this is my blog

i am heading back to texas in about a week. i am, of course, totally excited.

jeff will not be going with me to keep costs down and because we are coming back the first weekend of august for jeff’s-dad’s-side-of-the-family-renuion in kerrville. we also hope to hit south padre a few days for a much needed coastal fishing fix.

i am thinking about my days in austin quite a bit as excitement builds for the trip back. i was invited to a friend from college’s wedding. a guy i knew back in my co-op days. a totally real guy…”good people”. i do not know the girl he is marrying but anyone who could appreciate what makes alex a person is good in my book. i am thinking there will be a person or two from my co-op days at the wedding that i have not seen/heard from in ages. i’m feeling more like i’m going to a class renuion than a wedding.

actually, the weekend of the wedding will mark 12 years that i first moved into co-op. it is shocking just to type it. while i feel like the same person i was when i moved in, i have experienced more than i ever thought my college/post-college days would bring. many ups and downs. i have crossed paths with many great people along the way that have shaped me, even if in the smallest of ways. and clearly the co-op movement/ideals itself have given me great direction in my life.

the stereotype of going to your class reunion is one of lack-of-self accoplishment; trying to be more than what you really are. i am going back home and to this wedding, suprisingly, with a sense of comfort of who i am and what my life is about. this comfort is surprising because i’m usually too busy asking what “it” all means. so i hope the comfort settles as i get closer to heading back home to familiar friends and to those who i may not have seen in some time.

jeff and i had a truly awesome time in toronto. he loved it as much as i hoped he would. enough of the city stuck with me that i made a pretty decent city guide. so we were able to cram in a lot of sights and delicious food. we ate indian, greek, vietemenese (which we’ve been craving since we moved here), poutine (fries, gravy, cheese curds). we zipped around town to about 5-10 different neighbouhoods/parts of the city.

the trip certainly reopened our ongoing conversation about moving to canada for awhile. we are very interested in seeing what it would be like to live in a country similar, but more socialized, than the u.s.

i think our next trip to canada will be to b.c. see what west coast canada is like.

here’s a page jeff put up with some of our pictures and his thoughts on toronto: http://www.indiana.edu/~linuxsig/Toronto/

to sum vegas up i will reiterate that there is a lot of “big” for such a small place.

the place just creeps me out. being a person who has just experienced vegas on television, i was wondering if there is really as much glamour/beautiful people as is portrayed on the box. indeed there is not. i was staying in the older part of vegas by the convention center so i think my view was of a bit. it just seems this is a place were the average joe goes to not feel so average. as soon as i was leaving the airport and taking a shuttle i saw this mentality in action. the shuttle driver asked who was here to the conference and befre anyone could answer a guy in the back said: ‘i’m here for sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll…and which ever one comes first is fine by me!”

from what i can tell i am the rarity that does not care for vegas. when the people at the hotel/airport/etc. asked me about my stay i said that i didn’t really care for the town. they seemed taken aback as anyone who loves their howntown would be. but you could tell they didn’t hear it often. it’s like when i meet (or marry someone who doesn’t like austin. i find it incredibly hard to believe.

let’s see if i can review some “highlights” from my trip: smoking is allowed everywhere; at the entrance of my hotel there were 8 bronze stautes of the topless dancers (their thonged butts) that are the draw for my hotel; the hotel advertised a room sized, world wide buffet…the one day i went to check it out the hostess that was calling out (advertising for people to come in and eat)…had no teeth; the beautiful mountains surrounding the city seem to be intentionally shut out by the valley of sin city

well vegas is not for me. don’t know if i’ll be back even for the conference next year. we will see.