Sunday, January 30, 2011

Every Day is Sunday

I'm not sure there is anything scarier than riding in the backseat of a mini cooper with a questionable driver (sorry dude) and the top down, zipping around 35 traffic, clutching a metal bike frame in front of me that's ready to break my fall in case of accident. Luckily, I came out of it unharmed.

We began the night at Gingerman. For those of you who don't know Gingerman, it is a bar with somewhere in the ballpark of 40 taps, I'd say. The kind of place where you get judged for ordering a Coors light. But then, I guess that's most places. Anyway they have a lovely patio, and my friends and I were just hanging out drinking various types of ales and hefeweizens and shootin' the shit. There was a beer brewed by Spaten, called the Optimator. It's double bock and is delectably sweet and malty. Worth giving a shot if you're an adventurous beer drinker.
Finally, after a few hours and a few pitchers we moved on. My Cameroonian coworker showed up right as we were leaving and told us about another bar further south. I was positive I knew which bar they were talking about because, before I left for France, there was only one bar there, Lustre Pearl. So they got in the car and I hopped on my bike ('cause I'm eco-friendly like that) and I met them there. Except when I got there, 3 new bars had popped up. That's cool I guess but I didn't know which one so I stood around and talked to the door guy at Lustre Pearl for awhile. He was a cool guy, used to be the guitar tech for Cory Morrow until he got "laid off". I wonder if he got a severance package...
Eventually, I found my friends at a bar called Clive, it was nice in there. One of those new, trendy Austin bars, a lot of 30 something ex hipsters. But the tables and benches were all solid blocks of wood, I'll hand it to their designer, it was pretty in there. My Cameroonian friend and his bud, also from the homeland, were telling some pretty ridiculous jokes and talking about Africa... I've decided that my next big trip (if I ever get one) is to Africa. Hopefully by the time I can go there it may have settled down a little bit, but I won't hold my breath.

Last stop of the night was Star Seeds which was surprisingly quiet. I got an eye opener which is biscuits, gravy and scrambled eggs and ate Every. Single. Bite. I went home (this is where the terrifying car ride came in), my friends dropped me off and I immediately went to sleep. Guess my food didn't really live up to its name now did it?



It's a beautiful day. I'm going to take advantage of it on my one day off. My last piece of advice... Listen to the Bandulus (I think their on Itunes) and turn your subwoofer up. Their bass lines are kickin' and their singer got soooouuuullll.

Love Leah

Saturday, January 29, 2011

I'm alive

I'm bringing back the blog. I haven't touched it since I got home from France and a lot has changed since  then. I suppose I can give you a quick rundown, my life in a bulleted list if you will. Here goes:

  •  Came home from France. Ate lots of Mexican food. Discovered I was Lactose Intolerant
  • Lived with Mom and Dad. Got job as bartender (it was the best job ever)
  • Went to Austin. Got hired at a computer company. Moved back in with Sarah in Austin. Was very happy
  • Mathieu came to live with me. Broke up with Mathieu. Mathieu moved back to France
  • Learned to camp and snowboard. Survived.
  • Still work at said computer company. Am single (and content with that). Decided to apply to nursing school. Made Mom very happy.
So I guess that is the very quick version of my life from May 2010 to January 2011. The one good thing about this job at Computer Place is that I have a lot of time to ponder while waiting to have 2 minute conversations with people. Its interesting how much you can learn about someone in a two minute phone conversation about technical support. One, you can quickly assess what region the person is from based on accent (obviously) but also, more comically, word choice. I can pick a Canadian out faster than he can say zed. Two, you can learn a lot about their patience level. They are calling because their computers are broken and their businesses aren't running. That can piss a lot of people off, not to mention the less than 5 star service Computer Place is known for. So, I also commend people on not speaking to me like I'm an idiot. Some people, however, are ignorant and rude for no reason. I think they've just gone through life getting their way by being belligerent (sadly it often works). I was raised with a thick skin, thankfully, so they ain't rufflin my feathers. I mean come on, don't bite the hand that feeds, you know?

Anyway, I still speak French everyday with my coworker who's from Cameroon. I still have a lot to say about things so I figured I should dust off the old blog and see if she still fits. 'Spose she does.

Should I change the name?

Leah