May - I Take Some Time Off

I love volunteering, and make a point each month to have at least one volunteer activity. But March and April were crazy. I estimate I volunteered every weekend.  And while fulfilling, it leaves me no time for myself. So, when May rolled around, I decided it was time for well..more "me time".

We live in an amazing city. Austin has great museums, live music, theaters,  hike/bike trails, golf courses, public pools/golf courses. I overheard someone say they were bored - that there was nothing to do in Austin and they were thinking of moving. What! impossible. (And I know this as fact, as I maintain a website of free activities - which don't even come to half of the possible things to do in this city.) If you are bored, you aren't trying or looking. There is something for everyone here. The old and young, pet lovers, activists, runners, couch surfers.

This month, however,  I planned nothing - which is to say I did not plan anything in advance ( I am a compulsive over planner). It was wonderful! ( and freeing)

I  went on several brewery tours (* side note: there are 12 breweries in Austin - most with weekly tours - so put the Bud down and get some real beer for petes sake) and spent a few weekends on my couch in my pj's. But I did have one big May "Adventure".

Last week I went to Laguna Gloria for their Art on the Green exhibit. It had been up for a few months and the 20th was the last day - nothing like waiting to the last minute right? I can't believe I have been in Austin over 10 years and this was my first visit. The exhibit was a 9 hole min golf course - each "hole" designed by a different artist - spread over the lawns of the museum.

hole #2

 

hole #9

I didn't play the "course" but walked it taking pictures of each hole. I got lucky with great weather - May can be too hot in Austin. I also took several photos of the museum grounds -  mostly well maintained, especially around the museum itself, 

view from the museum of Lake Austin

but I cannot figure why they let over brush block the view of Lake Austin on the lower grounds.  Once you get behind the main building it is much less well maintained and overgrown. There is a lighted path along the lagoon and 2 large art pieces on a "path" in an overgrown field.

lighted path

art in the field

There were also a few peacocks roaming the grounds that I was told wandered over from Mayfield Park, just next to the museum. So I knew where I was going next. 

I think he's flirting with me

Mayfield has a  beautiful "volunteer" garden with flowers, ponds and pathways. I spent all my time here taking photo after photo of the peacocks. It wasn't until I was leaving that I saw the map of the park and realized it was also a 21 acre nature preserve  - something I will check out on my next visit. 

I was surprised at the number of people who were there - most picnicking , throwing frisbees, and feeding the peacock chicks

mama and her babies - I got a bit too close for this shot

The park is in a fairly secluded spot - 35th west of Mopac  where it dead ends. So it's quiet and peaceful.

the ponds - meditation ready

I added one volunteer event to my May calendar last week though. Tomorrow morning at 5 am I will be spending the beginning part of Memorial Day at the Cap Tex Tri numbering the participants, cheering them on. I am hoping to make it to the Capitol Rotunda for their mini Memorial Day sing-a-long and possibly to the Nature & Science Museum - another place I've never been. ( hey, I just spent 2 days in a row in my pj's - time to get off the sofa)

The Grapes of Wrath

The Austin Food & Wine Hummingbird Fest in 3 Parts:

The dust bowl hit Austin this weekend swirling brown clouds into the air covering everything in it's path. It got in my eyes, ears and up my nose. I was covered in a gritty film and couldn't even run my fingers through my hair due to the wind blown dust knots.

And yet I was happy....

It was a dirty, sweaty, know-I-worked-for-it-ate-a-ton happy. I was a volunteer at the Festival this weekend. It was my first time doing this event and I wasn't sure what to expect. A dust storm certainly wasn't it. 

On Volunteering:  I was assigned to one of the wine tents for both days - all shifts. 9-5 Sat and 10-2 Sun.  I had hoped to do just one day but since Sundays shift ended early I decided not try and get out of it.  I should mention here I don't drink wine. Tried it and it 's really not my drink, unless we are talking champagne, then I'm all for it (I mean how can you not like an alcoholic beverage you are encouraged to drink for breakfast). Our job was to set up the 100 seats for wine sampling - wine glasses, spit cup water bottles. I have never seen a group of strangers work so well together -  we cold set up in under 15 minutes (but oh the dust! probably could have set up faster if we didn't have to wipe down all the chairs and tablecloths each time). Added bonus: we don't have to stay while the demo is going on, we can go and listen to other talks and  demo's ( because working the festival and not getting to do anything would have really sucked)  as long as we were back for clean up and re-set up.  Clean up =  empty leftover wine into buckets, collect and stack glasses, throw everything else away, dust, . 10 minutes tops. Did I mention how well my group worked together? I know I did , but it just really impressed me. No one complained, not one one stood around and asked " what do I do?" - everyone seemed to know just what needed to be done and did it.   

On the Demos: So I really wasn't that familiar with most of the talent. But hey, Andrew Zimmerman - Mr Bald and Sexy Chef himself - Woot! I got to see 2 of his demos (ox heart and goat) and one with Marcus Samuelson ( fried chicken). I sadly missed a demo by Morimoto  ( #sadradish). I watched the large group at the grilling demo - a seriously cool set up. About 50 tables with a grill for 2 people at each, tons of steak and I was told copious amounts of wine and tequila to drink while you cooked. 

What I Ate: The "Grand Tasting"  - well I guess you could call it grand in that it took up 3 tents and tasting definitely covers what you got, little tastes. But if you made it to all the food vendors, pushing your way through the large, sweaty, very hungry crowd, it almost equaled a meal. I did my best Stanley Kowalski at the end of shift with - "Stelllllllllllllaaaaa" - first stop is always booze my friends, especially when you have only had water all day ( no drinking on shift ) Then to the St. Germain spot  for a Hummingbird ( I think my new fave drink - made with champagne). And for the breakdown of what I ate:
Frito Pie, Beef Cheek Ravioli, Pulled Pork on Beanitos, Pulled pork on Cracker w/ Corn, more Pulled Pork, Steak, Meatballs,( surprisingly no chicken), Shrimp, Peanut Butter, Waffles with Ice Cream, Mini Whoopie Pies, Macarons, Cinnamon Cake something, Cannoli, Pie, Pie , more Pie, Ice Cream, Nada Moo, Tums, Rolaids. 

I limped out of the festival and the end of each day, dragged my self to my car, spent 30 minutes showing the grime off me and promptly fell asleep before 10 each night. And I can't wait to do it all again next year.

Ode to a Turkey Sandwich

I know what you're thinking - a turkey sandwich. Really?  Then you've never had the one at Shady Grove. It's not fancy or hip, it doesn't have pickled this or sriracha that. It's just a turkey sandwich - Hippie bread ( I don't know what's in it or why it's hippie - but damn that's good bread), real roasted turkey ( not that deli crap - but honest to goodness turkey), shredded lettuce ( which I think makes a big difference), tomatoes and mayo.

I dream about this sandwich by the way. When you say Shady Grove it's the first thing that pops into my head. It takes to to that childhood type happy place. I eat it slowly and have been known to make sighs of joy while eating it. I am sad when it's gone.  

And now I plan when I will get to eat one again

Quitting Like a Ninja

I mean really isn't that what we'd all like to do. Sneak in after hours, clear our desk and leave the boss a note " Today was my last day. See ya!"

That's what my friend Emily did. We knew she was unhappy at her job for some time. And then one day on Facebook there was the message " Start new job on Monday - yay!"  Huh, What? Wait a minute , we didn't even know she was looking. Just like a ninja, she conducted her job search undercover , landed a new job and cleared out her office in the middle of the night.

This is, of course ,easier to accomplish if you are a salaried employee who can take a 2 hr lunch and no one questions you. If you are, however, an hourly employee, like me and millions of others, planning an interview is more like a comedy of errors.

Let's take today's interview:

1) Since I have to account for every hour I work, I clock in when I get to work and clock out when I leave. This does not leave a lot of time to interview.  My "lunch hour" rarely covers both travel and interview time, which means I have to create the oh-so-common-in these-cases-fake-Drs-appointment. (ff course you can only have so many of these before your boss starts to get suspicious.) (and I will have to make up the time I am gone later this week.)  So this morning I went to the "Dr."

2) I am fortunate at my Present Company to be able to wear what ever I want to work- which in my case means  jeans and t-shirts every day.  You , of course,  cannot wear jeans and t-shirts to an interview though,  and if I wore my interview outfit to work it would definitely be raise eyebrows. So now I need to change clothes, before AND after the interview.  I should have used the downstairs bathroom , but it was only 8 and no one from my dept had come in yet. So after a quick change in the bathroom, I cracked the door and peeked out  into the hall, No one - phew! I do a fast walk down the hall before anyone else comes in so I won't be seen ( remember, I am wearing "interview" outfit now) and that's when the receptionist appears in the front to open the office - crap! I am hoping she did not see my face or notice me and continue , unseen by anyone else thankfully,  to my car.

3) I should mention at this point that I am not entirely sure there is even going to be an interview today. I had confirmed an interview for Thursday at 9 am and thought all was good. Unfortunately they called back to move the interview to Wednesday morning but my phone never rang and I missed the call. As soon as I got the message I called and said Wed would be fine but never heard back. Crap. So do I have an interview Wed or Thurs?  I figured if there was not to be an interview today I would tell my boss I got the date wrong on my "dr" appt and would have to go back tomorrow. I leave for the interview at 8:10 and plan on calling on my way down to see if it's happening today or not. I'm in luck! They call at 8:12 , they got my message and today is a go! Crisis avoided. All this makes me realize what a crappy spy I would make. I hate lying and I am horrible at "sneaking around".

4) The interview goes well I think. But then I always think that. It is a hundred times more stressful getting to the interview, so the interview itself never bother me.  We shake hands in the hall, - "Thank you for coming in"  Thank you for taking the time to interview me"  after which I head , probably surprisingly to them - not out the door bit to the bathroom - where I change back into my "work" clothes and head back to work.  I am exhausted.

And this folks is the reason I hate interviewing and why I can't do it as often as I should. I have , in the past,  been unable to make an interview because they only did them at certain hours and it was impossible for me to get out of work.

I was "found out" at Past Company but was lucky not to get fired or even reprimanded. They were "sorry to see me leave but I wasn't chained to my desk" - I swear that's what my boss said! Not surprised I left huh. Not even an offer to get me to stay.

And now I need to get back to work. I have to make up the time I lost this morning from going on the interview. I'll get to leave here.............eventually....

Rebirth of the Blog

Well after a 9 month, unintended , hiatus, my blog is back. I didn't mean to abandon it, but between work and my website something was going to fall by the wayside. And given that the thought of writing anything longer than a haiku can send me into fits of panic, it's not surprising that this blog was the one to go.

I also had way too many preconceived notions of what a blog was supposed to be. I got bogged down with too many details, worries and absurd notions. The posts weren't long enough, personal enough or relevant. They weren't funny or smart. "Supposed to" hung over my head mocking every click of the key board.

But as I have discovered, the only way to wrangle the words in my head, that circle like the ones in Hitchcock films, was to start writing again. Getting my thoughts out of my head and onto the screen is the equivalent of herding cats, there are always several that go astray and  get lost.

 I do not consider myself a writer of any sort and have spent a large portion of my life trying to avoid doing any kind of it. Though I did go through a period of poetry writing in High School, venting all my teenage angst.

I started the blog for 2 reasons. Several friends had mentioned that they followed my "adventures" on Facebook because I was always doing interesting things and that I should write about them. And I figured this would be a good way to learn how to write better and possibly get over my fear of writing. The more I wrote, I thought, the more comfortable I might get, the clearer my thoughts might become, expressing myself would get a little easier. I am still hoping these may happen, but in the mean time I would like to at lest learn to enjoy writing ( and work on my punctuation, which is atrocious)

Things That Go Bump in the Night

You can always tell when the power goes out, aside of course for everything turning off and going black, because everyone suddenly decides to go outside. And it's 103 degrees out.

My power went out Tuesday night at 8 - White Collar had just started so I was kinda pissed, even more so when I called the power company and was told it wouldn't be going on til any time between 10 and midnight. I actually didn't call them for half an hour - it never even dawned on me to call anyone til I overhead a woman on the floor below me ( remember we're all outside at this point) say she had been told it wouldn't be turned on til much later that night. No problem I thought, I'll just read. Umm.. but it's dark inside, so I'll sit on my porch...but it's hot and the kids playing are loud and annoying. I know! I'll go for a drive and see how the rest of the neighborhood fared.

My mini adventure started out fine. It turns out only my apartment complex and the one across the street were out. All traffic lights were working and the business down the street were open. My initial thought was - this is a perfect time for some frozen yogurt - but I'm cheap and currently only temping so I decided to forgo spending money and instead called a friend to see if I could hang out on his sofa for a few hours and watch tv.  And then I got to the William Cannon and Brodie intersection which, as long as you are not in the right lane eastbound on William Cannon, is not a bad intersection. Guess which lane I was in. Since there is a gas station on that corner and making a right turn is apparently a really difficult turn to make for most of the people in front of me, I ended up in the middle of the intersection as the light was about to turn red for my lane and green for the traffic that was seconds away from hitting me. I freaked. I didn't think, I  didn't look, I just turned into the next lane. BAM!

Within minutes there were not one, not two, but three police cars at the scene. You'd have thought I was on the top 10 wanted list. The guy who hit me wanted to see, as he put it, if we could 'work something out'. Yeah right. I called my friend first to let him know I wouldn't be coming over and then of course my insurance company. (Can't wait to see how much my rate goes up after this fiasco.) After telling my side of the accident - and yes I did admit to my un-signaled lane change - filling out paperwork and yet more paperwork, the tow truck finally showed up. My friend had also come by ( I should mention here that he is an ex-boyfriend - and a damn good one too) for support and to get me back home. I am of course issued a citation and advised of possible court date ( Shit!)

There didn't appear to be too much damage to my car. My driver side mirror was broken and the front tire and rim were shot. So I figured my cost would be a couple hundred maybe. Right. Progressive called me the next day to work out all the details and I will say that though they are charging me too much ( my opinion, and due to an accident, not my fault, from February) their concierge service is amazing. They picked up my car from the previous nights tow, took care of my rental and got it to a mechanic - if I had a mechanic they would have towed it there but I don't and having no idea where the best place ( meaning the least likely to rip me off) might be, so I let them use their guy. I didn't have to do thing. And that is where the good news ends.

The mechanic called a few days later with my estimate - about 4 times higher than I expected - which means I will be responsible for my full deductible $999. Crap! And let's not forget the citation I got for unsafe lane change - $277. Double Crap!  According to the list on the back of my ticket the highest fee was $200 so I have no idea why mine is $277 , or for that matter where I am going to get the money to pay for all this. Can you say credit card folks.

I am currently driving an HHR - who the hell names a car HHR and what doe sit stand for - I have no idea. My view sucks and I have to crane my neck  to see out the window - but at least it's better than the first one they gave me -a  Dodge Charger! Yup seriously, a Charger. You basically have to lay down in your seat to even be able to see where you are going. Needless to say I changed cars as soon as I could.

Next time the power goes out I'm sitting on the couch in the dark til it comes back on.

The Color Purple

No this is not a movie review or a post about Whoopi Goldberg. It is about the right and wrong way to color your hair and about.. well turning purple - sort of.

I first started turning grey when I hit 30 ( maybe 29 ) but I held out on coloring  because I cringed at the thought of putting chemicals in my hair. And well.. I wasn't really that grey.  After a few years though I decided that looking like a skunk (giant grey streak running down the middle of my head) was never going to be a trend so I broke down and got my hair colored. I believe I went with my natural hair color, before it turned grey that is, what Clairol might call Light Cool Brown. 
Eventually the cost began to add up and I started to color it myself. After several attempts I like to think I became pretty good at it - at least to the point where all my hair was not only colored but colored evenly and there was not a drop of dye on the sink or the floor.

I moved to Austin 10 years ago got a good job, got out of debt and decided that since I had no other real vices, didn't collect shoes, clothes or purses and never got mani/pedis I deserved to have my hair done professionally - meaning not in my bathroom. I also decided I wanted to be a red head again ( I was a 'redhead' until the age of 3 when my hair decided it was a brunette). So back to the pros I went, happily. Because no matter how good I got at doing my own hair - it sucked! I hated every dye stained, rubber gloved moment of it.

Which bring us to the Purple. I recently went through a downsizing and as much as it pains me I can no longer afford to get my hair done by someone else. But hey I used to color my own hair right? In fact, as I stated, I was pretty darn good at it! So no problem right, easy peasy! um..no.

Side note: as I've gotten older I have lost a very important trait - patience. I have gotten horrible about reading directions and taking my time - you know,  doing it right. So off I go to HEB to pick out a color - damn just too many choices. Clairol? L'Oreal? Revlon? Root touch up? Permanent? Crap this was hard. And let's not even start about the color variance. Auburn light or dark? Rich Auburn, Deep Auburn or Medium Auburn? I have no idea what brand I ended up with. I picked it simply by the dispenser - foam - which I figured would be the easiest to use. I went with a dark, or possibly medium, auburn because the color shown on the 'if your hair is this color it will turn out like this' chart showed the color I wanted.  Yeah right.

So I figured I do the coloring Saturday morning when I had the most free time. Ah but remember I have no patience. By Thursday night I'd had it with the grey hair and figured, after reading part of the directions, that I had plenty of time. So I put on a mens white undershirt, the only smart thing I did, mixed the color, put on the crappy gloves and dove in. Halfway into coloring it hit me - my forehead was purple. My whole forehead! And why was it purple? Then I looked at my hands, and under the gloved I could see that my hands were also purple. Crap - hole in the gloves I guessed.  And then I noticed the sink. Hmmm - yep purple spots there too. Obviously I had lost my hair coloring mojo. No vaseline on my forehead, no paper to cover the sink and no double gloves. And of course I am still wondering about the purple, but there is no turning back now.

I can say that at least I did cover my whole head, not a sign of grey. It's about 3 different shades of a purplish, reddish, dark brown though- not at all the way the box said it would come out mind you. But after a day or two it began to grow on me. Kind of punk-ish..sort of.  My hands were purple for a few days and with the help of a little rum, I managed to de-purple my forehead. Fortunately the dye did not stain the sink or the floor.

There is of course no way to duplicate the color I ended up with and the next time I color ( a month or so from now) who knows what color it may turn out. But at least it won't be grey.