Day 3: Austin is Awesome.

I arrived in Austin yesterday, after what had to have been The Most Boring Drive of All Time on the 1-35 south from Dallas.  The three hours somehow elongated into two weeks. There was just no other explanation for the shimmering hallucinations, time warping, and zoning that occurred. I left at 10 a.m., which put me in Austin in time for lunch. But in that time span, I aged. I grew a beard. I pondered the meaning of life. I spaced out, revived, slapped myself in the face, hallucinated, and aged some more. The wavering heat the wind the dry grasslands the brown trees all stilled the hand of time. My car stayed in place while the road rolled under it. By the time the Austin signs began to appear, I had forgotten how to read. I was a different person, a worn person, a person who had wandered for years in the desert and didn't know how to speak or comb her wild, ratted hair. And when I pulled up to Central Market where I was meeting Jeremy for lunch, I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing: green grass? a park? organic food? people not in pick-up trucks? Where did this civilization come from? And is that lavender soda??

One delicious beef shawarma later, I had been restored to a former semblance of self. And as I sat blissfully on a sunny picnic bench surrounded by trees and heat and carnivorous black birds, slurping my organic orange-and-cream soda, I patted my wild, ratted hair with content. This is how it was meant to be.

I've got a fantastic to-do list while in Austin this week:

Sunset dinner at Oasis

Fall Festival at Boggy Creek Farm

Lunch at Flip Happy Crepes (thank you for the recommendation, Lez!)

Gourdoughs

Nau's Enfield Drug Store

And last, but not least...a movie at The Alamo Drafthouse. For a little something called Master Pancake Theater, described as "the Alamo tradition of pairing bad movies with live comedy (and beer)! It's smart, fast, and bust-a-gut funny. Master Pancake has twice been voted BEST COMEDY TROUPE by the readers of the Austin Chronicle (2008, 2009)."  And what movie is playing on Friday night? E.T.! I know. I KNOW.  I made it happen with the power of my mind.

Oh! Dallas! I spent a (too short) day there, full of food and old friends and family. It started with lunch with my cousins (one of whom lives in Arizona and was also temporarily in town) who I found out were PIMA Indians. PIMA. How cool is THAT? WAY cooler than Cherokee, which is what I've got. It turns out that  the name Pima comes from the phrase 'I don't know' or 'I don't understand you,' which is pretty much all they had to say to the Europeans back in the day. How awesome is that as a way to be named? I know I find myself in situations all the time in which 'pima' would be the appropriate response. Or rather, 'PIMA.'

Needless to say, I'm definitely making it a point to stay with my cousin on the reservation when I pass through Arizona. (Don't tell her, she currently thinks I'm kidding.) I'm totally gonna rock it native-style. Per a conversation with Joy, who referred to me as 'lil platinum pocahontas,' "One piece of Indian frybread and a pair of spandex leggings and you're all set!" I asked her if I needed a scrunchie, too, to which she replied, 'Yeah, so your hair won't fall in your bowl of beans.'

I also had dinner in Dallas with an old high school friend and his mega-rad fiance, which was wacky crazy cool. It's funny how in ten years, nothing really changes. The people you liked are still likeable and the conversations are easy and  good. This friend I saw was as hilarious as always, with the added fun of his-and-her-joint-storytelling when he and his fiancee got rolling. It was fantastic.

Stay tuned for some delayed photographs I took in Oklahoma, where chili is a way of life, OU football is a religion, and Cherokee Gothic is not what you think it is...