Celebrating at Trio: A Story In Photos

Disclaimer: These photos are of questionable quality. The lighting was too low for no flash, but the flash was unflattering. We opted for “fuzzy” over “washed out.” Which just makes me remember… one year at SXSW, I saw a Japanese band that traveled EVERYWHERE with its own lighting crew: on the sidewalk, in a restaurant, on stage… everywhere. The lighting crew walked backward in front of the band so the musicians were always lit with flattering lighting. When can I have that?

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For a long time, Dave and I were pretty bad at celebrating our successes. We’d smile and gloat for a bit, then just move on to the next thing.

Over the last few years, we’ve made a concerted effort to remember to whoop it up when we reach some kind of milestone. So we decided to go to Trio at the Four Seasons for a special dinner to celebrate the Austin Half Marathon.

If you’ve never eaten at Trio, squirrel away some money for a special occasion and treat yourself. The restaurant is beautiful. The food is divine. And the service is just the right amount of attentive+friendly+sophisticated without being stuffy. It’s heavenly.

Here’s the story of our date night at Trio.

Dave kept taking photos of me while I was getting ready…
Things I love: leopard print, black eyeliner, faux fur, high heels and black stockings… pretty much everything you need to be tacky-fabulous. (Perhaps I was a mob wife in a previous life.)

I’ve owned this leopard print slip dress for about 10 years. I bought it online with high hopes that it would fit. When it didn’t, I saved it — with the tags attached — in the back of drawers and closets, and the bottom of boxes as I moved from San Francisco to Austin and from rental to MY house.

Finally, on Saturday night, I wore it for the first time. Yay!

(Between you and me and the lamp post, I don’t actually think it’s super flattering on me. But damn! I was sure happy that it finally fits properly. Now I can give it a respectable retirement.)

At the hotel, Dave and I enjoyed some well-deserved cocktails. He had a sidecar…and I had a lovely prosecco.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any photos of us together. Nor did I capture images of our beautiful and delicious food: roasted beet salad with bleu cheese and walnuts; smoked rib eye steak; roasted brussels sprouts; macaroni with bleu cheese and bacon; chocolate bread pudding with warm chocolate sauce and Jack Daniels chocolate ice cream.