Visitors!

Hello there! 

I know, it's been a while.  Where have I been?  In Austin.  And Vegas.  What have I been up to?  Oh you know, stuff.   How have I been?  Well...call me!  We can talk!

K, glad we're caught up.  Let me tell you about the rest of my summer.  The theme: Visitors!

I've had, and will still have many visitors this summer!  Let me tell you about them!

Visit #1
My friend Colleen came in to visit!  It was super awesome.  We did all the things!  We saw my friend's orchestra in the park, we had Amy's Ice Cream (which is so much better than Cold Stone. I know sacrilege right? right.), and we had breakfast tacos, and barbecue....Rudy's!  And we saw a concert with The Head and the Heart, and so much more!

At one point in our trip, we weren't too sure what to do next!  I started throwing out ideas.  It happened something like this?

Me: So we could play laser tag, go to Pinballz, go to a mall, go swimming, get a tour of the capitol, go see..

Colleen: BRANDON.  I just realized something: Austin is the capital of Texas!

Me: ...uhhhh....yes?

Colleen: BRANDON.  Do you realize what this means? 

Me. ...uhh..you like history?

Colleen: BRANDON.  It's my goal to see all 50 state capitol buildings!  I mean, I was already excited to see you and see Austin, but now, I'm like, really excited, I get to see a new capitol building!

So we did.  And it was awesome!  We got a tour and it was full of history and Texas pride.  She was particularly excited about seeing the portraits of the past Texas governors and their epic mustaches.


Visit #2
My friend Christine was moving to Dallas for the summer, and she stopped in Austin with our friend Mari!  Since I had work those days, we didn't do a whole lot together.  Box wine.  And Chuy's. And Rudy's.  And Amy's.  Here's what the box wine had to say:

Our song

It was great to see them again!

Visit #3
Christine came down for a weekend this time!  And boy we had a mission: The Blue Hole!

It's a little swimming hole in a small town called Wimberley just maybe 35 minutes southwest of Austin.  My friend Dan came over, we had some breakfast tacos, and we realized it might rain.  Also, we realized Wimberley sounded really British, and there must be a Sheriff of Wimberley (like Nottingham)....right?  Well, we called ahead, the weather seemed clear, and so we headed down.

When we got to the swimming hole, right away, literally, there was a Sheriff's car there!  THE SHERIFF OF WIMBERLEY!!!  Ok, we thought it was really hilarious and awesome.  Whatever.  It was a nice swimming hole, with swing ropes and shade.  And then we went to a hole in the wall BBQ place, eating morbidly delicious meat.  It was a nice adventure!

Visit #4
Christine came down again for another weekend!  And she brought our friend Kirsten! Hurray!!!
This time, we saw another Master Pancake: Fight Club!  Um, yeah, it was awesome.  We also went swimming in Barton Springs, where the water is really cold (68F all year), went to Pinballz, and hit up 6th Street for some cool bars and dancing and music!  When we came back that night (with our ritual kimchi fries), before I opened my door, I noticed there was a lizard on my door!  I was spazzing a little, but good thing my friends were with me; Christine took care of it!  My hero!!

Visit #5
Labor day!  So, I went to go see Lawless with some friends.  It was kinda super bloody.  But I liked it.  Anyway, when I got home, I went to my door, I recalled the two weeks prior about Christine and the lizard.  I thought, I should check my door, just in case.  I glanced up and around; nothing, but I chuckled, thinking of my friends.  I opened the door, went in, closed the door, turned on the lightsOHF**K! 

A lizard.

It spazzed the piss out and scampered right under my kitchen counter.  Here's what it looked like:

  Now let me show you a picture of my dad:

Saint Paul

Oh wait.  That's a saint.  Well, close enough. I called my dad instantly, because I was spazzing so many curse words, and I needed to calm down.  But he was super patient, tell me to go slowly, how it could be worse, and what I needed to do.  My dad is awesome.

Anyway.  It was in the freakin' corner. I needed to move it...or coerce it to move itself.  So, I banged on the wall near it with a Swiffer, you know, like you do.

It moved away from the corner such that I could trap it against the wall with the Tupperware.  Success!  After mustering my courage and my Dad encouraging me, I slammed the container on the wall and OH GOD IT'S POOR TAIL

Since I have +4 Dexterity, I quickly moved it such that it was no longer snagged, and it was trapped!

Then after another 5 minutes of my dad coaching me through techniques on how to get it to stay in after I get it actually off the wall, I scraped him off, he fell in, then I half ass closed the lid on the thing, and screamed while running towards my front door and:

TAKE THE TUPPERWARE WITH YOU, DEMON.

 I slammed the door, locked it, and wheezed with success.

Visitor #6
This weekend, my friend Mike is flying in from Chicago!!! And Christine will be joining us for her fourth time in Austin!  Hurray!

Visitor #7
In November, my long time friend Chrissy is coming into town with her brother!!

Visitor #8
Who knows?? :)


Anyway, that's some stuff I've been up to.  Thanks for reading!