"...you may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas."

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It has been way too long since I have seen the girlfriend. Funny thing, you don't realize how much you miss a place like Austin until you come back. Even in the excitement and culture of a very metropolitan, cosmopolitan, international city like London, you sometimes miss a place so laid back, so cool as Austin.

Friday, February 29th:
Ok, my flight isn't actually until tomorrow morning, but my Austin weekend really started tonight. After getting out of the office and having a quick pint with 2 of the Scots (doesn't exactly narrow that down at C&B, I know), and before heading to Daniel's for Shabbat dinner, I met up with Christa and Shane. I had had a hard time getting them to make time for me in London, as they were only in town for a week, and I was leaving for Austin tomorrow morning. It was fantastic to catch up with the two of them, though. Shane's parents are in London for a bit and go home in the next few months, so they took the chance to head out here while they still had a free place to stay. They were doing all the touristy stuff, as Christa has never been here before and Shane lived here for 2 years, which means he never really did all that touristy stuff. I mean, where else are you going to see the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. So they're going crazy running all around London, and having a great time.
They really seem to be enjoying Charlotte. It seems to be a good situation for the two of them; I don't know how long they are going to stay there, but it sounds like a good fit for the time being. I also demanded that they come up and visit Bethany and me when we move to DC, as it's only about a 6hr drive, which isn't too bad for a long-weekend. They required that we come down and stay with them, as well. I really hope we do all see each other a bit while living so close together; it would be a shame if we talked but never ended up meeting up.

Saturday, March 1st:
Long, long day. Not a whole lot sleep last night, and I couldn't sleep on either of the flights today. The worst part is that there was a screw-up with my tv on the plane, so I my choices were "Driving Miss Daisy," "Juno," and "The Office." All are good options, even if I had seen "Juno" and "The Office" episodes being shown. The big problem was that everyone else had the chance to see "No Country for Old Men," which I am dying to see. I asked the flight attendant to reset it 3 times, and he was very accomomdating, but for some reason, it just wouldn't work. Well, at least it will give me something to look forward to for the flight back.
Arrived in Austin at about 5:30 this evening. I was so incredibly happy to see Bethany. Just stood there and held her for a good minute. I can stay away from someone and live in the moment and just enjoy where I am without thinking about anyone else somewhere else for what seems like forever, but when I get back and see them face-to-face it all comes rushing back to me. That may be the highlight of the week, just standing there and being with Bethany again after 2 months.
After Bethany, the first thing I noticed was the spectacular weather. About 80 and sunny. Wonderful. I just stood there and took it in for a bit. First thing was heading back to Bethany's to drop my stuff off, and relax and lie down for a bit. Once we (read: I) had recovered a bit, we headed off to Trudy's down by campus (yes, I know there's one up by Bethany, but you can't sit outside there). The burriot and margarita really hit the spot. There is no good Tex-Mex in London, and I needed that. It was funny, they had a number of picnic tables set up and we just beat a group of 3 to one. It felt a bit weird being just 2 people at a picninc table, so we told them to join us. We all didn't talk a whole lot, but it was kinda fun to have other people there for a few random comments across the table. After dinner, we rented "Freedom Writers," which is a heck of a movie. Then we proceeded to pass out, as I had been up since it was now 12:30am, and I had been up for 24:45 and Bethany had work in the morning.

Sunday, March 2nd:
Texas Independence Day!!! Not that I really celebrated it, but it felt good to be in Texas on Texas Independence Day. The weather here is overcast and relatively chilly - Bethany keeps telling me I brought the crappy weather with me (I don't believe her, despite the mounting evidence).
So my morning was not all that interesting, I dropped Bethany off at work and gave Courtney a call to finalize our plans for lunch today. We figured I'd pick her up at about 12:15 at her place and head to Kerby Lane. When I got there, she and Jim were chatting in his car, so I decided to park him in (actually park so Jim himself coundn't get out of the car). I put Bethany's license plate on his door. I never felt a bump, and I'm not sure if he did, either, but they were perfectly lined up with 0 room between them. We were all impressed with my accuracy with a car. It was a proud moment for me :-). The three of us chatted for a bit, and then Courtney and I headed off to Kerby Lane for lunch. The wait was about 35min, but it was nice enough to sit outside and catch up, so we didn't mind so much. It was really good to catch up with her, to see how she was doing and we had a great coversation about just about everything for what ended up being (including the meal) an hour and a half. At that point Bethany had gotten off of work and walked over to join us for food and some more chatting. Plus I got to have Migas!!! Good lunch.
After we dropped Courtney off and made it back to Bethany's it ended was about 3:30 and we were both tired, so we took a very much needed nap. I had talked to Lori earlier and made plans for dinner, which ended up being at about 6:30, I guess to accomodate where Zach and Sarah needed to be tonight. Even if it was a bit early for me, it was great to see all the Pragers over more Mexican food. I think I may be Mexed-out for this trip, but it was totally worth it. Bethany and I shared a fantastic fish in a Veracruz style and some ceviche. Basically, the meal was just time for talking with the Pragers and getting on the same page, and seeing how everyone was doing. We got to hear all about the trials and tribulations of the renovation process, too. They are stuck with a hole where the kitchen used to be, and no work going on, for the indefinite future.
Post-dinner, I caught Weinberg to make plans to see him and Lauren. Dinner tomorrow night will be with the two of them somewhere at 7ish. I have to find a place and pick it, which seems like it should be really easy in Austin, but I am drawing a blank. Hopefully, I'll find something online up near Bethany to spark my interest. Then Bethany and I did a bit of planning for the road trip this summer and thought a bit more about how crazy we are.

Monday, March 3rd:
Pretty quiet day today, actually. Bethany had to work during the day, so we didn't do a heck of a lot until late. Just ran to HEB, had some lunch at home, just chilled. We ran out for a minute to buy the eReader my boss is looking for. That thing is sweet. I nearly bought myself one, but couldn't justify the $300, so I'll let him be the test subject.
The highlight of the day was dinner with Matt and Lauren. Found a decent Chinese/Vietnamese place up 183, which was convenient for everyone. It was great, though, to catch up with them and see how they were doing. Lauren is substitute teaching, and Matt has his paramedic certification and is trying to land a job with the City of Austin for that. They have a place up in North Austin, and seem genuniely happy about how things are going, and excited about the wedding this fall and honeymoon in Costa Rica (Matt was picking places and had a hell of a time, because Lauren apparently had been everywhere already). The four of us had a great time at dinner tonight, staying for a few hours just catching up, well after the check had been delivered.
After dinner, Bethany and I went back to her place and watched "Elizabethtown." It has Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, and is actually a pretty good movie. Bethany bought it for me because the last few minutes are a road-trip by Bloom across the country to the route and music as designated by Dunst. The rest of it was a bit chick-flickish, but it wasn't too bad. A lot about family and loss and such. Worthwhile seeing.

Tuesday, March 4th:
I got to be a bit of a girl today and do most of my shopping. We got stuff for the trip (GPS device for the car, tent and footprint) and stuff for me (new rechargable batteries, 2 new pairs of jeans - apparently I'm back down to a 34" waist, which is shocking, a new belt, and new dress shoes). Very productive day for me, and Bethany had her glasses adjusted, so we got a lot done.
Seeing as we got a late start on shopping, and because it took a while, Bethany took a nap and then we made beef, broccoli and onion stir-fry. Always tasty. After dinner, we met up with Conrad down at Gingerman at 9:00 and we caught up with him for a few hours over a few beers. He seems to be doing ok, lots of camping, which is what he loves, lots of school work and not a whole lot else, it seems. He updated me on some APO news, specifically related to the Butts - apparently now everyone is my line and sports-fanatic guys (when I joined, I was the only guy) - which is fun stuff to know. It's a shame he won't be able to study abroad this summer like I had told him he should. Bethany and I both stressed getting out somewhere abroad, hopefully, he finds a way to get there.
After saying goodbye to Conrad, we went home and caught a bit of the polling results. Looks like Hillary is back, and we're going to be in for a fun one that could go the distance. It will be fun to watch and see a bit of the English/European perspective.

Wednesday, March 5th:
We met Lori today, who was kind enough to take us out to Ruby's BBQ for lunch. First BBQ of the trip. It's good stuff, but I still can't wait for Salt Lick. Lori also showed us the progress (or lack thereof) on the kitchen remodel. There were also some 2d and 3d drawings mocking-up the intended final result. I'm sure it will be very fun, functional and efficient when finished, but until then... She says they have also had some mishaps, like one of the workmen leaving the access to the crawlspace open, which let either a raccoon or a opossum in. Needless to say, Vince the dog is much aggitado when the critter makes some noise down there.
Bethany had to teach today, so I dropped her off and did my own thing for a bit. First was Half-Price Books where I grabbed 3 books for about $23. Good stuff. I looked for some audiobooks for the tour, too, but didn't find anything really enticing.
After Half-Price Books, I headed down to campus with the original intent to kill some time and to grab a Burnt Orange scarf while I was down there. Not a fan of the scarf they did sell, particularly, so I skipped that and walked around campus and tried to find some people. Professor Oshinsky was not in his office (I didn't really expect him to be as it is Wednesday), and Dr Boettcher is on leave this semester. I did find Kit, though, and we chatted for a bit. She is very excited to be leading another Maymester to Berlin, but is a little finished with her work heading up the new European Studies Center. Good to talk to her, and I may see her in Berlin, now that I have the dates the group will get in, near the end of my travels. Stangely enough, I was walking along the East Mall, and I saw Will King, Keith and Radha at a geology majors cookout. It surprised the hell out of all of us to see each other there, but it was fun to catch-up with them, particularly Will, who is actually going to graduate this semester.
By now it was time to pick Bethany up from work. I stopped by the office and sat down for a few minutes with her friend Jessikah and another teacher, just shooting-the-shit for a few minutes until Bethany came by and we headed down to Hut's for dinner. Good damn burger. Wednesday night is 2-4-1 night, so it was understandably busy, but we got a table and thoroughly enjoyed our burgers and Cherry-Vanilla-Dr Peppers, then made it an early night.

Thursday, March, 6th:
Today I finally got to meet Rachel, Bethany's boss, down in San Antonio. She's a lot of fun. Very laid back, and seems like she could be an easy person to work for if you take care of your shit. I also got a funny insight into how the office works socially, as the fellows were Facebook-stalking 2 of the candidates for the job who are having a little rendevous in Philly. Bethany was productive, though, and I got a lot of reading done in the very weird, almost F-ed up book I had bought Bethany a while ago. Rachel was kind enough to take us out to lunch at a very funky, fun little place near her house. Then came the very good news I was waiting for...I got into George Mason Law!!! No more wondering and worrying - I'm in. Now it's just getting all the paperwork done and finding somewhere to live.
Driving back from SA took hours, as the heavy rain slowed us down and I requested that we stop at the outlet malls so that I could look for some dress shirts and ties to fill out the wardrobe. Nothing doing, but, it was worth a shot.
Because of the length of time it took to get home, we had to head to Pluckers before making all the way back to Bethany's. Butt Doughnuts had been moved to Butt Fingers because Rich Barnes was having his weekly radio show from there - and it was $10 for all you can eat chicken fingers. The only problem was that you really couldn't hear either Coach Barnes or Craig Way all that well. Loads of people showed up, so I met really much of the family and got a chance to see John, as well. They all demanded that I attend Friday BEER, too. We shall see how it all turns out, but that may be a possibility. Bethany and I got so damn stuffed, that we canned the idea of 1st Thursday down on South Congress and just went home. Did manage to catch the "Colbert Report," bueno.

Friday, March 7th:
Not very exciting today, but that's ok - it's a vacation. We really didn't do a whole heck of a lot during the day...just ran by HEB for something for dinner and then some cake-mix for cupcakes for tomorrow night to celebrate Courtney's birthday. I did finish "Twins," really weird, and not a necissary read. Bethany and I stopped by the Posse at about 5ish today, too but no one had decided to come there. Which is kinda sad really, espescially when you consider that there were a good 5 or 6 people who specifically asked me last night is I was coming to Friday BEER - none of those people showed. So we gave up on the Posse, and I had a hankering for Freebirds, so we shared a burrito and bumped into Radha and Drew. Mostly just a quick "hi" and "how ya doin'?."
Nice easy little Shabbt-esque dinner back at Bethany's. We had planned to go head off to go see "The Other Boyln Girl," but Weinberg called to see what we were up to and we all decided that since he and Lauren had rented "Crash" that we would just head over to their place with a bottle of wine (reisling) and the cake Bethany had made from the multitude of excess batter for Courtney's cupcakes. Great way to spend an otherwise quiet Friday night. It was a great movie, if a bit depressing. After it was over, we hung out there until about 1:30 playing Wii - Guitar Hero is so frighteningly addictive.

Saturday, March 8th:
Got to play tourist today. We started with the pictures (Bethany took all of them, btw) down on South Congress, which is really and area I wish I had spent more time at when I lived here in Austin. We look to have some really good pics down here and it was really nice to walk the neighborhood and regain a feel of what it's like, espescially on such a beautiful day, when it was bustling. The next stop was the capitol building. I hadn't been there in years myself, and so I didn't realize that you could just go and have a picnic there on a Saturday afternoon on the lawn if you wanted - we didn't be it's nice to know the option was available. We walked around and inside the building, going all the way up to the top level of the rotunda. I took a pic of the floor below, b/c Bethany wouldn't lean out over the railing at all to get a good shot. We also went a found some of the portraits of the governors/presidents of Texas. Didn't find Barbara Jordan where we expected her to be, though. After the capitol, we headed up to campus to get our cute little alumni pictures. Nice little spots around campus, except they are doing work on the Littlefield Fountain down at the botton of the 6-pack, so no shots up the South Mall today.
Finally!!! Off to the Salt Lick tonight for dinner. The group was small for a Salt Lick trip, just 5 eaters (Bethany, Matt, Lauren, Zach and me) plus Courtney. The group was cut down by 2 or 3 because of some other obligations and constraints some others had, which really is a shame. I still managed to gorge myself on meat and a cupcake; they were handed out after dinner to celebrate Courtney's 22nd birthday. Still the best damn BBQ ever. Courtney wanted one of the "I didn't work my way to the top of the food chain just to become a vegetarian" shirts, but we couldn't locate one on the way out.
In honor of Courtney's b-day we agreed to go downtown and get her a drink, though we knew we needed to stop by James's place and hand off the Salt Lick leftovers and kill a bit of time before Matt and Lauren, now with Holly, too, were to meet us downtown. More Guitar Hero - way to damn addictive - with James and his little Joe, and eventually we made it downtown only to find no parking at all. After searching high and low, we just went to the hotel where Matt valets and parked there free of charge. It's a surprisingly quick walk from there to E 6th St, so we got a few shots and Cheers, Matt and I talked away from the women for a bit, and then Bethany, Courtney and I called it quits for the night.

Sunday, March 9th:
Lat day in Austin. Bethany did her share of crying; I did my share of making funny little coments to make her laugh - it's our little system when one of us goes away. Slept in to a decent hour, but not all that late, then packed, had a quick lunch at Trudy's and ate the last bit of the red velvet cake. We said our tearful goodbyes and I was off to work, 5000 miles and 5 time-zones away.

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