Austin I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down

"Ski" trip to the UP was an absolute success.  I put ski in quotes because out of 5 days, we skied maybe 3 hours.  They didn't have much snow yet so not much of the hill was open.  Out of seven or eight chairlifts, only two were open.  Which meant we could only use seven or so runs.  It got old real quick.  There wasn't even enough snow for us to snowmobile.  The rest of the trip though, that was awesome.  I previously mentioned, we had a keg of PBR for five people.  As we were picking it up, a few of us had the brains to get two extra cases and a handle of Captain.  Turns out that was smart planning because the keg was empty by the third night.  If there's one thing my family does well together, it's drink and have good times.  As my mom always says, "you can't have a good time without drinking."  She actually says "you don't need to drink to have a good time," but that clearly is just a completely false statement.

Since we couldn't snowmobile on Friday, we didn't have any plans.  So, naturally, we went to the closest bar.  Four of us walked there and we were literally the only people in there.  It was both strange and amazing.  The service was topnotch.  They had the cheapest jukebox I have ever seen.  Four songs for one dollar or ELEVEN songs for two dollars.  I've been to bars that charge a dollar a song.  Needless to say, I was enthused by this.

Also of note, the bathrooms in this bar are different.  That thing six feet off the ground is the handle to flush.  I guess midgets and kids just don't flush these days. 

First urinal picture.  Hopefully the last.

 The drive home on Monday morning was brutal.  Seven hours stuck in a car after I had pretty much been drunk for five straight days.  When I was younger, my family used to drive everywhere.  My mom's family lives in Arizona so we drove there every few years.  While on these long trips, my mom would always make a point to tell me when we were passing animals, or military vehicles, or anything random like that.  Mostly cows though, and she would specifically tell me.  Not my sisters, not my dad, it was always "J, look.  Cows.  J, cows."  To this day, whenever we are in the car together someone will tell me about cows.  This past trip included.  So while I'm attempting to sleep off almost a week long hangover, my mom is in the front seat telling to look out at the imaginary cows.  Angry.
 
Considering I had to be at the airport by 10 the next morning and had just drank the past five days, one would think staying in and catching up on sleep would be the sensible thing to do.  Off to the bar we went.  It was my friend's 25th birthday and I hadn't seen him since Christmas Eve 2010 so there were no excuses.  The bar was fucking packed.  What began as my two sisters, friend Pollkat and I, turned into three tables full of friends and friends of friends.  Beers and carbombs were flowing like usual.  At the end of the night, Pollkat and I were doing one last carbomb.  By this time, the bar had run out of Baileys so the tarbender gave us Guinness and a full shot of Jameson.  Shockingly, this tasted like ass.  I couldn't even drink the whole thing and may have had a mini puke moment on the front of my shirt.  May.  We ended up staying until closing time.  Really gave Pollkat a good birthday celebraish.  Southside at it's finest.
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Friday night was my going away party.  A few coworkers and some volunteers came out to celebrate.  I got pretty drunk (shockingly) and was home by about midnight.  Top shelf margs, tequila shots, and beers were abundant.  I can't stress enough how lucky I am to have met these people.  Some of them I will never see again.  Others though, I think there will be visits in the future.

Yesterday for New Years I went to a friend's place downtown around 7:30.  They all had tickets to see Gary Clark Jr. play at 10pm.  I did not have a ticket but my plan was to go with them and see if I could find a ticket.  Prayers were answered when the bouncer pointed out a guy who was selling two tickets.  This was as close to a drug deal as I'll ever get.  He wasn't even selling them for an absurd amount- I paid $30 and my friends who already had tickets paid $29.  But it still felt like I was part of a sting or some shit.  Yes, I am a pussy. 

GCJ rocked.  If you've never heard of him, give it a year.  2012 is going to be his year.  Heard it here first. 

Also of note, some random chick came up to me and started making out with me.  It wasn't even midnight or anything cheesy like that.  It happened right at midnight.  I'm pretty much the star of my own personal fairy tale.  Needless to say, 2011 went out with a bang.  Sadly not an actual bang, but still.

Austin gave me one hell of a year.  I moved here December 30th, 2010 and I'm leaving January 2nd, 2012.  In that year, I've lived in two apartments, experienced SXSW and ACL, worked the largest wildfires Texas has ever had, sweated my ass off just walking to my car, saw a thousand lizards, became paranoid about finding scorpions in my shoes, went on brewery tours, swam in the Gulf of Mexico, went to Mississippi to help with the tornadoes, experienced a UT football game, ate some amazing food, learned to say things like y'all, laughed, cried, wandered the streets, took pedicab rides, saw some shitty movies and a few decent ones, ran the Warrior Dash, remembered the Alamo, and a million other things that I will never remember nor forget.  Austin I love you, but you're bringing me down.
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Y'all come back now.