It's the little things

By Wendy Gragg

I celebrated a birthday on Monday and took some time off to play in San Antonio, where most of my family lives.

I was able to cross off a few things from the folded up list I keep in the back of my mind. I don't know that it qualifies as a bucket list per se, but it is sort of a universal to-do list, including big and little aspirations alike — from trying a new restaurant to visiting Paris.

The larger of my accomplishments last weekend was: stay a night in a haunted hotel. I believe in ghosts, I do. But I'm not weird about it. It's more a sort of guilty pleasure.

So I stayed a night at the Menger Hotel, just next to the Alamo. Built in 1859, Richard King of King Ranch died in the Menger and Teddy Roosevelt recruited Rough Riders from the Menger's bar.

They put me in the original section of the large hotel and I went wandering the halls in the wee hours. I didn't see anything ghostly but it's a beautiful hotel and I had a blast, even going over to Boudro's, a Riverwalk restaurant, for good seafood and a prickly pear margarita.

While in town, I also toured the new museum reach section of the riverwalk, went to the farmer's market at the Pearl brewery complex and made great strides in my culinary adventures, including cabrito (goat) and huitlacoche (corn mold).

I hope to continue crossing items off of that little life list now that I'm back in Waco. Because, if there is one single thing I have learned in my now 36 years, it's that, for me, life must be enjoyed as a string of small pleasures.

Big pictures overwhelm me and sure, I appreciate large events like the birth of my nephew. But what gets me through, from day to day, are simple things like my view of the river, a meal with friends, new experiences . . .

. . . And statements about how I don't look my age. Here at 36, strangers (or friends for that matter) insisting that I don't look a day over 24 have become very important to me. Call it vain, but that's another one of those little things that gets me by :)

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