Austin Plus News

The trip to Austin had been Ford's idea. He wanted to visit UT Dallas to see the campus, seeing as he was applying there for graduate school. (He got in.) While he toured that campus with his quiet brother and parents, Joey and I were driving around Austin, sampling different parts of its cuisine.

There were food trucks. In fact, more than half of the food industry was made of food trucks arranged in various lots. We tried out donuts, subs, cupcakes, but occasionally, we did hit an actual restaurant for their delicious steak, some big sandwiches and alcoholic drinks. Everything was plus sized and spiced much more richly than New England could ever bear. Also, MA was still cold at this time, and TX was up in the 70s-80s. Perfect early spring trip.

We also visited some odd museums at my insistence, because I can't just keep eating. There was an arts museum downtown that had two floors but some pretty but simple modern art. There was the Museum of the Weird which was very entertaining, even though I'm pretty sure most of it were hoaxes. Believing in it was more fun, but the skeptic in me grows stronger nowadays.

For the last night of the trip, Ford, Joey, his brother Jack and I went through the Austin strip of clubs and bars. Ford wanted techno and house music, whereas Joey wanted only hard rock. We even tried to dance. We're so terribly inept... But we had so much fun.

Now, the news. I had gotten a new job that will start in twelve days. It's temp to hire, so I don't know how long I'll be there. It's a call center in Quincy servicing Fortune 500 companies' internet and broadband. They do more, but the department that I'll be in will be doing that. After my less than a year stint at Phoenix Charter Academy, this came as a welcome surprise. More to come.

Miami Beach, Baby!

Ford and I planned this trip to visit Peter, but Ford could take a whole week off, whereas I only took one day. After they picked me up from the Orlando airport, we ate at a Chipotle, wandered around a mall where I bought $100 Ray-Bans, and then went on our way to Miami.

The traffic was heavy. We blasted loud club music, all with our sunglasses on and bopping our heads like cool college students from the movies. It was dark when we got there, so we found a hotel last minute while eating at Denny's. That was a panicked process of Googling local hostels and hotels, as well as making phone calls. I won Peter a stuffed animal - there was a claw machine in the restaurant. Then we drove to downtown, parked in a shanty lot and went to explore. We were in a Latino bar for a while, and then moved to another one where we drank sangria. After wandering a little more and finding little activity, we got lost going back to the shanty lot. We found it in time - was anyone watching the lot anyway? - and went back to the hotel.

Miami beach was our next destination. We hit the water under the beautiful hot sun immediately. I was in a pink flowery band bikini. Then we took a shower under one of the free fresh water sources around the boardwalk. There was a park, and a lot of fancy restaurants, and we went inside an art gallery. It had different artistic renditions of celebrities. I shopped for some souvenirs, too. We ate at a burger place before trying to hit Mokai the club, but apparently we were out of dress code, so we went in Baoli instead.

This club/restaurant/bar is quite something. There were two large rooms in dim lighting with the host's station in the middle. At opposite ends of this large rectangle were two disc jockey platforms, playing trance music to seated people eating highly priced comfort foods and drinking alcohol. When I was halfway through my French styled broccoli and cheese soup, two female dancers wearing animal print bikini-ish costumes with heavy feather headdresses came out to dance. They moved on two platforms connecting the four cubic columns on three sides in front of the DJ platform. I don't know if she was otherwise a stripper, but those are hot asses.

While they were dancing, a bar off to the far side let some guests with drinks get up and dance. The bartender was mixing drinks while playing with fire. After around 9 o'clock, the waitstaff cleared tables and moved them out of the way for dancers whenever they could. Soon Peter, Ford and I joined them. We stayed there for a few hours. Every so often, one of the DJs would spray fire extinguisher smoke over the dancers so we'd cool down several degrees and then warm up from movement again.

When we went back to the car, we found that the car wouldn't start. Peter had to call triple A, then we waited until he came and helped us start it back up. The rest was history.