Dallas, TX
A Dallas Woman Traveled to Ireland to Find a Boyfriend. He Still Cheated.
Erin Leigh
There are lots of D words that have been used to describe dating in Dallas: dismal, dumpster fire, damned, disheartening. We don’t need anecdotes to prove it’s a nightmare, though, unlike many men in this city, the numbers don’t lie. So it’s not hard to understand why Theresa Rowley, a local comedian, traveled to Ireland to kiss her Prince Charming, though he, too, turned out to be a frog.
Once upon a time (spring 2024), in a land not far away (East Dallas), Rowley got the modern equivalent of a handwritten love letter, a flirty Instagram direct message sans fire emoji. The message from an Irishman across the country sparked her interest, and soon, the two were an international item. After a couple of months of constant communication, as much as you can possibly have with someone in a time zone five hours ahead, Rowley hopped across the pond to meet her situationship.
“I was not about to be official with a man that I had never met before,” she tells the Observer.
She also took a friend for enhanced security, because a first date with a guy from the internet is scary, no matter where he lives. But all went well, and with her new boyfriend’s permission, she posted a TikTok video about her soiree, and it immediately struck a chord.
“[I did not think] that it would get any type of traction at all because it’s very different than my normal content,” she says. “It popped off, just went real viral.”
Rowley is a comedy influencer with more than a million followers across several platforms. Her video amassed more than a million views, was the subject of a feature from the Washington Post and caught the attention of Tourism Ireland, which sponsored a second bae-cation back to the Emerald Isle.
“It was a fairy tale,” she says.
All Good Things Must Come to an End
Soon, it was time for the Irishman to come to Texas. He spent Thanksgiving with her family and lived his cowboy dreams. Rowley was hopeful this was the beginning of forever. But then the poisoned apple came. A dreaded “Hey, girly” message paired with screenshots landed in her direct messages just 12 hours before Rowley was supposed to board another flight so they could spend Christmas together in Ireland. She canceled her flight and spent the holiday with her family in Amarillo instead.
“It was a gut punch to read,” she says of learning her knight, and the people’s prince, was infidelious. “But also necessary because with the nature of our relationship, you never know who’s messaging you and why they’re saying what they’re saying. But the proof was in the pudding.”
Rowley, having shared their love story up to this point, couldn’t leave the shocking plot twist out of the fairytale turned horror story. That video sits at four million views. It sounds like a PR stunt, but the story is true, and Rowley said she doesn’t have any non-believers.
“I always expect trolling, but it really was not that,” she says. “It was just a light-hearted story in a time where those are few and far between. People seemed to latch onto it as a beacon of hope, and I hated to let them down, but I didn’t want to keep up a ruse.”
Rowley hasn’t sworn off the Irish forever, but she’s not exactly looking for her next Emerald Isle resident to come sweep her off her feet.
“It’s so funny how the comments have changed, too, because in the first videos, when it was lovey-dovey, it was all like, ‘Irish guys are the best. You’ve got to go outside of America,’” she tells us.
Now, the Irish (according to her comments sections, anyway) don’t have the best reputation. But Rowley doesn’t want her tale to dissuade the city’s other hopeless romantics.
“I don’t want this to be a story that there’s no hope for women. Not all men are dogs, not all men cheat,” she says. “I have to hold on to that hope for myself… People make bad choices based on tough experiences that they’ve had in the past, and we can learn from that. We can shake hands, we can kiss on the cheek and we can move on.”
So there you have it. Dating in Dallas is bad. But it may not be better anywhere else, either. C’est la vie.
Dallas, TX
Dallas weather: Storms return this week with large hail and tornado threat
DALLAS – North Texans will enjoy a brief break today before the next weather system arrives, bringing multiple rounds of storms. A warmup is on the way, with temperatures climbing back into the mid-80s by the weekend.
Monday Forecast
Following a few morning showers in the eastern counties, expect a warm and breezy Monday. High temperatures will climb into the low 80s under partly cloudy skies.
Tuesday Forecast
As an upper-level low-pressure system moves to the west, scattered storms will move into the region Tuesday afternoon. Some of these storms could become severe, with the primary threats being large hail, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes.
Simultaneously, storms are expected to develop ahead of a dryline to the west. While the tornado threat remains low in this area, any storms that form could produce large hail and damaging wind gusts.
7-Day Forecast
Those overnight storms should push out to the east by Wednesday morning, but don’t put the umbrella away just yet. As the main weather system moves directly over us Wednesday afternoon, we’ll likely see another round of scattered storms that could still bring with some hail. Once everything finally clears out Wednesday evening, we can look forward to some drier, much more comfortable air moving back into the area.
Thursday will be noticeably cooler, with high temperatures settling in the mid-60s. However, sunshine and a quick warmup are expected by the weekend. Temperatures will rebound into the 80s on Friday and Saturday.
The Source: Information in this article comes from the National Weather Service and FOX 4 forecasters.
Dallas, TX
Off-duty Dallas officer shoots at suspects allegedly trying to steal his vehicle in Addison, police say
An off-duty Dallas police officer shot at a group of people allegedly trying to steal his personal vehicle on Sunday afternoon in Addison, officials said.
According to the Addison Police Department, around 2:15 p.m., the off-duty Dallas officer saw a group of people trying to steal his vehicle in a parking lot at 5000 Belt Line Road. He confronted the suspects, “and during the encounter, fired a weapon at the suspects’ vehicle.”
The suspects fled in their vehicle, Addison police said, and it is unknown if any suspects were hit by gunfire.
The investigation is ongoing.
Dallas, TX
Dallas dropped the ball on the Wings’ practice facility
The Dallas Wings can’t seem to get a win, at least when it comes to the team’s training facility and arena. Not only is its practice facility in west Oak Cliff, approved over the summer and fast-tracked to open ahead of the team’s spring season, now running behind schedule, it is also somehow over budget.
Dallas had already committed $55 million for the team’s practice facility, a price tag we were uncomfortable with from the beginning. At the time, city staff said that was the amount needed to build a training facility with the amenities and infrastructure required for a WNBA team. The city argued there were few viable alternative locations for the practice facility after delays with the convention center, and they were running out of time. Enter the $55 million facility at Joey Georgusis Park.
But now the project needs an additional $27 million to cross the finish line. How did costs increase so much in just a few months? And how did a project that was expedited to meet the team’s deadline end up falling behind and over budget?
City staff attribute the holdup to missed deadlines by the project management firm McKissack and McKissack and new requirements from the WNBA that weren’t part of the original scope. McKissack and McKissack didn’t respond to multiple messages seeking comment for this editorial. Whatever the company’s missteps, the city is ultimately responsible for conducting due diligence and making sure the project stays on track, and it couldn’t deliver what it promised.
Now the city wants the Wings to take over. The city would cap its total contributions at $57 million, which includes $653,000 in delay reimbursements. The Wings would then cover the remaining costs, at least $27 million, needed to finish the practice facility and agree not to sue Dallas for the delays.
Some City Council members have suggested that Dallas should consider the American Airlines Center for the Wings’ practice facility and arena. But even though the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars, who currently play at the AAC, are looking to leave, their lease agreements run through 2031. That doesn’t do much for the Wings who need a practice facility now.
Maybe all of this could have been avoided if the city had more seriously considered existing facilities that could have accommodated the Wings. That’s not to say the team doesn’t deserve a training space that will meet their needs, but repurposing an existing space instead of starting from the ground up might have saved both time and money.
This debacle is frustrating for the Wings, and it also isn’t a good look for the city. If Dallas can’t figure out how to deliver a practice facility that it promised to one of its professional sports teams, how can it hope to attract more businesses and major investments? Anyone watching this unfold would have good reason to question the city’s ability to deliver.
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