jennifer patel

After hearing about the West, Texas blast last night and finding out this morning that my great aunt is alive and relocated to Hillsboro, I decided to spend the rainy, cold morning at the Perot Museum with Alex. We went to the sports hall section and were watching the kids race different people/animals on the interactive running wall .  The kids were so excited and were counting down for their friends at the starting line.  Alex just loves to be held up to watch the kids race.  There was an overwhelming energy in the room and I kept trying to count down with the group, but found myself getting choked up each time and had to stop.  I tried to decide if I was really going to break down and cry in the middle of this huge, crowded room at a museum and if so, WHY?! I had no idea. It might have started with watching the Dove Beauty commercial that is circulating Facebook this week, or the cold, rain today, or the bomb at the Boston Marathon and all the negative news i...

Before we lived in the country of Irving, we lived in a cozy house in Dallas.  It stands right across the street from Highland Park (median family income = $200,000+, 97% white, and the home of beautiful people driving expensive cars...two of which almost hit me during my runs to the Katy Trail...), but the streets get exponentially more shady by block, heading toward Love Field Airport.  We lived about 3 streets over, so that got us high risk of burglary and the occasional police helicopter search.  The realtors would have called our neighborhood "up and coming" but I watch HGTV and I just called the house "cozy". One night during V's residency, he was working overnight at the hospital and I was locked in for the night watching TV and probably eating.  (Definitely eating.) It was a school night and as I was cleaning up and preparing for bed, the doorbell rang and Ennis started barking. I looked at the clock and it was almost 9 PM. Damn it, I thought. Admitt...

I was walking (Olympic speed walking) one night last week and passed a dead possum on the side of the road.  I slowed down as I passed through the awful stench of bloated, dead animal and felt bad for it because I used to think possums were gross and disgusting creatures.  I mean their fur is matted, they have scary, glowing eyes because you usually spot them in the night, and they have a rat tail.  Because they have poor eyesight and have to sniff a lot, it makes them look grumpy and mean. But then one day, at the Dallas Zoo, Alex and I went in the kids' barn and met a possum in captivity.  They had bathed him and he was all fluffy and actually pretty cute.  It still had the nasty rat tail, but the clean fluff almost made up for it.  The possum (I forgot his name) seemed happy and was pretty chill, even with Alex's underdeveloped muscle control as he slapped at him instead of petting him gently. I tell you this because I am the street possum in this ana...

In response to my letter to Milestone Electric about Rodney, I was sent a handwritten letter from the owner. I'm glad I could make his day. sorry...bad photo quality Is it weird that I feel weird about it now?