The Recovery...

That day, I took Christian to the airport where he would continue on with his journey to visit the Microsoft headquarters in Seattle.
He was a soon to become new graduate from college, and was looking into all the options that awaited him thereafter.... we said our goodbyes, and left each other on the promise that we'd make contact whenever we happened in the other's area. From there, I went to a BBQ that was attended by others who also had a tough time waking up... if at all, as most everyone there were the same folks from the night before, and not everyone was functioning at 100%.



As a new case of Dos Equis was opened to start things off from where they had left off the night before, a fat batch of burgers were being taken off the grill, and we began looking at some of the pictures, and talking about the events of that night.
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My night had been a little different from theirs. When we split from the reception, I went to go eat burgers at P.Terry's with Christian, and to give him a ride to the house. The rest of the group, on the other hand, didn't waste anytime in hitting the nearby nightlife. When Christian and I were out on the road after getting burgers, there was a huge car crash in an intersection seconds after we had just cleared it (perhaps if I had spent those extra few moments back at P.Terry's hassling the guy about not getting our condiments, it would have been us caught up in the twisted metal of that crash). The whole thing was bad--on a scale from 1 to 10, perhaps it was an 8... the intersection was riddled with metal everywhere, some of the scrap flying off from the cars in the crash to hit ours before we made it out... as we contemplated our next action, with Christian wanting to jump out the car to help out the victims, I pressed him to wait a moment, while during that time, sirens began to wale in the near distance, and Austin's Emergency response teams were already on the scene before we could give it much more thought.

We kept on with our drive to the house, where I would drop Christian off. We talked about the night before, and the prowler in the backyard, and something about that spooked him out enough that he couldn't settle down without a weapon by his side (not a firearm). He also turned the lights on all over the backyard, as well as the front of the house before I left. As I pulled out of the driveway, and my pupils dilated from all those lights as though the sun were out, I couldn't help but think of the scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation when Chevy Chase turned on the Christmas lights that shone enough to rival those from the Close Encounters of The Third Kind... I thought he was overreacting, but with all that had happened, anything was possible, so I silently wished him a good night that was free of any trouble.

When I got back downtown, Mike, a mutual friend of David and mine, had returned a text that I had sent him earlier, saying that he and the gang were at J - Blacks. I had not met everyone else that was with him, but after all that was out of the way, we soon left to Roial (Royal), a club that spilled out on to the roof of the place. It was a nice night too, with Austin's heat still permeating the air; an outdoor venue was ideal. As we hung out, socialized, drank, danced, there was one couple whose dancing got discombobulated, as they pretzeled into each other, in a matter that could not be described, and fell to clear the floor. The DJ, who was on a roof higher than ours, saw the commotion, and fouled up a bit, but the music soon got back on track, and the ambiance was restored. It took the couple a while longer before they were oriented enough to get back up... and even then, after getting kicked out, they stumbled down the stairs.

It was not long before we made our own way out, our entourage getting split up when one of the door guys shut an exit to prevent half of our group from leaving out to the alley way. There was some girl who everyone else claimed to have been stocking us, as she was seen at J-Blacks, and along the way to Roial on the street... then again outside. While we were out front, waiting to rejoin the rest of our group that we were split up from, some intoxicated white guy with an afro wig yelled out, "see'ya later suckas", pointing to us, when he jumped into a dropped down top of a convertible... however, as the car burned up some rubber on its high speed take off, "afro guy", as I like to call him, was sitting in such a way that he was half hanging out of the car, which caused him to fall out on to the pavement. With the influx of people pouring out on to the street from all the surrounding venues, there was so much bustle that, amazingly, not very many people other than myself noticed... and the ones that did had not given it much further attention. Before I knew it, afro man had disappeared, and our group had rejoined itself. Without further delay, we left to hit the Quesadilla truck.

When we got there, the same girl that everyone said had been stocking us before had reappeared. I looked at her, and she quickly turned away... it was weird. Some black guy came on the scene who'd stopped to the music emanating from the Quasadilla truck. He yelled out, "this is my song!", and began dancing. He explained how if he did not drink as much as he had, he would break dance the hell out of the sidewalk. He exclaimed how everyone was a "wanna be", and how he'd out dance everyone, and how he was the best dancer in all of Texas. A cop who quietly watched nearby, and who no one noticed, came on the scene and arrested the guy for public intoxication. We hung out a little more after the last call, but soon walked to our cars--with mine being towed! It was a big ordeal, and by the time I got it out of the impound lot (quietly, but very quickly, considering breaking it out before paying), I drove back to the house... it had become very late.

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That next day followed well from the previous night. We all hung around Daniel's house, a friend of Mike's, ate BBQ, talked, and drank, but much lightly than we had the night before.... As the night grew later, everyone filtered out, while the remainder among us had stretched out on the living room furniture to watch TV... with an early morning flight, I soon said my goodbyes and retreated to the house before it got any later. As I drove the last stretch of road, listening to the radio, it played Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car", ending almost perfectly as I pulled up to the driveway. I felt it as providence that I would hear that particular song as I wrapped up my stay in Austin, because it was a tune that whenever I heard it in the Bay Area, I couldn't help but think about how if I did not leave it, my life would not be that much different than that of what I had experienced since moving out there as a kid from Colorado, as Tracy Chapman's sing's the last part of the song...

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so we can fly away
We gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way

I have met many people older than me who when I ask them about their youth, and compare that to where they are presently, I can't help but pity them, and take the whole of their lives as a precautionary tale, because there seems to be no discernible difference from where they are to where they were in their youth. I want my life to be weaved with the most colorful fabrics available, so that in the end, it can be vibrant, and colorful from a variety of experience. I want my life to be like that night out in Austin--although not all of it will be perfect, as I will face problems, on the whole, it will be an experience that I would have been thankful to call my own, because, taken together, it makes for a good, lively (as opposed to a boring) life lived.

I believe that if I stay where I am, in the Bay Area, without changing my scenery, then I will seal my fate to that of an older man who will traverse a road, made up with experiences along the way not that much different than those that I have had over the years, and which will lead to a place very similar to where I've found myself, as I would miss out on the experiences such as those that I had in Austin....