strike that

eating, drinking; being merry

This morning La went for a long bike ride and I went to Austin Java with J, a recent Austin transplant who grew up in Kansas and strangely reminds me of my college boyfriend Mark, who was also born in Kansas and whom I have been thinking about recently after approximately ten years of not thinking about him at all. Wide blue eyes, freckles, kind smile.

J is an electrical engineer, which was fairly predictable because about half of the boys I end up randomly meeting in my life tend to be engineers. There was a time when I mostly met programmers, which I think had more to do with sheer numbers of programmers around me. But the engineer thing isn’t about odds. You could throw me into a room with a hundred equally cute guys forbidden to reveal their occupation and I would end up talking to the one engineer. It’s probably that I think engineering is awesome, and I’m drawn to all the geeky puzzle robot math logic that goes with it. And engineers tend to like me too because they’re generally underappreciated, and I genuinely think bridge building and circuits and lasers are fabulous.

We talked easily and laughed a lot and drank about twelve hibiscus mint iced teas, until it was late and we’d worn out our table. And then we made plans to go swing dancing on Wednesday.

Then La took me out for a walk in my first three-digit-degree day, around North Loop past the music store and the BYOB middle eastern restaurant and half a dozen vintage shops. We got her bike new tubes. And she introduced me to Amy’s, another essential Austin culinary experience. La and Marc are firm believers in urban experience via food and drink consumption, and all I have to say to that is Oh Yeah. At Amy’s they mash all kinds of toppings into homemade ice cream. Cookie dough and fudge in sweet cream, for example. Or strawberries and Heath Bar in bittersweet chocolate.

Mmmmmm, Austin. It’s not easy getting to know a new place, but I’m really trying to apply myself.

posted by tortaluga @ 6:14 PM