das boot

this weekend took my crazy troupe of comrades to san antonio & fredericksburg, texas for OKTOBERFEST! matt & i set off from del rio a little after 3 on friday (hooray for leaving work early!) en route to brooke army medical center in san antonio to visit our friend ryan. ryan's been in the burn unit here for about 5 weeks after a boating accident broke his pelvis and did major damage to his leg. ryan got GREAT news this week in that the burn unit team only had to amputate his five right toes. his ortho team told him he'd likely lose his right leg below the knee but everything's looking good and he's already in rehab getting his muscle back. hopefully, he'll be able to go home around the holidays. seeing him in such a good mood was such an improvement over our last visit. we hung out in the ryan's room and the waiting room for almost 3 hours with everyone. sarah brought us homemade lasagna and salad too! from there we headed to our hotel in the stone oak neighborhood and skipped over to the lion & rose pub for drinks and live music.

saturday we woke up nice and late and took full advantage of the hotel's breakfast spread. we set off around 11 for fredericksburg and got there just in time for lunch. the san antonio area is SUCH a change from where i'm living. del rio is in the chihuahuan desert...hence it's dry, dirty and not much green. san antonio has rolling hills, green trees everywhere and awesome outcroppings of natural rock. fredericksburg is basically the twin brother of leavenworth, washington. it's the cutest little bavarian/german town and is known as the polka capital of texas! (: matt and i spent a couple hours dinking around the vendors, trying some german beers and, of course, eating sausage and sauerkraut. we then headed to the cottage where the rest of the del rio family was staying for spirits, long talks, catch phrase, and dinner - courtesy of sarah yet again. after a quick run to the hotel to freshen up, we met up with the gang and partook of all that oktoberfest had to offer (aka beer and wine-aritas, polka dancing, turkey legs, and MORE). this was probably the most fun i've had in a looooong time. literally everyone there acted like your best buddy. there were a ton of older people and veterans that had no qualms about grabbing your hand and whipping you around the dance floor. i learned how to polka and waltz! i cheered on my little old friend lee roy in the dance competition and matt & i decided to call it a night around 10.30. we scored a cab ride for six bucks and fell into la la land until the morning.

sunday we got a ride to the car from sarah and joined our sleepy little group at the argentine restaurant for lunch. i wish i had a great group picture, maybe i'll steal one off of facebook, but we had SO much fun. we had mark, chris, jake, big joe, chris' little sis and her college buds, erol, the hutch, sarah, myself and matt. from lunch we headed home the back way and i even drove the stick shift for part of the drive! big step for me (: last night we made dinner, watched the broncos and COLTS WIN (whoohoo, 4-0 babayyyy) and i headed home to catch up on glee (best show eva) and the office. i'm ready to start fresh tonight with a clean room, stocked fridge and new episodes of house and lie to me. last night i also spent about an hour and a half pondering a gap commericial that i will share more on later...

kudos this week go to....
1. the soon-to-be jeff and quinn bartsch. this dream couple (think kelly kapowski and zack morris a la saved by the bell) got ENGAGED on friday down on the pier in rainy seattle. wedding's slated for next summer and i couldn't be more EXCITED!

2. andria - my little globe trotter has spent the past month all over sweden, paris and london and returns this week to our side of the pond.

3. props to other friends who may or may not have made relationships official this weekend...you know who YOU ARE (: