Now that it's been another month, I finally made it back to the coffee shop by my apartment, where the wi-fi actually works. And here I go with another novel-length account of my most recent travels...
Back in early October, I took my first long vacation since my Reunions trip to Charlottesville and the DC area. I decided to go to Austin, since for the past year or so I have been thinking about moving when my current job commitment is up, and my BFF is almost completely decided on leaving *her* current life in New York City to pursue a slower-paced, warmer, and much cheaper way of life there.
Despite growing up in Texas, I never spent much time in our capital city. My knowledge of the area was almost exclusively limited to the University of Texas campus, since most of the trips I took were for state swimming meets (aside from one recruiting visit the summer after my junior year of high school - optimistically called an "Honors Colloquium" by the admissions department, and packed with interesting seminars, fun little activities, and a stay in a genuinely enormous dorm called Jester Center, which resembled a prison and housed enough students to have its own zip code and two voting precincts). I never seriously considered attending UT; I always knew I wanted to leave Texas for college, and maybe forever. I didn't fit into the Dallas culture and I didn't particularly enjoy the sweltering heat or the swarms of bugs. I was doubtful that Austin could provide enough of a change, enough of a new world for my adult life.
And so it's been almost ten years since I was last a true Texan, at least the way I see it. I've been a temporary Virginian, a reluctant North Carolinian, a fairly miserable Californian, and a poor example of a Coloradan (I refuse to ski, snowboard, climb, hike, or camp, although I love the weather and the scenic beauty of the state where I reside). And I have invested all my energy for the last five years in my job and the organization I work for. It's been a great experience - full of challenge, adventure, smart and dedicated colleagues, and steep learning curves. But living in three states in the last five years with no family or friends to provide a community means that my social life is almost nonexistent outside of work. I live by myself, I shop by myself, I eat by myself, I often see movies by myself - and it's only gotten harder to make friends outside of work, since my free time is precious and I am often too exhausted to make an effort to meet anyone new.
So I have almost decided to make a change. It's scary in this economy to think about leaving a secure job in which I am valued and respected, where I get along with my colleagues and boss and am constantly learning and challenging myself. But work isn't everything. And I'm tired of going for months and sometimes years without seeing family because they're so far away that I can't afford to visit them.
Austin would be an ideal location if I were looking to reconnect with family - I would be far enough away that I wouldn't feel stifled after years of independence, but close enough to visit easily. It's a liberal oasis in Texas, so I think I could find a lot of like-minded people there. I would have ample opportunity to do the things I enjoy - the music scene is one of the best in the country, there is a large film industry, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I would have the chance to live with my best friend again.
Then again, I'd have to re-adapt to 100+ degree temperatures for weeks on end, a winter with precious few crisp and chilly days and no snow, small hills rather than mountains in the distance, humidity, bugs, and Republican politicians. All things that have the potential to make me very unhappy.
So I took this trip to explore the city and hang out with some Austinites, in order to get a feel for the city and see if I could imagine myself living there. I flew into the airport on a Friday afternoon and Ruth, my incredibly generous hostess (whom I had only met once, eight or so years earlier, and who is one of my BFF's best friends from high school), left school early to pick me up. She is an incredibly easy person to feel comfortable around, which boded well - I was a little apprehensive that staying with someone I barely know could prove awkward, but I lost that apprehension within ten minutes. We drove around the city a bit and then she took me to the South Congress Alamo Drafthouse for a movie and some delicious grub. (The Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters are definitely a huge PRO on my list of pros and cons about the city; great movies plus great food plus beer? YES.) Then we headed back to her South Austin neighborhood and I hung out and played with her cute Cockapoo puppy Beignet (aka Benny). That night I enjoyed the wonders of cable TV while Ruth caught a show at the Austin City Limits music festival at Zilker Park.
The next day we grabbed brunch at the Galaxy Cafe, where I enjoyed migas with veggie refried beans and tortillas and french-press coffee. Then Ruth dropped me off to explore downtown while she went back to Zilker Park for the big festival day. I was on my own all day, and I wandered all over 6th Street, up to the Capitol, and then down South Congress, which is a recently gentrified, still funky area filled with great stores and restaurants. It was pouring rain on and off all day, and I spent my fair share of time dawdling in restaurants and cafes to stay dry. Fortunately I'd brought an umbrella and sturdy Chaco hiking sandals, and the weather was very warm, so it was actually nice being out in the rain. I finally tired myself out around nightfall down on South Congress, and I called a cab (which took a solid hour and a half to arrive, due to festival crowds and busyness) to take me back to Ruth's.
On Sunday we went to brunch again, this time at the Satellite Bistro, which was one of the best places I ate all week. It was in a random strip mall in South Austin, but the restaurant itself was chic and the food was amazing. We had bottomless mimosas, coffee, a shared plate of mini croissants with strawberry compound butter, and then I had the Launch Pad breakfast, which consisted of two fried eggs, bacon, super-delicious scalloped potatoes, and a couple of mini pancakes. We topped off the meal with a slice of the green tea cheesecake, which is - here I go with the hyperbole again - the best cheesecake I've ever had. Neither of us could eat more than a few bites after the epic brunch, so we took it back to Ruth's and I finished it the next day for breakfast. After brunch, Ruth drove me back uptown to the UT area, where we walked around and did some shopping on the Drag. We both drooled over the display of adorable Where the Wild Things Are merchandise at Urban Outfitters, and I bought an "Austin-City of Music" tee at one of the University stores. We went back downtown after that and caught an afternoon showing of Whip It! at the Alamo Drafthouse on 6th Street. There was a surreal moment at one point when I realized that all the places the characters were shown in a montage were places I'd been over the last couple of days, since the movie was filmed in Austin - and there was even a shot of the characters in the Alamo Drafthouse theater where I was watching the movie! We finished up the day with dinner at Chuy's, an Austin-based Tex-Mex staple that has restaurant locations up in Dallas as well.
On Monday, Ruth left for work and I braved the Austin bus system. It took me awhile to reach the closest bus stop - I definitely wouldn't live in Ruth's neighborhood unless I was working somewhere around there and had a car, as she does. I think I walked almost a mile and then waited for about fifteen minutes to catch the bus. The bus system is somewhat similar to Denver's in terms of convenience - pretty easy if you live near downtown, but not at all convenient if you're farther away as Ruth is. I had to catch two buses to get downtown from her neighborhood and it took me about an hour and a half. I will say, however, that the buses are admirably cheap - I paid, I think, $1.25 for a day pass. Once I was down there, I wandered around for awhile, then caught a bus up to the Hyde Park neighborhood north of UT. This is one of the neighborhoods I've looked at when thinking about moving, so I was curious to see it in person. It was very leafy and quiet, full of little old houses and a few apartment buildings. I felt like it was a bit removed from the vitality of downtown, though if I had a car or was a UT student it would probably be very convenient. I had lunch at the Hyde Park Bar & Grill and caught a bus back downtown to wander some more that afternoon. I finally made it back to South Austin around the same time that Ruth got home from work. We decided on barbecue for dinner, and Ruth took me to the closest Rudy's, a local barbecue chain whose locations are all attached to gas stations. The guys behind the counter let me taste all the barbecued meats - extra moist brisket, extra lean brisket, and smoked turkey - and the excellent creamed corn before we ordered. We decided on some extra moist brisket, a couple of pork ribs, some smoked turkey, creamed corn, new potatoes drenched in butter, and potato salad. They gave us shiny white paper to use as "plates" and all of our meat and sides on a tray with some classic white bread on the side, and we added our fixin's and tore in at one of the family-style tables. I finished up with some homemade banana pudding (taken back to Ruth's and eaten later, since I had to let my stomach make some room again).
(This was - here comes the hyperbole again! - probably the best barbecue meal I've ever eaten. It was so good that on Tuesday, for lunch, I ate the leftover plain barbecued meat. On its own. Honestly I think it might be worth buying a car if I were living there just to be able to drive to places like this).
Tuesday was my last full day in Austin, and I was starting to feel a bit under the weather, so I stayed at Ruth's and watched endless re-runs of the Golden Girls and Roseanne and various TLC reality shows while playing with Benny. I ate the leftover barbecue and some Blue Bell ice cream and pretty much just vegged out, happy as a clam, until the evening, when my brother's friend Will Dupuy came and picked me up for dinner. I don't actually know Will that well - we never hung out in high school - but he and Kevin have remained friends, and I had seen him once a couple of years ago when the bluegrass band he played with came to Denver and again a couple months ago at Kevin's wedding. He lives in a neighborhood close to Ruth's, so he took me to a local Louisiana-style place, Evangeline Cafe, where we drank Abita Seasonal Pecan Ale and I had a delicious sauteed catfish over steamed rice with crawfish macque-choux while listening to the live music at the cafe.
The next day I left Austin and flew back to Denver, glad to be home and out of the hot, muggy weather, but reluctant to leave the friendly atmosphere and excellent food of Austin. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a stronger feeling either way about the city as a potential residence; I liked it, but I wasn't happy with the weather, and it didn't instantly grab me the way Charlottesville or Denver did.
Back in early October, I took my first long vacation since my Reunions trip to Charlottesville and the DC area. I decided to go to Austin, since for the past year or so I have been thinking about moving when my current job commitment is up, and my BFF is almost completely decided on leaving *her* current life in New York City to pursue a slower-paced, warmer, and much cheaper way of life there.
Despite growing up in Texas, I never spent much time in our capital city. My knowledge of the area was almost exclusively limited to the University of Texas campus, since most of the trips I took were for state swimming meets (aside from one recruiting visit the summer after my junior year of high school - optimistically called an "Honors Colloquium" by the admissions department, and packed with interesting seminars, fun little activities, and a stay in a genuinely enormous dorm called Jester Center, which resembled a prison and housed enough students to have its own zip code and two voting precincts). I never seriously considered attending UT; I always knew I wanted to leave Texas for college, and maybe forever. I didn't fit into the Dallas culture and I didn't particularly enjoy the sweltering heat or the swarms of bugs. I was doubtful that Austin could provide enough of a change, enough of a new world for my adult life.
And so it's been almost ten years since I was last a true Texan, at least the way I see it. I've been a temporary Virginian, a reluctant North Carolinian, a fairly miserable Californian, and a poor example of a Coloradan (I refuse to ski, snowboard, climb, hike, or camp, although I love the weather and the scenic beauty of the state where I reside). And I have invested all my energy for the last five years in my job and the organization I work for. It's been a great experience - full of challenge, adventure, smart and dedicated colleagues, and steep learning curves. But living in three states in the last five years with no family or friends to provide a community means that my social life is almost nonexistent outside of work. I live by myself, I shop by myself, I eat by myself, I often see movies by myself - and it's only gotten harder to make friends outside of work, since my free time is precious and I am often too exhausted to make an effort to meet anyone new.
So I have almost decided to make a change. It's scary in this economy to think about leaving a secure job in which I am valued and respected, where I get along with my colleagues and boss and am constantly learning and challenging myself. But work isn't everything. And I'm tired of going for months and sometimes years without seeing family because they're so far away that I can't afford to visit them.
Austin would be an ideal location if I were looking to reconnect with family - I would be far enough away that I wouldn't feel stifled after years of independence, but close enough to visit easily. It's a liberal oasis in Texas, so I think I could find a lot of like-minded people there. I would have ample opportunity to do the things I enjoy - the music scene is one of the best in the country, there is a large film industry, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I would have the chance to live with my best friend again.
Then again, I'd have to re-adapt to 100+ degree temperatures for weeks on end, a winter with precious few crisp and chilly days and no snow, small hills rather than mountains in the distance, humidity, bugs, and Republican politicians. All things that have the potential to make me very unhappy.
So I took this trip to explore the city and hang out with some Austinites, in order to get a feel for the city and see if I could imagine myself living there. I flew into the airport on a Friday afternoon and Ruth, my incredibly generous hostess (whom I had only met once, eight or so years earlier, and who is one of my BFF's best friends from high school), left school early to pick me up. She is an incredibly easy person to feel comfortable around, which boded well - I was a little apprehensive that staying with someone I barely know could prove awkward, but I lost that apprehension within ten minutes. We drove around the city a bit and then she took me to the South Congress Alamo Drafthouse for a movie and some delicious grub. (The Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters are definitely a huge PRO on my list of pros and cons about the city; great movies plus great food plus beer? YES.) Then we headed back to her South Austin neighborhood and I hung out and played with her cute Cockapoo puppy Beignet (aka Benny). That night I enjoyed the wonders of cable TV while Ruth caught a show at the Austin City Limits music festival at Zilker Park.
The next day we grabbed brunch at the Galaxy Cafe, where I enjoyed migas with veggie refried beans and tortillas and french-press coffee. Then Ruth dropped me off to explore downtown while she went back to Zilker Park for the big festival day. I was on my own all day, and I wandered all over 6th Street, up to the Capitol, and then down South Congress, which is a recently gentrified, still funky area filled with great stores and restaurants. It was pouring rain on and off all day, and I spent my fair share of time dawdling in restaurants and cafes to stay dry. Fortunately I'd brought an umbrella and sturdy Chaco hiking sandals, and the weather was very warm, so it was actually nice being out in the rain. I finally tired myself out around nightfall down on South Congress, and I called a cab (which took a solid hour and a half to arrive, due to festival crowds and busyness) to take me back to Ruth's.
On Sunday we went to brunch again, this time at the Satellite Bistro, which was one of the best places I ate all week. It was in a random strip mall in South Austin, but the restaurant itself was chic and the food was amazing. We had bottomless mimosas, coffee, a shared plate of mini croissants with strawberry compound butter, and then I had the Launch Pad breakfast, which consisted of two fried eggs, bacon, super-delicious scalloped potatoes, and a couple of mini pancakes. We topped off the meal with a slice of the green tea cheesecake, which is - here I go with the hyperbole again - the best cheesecake I've ever had. Neither of us could eat more than a few bites after the epic brunch, so we took it back to Ruth's and I finished it the next day for breakfast. After brunch, Ruth drove me back uptown to the UT area, where we walked around and did some shopping on the Drag. We both drooled over the display of adorable Where the Wild Things Are merchandise at Urban Outfitters, and I bought an "Austin-City of Music" tee at one of the University stores. We went back downtown after that and caught an afternoon showing of Whip It! at the Alamo Drafthouse on 6th Street. There was a surreal moment at one point when I realized that all the places the characters were shown in a montage were places I'd been over the last couple of days, since the movie was filmed in Austin - and there was even a shot of the characters in the Alamo Drafthouse theater where I was watching the movie! We finished up the day with dinner at Chuy's, an Austin-based Tex-Mex staple that has restaurant locations up in Dallas as well.
On Monday, Ruth left for work and I braved the Austin bus system. It took me awhile to reach the closest bus stop - I definitely wouldn't live in Ruth's neighborhood unless I was working somewhere around there and had a car, as she does. I think I walked almost a mile and then waited for about fifteen minutes to catch the bus. The bus system is somewhat similar to Denver's in terms of convenience - pretty easy if you live near downtown, but not at all convenient if you're farther away as Ruth is. I had to catch two buses to get downtown from her neighborhood and it took me about an hour and a half. I will say, however, that the buses are admirably cheap - I paid, I think, $1.25 for a day pass. Once I was down there, I wandered around for awhile, then caught a bus up to the Hyde Park neighborhood north of UT. This is one of the neighborhoods I've looked at when thinking about moving, so I was curious to see it in person. It was very leafy and quiet, full of little old houses and a few apartment buildings. I felt like it was a bit removed from the vitality of downtown, though if I had a car or was a UT student it would probably be very convenient. I had lunch at the Hyde Park Bar & Grill and caught a bus back downtown to wander some more that afternoon. I finally made it back to South Austin around the same time that Ruth got home from work. We decided on barbecue for dinner, and Ruth took me to the closest Rudy's, a local barbecue chain whose locations are all attached to gas stations. The guys behind the counter let me taste all the barbecued meats - extra moist brisket, extra lean brisket, and smoked turkey - and the excellent creamed corn before we ordered. We decided on some extra moist brisket, a couple of pork ribs, some smoked turkey, creamed corn, new potatoes drenched in butter, and potato salad. They gave us shiny white paper to use as "plates" and all of our meat and sides on a tray with some classic white bread on the side, and we added our fixin's and tore in at one of the family-style tables. I finished up with some homemade banana pudding (taken back to Ruth's and eaten later, since I had to let my stomach make some room again).
(This was - here comes the hyperbole again! - probably the best barbecue meal I've ever eaten. It was so good that on Tuesday, for lunch, I ate the leftover plain barbecued meat. On its own. Honestly I think it might be worth buying a car if I were living there just to be able to drive to places like this).
Tuesday was my last full day in Austin, and I was starting to feel a bit under the weather, so I stayed at Ruth's and watched endless re-runs of the Golden Girls and Roseanne and various TLC reality shows while playing with Benny. I ate the leftover barbecue and some Blue Bell ice cream and pretty much just vegged out, happy as a clam, until the evening, when my brother's friend Will Dupuy came and picked me up for dinner. I don't actually know Will that well - we never hung out in high school - but he and Kevin have remained friends, and I had seen him once a couple of years ago when the bluegrass band he played with came to Denver and again a couple months ago at Kevin's wedding. He lives in a neighborhood close to Ruth's, so he took me to a local Louisiana-style place, Evangeline Cafe, where we drank Abita Seasonal Pecan Ale and I had a delicious sauteed catfish over steamed rice with crawfish macque-choux while listening to the live music at the cafe.
The next day I left Austin and flew back to Denver, glad to be home and out of the hot, muggy weather, but reluctant to leave the friendly atmosphere and excellent food of Austin. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a stronger feeling either way about the city as a potential residence; I liked it, but I wasn't happy with the weather, and it didn't instantly grab me the way Charlottesville or Denver did.
So I'm still trying to make up my mind, and it won't be an easy decision. I have to come to grips with the fact that I can either live in a city that I'm familar with, that has weather and scenery I love, and stay safely employed but socially stunted and often lonely, or move to a city where I'd have to get my bearings all over again, re-adjust to central air conditioning and swimming pools being a necessity for most of the year, and find a new job, but actually have a life.
But for now? It's all up in the air.
