First, a quick note. I’m writing two posts about our time in Austin. The next one, will deal with all things involving Kevin’s wedding. This one will be a quick notes column dealing with the other three days we spent there. Let’s go…
- The first night that we were in Austin, Truong separated from our group to “Couch Surf” at the home of a girl he met on the Couch Surfing website. For those of you too lazy to read about it, the stated goal of the site is to bring together people who believe that traveling should be about more than tourist traps and Super 8s…it is about meeting people and making connections. If Truong’s experiences are the norm, that it is clearly accurate…as long as the people you are “making connections” with are of the preferred sex. Truong claims that he only stays with girls because it is safer…I’m guessing it is because CouchSurfing.org functions more than a little like JDate for hippies.
- My 20-year-old sister Meaghan came up to hang out for the first night that we were in Austin. It was fun to catch up, although it was alternately scary and hilarious to hear her stories of drinking and boys. My favorite story, involved my brother Jon, who is perennially underemployed. One time this spring, my dad called Meaghan and asked her if she knew what Jon was doing for work. When she replied that he was working for a standardized testing company, he seemed relieved. When she asked why, he replied “I was afraid he might be dealing drugs”. When I relayed this story to Jon, he paused and responded “Maybe I should consider that.”
- After Meaghan left Austin, Jeff joined the girls and I at rooftop bar on 6th Street. By this point, we were well into the night thanks to $2 drinks everywhere. This led to an interesting dancing competition between Emlen and Julia. Emlen started it off by dancing by herself on the wall to the song “Get Off The Wall”. Two songs later, Julia may have topped it by doing an interpretative dance throughout the bar to the Andy Samberg song I’m On A Boat. There may have been 15 people in the bar at the time.
- Pamm flew in to Austin the next morning to join us for the weekend. After spending the afternoon in the algae covered waters at Barton Springs, we ended up closing the night at the new “It” bar in Austin, The Lustre Pearl. The Lustre Pearl is very Austin…every beer is served in a souvenir cozy. There is a huge outdoor patio complete with a taco stand, ping pong, Beirut tables, and giant hula hoops (Pamm smoked Truong in a contest…we have video evidence). While we were there, Emlen decided it would be funny to make one of Jeff’s female friends jealous and pretend to be his girl for the night. At the time, it didn’t seem to be too effective. But by 9:30 the next morning, Jeff had received a text message asking “Who was that girl?”
- While we were having a fantastic time at the Lustre Pearl, Tes was visiting with her old roommate in San Antonio. The next morning we hadn’t heard from her yet, so we went to tour the Texas State Capital Building. As we were entering, Emlen received a text saying “In a brawl last night. Car and all of my stuff gone. Can’t talk now”. Fortunately it turned out that none of those things were as bad as they sounded.
- There were plenty of other hijinks that I was not a part of due to rehearsal, wedding, and hangover responsibilities. These include, but are not limited to watching the bats under the bridge, hanging out with religious storm troopers, visiting the first Whole Foods, hanging out at McKinney Falls, and Truong accidentally mistaking a middle-aged ladies’ bar for a country western saloon.
What I’m Listening To: No One Sleeps When I’m Awake – The Sounds, Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, & Your Protector – Fleet Foxes
Next Stop: Wedded Bliss
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