No. Not me. I just walked up and down 6th Street with an old colleague and was greeted by an elderly man in a black string bikini, sporting nothing else but a long gray beard and an Amish style hat.
Welcome to Austin.
I finally had gen-u-wine Texas BBQ tonight. I'm going back to the same place tomorrow but, really, it's ok. My former colleague invited me along to dinner with her current colleagues. She told me today she is 4 months pregnant, making that the third former colleague pregnancy I've learned about in the last 36 hours at this conference. I'm praying it's not "in the BBQ sauce" here. I'm also completely thrilled for all of them. One is a cancer survivor and this is her first. The other is carrying her second after suffering a miscarriage before her first. Though I'm not a religious person, I feel blessings all around me.
What was interesting about walking around tonight was a few of us commented on how much this part of Austin reminded us of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Live music surrounds you, bar and club door "men" beckon your entry with flirtatious compliments and promises of $2 shots. There are even some bars with balconies. Something about the lights and the architecture tends to complete the package. Oh, and the horse drawn carriages help as well. I was just waiting for taunts of beads. All shapes and sizes roam about, but there are just enough UT girls to make you wonder if you could have EVER fit into that skirt, like, say, when you were 6 years old. It's a vibrant crazy scene though. I'm told 4th street is more "for the older crowd", but I'd rather pretend that doesn't apply to me and simply ignore it.
I'm in early. I've yet to exceed 11 in returning from evening festivities. It's really ok with me. As many of you know I'm no fan of the bar/club scene and being surrounded by other "colleagues" from different schools doesn't make me want to get drunk. I'm simply proud of myself for having plans each night and experiencing the area. I feel like such an old lady sometimes, but the only child in me simply requires some quiet time.
My goals for any remaining free time on this trip include the following: getting ice cream at Amy's, having dinner at Sandra Bullock's restaurant (I just found out about it tonight!), and checking out UT-Austin. I guess there's a football game tomorrow that many conference attendees are trying to get tickets for instead of going to sessions. I can't say I blame them. Of the three, I'll be lucky if I can complete one of those tasks and, let's face it, it'll be the ice cream.
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