DOGS ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT TO SCALE
Mar. 22nd, 2006 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariI just realized I've been out of school longer than I was in school. That's a very wierd feeling.
SATURDAY
Okay..the "doin's goin' on?" That was a surprise party for my dad. :)
We had made an arrangement that all of us would be at the party house at 5:45 PM. I figured, if I left at 3:30, that gave me more than enough time to drive down from Austin and get there about 5:00....
...that was before I spent 30 minutes parked on I-35 downtown trying to move around an accident. Austin is the most trafficly congested city in the US. Add an accident, and you can have a picnic on the pavement, cause you're not going anywhere. I ended up getting out of Austin at 4:15. Ho boy.
I managed to get to the EXIT I needed at 5:45...And I was REALLY REALLY REALLY worried that I would actually PASS my dad on the road, since we were all running around very close to home, and the party house was literally down the road from the house.
I got there at 6, which was actually okay - the party started at 6:30. So I took the time to examine an old stomping ground.
The party house was the (Grady's) Texas Star Inn. The TSI was an inn on the outskirts of San Antonio in the ancient past, a stagestop point between San Antonio and Bandera that never ever shut down, and survived the automobile, and the spreading of the city.
The TSI is also at the head of a private dirt road going to two houses in what used to be a gigantic farm (http://tinyurl.com/oc2xu - the private road is the long long long east west road in the center). The houses are still backthere, although the fields have been converted to subdivisions. When my parnets moved to their current house, the subdivision wasn't completed, and this dirt road came to a property line and a cattle guard. Jump over this and you were at our front door. I used this road to get to my high school, and later, my first job. So I walked and biked down it a LOT and the folks at the houses got to know me.
I took a few pictures of the road, but now there are signs saying the road is private, and has security cameras, and I doubt the folks in those houses would be very happy to see me on that road again. I took a few pictures of the spot, and it's nice to know the road is still there, and still pretty quiet. A kid could go there to get away from the city, if those cameras aren't realy there. :)
Anyways...the party....despite the fact that all the favors were made in the house, despite the fact that money was being squirreled away from his paychecks, depite the fact that everything was hidden under the guest bedroom bed, despite the fact that my sister left the invitations out in plain view - we got 'im. :)
And it wasn't just my dad's family (and one of the rare times that all his brothers were in one spot at one time), and my mom's family (one of the rare times that her entire family of 400+ people WEREN'T at one spot at one time)...they managed somehow to grab folks from his days trucking for Kroger (Early 80s) and Missouri PAcific (Mid 70s), as well as folks he hadn't seen since high school (Early 60s). I hadn't seen some of these folks since I was tiny...and he hadn't seen some in thirty years.
It was also the first time most had seen me since I transitioned. Again, I wasn't blatantly female, but there are a few "attributes" I have now that can't be hidden, and I'm not hiding. Only one person said anything, the uncle who "looked off into the sky" and wouldn't look me in the eye when he saw me the first time. He didn't say anything specifically, but told me that I was an intelligent kid, and any decision I made was good in his eye. It didn't sound like much, but he was tearing up when he said it.
The party lasted a good long time, with serenades, dances, remembrances, reconnecting, and general approval of "The Business Plan" (well, I couldn't very well say I was unemployed AGAIN, could I?). Dad was really happy with the party despite the fact that he woke up incredibly early that morning (he went to work at 5AM, and when they told him he didn't have any work today (again, orchestrated by mom) he stayed up, versus going back to bed.
After the party, we went home and caught up ourselves (got some great advice on my carpal tunnel problems frmo my mom, who had it through most of the 90s). Despite the party being a huge success, a lot of stuff was left over, and I've got about 36 cans of Coke in the fridge, along with two bags of party mix.
The trip home was uneventful...but coming back home to an allergy attack drive home the fact that I need to get out of here ASAP.
SUNDAY
More reconnecting. An old friend from Elementary School invitied me to a small get together at Opal Divine's for her birthday.
Laurie (Or Laura, I'm not sure if she likes me using her name from 5th grade) has kept in contact with me on and off for many years. Outside of fifth grade, we didn't talk much as I wasn't in the clique she was in - however, we did talk a lot on and off during school, especially in the last two years of school. Since school, I've EMailed her several times, just keeping up. Since moving back to Austin, we've seen each other a few times, twice in the last year.
Finding the Opal Divine's was actually pretty hard. If you're not looking at the right spot exactly at the right time, you miss it. If you go into the business park it's in at the you can miss it cause it's not really in that park. But after a lot of running around, I found it. Once you get there, it's BEAUTIFUL!
Their deck is on a hill side overlooking the buildings below straight into the hills of Southwest Austin. And on this night, there was a cold front coming in with thunderstorms looming - you could see the lightning coming in. :)
It was a small gathering with a german chocolate cake baked into another chocolate cake. I know the party was no gifts, but I decided it wouldn't be right to at least get her a card or something - but being poor, I gave her the poster proof Kinko's printed for me. It was probably the first art she's seen from me since my senior year.
I came home and was treated to a wonderful wonderful series of heavy thunderstorms. This set the stage for Monday....
MONDAY
Mayfield Park is now too too far away for a good walk. It was always kinda far away to start with...but now is even farther away. So i'd been looking around for a walking park nearby. Lo and behold, I not only found one (Great Hills Park), but it was close by to both THIS house, and my old apartment. How I missed it, I'll never know.
The thing that made me decide to go just after the thunderstorms were THESE:
WATERFALLS! [2.87MB, MJPeg Compression]
MORE WATERFALLS! [2.97MB, MJPeg Compression]
AND EVEN MORE! [2.91MB, MJPeg Compression]
I love that one of those is coming out of a SPRING. :) Right out of the rocks. :)
I'm a big believer in preserving nature inside urban areas whenever possible. The area behind our first house was a welcome getaway without actually getting away. One quick walk down a storm drain and I was in a densley forrested wood.. Wide trails amde it wasy to walk, and I could just lean against a tree if I wanted to do homework (that first Frodo shot from Fellowship of the Ring made me wistful for that old wooded area).
This one is much the same - although the trails are actually kept up by people in charge of keeping trails up, instead of kids on ATV bikes mudding away the grass and mini-trees (The area behind that old house is almost unrecognizable now, where this park is maintained the same way it was in 1996). But the trees and woods are thick enough and high enough to hide the fact that it's in the middle of a subdivision. I could grow to like this place VERY VERY much. :)
ALLERGY UPDATE
I'm still having to take Bendryl, but not nearly like I've had to before...I've taken two pills in the last four or five days, instead of several a day, so things there are looking good. My hand, though, is still not 100%. IT no longer hurts, it no longer is completley numb, it hardly pops with "Stingers" anymore...but I feel like i'm wearing a glove. The feeling is back, but it's muted, and it's very very very weak. I can't carry as much with it like I used to, but I'm not sure if that's lack of strength, or lack of feeling. I can type again, though. I typed all this. :)
My heel is no longer giving me any grief, since if I need to stand on the hardwood floors for any length of time, I'll stand on a pillow.
So that's my weekend. Hows you?
SATURDAY
Okay..the "doin's goin' on?" That was a surprise party for my dad. :)
We had made an arrangement that all of us would be at the party house at 5:45 PM. I figured, if I left at 3:30, that gave me more than enough time to drive down from Austin and get there about 5:00....
...that was before I spent 30 minutes parked on I-35 downtown trying to move around an accident. Austin is the most trafficly congested city in the US. Add an accident, and you can have a picnic on the pavement, cause you're not going anywhere. I ended up getting out of Austin at 4:15. Ho boy.
I managed to get to the EXIT I needed at 5:45...And I was REALLY REALLY REALLY worried that I would actually PASS my dad on the road, since we were all running around very close to home, and the party house was literally down the road from the house.
I got there at 6, which was actually okay - the party started at 6:30. So I took the time to examine an old stomping ground.
The party house was the (Grady's) Texas Star Inn. The TSI was an inn on the outskirts of San Antonio in the ancient past, a stagestop point between San Antonio and Bandera that never ever shut down, and survived the automobile, and the spreading of the city.
The TSI is also at the head of a private dirt road going to two houses in what used to be a gigantic farm (http://tinyurl.com/oc2xu - the private road is the long long long east west road in the center). The houses are still backthere, although the fields have been converted to subdivisions. When my parnets moved to their current house, the subdivision wasn't completed, and this dirt road came to a property line and a cattle guard. Jump over this and you were at our front door. I used this road to get to my high school, and later, my first job. So I walked and biked down it a LOT and the folks at the houses got to know me.
I took a few pictures of the road, but now there are signs saying the road is private, and has security cameras, and I doubt the folks in those houses would be very happy to see me on that road again. I took a few pictures of the spot, and it's nice to know the road is still there, and still pretty quiet. A kid could go there to get away from the city, if those cameras aren't realy there. :)
Anyways...the party....despite the fact that all the favors were made in the house, despite the fact that money was being squirreled away from his paychecks, depite the fact that everything was hidden under the guest bedroom bed, despite the fact that my sister left the invitations out in plain view - we got 'im. :)
And it wasn't just my dad's family (and one of the rare times that all his brothers were in one spot at one time), and my mom's family (one of the rare times that her entire family of 400+ people WEREN'T at one spot at one time)...they managed somehow to grab folks from his days trucking for Kroger (Early 80s) and Missouri PAcific (Mid 70s), as well as folks he hadn't seen since high school (Early 60s). I hadn't seen some of these folks since I was tiny...and he hadn't seen some in thirty years.
It was also the first time most had seen me since I transitioned. Again, I wasn't blatantly female, but there are a few "attributes" I have now that can't be hidden, and I'm not hiding. Only one person said anything, the uncle who "looked off into the sky" and wouldn't look me in the eye when he saw me the first time. He didn't say anything specifically, but told me that I was an intelligent kid, and any decision I made was good in his eye. It didn't sound like much, but he was tearing up when he said it.
The party lasted a good long time, with serenades, dances, remembrances, reconnecting, and general approval of "The Business Plan" (well, I couldn't very well say I was unemployed AGAIN, could I?). Dad was really happy with the party despite the fact that he woke up incredibly early that morning (he went to work at 5AM, and when they told him he didn't have any work today (again, orchestrated by mom) he stayed up, versus going back to bed.
After the party, we went home and caught up ourselves (got some great advice on my carpal tunnel problems frmo my mom, who had it through most of the 90s). Despite the party being a huge success, a lot of stuff was left over, and I've got about 36 cans of Coke in the fridge, along with two bags of party mix.
The trip home was uneventful...but coming back home to an allergy attack drive home the fact that I need to get out of here ASAP.
SUNDAY
More reconnecting. An old friend from Elementary School invitied me to a small get together at Opal Divine's for her birthday.
Laurie (Or Laura, I'm not sure if she likes me using her name from 5th grade) has kept in contact with me on and off for many years. Outside of fifth grade, we didn't talk much as I wasn't in the clique she was in - however, we did talk a lot on and off during school, especially in the last two years of school. Since school, I've EMailed her several times, just keeping up. Since moving back to Austin, we've seen each other a few times, twice in the last year.
Finding the Opal Divine's was actually pretty hard. If you're not looking at the right spot exactly at the right time, you miss it. If you go into the business park it's in at the you can miss it cause it's not really in that park. But after a lot of running around, I found it. Once you get there, it's BEAUTIFUL!
Their deck is on a hill side overlooking the buildings below straight into the hills of Southwest Austin. And on this night, there was a cold front coming in with thunderstorms looming - you could see the lightning coming in. :)
It was a small gathering with a german chocolate cake baked into another chocolate cake. I know the party was no gifts, but I decided it wouldn't be right to at least get her a card or something - but being poor, I gave her the poster proof Kinko's printed for me. It was probably the first art she's seen from me since my senior year.
I came home and was treated to a wonderful wonderful series of heavy thunderstorms. This set the stage for Monday....
MONDAY
Mayfield Park is now too too far away for a good walk. It was always kinda far away to start with...but now is even farther away. So i'd been looking around for a walking park nearby. Lo and behold, I not only found one (Great Hills Park), but it was close by to both THIS house, and my old apartment. How I missed it, I'll never know.
The thing that made me decide to go just after the thunderstorms were THESE:
WATERFALLS! [2.87MB, MJPeg Compression]
MORE WATERFALLS! [2.97MB, MJPeg Compression]
AND EVEN MORE! [2.91MB, MJPeg Compression]
I love that one of those is coming out of a SPRING. :) Right out of the rocks. :)
I'm a big believer in preserving nature inside urban areas whenever possible. The area behind our first house was a welcome getaway without actually getting away. One quick walk down a storm drain and I was in a densley forrested wood.. Wide trails amde it wasy to walk, and I could just lean against a tree if I wanted to do homework (that first Frodo shot from Fellowship of the Ring made me wistful for that old wooded area).
This one is much the same - although the trails are actually kept up by people in charge of keeping trails up, instead of kids on ATV bikes mudding away the grass and mini-trees (The area behind that old house is almost unrecognizable now, where this park is maintained the same way it was in 1996). But the trees and woods are thick enough and high enough to hide the fact that it's in the middle of a subdivision. I could grow to like this place VERY VERY much. :)
ALLERGY UPDATE
I'm still having to take Bendryl, but not nearly like I've had to before...I've taken two pills in the last four or five days, instead of several a day, so things there are looking good. My hand, though, is still not 100%. IT no longer hurts, it no longer is completley numb, it hardly pops with "Stingers" anymore...but I feel like i'm wearing a glove. The feeling is back, but it's muted, and it's very very very weak. I can't carry as much with it like I used to, but I'm not sure if that's lack of strength, or lack of feeling. I can type again, though. I typed all this. :)
My heel is no longer giving me any grief, since if I need to stand on the hardwood floors for any length of time, I'll stand on a pillow.
So that's my weekend. Hows you?
