Tag: Dallas

Good people and Happy Endings

On By jillhaymakerIn goodness, happy endings, Uncategorized1 Comment

LoveI write romances because I love happy endings. That’s one of the criteria to be a romance novel there has to be a happily ever after. Why do I like this so much? Well, I’ve always been an optimistic person, but at my day job I’m a divorce attorney. Yep. Not many happy endings in my line of work, rather I see on a daily basis love that once existed turn to bitterness and even hate. It’s sad and wrong. So I escape and write romances where happy endings do exist. Where people are loving and not hateful.

Sometimes in the real world we can lose sight of that. Especially with some of the things that have happened in our country and the world in recent days. We could start believing that there is more bad than good, more sadness than happiness. I watched in horror as the Orlando shootings rocked our country. But then, a week later I had the privilege to be an adult leader for a mission trip to San Francisco with an amazing group of 21 high school aged kids. These kids gave up 10 days of their summer vacation to travel long hours to work with the homeless population in a big city. I was overcome with pride each and every day as I watched their compassion, caring, and hard work. They were truly making our country a better place by their actions.

Then this week, once again, horror unfolded in our country. This time with the seemingly unnecessary shootings of two black men by police and then the unthinkable massacre of police officers in Dallas. What is our world coming to? I asked. So much tragedy and killing. Where were the good people? Then I got my answer once again. My daughter is an ER doctor at Parkland hospital in Dallas. These amazing doctors were tasked with helping save slain police officers, many of whom were their personal friends and colleagues. Some who  didn’t make it. But then in the midst of tragedy, good people once again showed up. On Friday their ER was inundated by the good people of the Dallas area, total strangers bringing food-packages of candy, cookies, tacos, donuts, pizza, all to express their support and gratitude. They even received 200 sandwiches from the Orlando hospital who had dealt with their own shooting a few weeks earlier.

There’s good in this world if we look for it. Good people will prevail over evil ones. And I’ll always believe in happy endings.

 

 

Texas Roadtrip, Continued

On By jillhaymakerIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Well, as promised, I had an excellent adventure driving the 1720 miles back and forth across Colorado, New Mexico and Texas to visits my daughter in Dallas. My first night stop was in Amarillo where my research had shown the amazing roadside attraction of the Cadillac Ranch. “Ranch” is a stretch.  Not seeing it from the Interstate, I stopped at a small souvenir shop with this huge Second Amendment Cowboy out front (only in Texas!)2nd cowboy

I was told to drive about a mile down the frontage road and look for an old gate into a field. I got back in my car and sure enough, there it was, no sign, no parking lot, just a small dirt edge to the road by an old rusty gate, and off in the distance you could a row of old vintage Cadillacs planted nose down in the dirt. My dog and I got out, in a strong wind that blew the dust from the desolate, empty field into our eyes, and we started the trek across the several hundred yards that led to the cars.image Once there, we approached the only other souls who had ventured out in the wind, a young couple with European accents who understood enough English to take out picture.imageThe cars had apparently been purchased by some hippies in San Francisco in the 70’s and moved to Texas when a generous farmer donated the land for their planting. Once there, they have been spray painted over and over by passers by. (Dang, I didn’t have a can of spray paint with me or I could have added my design to the display).

The next day, driving farther east into Texas, I stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break for me and Laddie and encountered in the parking lot of the gas station this giant chicken. No sign, no explanation, just the chicken. I guess everything is bigger in Texas.chickenThen it was on to Dallas where we were fortunate to get to attend the ACMawards50 party for a cause where we got to see many live performances of amazing country artists (that is before everything was interrupted by the severe thunderstorm/tornado warnings). Not to be outdone in the photo op department, there were many opportunities for pictures with life size cardboard cutouts of your favorite country artists. My daughter and I especially liked Blake and Luke!Texas 5All in all, it was a memorable trip with great photo memories. Its good to be back home. Do you have memorable photos from your last trip? Id love to see them.