I woke up later than I wanted... the time change was only two hours ahead of my time zone, but I also went to bed late... and waking up in a lazy daze only perpetuates the problem of getting out of bed.
After getting the necessary injection of coffee out of the way, and hearing from my barista about how she couldn't imagine leaving my home in Cali for her's, in where I replied "grass is greener", I eventually made my way downtown... drove around, and serendipitously found myself at the visitor's center. From there, I got the low down on how I should plan my day--the places I should go.
My first stop was the State Capitol, where I went on one of their free to the public guided tours. Before I made my way inside though, I walked around the grounds.... There was a big frenzy outside with a bunch of kids running around like crazy, a guy on a megaphone yelling at the kids, and what looked like Secret Service guys (Men In Black), all around, flanked by their compatriots with German Shepherds, also sporting dark shades with wired ear pieces (a few said howdy to me, while others tipped their heads in my direction as I walked around, confused, and lost). Then, I noticed the kids smiling as they grabbed at hidden Easter eggs in the nooks and crannies of The State lawn, and got that it was an Easter Egg hunt.
The tour was what you'd expect from a State Capitol tour. I joined a small family from Mexico to avoid going with a huge crowd made up mostly of screaming school kids, all wearing blue shirts saying something about how they were proud to be living in Texas. I tried to talk to the family, the father the only guy easy to talk to, their son bouncing all around the place, their mother distracted by the son, and the daughter taking some sort of offense when I asked where they came from. I managed to make her laugh though after I made some comment about the differences between where I came from and where we found ourselves.
I then walked out onto Congress Ave., or what I would like to call the closest thing to San Francisco's Civic Center, full of homeless--although, not as full as SF's Civic Center--and random people asking for change. I was about to ask a lady where Chewy's Mexican restaurant was (a place that was recommended to me for lunch), when some pimp, mo daddy dude, trying to walk with a limp, approached her... I couldn't hear what was said between them, but their body language conveyed a lot. He was trying to play off some sort of rejection, and she looked annoyed. During the time in which I contemplated if I should still ask her for directions (or just wander off until I could find another normal looking person that I could ask directions), some other guy approached her; again, the same thing played out... at that point, I didn't hesitate to keep walking.
My day then devolved into attending to the necessary evils of life, otherwise known as errands. I found my way to a Chase bank to make a deposit from a check that had been cobwebbing in my wallet for sometime. While there, I realized that I had two checking accounts, one of which I had been meaning to close for a while, so I was directed to Brad in a nearby cubicle who would help me with this.
As he confirmed my address, and saw that I was from SF, and we spoke about that for a while, and then about his roots in Chicago.. neither of us having been to eachothers' hood, but talking about how one day we would, because we heard so many good things about eachothers' hometowns.
I went back out on to the street, and remembered again that I was hungry.... I finally was able to ask some girl that had stepped out with me from Chase about Chewy's. She also raved about it, as my friend had... but pointed out how I would have to drive quite a distance to get there. She pointed me instead to a place by the UT campus, a street nicknamed the drag, where I went for some concoction of Philadelphia meets Texas in the form of a cheese steak made with Texas BBQ and other southwest embellishments. It was disappointing.
Afterward, I walked through the UT campus, getting bored, and hot under the 90 degree heat--noticing that other people apparently were used to such scorchers, as some wore heavier clothing, yet didn't sweet a drop, I stared at these guys like they were crazy. One person in particular, an Indian guy, felt my stare, and looked back to investigate. After an awkward moment on that street corner played out, I crossed the intersection and went to the Long Horn store to buy a friend some apparel in anticipation of her up and coming birthday.
Time was a wasting... and my day then started to drag... I got bored, but not before I started getting texts and calls from my friend David about meeting him, and other people at a place called the Broken Spoke later that night.
It finally came to pass that we all met--after missed connections, people lagging in getting there to rendezvous, and my pit-stop at a place like In-n-Out, but better, called, P.Terry's, for burgers. The place we convened at was a cowboy, cowgirl, hoedown bar, and despite my initial reluctance about it, it turned out great.
Unlike the scene in SF, which I never could really stand, this place was not pretentious. Problems were left at the door, while everything was let loose on the floor. No one had hesitations--no one was unsure of themselves (except of one dude who never hoedowned, along with myself)--but everyone was truly having a good time, and you could feel it like nothing else. The good vibe flowed through me, it was undeniable, and it was great; but at the same time, I also felt a tinge of resentment creep over me about the kind of good time that I might have been missing out on all this while, because I never felt this way in any of the countless night clubs I went to in the Bay Area. It just goes to show how the grass is greener.
No comments:
Post a Comment