Weekend Recap

Yes, I do have several Posts of Substance (TM) planned for the future. But for now…

(no, that wasn’t in Austin, just a sign on the way!)

Trip recap! I know you’re excited.

So the drive from Joplin to Austin is a longgggg one. We left Joplin around 9-9:30 on Friday morning and didn’t get in to the hotel until…probably 8? 8:30? It might’ve even been closer to nine! We nearly got in a wreck on the way there – very scary. It was either right before or right after Dallas, and it was raining – some idiot 2-3 cars in front of us slammed on their brakes and went from 70 mph to 0 in a very short span. Matt swerved at the last minute, and, although we got a bit in the ditch, we got out ok. The rest of the trip was (thankfully!!!) uneventful, and we got into Austin right as it was getting dark, so of course we got lost and drove around in circles for ages. First thing we noticed was that the people are ridiculously nice! We stopped and asked for directions twice that night and the direction-givers were super helpful. Also, and I had heard this before, but the whole city seems kind of…immersed in the background because there are a LOT of trees. There’s not really a better way to explain it (I meant to take pictures and forgot, except for a few on the way back that didn’t turn out so well), but the effect is lovely.

Once we FINALLY got to the hotel room, we pretty much ordered in some Italian and passed the hell out, even though it was only 10:30-11. Woke up around nine, messed around on the internet some, showered and got dressed, and headed out to get some breakfast. We were going to go to this diner place called Jim’s, but it was PACKED – so we walked across the plaza to Southside Austin Subs instead. DELICIOUS. I got a sub with grilled portabello mushrooms and had Matt staring at it in envy the whole time (even though it didn’t have any meat on it – usually a prerequisite for him!). More ridiculously friendly people. Then we headed out to Buda to look at our new place, meet the new landlord, and put down a deposit. It’s a cute little 2BR with its own backyard that’s almost completely private, due to a ton of bamboo. And our new landlady, Barbara, is great.

So! After that, we drove around Buda getting a good look at our new place of residence, then headed back into the city. We parked by the Buffalo Exchange on Guadalupe and walked down…a LOT of blocks. At least 2-3 past the church of Scientology and then back. I went in to several stores but couldn’t find anything that fit me and I liked! Lame. Although to be fair, I didn’t dig around at BE very much, as it was a total cluster and not very well air conditioned. There was a Pura Vida dress I really liked at Pangaea Trading Co., but the last size left was a 12, which looked too big, and the sales associate was rude enough to another customer in front of us it made me not want to shop there. And now I can’t find the dress online. Sigh. Anyways, while we were walking on Guadalupe, I was stopped by a homeless man who told me that I looked like Mary Poppins (and that he loved my hair). I definitely took it as a compliment!

There was also some pretty killer street art and stencilling:

This was outside of a now-defunct music and bookstore (Intellectual Property, I want to say?), that had a ton of other artists painted/stencilled outside, including Johnny Cash. Even though it made me feel very touristy, I HAD to stop and take a picture! (For those not in the know – shame shame! – that’s off of the cover of the first Clash LP.) Can you IMAGINE how long that stencil would take?! It gives me hand-cramps just thinking about it!

After we left Guadalupe, we got lost again and drove around looking for First. We eventually found it, and Flashback Vintage on it. They have a LOT of cute stuff in there! Unfortunately, not a whole lot that fit me (vintage dresses = TINY!) that I also had the spending money for. There was a cute vintage 40′s dress that fit, although it needed taken in on the back pleats a little, but it would have been my whole spending budget for the trip (which wasn’t a lot, $45), so I got this faux pearl necklace instead:

(yes, I did just model a necklace on our thermostat. It was the only thing available, ok?!)

The girl at Flashback Vintage was super sweet, adorable, and SO NICE. After that, we went to Congress and walked along it for a block or two to hit Lucy in Disguise – which was also packed. We didn’t realize it until much later that night, but not only were there one or two music festivals going on this weekend, there was also the Lone Star hot rod show. Which explained a lot – Matt kept wondering aloud if there were always that many nice cars in Austin! Because of all that jazz, every place was SUPER crazyass busy. At this point (after 5-6 hours of alternately driving and walking around), I was exhausted, hungry, and my feet hurt, despite wearing the most comfortable shoes I owned, so we headed back to the hotel. I took off my shoes to realize that due to them being a tiny bit loose, I now had two shiny new blisters on my left foot. And a slight sunburn – ouch! We intended to go out for dinner but just ended up lazing around the hotel room the rest of the night.

The next morning we got up and around at a ridiculously early hour to me for a Sunday morning…8:30. ha. We headed down to the front desk to checkout and asked the woman there if she could recommend a close breakfast place, she recommended Jim’s, so we thought we’d give it another shot. It was much less busy this time – we were seated, had eaten, and got our ticket all in 30-45 minutes. The food was awesome too! Better that IHOP fo’sho. After that, we got directions to I-35 and headed back out of town. I did get ONE good picture on the way back:

We made a lot better time on the way back – we got out of Austin around 10:30 and got home at 8:00 or so, and that was with us stopping 4-5 times for bathroom breaks and food (we only stopped TWICE on the way down!). Our kitties had obviously missed us, although Wesley seems to have turned into an even bigger spaz in our absence. And I came home to a big box from Amazon:

Yay! My Fluevog Molly shoes came in and they are super comfortable + fit great – I ordered a half size up to an 8, and they are a tiny bit loose on my right foot, but fit great on my left. The arch support and padding is FABULOUS.

I also came home to a package from Jupiter Moon 3, my corset that I ordered back in December. I was kind of disappointed that it took this long to make, as, since I’ve gone up a bra size in the four months between ordering it and receiving it…it fits great everywhere but is WAY too small in the bust area. Sigh. I’ll probably just list it on the Corsetry community on LJ – more spending money for Chicago, right? The corset appears to be good quality though, all flat steel boning, and it certainly sucked in my waist…but there was no way I could have worn it in public!

I had been kind of disappointed that I had tried to hard to find something I wanted in Austin and came home relatively empty-handed. You know the feeling, when you hit several stores but just can’t find anything worth your money. I was browsing Karmaloop to see if they had updated their sale section – lo and behold, they have, as well as having a warehouse sale, and a Kazbah (their premium store) sale! I got these two t-shirts, which I had already been eyeing:

Original price for the two of them? $69. I paid $20.70. SCORE. I’m also planning on hitting the thrift stores here (seeing actual vintage store prices sure made me appreciate our DAV!) and the fabric store later this week, as I have a few ideas for things to make.

Anyways! So that was my action-packed weekend (a nice change, believe you me). How was your’s?!