Goodbye Austin, Hello New York

All things come to an end, and so did our Austin trip. We decided to make sure that we ended the trip with a bang and so woke up early for some breakfast before heading to the airport. Enter El Mesón Taquería.

We were there so early we had to wait in the car for 10 minutes for opening time. (7am on Saturdays.) You order and pay right away. I got the Chorizo con Huevo plate, which consists of Chorizo, egg, black beans, potatoes, corn tortillas.

I wasn't expecting ground chorizo, so I was very pleasantly surprised. It was also good and spicy and just pretty much perfect. Well worth almost missing our flight for.

Speaking of our flight - we flew American, from Austin to Newark, via Chicago. We stayed on the same plane, not even getting out in Chicago, so that we wouldn't have to take our stuff out, too. You know what didn't stay on the plane though? Our luggage. But we didn't find this out until we hit Newark, stand by the Carrousel, see everyone else pick up their luggage, and then suddenly the thing stops churning out suitcases. Uh oh. Everyone that flew from Austin had their luggage left in Chicago. It's the first time that has ever happened to me... the suitcase has stuff I want, of course, but since I travel with the real essential things with me I wasn't as upset as some of the other passengers were. American promised to ship it to my house by 10pm Saturday night, but that looks like it'll turn into Monday morning between 7 and 10. You know what was in the Newark airport and that someone forgot to pick up, for some reason?

A couple of boxes of donated human tissue, that's what. I have no idea what that means... is it skin? Dead skin? A little gross, but also funnily fascinating.

I had to rush back to Brooklyn to drop off the equipment and then run home, shower, get prettified, and meet mi Cariño at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe to see parts of the Ultimate Latina Theater Festival. It was pretty interesting - these group of women played lines from a bunch of different movies, using all kinds of props and situations to give them different meanings. Only downside was that the whole program was too short: less than an hour. Really enjoyed it.

Afterwards we walked all over LES and found this place called Cafecito, for some Cuban Food. Not a real big place, but had a great set up. We sat at the bar, but outside, on stools facing the inside of the bar. The bartender was cute and friendly and quite personable. Mi Cariño declared that the food was the closest thing to Cuban Miami food, and the sitting outside and the mojitos probably helped. I had the picadillo (which is ground beef) with white rice and maduros.

Although I really enjoyed my meal I wasn't bowled over by it - I was more impressed with the tostones and garlic mojo that came with mi Cariño's meal. However I really enjoyed the ambiance, the Sol's and the Presidentes I had were great and perfectly cold and the music... well the music made it the entire visit worth it. Good, old school Salsa that made us wanna just jump up and start dancing.

Speaking of dancing, after la cena that's what we went off to do. First we met up with some friends, then ran into some other friends, and then the whole mess of us walked to a friend of a friend's birthday party before meeting with more friends and walking to Sin Sin for some more birthday partying celebrations. (Ha! Try making sense of that.) Good Times.

Austin Pride

Friday! Our last full day in Austin. Work was a DRAG, despite some very cool stories of activism and writers. But we got through it, packed up our equipment and headed to our hotel to drop it all off. There we met up with Ben before heading to North Austin for some Thai. Chow Down recommended Titaya's.

When we got there it was chock full. Our waiter was a trip, with what we decided was an exaggerated "work" accent that made everything she said come out in a sing song. In any case, appetizers: Spinach Dumplings. (Because one must always have dumplings when one can.)

BTW, those are bits of fried garlic on top of the dumplings, not peanuts. It made for an interesting and yummy change of flavor. One of these days I'll be able to go to a Thai restaurant and not order Tofu Pad Thai. This was not one of these days.

It was delicious - I cleaned that plate gladly. During dinner we entertained ourselves with World Cup chat. Ben and I disagreed over who sang the official World Cup song this year. For some reason I thought it was Daddy Yankee. Ben said it was Shakira. We bet ice cream. Matt spurred the bet on, knowing the answer full well as he was looking at his iPhone. I should've known better. If you must know, Shakira sings this years' official World Cup Song. Stoopid South Africans, choosing Shakira. We drove to Amy's Ice Creams. All three of us got scoops of Coffee Oreo. I paid for Ben's.

One lick of that and I didn't care one bit about losing the bet. It was fracking awesome. I didn't eat the napkin out of pure luck, cuz I sure ate everything else.

Dessert taken care of, the boys decided to meet up with their friends and head South. Luckily, the Long Center was near our hotel so I chose to stick around town and walk to listen to some music. Austin Pride is this weekend and one of the many activities was an outdoor concert.

Chick at the front was pretty friendly and kept calling me Ma'am, which I thought was funny. For 10 bucks I got to buy this general admission bracelet that if I had stayed around Austin for the weekend would've gotten me into several events.

It was all good. There was more space than Lesbians, and there were mostly lesbians, which I expected since three women were scheduled: Robin Smith, Tribella and Patrice Pike. DJ Chris Cox was scheduled at 11pm, but as you know by then all the lesbians will be beddy-bye and the boys will take over. There were a lot of them - just not enough to fill up the area. The VIP's got to sit at tables set out for them. The rest had to make do with lawn chairs and blankets. I used a blanket from my hotel. I feel kinda sorry for my cleaning lady.

Having missed the first two acts I waited for Patrice Pike, who was one of the grand Marshall's for the Austin Pride Parade on Saturday, but whose music I had never heard. She was scheduled to start at 10pm - but didn't. Her music was good but nothing to go crazy about to be honest. Frankly I was more interested in the dynamics going on around me: There were very few women of color present, which surprised me a bit because, hello, Austin TEXAS? I didn't stay for the whole show one because again, Patrice Pike: feh. Two: Not a very friendly bunch. While waiting for Patrice to show up I made the rounds and attempted to establish eye contact with several groups in an effort to introduce myself but it didn't fly. I guess that lesbians are lesbians, even in a town as friendly as Austin. Three: flying back to good old NYC way early in the a.m. y'all, where I got some lesbians that do want to meet me. I think. They might just be trying to act nice. But nice is good. I wish I could've stayed for more of Austin Pride's festivities, though - Saturday morning they had a Pet Parade going on. How cute is that?!

Somnio's Cafe

Thursday in Austin! My body hasn't been cooperating, and sleep: not so good the past couple of nights But I worked and worked hard, as I'm wont to do, in this case until 8pm. I learned something though, while working at the Austin History Center. Wanna know what it is? I'll show you!

You're thinking "pretty" right? Or interesting? Let me give you a close up.

Yup, you read that right. That there is a little exhibition from the Texas Barbed Wire Collectors Association. The little signs under the different types of barb wire detail the name of the creator, the name of the wire specifically and when it was patented, as well as who donated it. But most importantly, you didn't know there was a Texas Barbed Wire Collectors Association, did ya? Because you thought there was only one barb wire and that is barb wire! It's okay. I didn't either. Thank you, Austin History Center!


In any case after work Matt, Natalia, Ben, Virginia and I put ourselves in the hands of Bill, Matt's friend, who suggested we'd go to Somnio's Cafe. And so we did.

Little tiny place. Since it had been raining and the tables in the yard were wet we stayed inside. Appetizers all around! Enter the Spicy Shitake Pan Fried Dumplings.

And Sweet Potato Fries

People, let me tell you two things I love: Sweet potato fries, and dumplings. These made my belly sing. Since Somnio's is BYOB we brought along some local blonde ale.

And it was much better than the Bootlegger Brown Ale that they drank at the other side of the table. Finally, my entree was the Spicy Singapore Vermicelli Bowl, with Tofu. That consisted of stir-fried carrots, onions, egg ribbons, vermicelli, green onions, cilantro, and a yellow curry sauce. (YUM coconut milk!)

My puny camera does not make that meal justice.

After all of that I requested to be rolled over to my room and skipped the rest of the evening's plans. Yup, I went to bed at around 10:45 pm. Deal with it people! Listening may be an act of love, but it is also draining. Friday Pride starts in Austin, and if it weren't for some plans I have in NYC I would be changing my flight so that I could see their Parade on Saturday Night. In the meantime - to listen some more.

Un chín de Sazón

Hump Day, y'all, was OK. Began with a no-show at work, which is not my favorite situation, but after that the day went by fairly quickly - with the help of an ibuprofen or two.

Natalia came to meet us at the end of the day and after breaking down the equipment and a couple of pit stops, we went off to find another swimming hole. 

 
This one was a bit more accessible and also part of Barton Creek, but just higher up and next to a man made pool that harnessed the spring a little. Since it was cloudy and the water was colder up there, I decided to just enjoy the shore with Natalia while Matt swam. Although we did get our feetsies wet at some point.

The swimming and relaxing was cut abruptly when some ominous clouds started to move in. We hightailed it to the hotel and Natalia and I watched Toddlers and Tiaras in TLC. It really is like looking at an accident wreck - you really don't want to look, but you can't take your eyes away from it. It was a little disturbing, to say the very least. Just as we watched, the clouds made good on their promise and an awesome thunderstorm started - quick and loud and bringing in the fresh air and even a power surge that left us in darkness for a short bit.

When the rain moved on a bit (lightning kept going) we headed for dinner. Natalia's choice? Real Mexican food. "None of that Tex Mex Stuff," She said. Given that Natalia grew up in Mexico, we believe her when she says she knows the difference and where to find the goods. Enter Sazón.

Which of course, made me think of mi Cariño, but also made me think "YUM." And Yum was right, the food was delicious - and without all the dairy that makes Tex Mex a pain in the butt. Because you see, in the past month I've been having a lot of Tex Mex food that I've been calling Mexican food. Bad me!

I went for Alambres de Res, which is grilled bits of beef with peppers, pineapples and onions and charro beans in a bed of rice and bits of bacon and peas. I opted to not have the guacamole salad and instead chose a Corona.

Add some extremely fresh corn tortillas and my belly was happy indeed. We spent the rest of the evening sharing Rage Stories and Driving Stories (I didn't have that many to share), before I decided to skip on the bluegrass concert that was happening later on and went back to my room.

In any case, I write this on Thursday morning and I'm not sure what the day holds for me, but I hope it involves un poquito de Sazón in one way or the other.

Meet cha at the swimmin' hole

Second day in Austin. Work went by quickly and smoothly, to which: booyah. Right after work Matt and I rushed to our rooms to change, grab some towels and then off we were to Barton Creek.

We had the inside information and knew we had to keep up walking upstream to find the spot where the locals hang. And when they say "walk upstream" they mean hike for about 20 minutes.

But the hike was well worth it. There were plenty of people there but it still was empty enough to have a good swim and to sun dry with space.

People were very chill, some women even sunbathed with their tops off and the water felt great after laying in the sun for a bit. I tried my hardest, but I did not tan.

After all that "resting" food was required. We picked up Natalia and stopped by the twin liquors store to buy a six pack - the place we were going was BYOB. We chose Indian for dinner and so we headed to the G'raj Mahal. Yes. I do get a kick out of that name.

The G'Raj Mahal, as the name suggests, was in someone's Garage. It was perfect - they cooked out of this Huge Truck, tables out with awesome decoration.

I forced myself to try something different so I went with the Chana Masala. Tomato ginger stewed chickpeas, SPICY! Natalia went for the fish vindaloo and I don't remember Matt's dish, but I enjoyed it, too. Add some garlic Naan and brown ale - perfect!

Quick, quick, slow

So, here we are, back in Texas! This time in Austin, and we're off to an auspicious beginning. I was a bit nervous since I had to pick up the rental car and drive from the airport, but thanks to God, to Steph's refresher lesson last Saturday, and to the light traffic, I managed to NOT crash. I drove slower than I should've, I'm sure, and I kept missing my turns, but I kept my cool and made it to the hotel in one piece and a bit less shaken than I expected to be.

Right away I stopped by Matt's room to see what the plans were. Matt, his friend Ben and I head first to this frozen yogurt shop, Yummy Yo Frozen Yogurt, in Downtown Austin, and after tasting all the awesome flavors I made an unholy mixture of Watermelon, peanut butter and cupcake, and topped it with blackberries, oreo bits, nuts, pineapple, and Lord knows what else. I was too busy enjoying that to take a picture but trust me when I say that although it sounds gross it made me rethink my stance on frozen yogurt.

After some grocery shopping we head out to dinner - tonight's choice? Polvos.

Polvos is pretty festive with Christmas lights everywhere. When you walk inside, there's a "Salsa Bar."

I went for the Puntas de Filetes, which was beef tips sauteed with mushrooms, monterey jack cheese and awesome spices, served with rice and beans and a smidgen of salad.

Polvos was great. its only downside was that it's very popular and thus very busy.

Afterwards we drove to The Continental Club where Dale Watson was having a show. He was amazing, with an old classic country singer/christian singer voice, charismatic and interesting, with a pompadour the size of my house. The Continental had walls painted deep red and there was a dance area right in front of the stage. At first I thought there was no wrong way to dance country, seeing as how everyone in the dance floor danced differently. Some people could twirl! Ben asked me to dance and we did the two step a bit awkwardly at first but eventually I caught on to the quick, quick, slow rhythm. Unfortunately the song finished rather quickly and then it was time to go home. It's hot as hell here. A good first day.