An e-mail exchange with Mark, back on January 23, 2006:
Getting home ?
Mark Gresham <megresham@****>
Mon, Jan 23, 2006 at 6:54 PM
To: Amanda Pape <****@gmail.com>
Would like to know that you got home alright.
Mark
Amanda Pape <****@gmail.com>
Mon, Jan 23, 2006 at 7:34 PM
To: Mark Gresham <megresham@****>
I surely did. My cousin and his wife went to the Stars game (they have seasons' tickets) so probably did not really miss me. I thought he was supposed to be flying though.
I'm really glad I called you and stopped. I had a great time. We need to do that again sometime. Right now I have to catch up on schoolwork - I am SO far behind!
Amanda
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So what prompted this exchange? My first full week (January 16-22) of my new life in Texas had gone by really fast. I started my last three library school classes (all online), worked a couple days at my part-time university library assistantship job, got my computer (shipped before I left Washington) delivered and set up, looked for an apartment in Denton, and got invited by my cousin and his wife to just stay in the guest room of their empty-nest house. (My cousin was a pilot for American Airlines - hence the reference in my e-mail to his flying.) All this happened just from Monday the 16th through Thursday the 19th.
On Friday, January 20, I went to the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio. I registered for the job placement center as almost an afterthought, but lo and behold, I had two interviews on Saturday! This made me feel more confident that I might actually find a librarian job when I graduated, and would not be hanging around my cousin's too long afterwards.
I left the ALA meeting late Saturday, visited my brother in Austin and my parents in Fredericksburg that evening and the next day, and started driving back to Grapevine on Monday, January 23. There are various routes for this four-hour drive, but when I got to Glen Rose, I opted to turn north, and I pulled over at this roadside park (photo below) a few miles down the road - and called Mark.
Somervell County Picnic Area No. 52, 23 January 2025 / Amanda Pape / CC BY_NC_ND 4.0
We met at a grocery store sign (now gone) on Highway 377 in Granbury, and had dinner at a nearby Chili's Grill & Bar (still there), before I headed back to Grapevine.
Every time I pass this roadside park - like today, coming back from the dentist, when I stopped and took some photos - I remember this as one of the best spur-of-the-moment thoughts I've ever had.
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