I was swimming like a swimmer, that’s why I have no eyebrows.

Yes, both of those things were said out loud yesterday.

Ah, yesterday. What a day.

I went to Dallas, had my photo taken, and came home. The end.

Only kidding.

For those of you not using Instagram, I will now give you the photo story that I told yesterday.

I started my day at 5am. I headed off to the airport and flew to Dallas. I got into town around 7.

Good morning Dallas.

I had to kick it for a while at the airport because I could not confirm/deny the sketchiness of the area of town that I’d be heading to. While I was wandering around the airport, I spotted this on one of the vending machines:

Dude! I’ve got chips. Whoa.

Finally, around 10am, I grabbed a taxi and headed to my destination. Waleed, the driver, was my personal hero for the day, but more on him in a minute.

Cabbin’ it.

Half an hour later I was standing at my destination.

Let’s do this.

My destination was the historic Kessler Theater.

Kessler Theater.

I was a bit early, and they weren’t quite ready to receive people, so I pitched in and helped set up the scaffolding. Then it was picture time.

The whole reason I went to Dallas.

After that was out of the way, I helped paste some posters up and took a lot of photos. Here’s me up on the wall:

Self-portrait of a portrait.

And this guy was exciting to be on the wall next to me, so wanted he a photo with me. Sure, why not?

Double Portraits.

At last, the time had come for me to return to the airport. The people working for Inside Out 11M were genuinely sweet and awesome people. Even the people who were not openly friendly with me at first, were to the point of hugging me by the end. Once they found out that I had blown my frequent flyer miles solely to come have my photo taken. This is something that they do day in and day out because they love it. And my effort to show up and support what they do made them get a little teary eyed. But no time for sad goodbyes. They were posters to hang and flights to catch.

In addition to the genuine gratitude, the woman running the show agreed to email me a full sized copy of my photo, rather than the medium sized everyone normally gets. I will be able to print out my own giant posters of myself. Mwhahahaha!

The finished wall can be seen here: Photo. That’s me on the bottom row, third from the left.

Before I left my cab earlier in the day, Waleed had told me if I had any problems getting a cab, to call him (hands me business card with cell number on it) and he’d make sure I got a ride back to the airport.

So, I called the cab companies, plural, and was having no luck reaching anyone. I called Waleed. No answer. I hunted around the theater for a cab. No luck. Waleed calls me back. I tell him the deal. He says no worries and then drives all the way from across Dallas to pick me up again. Waleed for the win.

On the way back to the airport, I spotted this and it reminded me why I sometimes need to visit big cities:

Dallas Skyline.

Once I arrived back at the airport, I realized that I had not eaten all day. My body quickly reminded me of this. (grumble, grumble, grumble)

So, I start wandering around looking for something that isn’t gross. And there, shining like a beacon of hope, was Tirin, an Irish pub. (lip quivering, mumbles bangers and mash)

The waiter, who kept calling me Boss, said the bangers were all right, but not great and instead I should opt for the Irish breakfast. Good call guy.

Irish Breakfast.

Combined with the most stellar 80s soundtrack ever, this seemed like a great idea at the time. It, of course, was a mistake. I hadn’t eaten anything all day, I had been standing in the heat for four hours, and now I just ate a metric ton of random meat parts and eggs. Insert coma here:

Tired of Airports.

Not even a nice walk and an iced coffee could bring me back from the brink of vegetation. But, alas, my flight finally boarded and I was airborne again on my way home.

Flying Home.

At last, 12 hours later, I was home. This was one of those trips that restores your diminished faith in humanity. I met genuinely kind and good people. People who work hard for what they believe in. People who would drive 40 minutes to pick up a stranger, only to turn around and take them right back where they were. It was a good day.

But, it took the energy right out of me. I was asleep by 9:45pm. And I slept like a rock until the alarm went off at 7:15am. At which point I discovered that my tutoring was cancelled for the day. Huzzah!

And with that, I’m off to work on organizing my print shop. It’s time to start making some art of my own.

Have a great holiday! More soon. ~SC