Synchronicity
Last Sunday, my wife relayed an out-of-the-blue request from my eldest son.
"Can we go to a museum?"
Big P has a level of curiosity that is only surpassed by his amazing capacity to understand. Consequently, we have discussions about concepts and ideas that are typically reserved for more adult conversations. His recent viewing of a documentary on sacred relics of the Catholic Church had him wanting to view some antiquities. Since there were no churches in the area claiming to contain a piece of the True Cross or Holy Grail, we'd have to settle for good old fashioned stuff from Texas.
Oh, and something with dinosaurs would be cool, too. Little P, though not nearly so curious, would certainly like that, and Ft. Worth has them in spades.
The weather was nice, so we packed the whole family into the aging family wagon and set sail for the Ft. Worth Museum of Natural Science and History. We watched the wonderfully-dizzying IMAX show, "Aliens of the Deep," by James Cameron, then took in as many exhibits as we could before the 2:30 showing of "Ticket to Mars" in the planetarium. "Ticket" was neither wonderful nor dizzying, unfortunately - and despite being billed as a 3-D production with red/blue glasses for all in attendance, was completely flat - both in dimension and interest-level.
Having not eaten since breakfast, we were all looking to quit the museum in favor of something to satisfy needs other than educational. My friend, Blubrik, has chided me in the past for my eatery of choice while in Ft. Worth. He'd roll his eyes in pain whenever I'd mention that we always ate at Dos Gringos, just across from the museum-corridor. It's good old-fashioned Tex-Mex - heavy on the cheese, heavy on the cumin, heavy on the chili powder ... just heavy - but convenient, and rarely crowded.
"You mean you were in Ft. Worth, and you DIDN'T eat at ...." Dang, I couldn't remember the name of the restaurant. When Blubrik or The Brain make a restaurant recommendation, the background music always falls silent, and a quick glance around will reveal everyone in earshot straining towards the advice, not unlike the old brokers-agency commercial. Sitting in the basement of the museum while the boys entertained themselves with some hands-on exhibits that required wearing a rubberized smock (to prevent wearing the exhibit too, I presume), I decided to dial-up Blubrik in the hopes of refreshing my memory.
"Helloooooo, Cheese" I was greeted. Caller ID takes all the surprise out of calls these days.
"Heya, Blu. You know how you always make fun of me for missing out on that mexican restaurant in Ft. Worth whenever I'm there? The one you so highly recommend? What's its name?"
(Pause)
"Are you," he paused again, "IN Ft. Worth?" There was an odd tone to his voice.
"Um, yes. We're sitting in the basement of the Ft. Worth Museum of...., " etc. etc. "and getting hungry, so I thought we'd try it out."
(Yet another pause)
"WE'RE in Ft. Worth. Along with Sensei and Mrs. Sensei ... and we're planning on going to that very restaurant. Soon." There was a certain wonderment in his voice, and I could tell by the way he spoke that he was simultaneously relaying the peculiarity of our entire group independently arriving at the same destination to The Brain and Mr. and Mrs. Sensei. [Editor's note: Blubrik's godchild and her mother were also in attendance and were his principal reason for being in Ft. Worth in the first place. However, I don't have nicknames for them and am only omitting them for expediency and the lack of proper stage-names.] "We would LOVE for you to join us."
... and so we did. The restaurant is Carro's, where the margaritas are strong and the tostadas are oddly, but wonderfully chewy and puffed like a sopapilla. It was definitely better fare than we would have had at Dos Gringos, to be sure.
Better than the food, though was the unexpected pleasant surprise of good company, so far from home.
"Can we go to a museum?"
Big P has a level of curiosity that is only surpassed by his amazing capacity to understand. Consequently, we have discussions about concepts and ideas that are typically reserved for more adult conversations. His recent viewing of a documentary on sacred relics of the Catholic Church had him wanting to view some antiquities. Since there were no churches in the area claiming to contain a piece of the True Cross or Holy Grail, we'd have to settle for good old fashioned stuff from Texas.
Oh, and something with dinosaurs would be cool, too. Little P, though not nearly so curious, would certainly like that, and Ft. Worth has them in spades.
The weather was nice, so we packed the whole family into the aging family wagon and set sail for the Ft. Worth Museum of Natural Science and History. We watched the wonderfully-dizzying IMAX show, "Aliens of the Deep," by James Cameron, then took in as many exhibits as we could before the 2:30 showing of "Ticket to Mars" in the planetarium. "Ticket" was neither wonderful nor dizzying, unfortunately - and despite being billed as a 3-D production with red/blue glasses for all in attendance, was completely flat - both in dimension and interest-level.
Having not eaten since breakfast, we were all looking to quit the museum in favor of something to satisfy needs other than educational. My friend, Blubrik, has chided me in the past for my eatery of choice while in Ft. Worth. He'd roll his eyes in pain whenever I'd mention that we always ate at Dos Gringos, just across from the museum-corridor. It's good old-fashioned Tex-Mex - heavy on the cheese, heavy on the cumin, heavy on the chili powder ... just heavy - but convenient, and rarely crowded.
"You mean you were in Ft. Worth, and you DIDN'T eat at ...." Dang, I couldn't remember the name of the restaurant. When Blubrik or The Brain make a restaurant recommendation, the background music always falls silent, and a quick glance around will reveal everyone in earshot straining towards the advice, not unlike the old brokers-agency commercial. Sitting in the basement of the museum while the boys entertained themselves with some hands-on exhibits that required wearing a rubberized smock (to prevent wearing the exhibit too, I presume), I decided to dial-up Blubrik in the hopes of refreshing my memory.
"Helloooooo, Cheese" I was greeted. Caller ID takes all the surprise out of calls these days.
"Heya, Blu. You know how you always make fun of me for missing out on that mexican restaurant in Ft. Worth whenever I'm there? The one you so highly recommend? What's its name?"
(Pause)
"Are you," he paused again, "IN Ft. Worth?" There was an odd tone to his voice.
"Um, yes. We're sitting in the basement of the Ft. Worth Museum of...., " etc. etc. "and getting hungry, so I thought we'd try it out."
(Yet another pause)
"WE'RE in Ft. Worth. Along with Sensei and Mrs. Sensei ... and we're planning on going to that very restaurant. Soon." There was a certain wonderment in his voice, and I could tell by the way he spoke that he was simultaneously relaying the peculiarity of our entire group independently arriving at the same destination to The Brain and Mr. and Mrs. Sensei. [Editor's note: Blubrik's godchild and her mother were also in attendance and were his principal reason for being in Ft. Worth in the first place. However, I don't have nicknames for them and am only omitting them for expediency and the lack of proper stage-names.] "We would LOVE for you to join us."
... and so we did. The restaurant is Carro's, where the margaritas are strong and the tostadas are oddly, but wonderfully chewy and puffed like a sopapilla. It was definitely better fare than we would have had at Dos Gringos, to be sure.
Better than the food, though was the unexpected pleasant surprise of good company, so far from home.
posted by HeadCheese at Sunday, April 24, 2005
4 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
...and I read somewhere that 85% of all quoted statistics are made up - including this one.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Once again, your amazing propensity to miss the point rears its head. I was referring to MY made up statistic.
Since your post(s) rarely have anything to do with the topics on which you attach yourself, I have instituted a policy of deleting your pointless ramblings. Have a nice day - somewhere else.
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