|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New Year's Eve
Way back in November, I suggested to Jane that John and I were interested in coming to Austin for New Years. Jane got very excited about the possibility of hosting us in her town. Cici and Steve drove down from the Metroplex with John and I and Amanda and Erin came from Katy. We got there nice and early, way before Jane expected us. Oh well. Her mother made lasagna for dinner and it was delish. Steve was in the mood for some tortilla chips, but apparently the ones that Jane's mother offered weren't up to his high standards. They were "old". Then we went to Zilker Park to see the "tree." It's really not a tree, it's a giant pole about 40 feet tall with strands of light draped from the top to look cone-shaped, like a tree. When you spin around and look upward, the tree appears to be twirling. It's fairly interesting, especially to see everyone spinning toward complete dizziness.
After
the Zilker tree, we went to Mozart's coffee shop. It sits right on Lake
Austin (which is really just a river). The chai tea is delicious, and
we played some Lick-It-Stick-It too. After we decided it was way too cold
out on the patio, it was back to Jane's. Have you played Scene It yet?
It's a movie trivia game with a DVD for trivia clips. We played three
times, three different teams, but my team won ever time. Oh yeah. the 31st Everyone slept in nice and late. Jane and Cici were awake when I got up. Jane, the wonderful tour guide, took us to Mount Bonnell after lunch. Remember, this is Texas, so hiking something called a "Mount" takes about 20 minutes, not days and days. The view from Mount Bonnell was pretty spectacular. We could see downtown, UT, the river, and plenty of the hill country. We shopped on Guadalupe (Urban Outfitters, Tower Records), and then started back toward Jane's. On
the way back to Jane's house, I get a call on my cell phone from Matt
Miller. Matt is Erin's boyfriend, who "wasn't able to make the drive"
to Austin due to his work schedule. Well, apparently he played his cards
right and was anticipating extra gold stars in the boyfriend department
by surprising Erin. It was odd talking to him, because Erin was sitting
in the Rodeo right next to me, oblivious to everything. I decided to call
him back once Erin was a safe distance away. Well, Matt arrived about an hour later with flowers. Erin was quite surprised, but I think she was secretly hoping he was going to show up. Soon afterward, we headed to El Arroyo for dinner. We had this idea that, because it was New Year's Eve, all restaurants would have long waits. There was no wait at El Arroyo, so we sat down to dinner around 5:30. I helped Steve pick out his first margarita. During dinner, it was discovered that country artist Cory Morrow was seated at the table behind us. The girls were too shy to ask him for a picture, so I stepped in to help. It's my belief that semi-famous artists like Cory enjoy being recognized, even though I couldn't have picked him out of a lineup without help. He was very friendly, and posed for a photo with the girls. He explained that he was barbecuing and playing some acoustic songs closer to midnight.
I had to stop in and see Andrew at the Ivory Cat. He was there with Tommy, and Kristy, whom I would see later. The TCU crowd walked Sixth, and got caught in the throng of people waiting to see the star rise. (In Austin, they don't drop a ball. They raise a star on some scaffolding.) Long story short, 3-2-1 yay 2004 blah blah blah. About 2:30, after we made it back to Jane's house, Andrew calls me. Apparently he and Kristy can't get a taxi back to their apartment, and I'm their next best thing. Not a problem, I say. What are friends for? That was a fun early morning excursion. After breakfast the next morning, we headed for DFW. January 1 consisted of traveling home, like it so often does for me. I came to the conclusion that America gets a national holiday on January 1 solely for recovering from a hard night of partying.
God bless America. |
THE
VOORN PROJECT |
Eventually,
we made it downtown to Sixth Street for the countdown to 2004, but not
before dessert at Katz's. Emily got me hooked on their cheesecake milkshakes,
and boy are they delicious. Jane had some sort of sour cream cake, and
apparently she was the first ever to order it. It's now known as Jane-Cake
or something. And we occupied our time with a cell phone race. It's fun
and you can do it at home! Just turn your phone to vibrate and GO!