Posts Tagged ‘ Austin ’

Geek Girl’s Guide to Austin: Feb 7-13

February 7, 2012
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Geek Girl’s Guide to Austin: Feb 7-13

Get out of the house, geeks! Once a week I round up the steampunk, boardgames, science fiction, burlesque, and other random bits of geeky awesome which make Austin such a great place to live. This is your excuse to get out of the house and mingle with your own kind. Enjoy. Our nearest Renn Faire starts to the east while Firefly guests descend on a convetion to the north. Meanwhile, here in Austin there are plenty of fun things coming up at the Alamo Drafthouse. However, this week’s secret stealth event is the Sci Fi and Fantasy Social. It...

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Didn’t see that coming

December 19, 2011
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Austin Panhandler

Austin has a surprising number of panhandlers.  I have four regulars staking out the highway entrance and exit ramps nearest my apartment. My favorite holds a sign reading, “Need Beer” while the saddest has a sign reading, “Even 25 cents helps.” I’ve lived in much larger cities, but few with this sad quantity of beggars. As a single woman, I’ll admit I’m intimidated. Nothing raises the hairs on the back of my neck like walking alone downtown, studiously ignoring a man on the street, only to have him shout, “God gonna rape you inna ass an leave you bleedin...

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60 Weeks in Austin, Week 5: wherein I rediscover insomnia

December 15, 2011
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Insomnia

After four OK Cupid dates and one speed dating event, this week I had every intention of comparing menfolk in Louisville, Chicago, St. Louis, and Austin. Sadly, I’m entirely distracted from such things by some unfortunate news. My company, which I dearly adore, is letting me and the rest of the staff go. I have an incredibly generous amount of notice and plenty of work to do in the meantime, but it’s still a blow. I haven’t entirely finished unpacking my home office yet and now I’m on the hunt for a new job. I once hoped to represent...

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No Road Home

December 12, 2011
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I-35 Austin

There’s a stretch of highway in Louisville that feels exactly like Kansas City.  After five years in Kentucky, I’d still find myself unconsciously switching lanes so I could exit onto a street in another time zone. Several stretches of St. Louis expressways were completely indistinguishable from Cincinnati. There’s a comforting familiarity in knowing how to navigate a strange city from the highway. Crossing the border into Canada always takes me by surprise because they don’t use roads the same way we do. They say Texas is a whole other country. The roads here prove it. For one thing, there’s...

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60 Weeks in Austin, Week 4: wherein I attempt to personally meet all 1.7 million residents of the metro area

December 8, 2011
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Meetup

Moving across country alone and telecommuting to work is a great recipe for becoming the crazy woman who never showers and talks to her Roomba. In order to combat that, over the last four weeks I’ve visited 10 Meetup Groups. Meetups in Austin are fascinating. I remember when Meetup was mostly an unhappy mix of grassroots groups supporting Howard Dean and soccer moms who needed a martini. Starting a new meetup in Louisville meant a year of patiently waiting with a sign, a smile, and a box of games, knowing that if I advertised enough, eventually the concept would...

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60 Weeks in Austin, Week 3: wherein my faith in a federal institution is horribly shattered

December 1, 2011
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Mail Theft

I call shenanigans. This week, some strangers employed a crowbar to commit a federal offense at my expense. That’s right – the bastards broke into the central mail station for my apartment complex and looted all the boxes. They got my paycheck, a dalek shaped towel my friend Anne sent to decorate my Doctor Who themed bathroom, and a stack of bills I suspect they won’t pay. People who’ve known me for awhile may recall that I’m so hipster I had my identity stolen before we had a name for the phenomenon. The 1990’s were a dark time when...

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That skank Inanna never has trouble finding a date

November 26, 2011
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That skank Inanna never has trouble finding a date

Behold, Austin! For lo, I am the bringer of rain. You were parched in anticipation of my arrival, but hark, in my meager three weeks living within your boundaries have I brought the rain thrice. These gifts of fertility and life will fall like happy tears upon your barren soil so long as I am supplied with healthy consorts, black of hair and curled of mustache. Look upon the cleanliness of your automobiles, feel beneath your feet the springiness of soil, sleep by night to the soothing fall of raindrops against your window. I can bring unto you strong...

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My appropriately sappy Thanksgiving post

November 24, 2011
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My appropriately sappy Thanksgiving post

It’s been way too long since I enjoyed Thanksgiving. There was the year my ex’s mother decided to put bacon in everything then had just enough to drink to really enjoy hassling me for keeping kosher, the awkward year I spent with people who were trying to stay friends with us both after the divorce, and the year I spent drinking alone at home because it was better than the alternatives. Things rounded the corner last year. I was close enough to my best friend Anne to spend the day with her family. Nearly thirty of us filled her...

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60 Weeks in Austin, Week 2: wherein I learn PBR goes flat if hipsters cross the river

November 12, 2011
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Austin river scene

Back in 1989, the state capitol of Texas was populated by government workers, hippies, artists, and potheads. They built small houses which they painted however the hell they wanted, spent their evenings listening to small local bands, and owned art by someone they knew. Then the population doubled from 400,000 in 1990 to 800,000 in 2000 as tech companies moved in. Free thinking culture, tech jobs, a thriving university, and genuinely gorgeous people drove the city to double in population again from 2001 to 2010. Now the metro area has more than 1.7 million residents. In the last two...

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Judge me by the friends I keep. They’re awesome.

November 7, 2011
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Judge me by the friends I keep. They’re awesome.

I’m a very lucky woman. Anne, my sister from another mister, not only kept me company but also kept me sane on my move. A small but significant portion of my worldly goods still lived in a Springfield, Illinois storage unit. She met the movers there and supervised them loading my things into their panel van, then rode to St. Louis with them. She brought snacks and kept me company while total strangers packed all my worldly goods into a 24 foot panel van. When the painfully slow movers finally went back to Springfield, she hopped in the truck...

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Fetid End of the Dating Pool

First Contact: Apples and Honey Edition

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It’s time for a special Rosh Hashanah edition of First Contact! Gosh. Who knew the season of atonement and repentance could be so darn...

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