Austin

Contrary to popular belief, I didn't die at the Alamo.  I've just been (surprise!) too lazy to write in the past several days.  Plus, this post is about Austin, which was one of my audition cities, and I therefore had to give my writing some thought.  Because I had to give Austin some thought.

I spent 5 days and 4 nights in Austin.  Austin contained the most eloquent and vociferous proponents of why I should move there.  Clearly, the people who love Austin really love Austin, and I'm glad I got to hear about the city from so many people who live there.

Let's start with two of my friends from WoW:  Ron (Mabaroshi) and Jamie (Greela).  Ron grew up in Texas and Jamie just outside of NYC, so I got perspectives from a local and someone who relocated there.

Jamie & Ron

They both really like Austin.  Ron's favorite attribute of the city is that his house won't wash away in a flood, which is a factor worth considering when I choose a new home.  Jamie, on the other hand, likes all sorts of things about the town, especially the people, which she says stand out by taking so much pride in their home.  And in her experience, that usually results in people being really polite because they want their home to have a good reputation.  Based on my short time in Austin, I have to agree with everything Ron and Jamie said.  I especially noticed it in the behavior of other drivers; while the traffic could get pretty heavy at times, people let each other merge and I didn't see a lot of obnoxious driving.  I did hear a noticeably high number of horns, though, which in my experience is very rare outside of DC, Boston and NYC.  So... huh.

I met a couple of other Warcraft friends, too: Sam (Hornedup) and Tim (Schlitzkreig), who both also love Austin and think I should move there (their friends think so too).

Andy, Gaby, Sam, Celeste, Tim, Ron (terrified of cameras), Jamie, and the Skeptical Lady

Among the other things I liked about Austin:  There's a big university there (Texas, which I could never root for, but which brings learning and culture), there's a lot of variety in the people.  In fact, I'd say I saw more physical variations among the people in Austin than anywhere else I've been in the US.  I mean, all different races, styles of dress, hair, tattoos (or lack of), piercings (or lack of).  Austin, like Portland and Asheville, is one of those places that prides itself on being "weird," which usually means "accepting," and that seemed pretty evident.

It's a fairly liberal town politically (not the most liberal, but more left than right).  And being the seat of government, I expect my job prospects would be decent.  It's a big enough town that major entertainment would be easy to find, like Broadway touring shows, etc.  There's also a really wide variety of places to eat there.  Ironically, I was much more impressed with the Vietnamese and Vegetarian restaurants I went to than the barbecue place.  But my pals told me it was only "OK" barbecue, so I guess there'd be better if I went looking for it.

As far as the physical surroundings, I liked the downtown area a lot.  It was definitely bustling, but it wasn't full of wall-to-wall people or traffic.  There were lots of offices and places to eat and some places to live quite nearby.  Austin has some skyscrapers, but it's not a really tall city that completely blocks the sun.  And the streets are wide, adding to the sense of space and light.  It made me think that if life took me to Austin, I could find a place downtown and make a little life for myself and be content.

I did the usual drive-in-loop-around-the-city tour, stopping at shops and coffee houses and libraries, then walking around the residential neighborhoods.  This is where Austin failed to capture my attention, I think.  Although I made about 15 stops all around town (not counting downtown, even!), none of the neighborhoods really made a lasting impression on me.  Maybe it's because Austin is relatively new compared to the architectural styles I tend to like?  Because there were certainly some interesting neighborhoods, with both residential and commercial parts.  And more vintage, antique and consignment shops than I've yet come across (and which would normally make me like a place).  But they just didn't catch my eye or pique my interest the way a number of other places have.  Even a few short weeks after my stop in Austin, I'm having trouble remembering neighborhoods, whereas some other cities I've visited still stand out clear as day.

One of several super funky vintage shops in Austin.

And of course, there are some objective factors I wouldn't like about living in Austin, particularly the political leanings of the state generally and the weather.  If you've read my blog pretty much at all, you'd know that I'm a fan of cooler weather and cloudy days, and don't really love prolonged heat and sun.  And Austin has plenty of hot and sunny days.  But I guess I'd have the sun and heat to thank for keeping my house from being washed away in a flood.

In short, I liked Austin and found it comfortable in a number of ways.  I could see why many people like living there.  It just didn't do enough for me to be under consideration as my future home.

Los Angeles: Part One

I wasn't all that interested in visiting LA, but (1) I felt like I should since it's, what? the second biggest city in the country and (2) (and more importantly!) I know several people who live there and I wanted to meet them.

L.A. is the home of four guildmates (that I know of) who I not only got to meet, but I got to meet all at once, so we had a cozy little Novus Victus reunion.  (Is it a reunion if we've never met in real life before?)  Everyone was super nice, especially my hosts Augie and Chris (aka Xenjoza and Astyanaax).  Not to imply that Dave and Kris (aka Richardboone and Enchantertim) were not nice; just that they didn't have to put up with me for 4 days straight like the girls did!  :)

Chris, Dave, Augie, Kris & Gaby

When we weren't all brunching at The Abbey, a popular restaurant and bar in West Hollywood, the girls took turns entertaining me.  Sometimes just sitting around gabbing, sometimes giving me driving tours of Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the beaches, sometimes watching movies, or dining out.  Food wise, L.A. lived up to my expectations, which were high.  (I've now spent maybe 20 days total in California, and it has, by far, the best food anywhere in the U.S.  Even the salad bars at groceries are great, tasty and healthy.)

The Chinese Theater

And speaking of movies, I had a special treat courtesy of Chris, who is a press photographer.  (If you read People or InStyle or probably several other magazines, you've seen photos of the stars taken by Chris!)  She often gets free passes to movie screenings, so she took me along to see The Thing, which is -- depending on how technical and nerdy you want to get -- either a prequel to or a remake of John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing.  Sci fi horror isn't one of my favorite movie genres.  There's usually too much unexplained silliness and not a lot of character or plot.  But for a movie of its type, the current The Thing is not a bad movie.  Go in expecting a lot of gore and some scares, and not much else, and you'll be satisfied.  Frankly, I think I'll remember the movie long past when I'd ordinarily remember it because I'll associate it with doing something very "Hollywood" and hanging out with Chris.

The quintet who brunched together also went to see the La Brea Tar Pits, which are big pools of, well, tar just sitting in the middle of L.A.  They have a lot of ice age fossils in them, and at least one pool was under excavation when we stopped in.  They were much less exciting than I was expecting.  Although now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I expected a bunch of black pools to be exciting.

Not real mammoths.

An excavated pool.  Look just below the patch of sunlight, you'll see the bones of some extinct animal.

Prunedale & Santa Cruz

After Sacramento, I stayed for a few days with my friends Susan and Stephen (aka Magpiemolly and Icyhotnot), who I met in the World of Warcraft.  They live on a farm outside of Prunedale, which is about 2 hours south of San Francisco.  I met to take photos of their geese, goats and llamas, but I forgot.  :(  We had the extra treat of one of our fellow Sen'Jin friends, Brandon (aka Tigglezar) come down from Palo Alto to spend the night and hang out.  Needless to say, we spent about 8 hours total discussing Warcraft, but I won't bore you with the details of that, other than to say that Brandon is hilarious.  Can't wait to see you online soon, Brandon!

Gaby, Brandon, Stephen & Susan

Molly -- dammit, I mean Susan -- is a full-time production artist (I am always accidentally calling guildmates by their game names, but in return I am usually called "Moo" so I guess it's OK).  For the past several years Susan has worked in melted glass, where she shapes things from plates of glass, colors it with colored glass dusts, and melts it in her kilns.  Her studio is on her farm, and we took a tour of it.  While small, the tour was really interesting and Susan's work is really cool.  I wish her website did her pieces justice; they are much more sparkly and ephemeral in person.  In a year or so if I still cannot find a job, I may go and apprentice with her for a few months.  She thinks I will do the cooking, but I know I will learn to create beautiful glass art!  :P

Susan's studio (with Brandon)

Susan's most popular piece, packaged for sale.

Brandon had to return to Palo Alto, so only Susan and I were able to explore Santa Cruz, which was about an hour north of Susan and Stephen's home.  Santa Cruz is mostly a college town, although it does have its own downtown area.  It seemed a little yuppie-ish to me, at least for the home of one of the most liberal colleges in America, but it was cool and funky and I liked it.

Santa Cruz

We drove around the college for a bit and were lucky enough to find some banana slugs, which are an animal and also the UC Santa Cruz college mascot.

A banana slug

Next to a car key, for scale

A banana

UC Santa Cruz is known for being a little ... out-there.  But I liked it.  And I liked discovering random art in the middle of the woods.  Stuffy places like my alma maters don't have slugs and random art in the woods!

After touring the college and some lunch, we drove down to the beach.  The first thing I smelled as I got out of the car was some still-burning mary jane.  A little pile was lying on the ground next to the car, in fact!    Santa Cruz continued to live up to its reputation by greeting us in a super friendly way as we approached the beach:

The water was cold, but since I stood in the Atlantic a few months ago, I couldn't pass up the chance to stand in the Pacific too.

And we spent some time admiring the new-ish lighthouse before heading back home to prepare for dinner.

Dinner was in... oh, some town a little to the south, and one of Susan and Stephen's friends joined us.  She picked a sushi place for us and I was very pleased.  I was especially pleased with how fresh the fish was and how large the pieces were, especially the uni (sea urchin), my favorite.

Just look at that uni!

A lot of the time at Susan and Stephen's was spent just hanging out and chatting about life, work, families, friends, WoW, etc.  It was a really great and relaxing time with a lot of laughs.

Oklahoma City

Back to doing this blog in chronological order...

I had only a short time in Oklahoma City, which was my first stop after Little Rock.  From the start of the trip, the whole middle of the country was a pain to plan.  In order to visit Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Kansas City, Missouri, I would have to backtrack somewhere, either on my way out west or on my way back east.  I managed to make it work out on the way from Arkansas to Colorado, but my map is kind of a zig-zag.  That's OK, I'm not really in a hurry.

At the Cowboy Museum (statue modeled after an original by Frederic Remington).

But making Oklahoma harder to add to the mix was its lack of much to do outside of Oklahoma City.  Oh, and Tulsa, but I've been told that the entire staff of the National Trust for Historic Preservation all hate the city.  Maybe it's all that cheap 1970's facade covering up the 1880s brick storefronts?  Doesn't matter ... I avoided Tulsa and went to Oklahoma City instead.

One of the treats of Oklahoma City, which would have gotten me to visit anyway, was the presense of two more friends from the World of Warcraft:  Mitchell (aka Etch) and Chrissy (aka Aconyte).  Like most other Warcraft friends I've seen along the way, I had not met them before, but in a way I had.  The three of us went out to dinner in a downtown neighborhood (well, I guess it's downtown) called Bricktown.  The Bricktown Brewery, which isn't the kind of place I'd pick for myself -- it's kind of big and it appears as if it was designed to please crowds by being bland.  But it was quite tasty!  (So good pick, Mitch and Chrissy.)  That neighborhood has several restaurants and bars, and a canal/park area to walk through.  My guess it it gets a lot of people at dinner time and during events at the nearby stadium, but might be pretty quiet a lot of other times.  Even on a Saturday night, it was pretty easy to get around and parking wasn't too much of a pain.  I'd say that was true for all of the parts of Oklahoma City that I saw (which, admittedly, were few):  Pretty nice and easy to get around.

Chrissy & Mitchell in Bricktown

The "thing" that I saw in Oklahoma City was the Cowboy Museum.  I expected one of those small-town museums with hand-written descriptions and folksy stories about the area.  But it was quite large and professional and had a whole lot of stuff.  Much of the museum is devoted to art celebrating the cowboy.  I only let my eyes scan most of that, as I was more interested in learning about cowboys themselves.  Well, this museum has all of that:  What they wore, where they worked, how they branded and roped cattle, their saddles and other horsey items (argh, I went to horse camp when I was a kid and don't remember what half that stuff is called!).  The museum also has a huge collection of barbed wire.  Did you know there are over 1,300 kinds?  Now you do.

So you know how I like it when I learn how one place I've visited is related to other places.  Well, this one's tenuous, but one of the cowboy suits the museum had on display (a 20th Century piece) was designed by Nudie Cohn, who also designed Elvis's famous gold lame' suit!  I'd never heard of Nudie before visiting Graceland, so I felt pretty smart when I saw him listed as the designer of some more, um... respectable clothes.

Well... semi-respectable.

Mississauga & Niagara Falls

Argh, I am so behind in my writing!  I've been pretty good about loading my photos to my laptop each night, but really bad about writing anything down.  I thought I'd get better after I got over my writer's block about Des Moines.  Now I think I have to get over my laziness.  :(

I'm writing this on Thursday, July 21, but won't be able to post it until Friday or later.  Which means I'm a week behind!  So, back to last week... After leaving Sault Ste. Marie, I spent the night in Sudbury, Ontario, which looked like a dump, so I left it fast the next day and drove to stay with friends outside of Toronto:  Linda and Jim, and their daughter Mia.  I originally knew Linda and Jim and Dracka and Biffocles in the World of Warcraft.  We met each night while attacking Eastspark, for those of you who know anything about the game, and they were always around to get Omegamoo out of a pickle!

As with other stops along the way where I got to see friends, Mississauga was very fun and relaxing.  And it was extra nice that Linda and Jim, who'd never really met me before -- and even thought I was a guy for the longest time -- invited me to stay at their home and cooked me more than one tasty meal.  Friday and Sunday, just being half days with them, were just spent around the house.  But Saturday we went to Niagara Falls, which I hadn't seen in... oh, I guess about 25 years!

Proof that I'm really there.

Linda and I both love this view, because you get an idea of how much water is pouring over the cliffs.

They are still as impressive as I remembered, maybe moreso.  It was pretty busy that day, so we decided not to make the long waits for the Maid of the Mist or the tunnels, and I was content just to watch the falls from up top.  On the U.S. side, you can get very close to the falls, but you can't see the view so well, so I'm glad we were on the Canadian side.

Mia explains how someday she'll go over the Falls in a barrel.

Next we drove to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a little town maybe 30 minutes from the falls, which is very quaint with cute shops, and is therefore completely overrun by tourists.  But we had a nice lunch, Linda & family found a pretty trinket for their yard, and Mia had the best time of her day playing in this wading pool that attracted all the kids.  Apologies to Linda and Jim for failing to take any photos of that!  I think I was too preoccupied watching the kid with the terrible sunburn, and wondering how badly he'd hurt the next day.

I did remember to take photos of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Cemetary!

Oh and just for lulz:

He just had to stare at it, and the prints engraved themselves.

Leaving Chicago

I spent the last six nights in Chicago.  I've been here several times before, so I didn't feel like I needed to spend all my time either sight-seeing or exploring the city with an eye towards living here, because I know it fairly well.  Instead, I spent most of my non-solitary time with friends, first Susan and Marc in Evanston, and lunch with Jim in the Southport neighborhood, then with Gino and Denise in Hinsdale.

Susan & Marc

I don't like all suburbs, but I liked Evanston.  There are L and Metra stops, and you can walk to places like shops, restaurants, and the public library.  The library was really nice, too.  It's where I camped for a few hours on the day I arrived, waiting for Susan to get home from work.

The cool mobile (is that what they are called?) in Evanston's library.

Chicago has great food, and I expect Iowa, my next stop, will generally have ... less-than-great food, so I ate out several times while I still knew I'd get something good.  Eating out is not a habit I want to continue for the rest of my trip, as the costs add up, but I don't regret doing it here.

Gino likes to vogue while waiting for his sushi.

A couple of this stop's highlights were seeing a play called Chinglish, which was written by the man who wrote M Butterfly, and which apparently is heading to Broadway soon.  (It was good -- I'd recommend it if you're in the Chicago area.)  And meeting yet another friend from The World of Warcraft, Kyllan (aka Vallingar).  It's pronounced KAI-lin, if you're wondering.  Not KILL-in'.  He's as fun in person as he is in the game.

Elevated pizza, to match the elevated trains.

My next stop, and the first "serious" stop on my trip is coming up next.  After one night in NE Iowa to see a friend, I'll be in Des Moines for about 5 nights, exploring the city with an eye towards possibly relocating there.  Des Moines is one of eight cities I plan to explore this way.  (Seven of the eight are places I've never been to).  I will mostly avoid tourist sites (museums, etc.) and will spend my time exploring neighborhoods, libraries, shopping options, diners, the public transportation, etc.  The things I'd have to deal with on a daily basis if I lived somewhere.  I like museums and orchestras and theaters, etc.  But I don't go to those every week.  My daily routine will affect my life far more than things like that, although I'd prefer to live in a place that has a fair amount of culture.

This part of my trip may be a completely failed experiment.  Either because all eight cities are crap and I'd never move there in a million years, or because it turns out I just can't learn anything about them by hanging out for a week, or because other aspects of life intervene -- like I can't get a job there or for other reasons decide to re-settle down in a city I already know.  But if nothing else, these eight stops will help anchor my tour of the US, and at worst should feel like eight mini-vacations within the bigger trip.  So the stops shouldn't be a waste of time overall, even if they don't result in me finding a new home.  More on what I'm looking for in a future post.

Just In Time(scape) in Lafayette, Indiana

Yesterday I drove to Lafayette, Indiana, home of Purdue University and more importantly, one of my friends from Warcraft, Justin aka Timescape.  I hadn't met Justin before, just played with him online, so I was a little nervous it would be awkward and we'd have nothing to talk about (except maybe the game).  Turns out I needn't have worried; Justin was easy to talk to and very graciously let me stay overnight in his cozy apartment.  (Thanks again, Justin!)

There's not a whole lot going on in Lafayette, but we walked around town, and I say there are definitely worse places a person could live.  But it's one of those towns where I wonder how anyone makes money, because everything closes at 5pm.  And since everyone works until 5pm, when do they go shopping or out for coffee, etc?

One surprise (for me, not Justin) was the free zoo in Lafayette.  It's pretty small, and connected to a city park/water park, but had a number of animals I would not have expected to find in a small town in Indiana:

Justin, attempting to tame the giant caterpillar.

These animals were much nicer than the dead and decaying cat we passed along the way to the zoo.  Poor kitty.  I'm not sure why no one has cleaned it off the sidewalk yet, because believe me, it was not freshly dead.  Photo available upon request.  (It's much creepier than the dead fish, and I didn't want to ruin anyone's appetite.)

[I'm having trouble uploading photos; will add later.  Photos added the following day.]

Midnight run to Best Buy

Let me explain my penchant for explaining things that don't really need an explanation.  I like to do it.  I like to think about then talk about what motivates me, why I do things (or don't do things), why I like things (or don't like things) and why I make every mundane decision that I make.  Some people really like this trait of mine (maybe Anton, maybe Dave), but I know a lot of my listeners or readers don't care (my sister).  They just want the result.  They don't want to know why I'd rather eat sushi instead of italian... they just want me to make up my freakin' mind already and choose a restaurant.  Still, I am compelled to explain my several day absense from the blog. 

To start, I'm a bit lazy and since this is not a natural activity for me, it doesn't naturally rise to top of the list of things I want to do each day.  And then there's the fact that I haven't done anything too noteworthy in the past week or so.  Well, alright, I went to the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at the White House, which is one of thosethings I'm glad I did that I'll never do again.  But mostly, I've been getting in one last long fix of my current favorite hobby, the World of Warcraft, before I'm unable to play for several months.

If you browse my Hi Noon album, you'll see several days where my noontime photo is of "me" in the guise of a minotaur or an elf or a zombie-type skeleton.  Those are all my characters in the massive online game that has occupied an embarrassingly large chunk of my free time over the past five years.  But for $13/month, it's some of the cheapest entertainment around.  And being an online game, I've made several friends -- some of whom I've met in person, like my nerd friend Donnie -- and as I constantly reassure my mom, it's quite social.  "Demented and sad, but social."  Name that movie!

December 7 was a milestone day in the World of Warcraft, as the most recent expansion pack was released.  My friend Ken and I, not wanting to miss a moment of the new world, went to Best Buy way out in the DC suburbs at midnight to stand in line in the cold to buy our games.  There was already a line when we arrived:

And did I mention it was frickin' freezing?  Ken didn't bring a hat, the fool:

Finally we made it inside the store, where we stared with envy at all the people who pre-ordered the game and got to go to the front of the line:

About 40 minutes after arriving, Ken and I left with our games and free bonus posters, and I have playing nonstop ever since.  All I need now is one of those "Nerd" t-shirts that Donnie is wearing in the post below this one.

Strangely, I was not playing the game at noon the next day; I was at the cleaners/alterations shop (as evidenced by my Hi Noon photos).  But here's a pretty shot of the game, taken a bit later: