1) I type ‘austin’ then think I misspelled it and retype ‘austen’ then realize that’s wrong and go back. I do this a lot.
2) It’s the calmest city I’ve ever seen. Serene, amiable, easy to get along with. Everyone is polite without being nosy.
3) All the roads wind, I think only Congress was straight. Weird.
4) Everything felt like it took a long time to get to when driving. I don’t know if that’s Austin (it is a very spread out city compared to Minneapolis which is rather compact and dense) or just my northern impatience.
5) At ACL Fest I saw no fights, no excess drunkeness and not a single one of those girls that drops acid, freaks and has to have her friends drag her crying and freaking over to the medical tent.
6) No one I talked to was actually from Austin, everyone was from somewhere else and they moved there to go to school or something. maybe that’s why everyone is so polite. You’re always nicer to something that you come into instead of something that is just there.
7) Guadalupe Rivera at the Austin airport was the first person EVER (and I mean EVER) to look at me disapprovingly because of my hair. No matter what weird colors or styles I’ve had, people have either ignored it or complimented it, no one has disapproved. At least not until Guadalupe Rivera, TSA agent extraordinaire! Of course, it could be that other people have looked at me disapprovingly and I never noticed. On the other hand (I had someone point out to me that whenever I write about something negative I always start the next bit with ‘on the other hand’ and relate something positive. It’s part of my internal campaign to keep a healthy, positive outlook on life. Or something lame like that.) the guy who scanned my bags joked about it and I joked back and in his dead sexy texas accent said, ‘you’re really funny, ya know’. I laughed, winked and said goodye. I love texas men.
8) I thought it was just Ethan, but when we met up with his friends at ACL, they all took turns asking me if I was comfortable, happy, having a good time. Either I looked ill (possible in that heat) or Austinites are really the most polite people on the planet.
9) I want to start a PSA campaign letting the halter-top girls in Austin know that they should enjoy it now, but keep in mind that gravity will not be kind to them.
10) Bikes own the city. They’re everywhere in huge numbers and everyone respects them.
11) I miss it already.