To Dallas, with Love.

I recently wrote a blog titled “To Utah, with Love” after returning home to Dallas from my first trip to Salt Lake City. I am now writing from Salt Lake City after having accepted a relocation offer from our Dallas office to head up the training efforts in our new sales office here. Let me tell you how I got here…

It was April 8, 2009…a date that changed my entire life – only I didn’t know it just yet. I didn’t fully start to realize it until recently as I celebrated my fourth anniversary with MultiView in Salt Lake City with a brand new training class. So many things happen by chance, yet somehow they leave a profound impact on the rest of our lives. For example, it was by chance that a friend had referred me to MultiView more than four years ago. It was probably also by chance that I had even ended up in Dallas. Let’s rewind to May 29, 2008. That was the day I put Memphis, Tennessee in the rear view and headed off to start a new life in Dallas. I had spent a year deciding where I wanted to move and had settled on Dallas based of a list of criteria that I felt were important. So I packed up and moved to Dallas, Texas where I went on to adopt all of the major sports teams (to my family’s dismay) and an all new life. It was this logical choice that would lead me down a path of priceless experiences that still trigger a rainbow of emotions as I recall memories of my now “perfect” life.

As I shared the story of my journey with MultiView with my class on the day of my anniversary, and as I prepare for a third major move in my life, some of my favorite things and fondest memories of Dallas are stuck on replay in my head. Here are my top 10 favorite parts of Dallas….

1. Sitting on a patio for brunch or a snack with my best friend. State and Allen was always at the top of my list, complete with mimosas and The Monterrey (eggs over easy, bacon, toast, and a half of an avocado on a bed of lettuce and filled with a fire roasted salsa – yum!)

2. Festivals all year-round including Main Street Days, Grapefest, Taste of Addison– and my favorite was always Octoberfest with a “once a year” date for some beer and saurkraut- a jeep and a cowboy hat are a must!

3. Catching Ricki Derek playing live at Scat Jazz Lounge in Ft. Worth or Sfuzzi in Uptown on Wednesday nights – Ricki has some great renditions including “I Melt With you” originally by Modern English and “Rio” by Duran Duran.

4. Picking out fresh vegetables and handmade spices from the spice shop inside the Dallas Farmers Market.

5. Football Sundays watching the Cowboys with homemade soup, stew, pork loin, or pot roast.

(check out this recipe that I love!)

6. Spending an afternoon tasting wine at one of the wineries in Grapevine. My favorite is Su Vino – they will even make custom wine labels for your bottles of wine, which make for great gifts!

7. Pool parties! Enough said.

8. The West Village for some Starbucks, shopping and lunch – perfect for an afternoon out with a friend.

9. The Bishop Arts District for an afternoon of boutique window shopping and maybe dinner at Tillman’s Roadhouse before heading home.

10. The Ballpark for Texas Rangers baseball game-, it’s America’s favorite pasttime, along with mine!

Now for my Dallas readers, here are a few things I’ve learned since I’ve been here. Yes tumbleweeds are real, and they can get as big as an automobile. The “hot pods” (natural hot springs) are actually really HOT, not lukewarm as I expected. French fries are NOT served with ketchup, but rather a “fry sauce” that is made of some ketchup concoction that I haven’t inquired about yet. I rarely see a Taxi around, even when I am in downtown Salt Lake City. And yes, Dallas drivers are still WORSE.

Starting a whole new chapter in my life, I have no idea what to expect down the path of becoming a “Utahan” – I am still looking for a new apartment and trying to make some friends here; and most days I still look like a tourist (hopefully I get some slack because of my Texas license plate). I have days when I am homesick, days when all I want to do is go exploring, and I spend a lot of time lost. But I can tell you that no matter what happens here, everything will turn out just right. Why?

Because I AM MULTIVIEW, AND I AM FEARLESS.