We carpooled to Austin this past weekend with two other co-ops. The drive was smooth and didn’t take as long as I thought, about 3 hours.
I am happy that I was finally able to see a part of Texas that is not ugly. I saw green grass, small rolling hills, and lots of trees. Yay! A part of Texas that was actually pretty. I love seeing farms with rolling hills and cows on the tops of them, probably because it’s my dream to own a rolling hill farm.
I enjoyed 6th Street more than Bourbon Street in New Orleans. If I had to pick a place to party, it would be Austin, which could change once I go to Las Vegas. Until then, Austin it is. The drinks were inexpensive (at least at the places we went to), and there were lots of places to step into and shake your booty.
We met up with the other co-ops from the Freeport location, we are at the Deer Park location, making the group 13 of us. We started off our nights at a bar called The Library. It was a fitting place since Engineers spend lots of time in them. They were serving $3.00 Long Islands. I have never paid $3.00 for a Long Island in a normal sized glass, it was awesome. We hopped around 6th Street, darting in and out of bars, having whatever the drink special was at the moment, stuck around and danced for a few songs, and then moved onto the next place. We met some pretty cool Austin locals and some out of towners celebrating birthday’s, graduations, and new job opportunities. Oh, and a guy who was showing off his rock band, even though he had just quit the band. At 2:00 a.m. the bars and clubs shut down, and the police and fire department do a sweep of the streets (a clean-up if you will), making everyone leave. Very interesting, but none the less a good thing since most of our group was done for the night. On our walk back to the hotel, a cold front decided to wake us up with a down pour. A very cold down pour. I enjoyed running in the rain until I remembered I had my camera with me. Thankfully, after a few minutes of waiting underneath a shelter the rain lightened up, allowing Luis and I to continue our run through the rain. It was a good night.
The next day, Luis and I split from the group and went to check out some items I had on my Austin list. We walked around The University of Texas, Zilker Park, Austin Nature and Science Center, the bats at Congress Ave Bridge, the Capitol Building, and explored some of the 1400 food carts Austin has.
I know I am only 28, but Austin kicked my butt, which lead me to believe that I am getting too old to rebound quickly after a few nights of drinking and dancing. Sunday and Monday my chest was tight with sharp pains. I called a doctors office to schedule an appointment, but was told to go straight to the emergency room. The emergency room? That freaked me out. I have never been to the hospital, and the thought of going to a hospital freaked me out. It couldn’t be that serious. So, being freaked out I called my uncle Danny, who has had heart issues and asked him for his thoughts. After a few questions to rule out a stroke or heart attack, I took some Aspirin as he recommended. After a few hours the pain went away just in time for my mom to call me. Now that I was much more calmer, I could actually have a conversation with someone. Even though a trip to urgent care would probably not have harmed anything, I just really didn’t want to believe it could be something serious. Monday evening did not help either, I felt like I was having an anxiety attack, a two hour attack. Something I have never felt before. I really think I just pulled something with all the dancing, plus being dehydrated, then the attack because I freaked out. I still feel slightly odd, but much better. I have a appointment with the cardiologist on Monday. See what I mean about getting old? This is only the beginning, haha!
I really enjoyed Austin, chest pains and all. Austin has everything I love; parks, food carts, cheap drinks, interesting people, and a great assortment of bands/music.
1,460 Days of Georgia 