Some thoughts and daydreams

Oops. Perhaps I should write something first before I blindly press enter and have it published. Dur.

I've been thinking alot about the future lately. Not like grand future-of-the-world kind of things, but my future for a year or two after college.

I think I'm going to leave Texas for a bit in the five years after I get my bachelors. I say five because I might work here for a year or two before I go get my masters. If I even do get my masters-it all depends.

I've said for years that I am going to live in Texas for the rest of my life. And I still think I'm going to. I don't have the Texas flag tattooed on me for nothing after all. I love it here. Where else will you drive for a whole day and not leave the state? Where else has the desert, the plains, forests, the beach, hills and mountains, all in one state? My family is here, my friends are here. And plus, we're just the best fucking state in America. Duh.

All that being said, I do have a gasoline ass. Wanderlust would be a more prettier way to put it I suppose. There's so much out there to see and do and eat (hey, I like food!). I can only stay in my room for so long before I throw on my shoes and run out the door. And while I want to stay in Texas to raise a family and have a career, I don't want to pigeonhole myself at 21 (that's when I graduate). I don't want to immediately hunker down and never have gone anywhere else, experienced something wildly different from where I've been.

I want to leave for a year or two (that's why I'm thinking grad school). I want to go to a place I've never been, or been barely. I want to do and see and eat things I can't do/see/eat down here. I want to have memories and pictures and friends I can bring back home with me.

So, where and why? Cause even though I'm not sure kinda what I'm going to do after college, I am thinking about getting a MA in American Studies or History if all this goes well. I'd like to be a professor and history professors generally don't have only BA's. So I can see going to grad school two or three years after I graduate.

Where? Chicago. I've always wanted to go to Chicago. Boston would be nice, especially as I am giant American History buff. Plus, they have cool ass colonial cemeteries I've seen pictures of and I'm itching to go photograph myself. Ditto those reasons for Philadelphia, plus I've always wanted to explore more of Pennsylvania-esp. Gettysburg! San Francisco....really expensive. Still want to go. Portland seems like Austin except in Oregon. :) Ditto Seattle. All places I want to go.

The one that's weighing most on my mind now and the one that is the most impractical is New York City. I know. I know. It's ridiculously expensive. It's unbelievably big. I'm thousands of miles away from home. But it's full of art art and more art, people from literally every part of the globe, more museums and galleries than I can shake a stick at and FOOD! Plus, it'd look REAAAAALLLLY good if I had on my resume an MA from Columbia. Lol.

So that's what's been on my mind recently.

March In Texas

March in Texas, to me, means that it's the start of summer.

Sure, there will be about 1 to 2 weeks of spring, and then BAM! Summer! 90 degrees during the day gives way to 110 degrees and the asphalt melting between my feet. Gotta love Texas.

I like summer the best though. Sure it gets hot as fuck every single day for 8 months but I love the sun not going down until 8 or 9 o'clock so I can do more things. For that matter, I love how the sun rises early, for the same reason.

I don't like to swim swim but I still like going to Landa Park in New Braunfels, where the water is cold as ice and you swim with duckies and fishies. And since I will be in Austin this summer, I'll be heading down to Barton Springs.

I love getting brown and tan. Not unhealthy brown and tan, but the tan I get from walking around outside all the time. I love how my hair bleaches out a little bit.

I love walking into a cold house after being out in the hot.

I love ice cream. I eat it all the time during the summer too but that's not the point.

I like summer vacation. Only for the first month before I get bored, but still, vacay is always nice.

I like summer.

Conventional Love

So the reason I've been away all weekend is that I was at a science fiction convention. Yes. I am an official nerd. And no, I don't give a shit. Since I don't do coherent long paragraphs, I'll do bullets instead. I love bullets.

• Where was it? ConDFW in Richardson, Tx....so Dallas basically. Missed a good panel due to fucking Dallas traffic. No offence to all you Dallasites out there but Dallas traffic sucks.
• Three days among my kind. Awesome. The best way to put it is how my mom put it="It's nice to be among like minded people." Indeed it is. Three days of being able to talk about the books and tv I like with other people who like them too. It's nice to geek out without people going "Oh...that's nice" or giving me the mal ojo, or looking at me like a total weirdo. Which I am but that's not the point.
• Now that I'm riding on a wave of convention love I'm looking at future ones instead of writing. Bad.
• So we went because two of our favorite authors were there-Jim Butcher and David Weber. Well, for David Weber, because we like one series he wrote but not the point. But I got to go to dinner with the Butchers and 30 people from the message board on the site. That, the car ride to dinner and the Butcher Block were the highlights of the convention for me. Love love love. And I got three books signed by Jim. :) Super nice, both of them.
• The hotel's breakfast buffet-not worth 12 bucks. Sorry ya'll.
• Favorite panel: (besides Butcher Block)- Cliches of Doom!
• Least Favorite: Paranormal Romance....for a certain author I shall not name.
• Costumes are awesome. And they were freaking out the little socialites that were in the lobby getting their pictures taken, which makes them twice as awesome.
• I had a 50 dollar budget and got 2 pendants, a pair of earrings, and 5 books. I'm awesome.
• Please, don't overpress your book on me. I get subsequent feelings of creeped out/guilt/not buying your book.
• Only at cons (and renfaires) will the dealer's room sell broadswords.

That's all I got for now. Pictures later. :)

Random Things...

I've seen in Austin:

*Bouncer type person-riding a moped.

*People walking their miniature horses on Town Lake. On leashes, like dogs.

*Carmadillo

*An uber hip dude with the requisite jeans in a smaller size than I can ever wear and an ironic tee-and sporting proudly a Texas tattoo....that may be more a texas thing than an austin thing.

*Cinnamon Dolce Goat Milk Ice Cream

*Too tall bikes-a bike that's basically one frame welded onto the other so you get a six foot high bike.

*Custom made, tens of thousands of dollars Longhorn bbq rigs.

*On that thought, the Longhorn Hoopty Car.

*Art cars in general-my faves are tied between fish car I saw during EAST and the ping pong ball car I see in Hyde Park.

*Three dudes piled onto a one dude moped. Starting down an incredibly steep hill. All of them wobbling in their seats.

*Captain Planet graffiti

*The worst movie I've ever seen in my life (Tales From the Qua-Dead Zone)

*Six figure cars parked in the customer zone of a tiny, hippy juice stand (Daily Juice! woot)

*Impromptu jam session on the bus between guy with guitar and guy with schizophrenia.

Once again, I love it here so much.

Artsy.

Just a little update. Not feeling up to writing tonight. I put this site on my little business cards. I don't know why I did. I don't really write about my art here. I always feel a little self concicous doing so-I've heard too many pretentious blowhards in art and I don't want to seem like one myself. I take pictures of places and things I love or that amuse. I draw to make myself happy. And thats the long and short of it. :) Yeah.

Stress Management

I meant to post last night but then that hellacious storm blew in and I turned off my computer. It was raining and blowing so hard here that water came in through the crack of my front door. Any who. I've been under alot of stress lately, and I needed a mental health day. So I headed down South Congress.

I know some people might think that South Congress is all overpriced now and all the good places and stores were pushed out by high rents. And that might all be true. But I still love going down South Congress. It's absolutely great for people watching and picture taking. And I love all the vintage stores down the way.

I walked from Oltorf to...uh, that street that borders Tx. School for the Deaf. I got two pairs of earrings from Tesoro's for 8 bucks and a pair of Steve Madden shoes from St. Vincent's for 5 dollars. Squee. That's why I love South Congress-and bargin hunting in general. If you're willing to look a little bit, you can satisfy both your fashionista side and your cheap broke side. Plus, Steve Madden shoes for 5 bucks!!!! :D They're a passion of mine.

I love going into Yard Dog because they have the neatest art. One day I will be able to afford the bench they have in there made up entirely of soda caps....probably never but a girl can dream. Yard Dog's actually one of my favorite galleries in town. Not sure if it's an actual gallery per se, but they only sell art so I guess it is.

I love no matter how far down you are on South Congress you can turn back and see the capitol building. That's one of my (many) favorite things about Austin. It always just blows my mind that not only that I live in the capitol of Texas, I can go to the Capitol building any day of the week-even at night. Trust me, my friend and I went in once at 8 pm and they were open til 10 pm. O_O. Whatever. Cheers ya'll.

Myrtle

I was going to start today with a post about Austin-the city I live in and love. But I got Myrtle so we're going to segway. I can throw some Austin love in though.

I decided I wanted a plant about a week ago. I miss having something living to take care of. Plus, I want to put some life in our living room-literally I guess. And there's this awesome place I found during Christmas on South 1st called Happiness. It's a little plant store but it's not like one of those jumbo nurseries.

At the risk of sounding like a total flake, it feels like every plant there has a personality. That's how the proprietress (God I wish I could remember her name!) treats them. It feels like someone's home or garden, instead of a store. There's art everywhere and several cats.

And the lady who owns the place is soooo nice! She helped me the entire time. She recommended which plant would be the best for me, then she helped me find a pot, then she potted it for me. And finally she told me "What's her name going to be? She's gotta have a name." And Myrtle was the first one that popped up in my mind.

My cactus looks like a Myrtle to me. Her thorns kind of go in, like little mini flowers, and she has three beautiful little purple flowers. She lives in a blue pot on my front windowstill. And it's stupid and goofy I know but I love my Myrtle. My fucking cactus already has a personality. :) Pictures later for all 2 of you who care. :)