Brave new world update

We rode off into the sunset, southwestern bound just a month ago. It seems like our old life has simply evaporated into thin air. And here we are with an unwieldy new one.

Not that our longtime friends and family of the past are no longer; they are certainly still trekking along in some alternate realm of reality, that I don’t have access to as I used to. Thank God for cell phones, email, letters, and even the touch-base quips on facebook. They warm my heart, a remembrance of the comfort and love that still is, just in different packaging.

So, here we are in Austin, and it seems our lives here have begun. We have finally found jobs (I am at Anthropologie on 6th and Hunter works at locally-owned Amy’s Ice Cream on South Congress, a 4 minute walk from our house). We finally have all of the utilities running smoothly, including the internet (Facebook-stalking and Twitter-timewasting commence!). And we have all unpacked all of our boxes, except for me, because I have an embarassingly large number of boxes labeled “fabric.”

And so our ties have begun to form, too. Sort of. We are in that awkward stage of not having any money (waiting on our first paychecks!) and therefore, not quite having any opportunity to meet new people (Austin is a going-out sort-of town). It has been almost a hardship…dull, lonesome, very productive.

But, our luck is turning around. Did I mention we have income!?! We have a few native Mississippian friends, who have been so kind as to show us around, and explain the no-one-ever-says-this-but-you-should-know’s, and we have discovered some places that will become regular spots for us. Also, my longest friend, Marina, is moving here with her husband this summer.

Not to mention:

Austin is a lovely place, with really sweet, kind, courteous (and very busy) people, with lovely weather (the exception being last week when it rained and then was 70 degrees and then snowed) and lots to do. I am very excited to be able to start blogging about all of the neat little stores, galleries, and places of interest that Austin has to offer.

This quirky big town is full of the places that make you wish you had thought of it: cupcake bakeries, taco/hot dog/chocolate stands on the corners, Airstream stores and restaurants. There are galleries dedicated to women, to Mexican-American art, to Texas indie-handcrafters. Tons of amazing vintage clothes/records/furniture. Beautiful public parks and leash-free dog parks. Indie shows that have four hundred people dead-silent listening or dancing their hearts out. In these ways, it is a dream come true.

So, I guess what we are waiting on is integration…into new lives, and theirs into ours. And that just takes time. And not being too shy. I think the future holds our social circle rounding itself out nicely, dinner parties, running into people we know on while on errands, but until then, creativity, imagination, beautiful discussion, spoiling the pup, creative ways to eat on the cheap, reading novels, and productiveness in our respective arts rule in this house. So world/ATX get ready. Out of these awkward ashes we will rise to more sensitive, listening, imaginative, motivated, and true versions of ourselves. Hopefully.

austin Posted under about me, writings by Elise