Austin was pretty great- Kate's friend Matty was nice enough to pick us up at the airport in one of the biggest trucks I've ever seen, probably from 1981. It had a killswitch and a carborated engine. Welcome to Texas, where everything is bigger (especially the trucks and the bugs.)
After a few last minute-moving errands, we walked by the legendary Emo's, where a bunch of kids were waiting for some new it band to go on. Clearly, it was an all ages show- it was like Hot Topic exploded on the sidewalk. We got BBQ at Stubb's for Kate's last Austin meal. On the menu there was fried okra, which I've never had before. Actually, I wasn't sure if I'd ever seen an okra before. Trips like this help me remember that although I'm pretty open minded, my Portland life, though awesome, is sheltered. The pulled pork was as good as expected. Kate picked something up off of the side plate of pickles and onions and took a big bite. She thought was an okra, and in an effort to enlighten me to the vegetables I'd been living without, took a big bite. It was some sort of chili pepper, hotter than a jalapeno, and she had a breakdown. Kate doesn't eat spicy. Her mouth was on fire and her lips were burning and she didn't know what to do. I pushed some bread at her and tried really hard not to laugh.
We hung out at a bar in Austin called Liberty, which served these great chicken buns. It kind of reminded me of Amigo's meets the Downtown Lounge, plus a million stickers. Kate pointed out a bar Bill Murray surprise bartended at during South by Southwest last year. I'd absolutely lose my shit if I walked into a bar and Bill Murray just so happened to be there. Maybe I need to get out of Portland more often.
The car is packed so full that there is literally no room for us, anything else, to go boxes. Walter keeps walking around in circles from the blankets in the backseat to my shoulders, to my lap, to the dashboard, to Kate's lap, back to the backseat. There are Dairy Queens in every town we drive through.
In one memorable stop for gas in Coleman, Texas, a really old man with a gaping open mouth and a ten gallon cowboy hat, asked us how far we were moving. I said San Francisco. He said, “Well gee, that's clear out the County!” Coleman had a slightly desolate main street, where we found lunch at the Owl General Store Soda Fountain and Grill. All of the store fronts had Go Bluecats messages written in their windows, and I realized this was the kind of town Varsity Blues is supposed to take place in. The kind of place where everyone goes to high school together, and everyone stays in the town, and the social structure stays the same because no one leaves and no one new arrives. To quote James Van Der Beek, “I don't want your life.” The food was pretty good- Kate decided to get the chilli cheese burger, blacked out, came to, and had eaten the whole thing. I got a chicken salad sandwich, which wasn't as good, I'm sure, but at least I didn't want to die after.
I drove a car for the first time in six months and I didn't kill us. I'm following Katie Kearn's two rules of driving: Don't hit anything, and don't get hit by anything.
At some point, I started telling Kate that sometimes I have fantasies about the movie of my life. Whitesnake's “Here I Go Again” came on the Pandora station. I've decided that in the montage of me doing things by myself, bowling, coming home to an empty mailbox, table for one, walking down the street alone, etc, in the scene right before I meet the person I'm going to be with for the rest of my life, (the movie of my life is a romantic comedy with a happy ending,) “Here I Go Again” will be the backing track for the montage.
If Kate's life were a movie, right now, Walter the cat would be her daughter, and Kate would be a single mother played by Susan Surandon in the 80s, with a perm and a white tank top. Since she's been picking up and moving so much, (three times in the last year), there'd be a lot of empty promises and excuses and apologies for a better life. “This time, we're really gonna settle, Walter. San Francisco is real nice, and I bet you're gonna make some great friends. I just know it.” Kate's movie is a little bit less literal, but still has a happy ending.
Driving through West Texas to New Mexico can get pretty barren (though there are some scenic parts and I can't believe how big the sky is out there.) Kate really needed to pee, there was nothing in sight, so I pulled over. She said that her vag was going to get bit by a rattlesnake, and I was supposed to watch Walter, our cat friend making the journey with us. I forgot to keep an eye on her, because I got a text message. She escaped, and almost disappeared into the desert of New Mexico to live off of cactus water and armadillos before becoming totally feral.
Albuquerque was great, also, and it was nice to see Andy and meet all of his friends. His roommate and his friends are really well read, and have a lot to talk about. They have a pomegranite tree in their back yard, and cooked us a delicious meal. We went to a metal show at a bar with a stage that had a mural of some palm trees behind it. Epic.
More updates soon.
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