Santa Fe Trail, but that happens everywhere.  However, I have a big mouth and I'm not afraid to tell the men with their window down that slowed down to stare at me on my bike that they should have yielded to me and that they can take a picture of my sweaty hot mess because it would last longer.  But that's neither here nor there, there is plenty of outdoor awesomeness in Dallas but very few people are using it.  There's amazing natural beauty to be able to forget you are in the middle of a huge city as you ride on a trail surrounded by trees and just when you think you might have made a wrong turn and headed to the country, you catch a glimpse of the skyline that I so adore (it's even prettier at night coming from the west, by the way).  It's not Millenium Park or Lincoln Park, but White Rock is beautiful in its own way, mostly because I feel like it's the best kept secret anywhere when we go there.

This is a crappy iPhone picture of dead grass and you can still see how nice it was today!  

So, Dallas haters, you irritate me!  There's plenty of awesome out there if you are willing to turn off the Cowboys game, get off the couch and explore it.  If the fancy bars and restaurants aren't your scene, don't go there!  There are plenty of local small-business restaurants to support that don't have a dress code.


***
Enough of that.  We're back in a running groove.  I love that most of the 5Ks we've looked into are on a Saturday.  Even before we left Chicago, we'd transitioned into having low-key Friday nights so it's not a big deal for us to eat at home, watch Dateline and go to bed early for a race the next morning.  We ran a 5K that ended at a brewery last weekend and we're running one through a winery this weekend.  I suppose this is fitting for our posse, "Team Running to Drink".  It's bloggers, twitter people and two of my sorority sisters from college.  I think we need to recruit more dudes because right now I think there are six ladies and Adam, but he's a good sport because he's faster than five out of six of us and he's pushing himself to some really great running times.

I pilfered this from our Facebook group page.  Y'all, life is treating us pretty good right now.