Keep Austin Weird
“Keep Austin Weird”. So says the bumper stickers. I’m totally cool with it. I don’t mess with Texas, as previously instructed by other bumper stickers.
We rolled up in Austin by midnight, and promptly drove around town with the map my best friend from home scribbled for us on a piece of notebook paper. We found a bar on 6th street and enjoyed the $2 Shiner Bock Texas drafts while watching Austin keep it weird.
In the morning, we hit up Barton Springs, a public fresh water oasis in the Austin summer heat. It’s tucked in to the rocks off the Colorado River just off one of the major roads, but it feels like one of those beer commercials where like 50 hikers randomly congregate in the middle of nowhere wilderness and drink beer in bikinis. I try to read a little, but it’s one of those mornings where I’m too busy grinning to concentrate on much anything.
We met up with my buddy and old roommate Terry, who now works in the Texas legislature as a historian. After a delicious Indian food buffet, we get a grand tour of the capitol grounds. Marble Ten Commandments sit just 10 yards away from the dome of Texas decision-making. Ten gallon hats mingle with business suits, and Terry tiptoes around in his tennis shoes and shows us where the House of Reps. is currently in session. “The woman in lavender is awesome”, we see her from the observation deck above, hustling around and making stuff happen. Terry transcribes and edits the daily events of Texas’ congress, including the morning prayers. He enjoys finding grammatical errors and correcting them.
Later that night, my buddy from home, who recently added a M.D. to the end of his name but still has time to watch trashy television in between healing people, gave us the Real World: Austin tour. “This is approximately where Danny got his face bashed at the end of the first episode”. I think about getting a picture on the spot- a modern remix of remembering the Alamo.
