(Phaysis)

Wow. As of Monday, July 28, 2003 I will have been here in Austin for three years! Wow. That far exceeds my time in North Carolina twice-over. I am impressed.

And what a looooong, strange trip it’s beeeen.

I knew my anniversary was coming up, so tonight I did some light research in my journal and found the date that I moved down here from Texarkana back in 2000. Man, those were glorious days.

After staying up late on that thursday before I moved, I packed everything up, dividing it all up into carloads, prioritizing everything into “I need this to survive”, “I need that when I get a place” and “That’s the rest of my stuff” piles. I loaded the survival pile into my car, loaded it to the gills; I believe I added roughly 500 pounds to the car’s weight with essentials. I then neatly placed everything else into stashes around my bedroom.

After a long and necessary shower, I got dressed, grabbed by backpack, my map, my move money, gave much love to all the cats and the dog, gave a sad wave to my mother who was sleeping before her workday, wiped away some tears, and headed out on the road. It was 2am.

I arrived in Austin around 8am, just in time for Friday Morning Rush Hour. It was hellish and, for some parts, slow, but I knew that if I could make it deep enough into town I could cut over westward from I-35 and reach Lamar. Once I was on Lamar, I knew where I was. Found my way to my friends’ house to find they had already gone to work, so I freshened up a little bit, found a city map, and went to where one of my friends worked. He took a break and we went for coffee.

It was there that I got my first taste of Austin – walking from the ACC campus down 14th street, past a greenbelt, past a feminist bookstore, across Lamar, and on to Einsteins Bagels where, zonked from the driving, the lack of sleep, and the brisk walking in the late-July heat and dazing light, I proceeded to clumsily spill and splash my coffee on the sugar bar. Something hot to drink after all that was a bad idea, but I really needed the caffeine. We grabbed a spot to lean, chatted for a few minutes, and I grabbed my first Austin Chronicle. We headed back uphill to campus.

I had a first-meeting to make at 11; that much was set in stone. I had to go to Hall-Kinion and meet my contract agent face-to-face. Up to that point, we had each been little more than voices on the telephone. Still zonked, I got lost while driving through Zilker Park, but after a pull-off and a map check, I got my bearings and turned at the right intersection, found the right business building, found the parking garage, then found the office.

The receptionist greeted me and messaged to my agent that I was there, and he welcomed me in, offered me a drink, and we exchanged cordials and chit-chat over some minor paperwork and non-disclosure agreements (ah, the perils of being a contract programmer). He asked if I’d like some lunch, perhaps the steak place next door, and I accepted. Wine-and-dine, man. Sleepy from being awake since thursday am, and made sleepier by a full belly, I was ready to go and make my way back towards campus to get my friend and go back to the house for some shuteye. My agent took the check and without looking at it he slipped the company credit card in the book, handed it to the waiter, and when the receipt was returned, we were off like a tube-top and back to the office. Heh. Four hours into Austin and I was already eating on a company expense account!

That weekend proved to be a major challenge and an immense experience as my two hosts graciously gave me tips, driving directions, local history, and doing everything in their power to introduce me to the true vibe of Austin. They helped me find the office on Bee Caves Road where I would be reporting for duty on Monday, my first day at my first real tech job. I couldn’t have asked for a better crash course on Austin (thank you guys); I got an insight that only hinted at what the “townies” have known for years, and it was a great start. Three weeks and two paychecks ($$!!) later, I made their futon available once again and found my own place to live.

I was an Austinite.

Since then, for the most part my time here has been a steady derth of straight-as-she-goes lifestyle mixed up with bouts of dizzying but welcomed whirlwinds of change. And I’m still changing, still finding new places, still seeing new things, still meeting new people. I have to say that living here in Austin has been rather rewarding, even during the hard times, and I wouldn’t have traded it for any other place.

Thanks, Austin, for taking me in. Three years is one hell of a ride. Here’s to many, many more.

Y’know, I still have that map. :smiles:

It’s kind of quiet now, but all around town earlier today, and for the rest of this weekend, there’s a low, healthy, beautiful rumble that penetrates the air, the walls, the windows, and the ground beneath our feet. The [Republic of Texas Bike Rally] has come to town.

And oh. My. God.

Imagine this, if you will: 30- to 40-THOUSAND bikers descend on Austin for a weekend of revelry, relaxation, and showing off their street-pounding machines. Tonight was the first night of the event.

I had made a plan to go down there tonight to check it all out, and I grabbed whoever I could to go along. Managed to get my friends Andrew and Heather to join me (no arm-twisting necessary). We left from Mojo’s, found a decent place to park Heather’s car, and walked into the area to the throng before us.

Roughly 20 thousand bikers, maybe more, made their appearance downtown. Sixth street, all its side streets, and even several blocks of Congress Avenue (a major street) were shut down, blocked-off, and converted into a bike parking lot and showroom. In some places parking was stacked two bikes deep, in most 3 or 4-deep, with some of the finest motorbikes I’ve ever seen. Hell, Congress had bikes parked 3-deep on the sides and 4-deep in the center of the street. A sea, no, an ocean of chrome, steel, aluminum, rubber, lights, and airbrushing. And it was a beautiful thing.

Most of the bikes were Harleys, of course, but every other manufacturer was there. Saw some custom bikes, some matching sets, some with beautiful airbrushing, a lot with top-notch flame-jobs, quite a few with colored lights around the engine compartment, and quite a few with an American theme. What impressed me most, though, and gave me most cause to stop in the throng, and stare gapejawed, were the impressive array of choppers – complete custom jobs with long forks and seats no more than two feet off the ground. Nothing says “Style, class, and power” better than that. Wow.

I managed to snap a lot of film (mostly of the bikes, heh). Couldn’t exactly get far enough away from a bike to take a decent full-bike picture on most of the shots, but I got what I could. When this roll is finished, I’ll be posting those pics here. Hopefully soon.

Heh, and the bikes weren’t the only thing worth shooting. Hoo boy. I think I got a couple of pics of some real bad-ass honies. Make a man cry. The crowd: wow. Couldn’t meet a nicer bunch of beerdrinkers and hellraisers. They come from all over the state and country, so you definitely got your mix, but for once I didn’t see a single fight or argument, which is an accomplishment considering it’s on Sixth Street. Most everyone got along. Lotta cruisin’, lotta boozin’ (yeah, saw a lot of open containers and bottles — illegal in this town, but whatever), lotta “floozin’” – antics on-par with a typical Mardi Gras event. Later on in the evening, as we were making our way back to the car, we stopped at this crowd that was amassing in front of a bar where these four mighty-fine girls were dancing on top of the bar and they were, um, gettin’ real busy. Started daring each other, one-upping each other with their antics as they played to the crowd inside the bar, from dancing really close, to wiggling and gyrating, to bending over, to dropping their pants to show their thongs (or lack thereof), to flashing the crowd. All kinds of crazy shit like that was going on. And damn were we entertained.

Antics. God I love this town.

So, I finally went out on a friday night and had a good time. Saw parts of downtown I’ve not seen without looking through my windshield. Andrew and Heather both appeared to be glad that they went; we had a really good night. And the good part is that this weekend’s not over yet. Well hot-damn.

“Ride it like you stole it,” y’all!

Man, Saturday was such a blast. Eeyore’s Birthday Party is always fun for me. It’s the perfect place for people-watching. Definitely.

I left the house around 2pm and headed up to Mojo’s for some tea and a parking spot. Having successfully done that, adding to the previous successes of the day (see Saturday’s journal entry), I ran into my friend Kate who was heading down to Eeyore’s as well. We swung by our friend Collin’s house to pick him up, and the three of us walked to Pease Park from there.

The crowd there was amazing. Bigger than my memory of last year’s turnout. Before we even reached the main area, the smell of pot wafted across as a welcome sign. We took a tour of the scene and found a place on the hill to spread out the blanket. Sat there for about 20 minutes, people-watching, before my feet got antsy and I left them to go walk around. Now, this is where I say, “This picture here is of the red-girl,” or “Here’s the green people who look like the incredible hulk and his three bitches.” However, even though I had a camera, I didn’t feel like taking pictures. Had I had a digital camera, I think the story would’ve been different. Something about the delay and expense of film processing, y’know?

So anyway, the oddballs and freaks turned out in droves, and once again my faith in this town is fully restored. Some amazing costumes. Not as many topless women as was expected this year, but there certainly were more than last year. An oddity, though, was that of all the women “going free,” not a single one was bare-nippled: every one of them either had pasties or wore paint. An oddity, to be sure. Not that I’d mind, of course. Mmmmm.

The drum circles were excellent, as to be expected. The vibe of the main circle was different, though. The usual two guys in the core drumming circle were oddly absent. They’re like metronomes. In their absence, the circle kind of had this odd habit of keeping a shifting beat until the shouts arose in the crowd, which would drive the drumming into a faster pace, steadily increasing tempo until it splintered apart to settle back into some slower, more dominant rhythm. Funnier still is how I constantly draw similarities between drum circles and neural networks; a sea of randomness kind of settles in this odd emergent behavior of complex rhythms. Heh. Yes, that’s how my mind works. Didn’t get to “trance-out” this time around, like I usually do, but I still had fun nonetheless.

I ran into several friends of mine, some I knew were coming, some others I hadn’t seen in almost a year. Ran into Sean and Claudia; they’re the gracious souls who offered me their futon for three weeks when I first moved here. Ran into one of the barristas from Mojo’s. Saw several other folks. About an hour before sunset I was found by my friends Patrick, Bart and Sarah. They had just gotten there ten minutes before their search for me ended in success. I guess they got that radar. Zen Navigation at its finest. We hung out, walked the loop twice, before sitting down for a few before we all left to Bart and Sarah’s place for the evening.

Out of the whole day, not once did I drink booze or smoke-out. I just ate some of the festival food and drank gatorade and lemonade and, with all the sweating and allergies, by day’s end I was completely dehydrated and exhausted. At least I have my first “sweat of the season” done and over with. (These pores are now clean!) The rest of the summer should be fine. But boy did I get trashed. And it feels so good.

I spent most of today recuperating. My allergies kicked me in the head yesterday, neverminding my dose of Claritin yesterday morning. I went through half a roll of toilet tissue before I finally slowed down enough to go get some antihistamines. A nap earlier today helped in that regard, definitely. By the time I showered, got dressed, did some help around the house, left to go to Walgreen’s for antihistamine, and ate some dinner, I was feeling much better. And now, after my first dose’s “medicine-head” effect is over, I’m feeling quite good. A little sore, a little tired, but good.

This whole “going out and doing things” thing makes me feel so alive. Wow. It’s a nice change to simply wander around, without aim, without schedules. It’s in this space where Serendipity plays. She should have a bigger role in my life, just like my first 6 months here in this town. I’m thinking this might be a good idea; shake things up a bit. Hmm. This has the potential to turn into an interesting summer. Stay tuned.