Lost in, Austin

I was relieved to arrive home from the airport (via drinks and dinner at the bar) to find that the powers that be greeted my homecoming with a blessing of rain, rain that continued into the next day where I found my spirits way up, partly due to the weather, and partly due to the afterglow of returning to one's home after a vacation, a very sweet vacation.

This, of course, is typical winter in Michigan, whereas sometime during the night this blessing became a curse and has dashed my hopes all over the cement in the form of high winds, sub-zero temps (again) and some snowfall.

Welcome home.

Last night I was smoking a cigarette on the porch and at about 1:30 in the AM, I looked to my left out the window and saw a magnificent green flash of light that lit up the entire night sky, and then saw a smaller blue dome of electricity flare up, and then a slight audible "crack" and then darkness down the street. Somehow the power in my house stayed flowing, and I stood there astounded having witnessed some kind of power outage and subsequent explosion of some sort.

A gentle reminder of how weather can suddenly just kill you. Michigan is a harsh mistress.

...

Austin. I love my friends dearly, and to be honest I understand just how they were baiting me, promises of the promised land of Austin... Yes, I'm still waffling. Having seen the city for the 2nd time, I can say, yes, perhaps I should move down there, but I do have a list of pros and cons forming in my head, and I think I've fallen into the trap of over thinking everything, every possible outcome to the point of near insanity, which I seem to be doing a lot these days about the simplest of things. That and getting me to make any sort of real decision, well, I gots problems with that.

Anyway, My vacation:

Concerning Airport security: Found out the hard way that my drivers license has expired, and normally I don't carry any other ID, so I had to go through Double Secret Airport Security on both trips. The first had me walk through the "Air-Puffer" machine, which, frankly, I have no goddamn idea what the purpose of this machine is, other than to irritate and shock people into a higher level of stress and paranoia when going through airport security. But actually it was kind of fun. I felt like it was a transporter, or something equally futuristic. Then the dudes searching though my belongings with swabs of some sort all commented on my cool tattoos.

Thanks guys.

I suppose that was better than the old man feeling me up and patting me down at the San Antonio airport, whose supervisor scolded him for "touching to high on the thigh."

(Shudder)

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Drinking: While I didn't get to see too much of Austin until my last day there, on Sunday, I did get to see a lot of my newest most favorite bar in the known world, Lovejoys.

If there was ever a bar that I'd be happy with spending the rest of my life going to and getting extremely drunk in, that would probably be it. But is one, lone bar reason enough to move to a new city? Knowing the way I drin-, er, think, yeah, probably.

Not to mention the Kababalicious stand is just up the block, and I think we dined there a few times. As you should, its delicious. I don't know what they put in those things, but its fucking tasty.

The rest of the time I spent with friends, old and new, meeting up with the Lass and meeting her extremely awesome husband, meeting patrons of Lovejoy's, meeting my e-penpal face-to-face, and meeting a few of Austin's homeless people.

When we drove to the bar and found a parking spot, I thought at first, "Wow, this town is so friendly. Look, the homeless people help you park your car!" Because they literally stand at the parking meters and help guide you in, even though this is really just an insignificant gesture given that these spots are not hard to pull into, yet they still expect money from you. Which made me a little paranoid for the safety of the car, because I've seen that done in Detroit, and when they say they'll watch your car, they mean "Give me money or your windows might not be here when you get back, or your car for that matter."

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On Eating: Oh god, I don't think I've eaten that much food. We counted at least five distinct food comas, where we actually had to sit at the house for a good hour or two and do nothing, because we couldn't move thanks to the great grub in our bellies. Two in one day, which hit hard because the breakfast we had was huge and good, and then we gorged ourselves on a lot, a LOT of sushi and warm sake. I'm trying very hard not to regret dropping that much cash money on dinner, but it was worth it. It felt good splurging.

Also discovered that there is a huge difference between breakfast burritos and breakfast tacos, which the distinction between the two Texans seem to take very seriously. Also something known as Queso, which we refer to as salsa with melted cheese, up north here. Actually, I refer to it as something I could probably drink if given the chance and no one were watching. And in all actuality I've literally eaten an entire jar of queso dip (with chips) in one sitting for a dinner meal in fact. The perks of a being a single man again. I just wish people would add the word "dip" to the end of Queso. Not really sure why this bothers me, just saying.

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Habitat: I definitely agree with the weather down there. How funny to hear people complain about it being 45 degrees and cloudy. That was like T-shirt weather to me. And shorts, but I refuse to wear shorts, sorry.

Then again I haven't felt the summer yet, as that seems to be pretty brutal.

I did enjoy the natural areas of town. Hiking up Mount Bonnell, to see the sights of the city from above, and exploring the ravines of the greenbelt, which seemed like a great place to hang out, down in a gorge of sorts, jumping from rock to rock, people hanging out with dogs and beer, etc.

Though the thing that gets me is space, and how spread out the town is.

As you can tell by my expired driver's license, I don't drive much, and I kind of dislike it. I don't really wish to own a vehicle, so getting around town may be an issue for me. Seems as though that's the main mode of transportation for folks in the area.

...

And it seems as though everyone in Austin is in some kind of band, or like, two or three bands. Which I think is perfectly acceptable.

I did take in some shows, a couple at some bars, and one at a house party, where I saw one of my new favorite performers, a man that goes by the name of Furley, or Furly, who resembles almost exactly a guy I work with, and apparently smokes as much pot as him as well. During his set the performer passed around three joints. Now, I don't think one should have to be high to enjoy a particular kind of music, or get people high to enjoy your music, but if that's part of your schtick, I'm all for it. But it wasn't the pot, it was his performance, just one man and his machines, drum machine, loop pedal, and his guitar, and songs about frogs in his pockets.

He was totally sweet.

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And props to my friends for cooking an awesome farewell, genuine, Texas barbacue steak dinner. I don't eat red meat all that often, but that stuff was delicious.

...

Other than that, Texas was fantastic.

Tomorrow I return to my dreaded occupation. Until then, I'm not leaving the house. It's seriously arctic out there.