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So I took a trip.
With the exception of an overnight trip to Detroit in 2010 for school, and a day trip with Leslie to Indiana in 2011, I haven’t been outside of Illinois in quite a while. Haven’t been to a Brewers game since breaking up with James in 2008, haven’t been to Florida since 2006. I guess I’m glad to live in/near Chicago because sometimes it’s kind of like I’m always on vacation since there’s so much to see whenever I want to see it.
The airport isn’t the same as it used to be. People seem much more quiet and reserved. No joking around in case one of the TSA geniuses want to cavity search you for no reason. Lots of monotony, lots of weary faces. The bathrooms are cleaner than I remember.
Getting lost is kind of a thing of the past, too. From the second we got out of the airport, everyone had their phone GPS thingies fired up telling us where to go. When I walked by myself to get breakfast tacos (more on those fuckers later), I had my GPS on so there wouldn’t be any confusion. If we were driving around and the driver got turned around, he’d just click on google maps and there we were! It was fantastic.
Austin has this thing called “free week” where all the music venues are free of cover charges. Chicago doesn’t have anything like this, but in its defense, Chicago music venues aren’t all chunked together, and we have a lot of free nights as it is. But holy shit, is there a lot of great music in Austin. They can’t all get famous, so thank jebus for day jobs. Everyone is in a band and most people I met were truly “weird”. Like the girl in the Mohawk bathroom who told me she wanted to rape me later. True love right there. So we were there (coincidentally) for free week and took full advantage of it.
The only time I’ve had a week straight of delicious out of town food was the last time I visited England. Even then I cheated because I stayed with family and mostly ate homemade dishes. Austin has the best food around, hands down. Their pizza is very east coast-ish, but I happen to like NY pizza as much as Chicago pizza, so I was okay with that. Those food trucks are what got me. FOOD IN A TRUCK? I mean, I was fucking born for that shit. $2 breakfast tacos made with chorizo, eggs, cheese, potatoes, and beans? ON A FLOUR TORTILLA? Fuck me, that was good. Also, OUT OF A TRUCK. Love balls, BBQ, avocado with EVERYTHING, fucking PRESSED SANDWICHES, it was all delicious. I also had the best apple pie of my life at Magnolia South. I was lucky to have a friend in town who cooks the most delicious meals, so I also got a dinner and brunch out of him.
I sat by the lake for a bit on Saturday and had some quiet time to myself. It was sunny and beautiful and I listened to the quiet and the ducks and to my own breathing. I thought of the future and what the hell to do with it. I briefly visited a funeral home while doing some light exploring by myself and just poked my head in to say hello. Is Austin the place for me? I’ve always dreamed of working in some fancypants funeral home in the Chicago area because I’m so tired of being poor, but I wonder if my heart will take me elsewhere.
