13 degrees & missing austin

first some random notes:
here's a cute mindless article about top 10 cartoon names - yay pinky!

here's the top viral videos of 2007 just in case you're afraid you missed one. now about Austin...
On Sunday I came back from my best friend from high school, Julie’s wedding in Austin, TX and though it’s embarrassing to admit, I was dreading flying again right after Christmas and was feeling depressed that Chris couldn’t come with me, I even had some “I just know my plane’s gonna crash” jitters the day I left… and it turned out to be a really, really, really fun weekend, first taking in the city at a slow pace for a couple days, and then the most beautiful & yet raucous wedding ever.

When I came back, I missed Austin terribly, since I could wear flip flops comfortably there and Denver’s having zero degree wind chill and 13 degree temperatures.

I had a great time walking around Austin and sampling their crazy array of restaurants. I still didn’t run into Matthew McConnahey but I’ll keep trying.

The first day I enjoyed the Blanton Art Museum on the UT campus which is small but a very cool & unusual collection. They have a plaster cast collection of nearly every world famous Greek and Roman statue including Venus de Milo, which is a great resource for art students at the university. The best room was of course the Modern & Contemporary art (above and way above) which thankfully didn’t include any audio/video weird stuff but was full of vibrant abstract canvases – my favorite.

I also walked around South Congress which I had only seen at night last time. South Congress embodies the “Keep Austin Weird” slogan with a drag queen costume superstore (right), plus not just one but 2 shops filled to the brim with Mexican Day of the Dead art, plenty of thrift shops, and several Urban Outfitters-like jewelry/clothing/miscellany shops.

My favorite store, Uncommon Objects, is hard to put into words but I think it could be best described as a collection of flea market treasures that one might find if they had made a career out of shopping at flea markets.

The fascinating thing about the store was the display of the objects – I almost didn’t want to touch anything, or dare buy anything, because it was arranged so well – like every corner and shelf was a work of art.

The one thing I found that didn’t seem to fit in its arrangement was an old teddy bear who stood out like a sore thumb in his section, so I snatched him up and carried him home. He’s since been named Harrold and I’m currently on the lookout for a t-shirt and/or sweater to fit him. (Contributions or suggestions are appreciated!)

P.S. Uncommon Objects actually has a whole flickr site of people's photos of their store , below are a few of mine

Another highlight of the trip was spending a few hours in BookPeople, a huge downtown locally owned book store that was also chock full of interesting displays, great employee recommendations on books and magazines, and just cool, obscure, stuff. I walked out of there with 6 magazines I had never seen before, 20 or so birthday cards, and random odd gifts for people for next Christmas.

I keep trying to stop myself from buying things for Christmas a year out, but it’s pointless to even talk about stopping, I always do it. BookPeople happens to be across from the first and hugest Whole Foods in the world, which if you don’t believe me, has a 4 story parking garage, and is a convenient place to park downtown (there’s not even a single mean sign about being a customer or time limits).

Just a block from BookPeople was conveniently the original branch of what used to be my favorite restaurant in Denver (ours closed) called Z Tejas with amazing enchiladas, and a fantastic drink menu. More photos of Austin and that crazy Uncommon Objects store are here.

After all that, here I am, back to work and trying to carry my canvas grocery bags into Safeway whenever I go, trying to go to yoga & pilates once a week, trying to make my espresso at home in the mornings, trying to take the light rail to work at least once a month, trying to not say “that’s so gay” (really hard during American Idol), trying to quit checking email three or more times in a day (really really hard) and most of all stop inventing things to do to avoid the important.

On that note – logging off now. and watching american idol. no, project runway. then american idol. then celebrity apprentice.