keep austin isolated

i'm not even going to lie (or in the words of my mother, i'm not even lying) i really LOVE Sonic Drive-Ins. besides being made of greasy and cheap food, i am also drawn in by the novelty of ordering from a parked car and the possibility of rollerskates. saturday night particularly i realize i'm crrrrraving their signature ice cream dessert, the Sonic Blast. i tell my host, jeffrey:
-we gotta go to Sonic tonight.
-why?
-because i want ice cream.
-well, we could go to Amy's. It's Austin ice cream.

uggggghhhhh. i've done it again. it's like a sin in this town to dare to support anything but a local austin business. i ask to go to starbucks, and we end up at Austin Java. i need to go to the grocery store and jeff picks a local market that wraps up my ground beef in deli paper. i commit another crime- asking for a plastic bag at said store. i'm given paper. because that's just how they do it in austin.

besides being the capital of the state that thinks the most of itself, i didn't learn all too much more about the history of austin. the city boasts something a lot more organic as its ultimate offering- its own culture. it's as if someone plopped williamsburg or portland in the middle of the world of straighlaced and standard. jeff explains how someone even wrote a book about the ubiquitous spirit of individualism -
Keep Austin Weird.

since then there's been an ironic twist of commercialization on this statement, as well as the counterstatement- Make Austin Normal. we couldn't help but comment on the similarity of just about everything in the city to any town in southern california... the terrain, the people, the attitude. so if you never thought there was anything in texas worth caring about - especially now that W is back home, don't forget austin, a big little city.

highlights from the visit:

• alamo drafthouse - a movie theatre that serves dinner. we saw Wendy and Lucy.
• the austin kite festival, aka try not to get nailed by a falling kite.
• jeffrey's birthday party (happy birthday jeff)
• party barn drive through beer store
• jeff's parents taking us to lunch
• botanical gardens
  

i'm off to new mexico and then california! can't wait!
pieces,

p.s. here are more photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2139838&id=7408023&l=d00e9