On Austin

I'm in Austin this weekend, visiting Perfect Daughter before heading out to a perfectly dreadful (I'm assuming) weekday camping trip with Rowdy Son and the Boy Scouts. That will definitely be a blog unto itself. Look for it coming soon to a blog near you.

As for today, however, it's all Austin, all the time. I moved to this town in 1981. Back then, it was a pretty nice place...actually quite Texan (not at all like the San Diego wanna-be it has become...puh-leese people, there is no beach near here, so put some clothes on), and sort of cute in a smallish-town, largish University way. In fact, Perfect Daughter was born here in a semi-small hospital (Seton) that now takes up several city blocks. I used to harbor almost fond thoughts of this town and UT.

I know, I know, time passes and things change. But seriously, why the heck does anyone actually want to live here anymore? Want to so badly that prices actually do rival the West Coast in its tonier neighborhoods? (Note to dh...remember the "slums" I used to think we should buy a little "fixer-upper" in and you recoiled in horror? Yeah, those "cottages" are now adorably painted in trendy colors and going for $500K).

When you live in Austin, you don't have breakfast at Denny's, IHOP, or--perish the thought--the Waffle House. It's all about some little coffee place that serves dogs bottled water on the patio and serves people coffee brewed from freshly ground organically grown beans found only in the remotest parts of South America (but not ever from the rain forest). The kids and I decided to venture forth for brunch today. We were taking the chi, which is never a problem in this town, but finding parking is always one. Since all the little Austin places were jammed packed, we really actually did try for a--dare I say it? Chain Restaurant. Couldn't find that either. Austin certainly doesn't have a post-church crowd on Sunday, they have a post-up-way-too-late Saturday night crowd, which likes to eat at noon. After much stressful driving on my part, (and much breathing through clenched teeth on Perfect Daughter's part), we finally found a place to eat, then made the mistake to try to pick up ONE item at a grocery store.

Problem? The "grocery stores"near this trendy part of town (think "Whole Foods World Dominion Market, because that is what it is") don't sell normal items...it's all about those above coffee beans, fantastic organic body lotions, every sort of organic meat, more non-meat stuff than that...but we wanted a plug for the tub. That wasn't going to happen. That was another trip--to the non-trendy part of town where the grocery stores sell bathtub plugs and Lucky Charms.

In fact, our "let's eat out, and pick up a bath tub plug" trip turned into two hours of a traffic/heat/humidity and hippiefied nightmare.

Traffic? For example... in leaving the neighborhood, I was stopped at a light to turn left. It was so long before it turned that I finally decided it was broken...and went ahead and turned right, intending to U-turn back and go through it on the "green side". That was when the "green light" turned red. I actually waited at the same light, on both sides, for a total of 20 minutes. That was when my grip on reality started to slip and Perfect Daughter started to talk to me in soothing tones of one syllable words. Through clenched teeth.

Ya gotta love it. Austinites do. I read an online review of Austin Java Company, an example of the quirky places that Austinites love...which said, basically..."take your friends here for an example of why we love Austin, then be sure to take them to Mopac during rush hour so they will be sure to never want to live here". No one here wants anyone else to actually move here, but they do want the world to think it's the coolest place on earth. And very "not-Texas" either (it's known as the "blue island" during election years).

The funniest thing to me is this...all those Austinites who want this town to themselves? They are all from somewhere else.