Yes, banging it out
is the perfect description of the weekend I spent Austin, Texas for a bachelorette
party last month, even though no one actually got banged (in the biblical sense) in our shared suite at the famed Austin Motel.
We certainly banged
out our tolerance for Mexican food (there really should be a competition for
most tacos eaten in consecutive meals), we banged out our livers (of course) and banged out Austin’s Sixth Street with
our various tests to see how many drink shakers we could take home as “souvenirs.”
Um.
Moving on.
Four bridesmaids plus Angela, the bride-to-be, traveled to
Austin from various places: South Carolina (me), Colorado (Amy) and New Orleans
(Angela, Kristen and Kasie) because Austin is where Angela moved following
Hurricane Katrina and she wanted to say HAAAAAAY (or, I guess, howdy) one more time before she leaves
singlehood.
And she wanted all of us to see how wonderfully weird Austin
was.
Case in point: I caught up with Angela for the first time that weekend in a train car...which
was the women’s room at a country bar.
I had no idea that the entire "building” was actually a
train car until I walked through the door to the women’s bathroom, turned around and saw that the wall was the side of an actual train.
A train, train.
Like the ones hobos jump on.
Once I realized this, of course I had to climb the nearby pole to the nook where the conductor would normally sit and yell various versions of CHOO-CHOO!!!
even though I was nowhere near drunk.
For about 20 minutes, Angela and I sat the in the red crushed velvet conductor seat area, just two of us, hilariously talking about life, her wedding, South
Carolina and New Orleans.
And even though I can’t remember the last time I even saw Angela, we picked up right where we left off.
And even though I can’t remember the last time I even saw Angela, we picked up right where we left off.
It was just like high school in New Orleans, laugh-snorting right there in the conductor’s box.
Choo Choo!
After we climbed down the pole and went back into the bar, I was immediately
swept up by a man in his 70s named Gene who taught me how to do the “two-step”
to the most talented band I’ve ever heard play inside a train car.
The other bridesmaids all clapped and cheered as Gene swept
me across the floor, despite our two-foot height difference.
Over the next three days, I learned some fantastic things
about Austin.
First: You can’t get a bad meal there if you tried.
Not that I tried to get a bad meal, but everything
I ate—even a stop at a random hut to get out of the rain one afternoon—I had a tastier taco than most restaurants
in South Carolina.
I even remembered how to properly say FRIJOLES!!
I can’t stress enough how every meal was delicious.
Really. I mean, look at this:
Really. I mean, look at this:
(Insert Homer Simpson drooling face.)
Announcement: I
would like to give the honor of the Best Queso I’ve Ever Eaten (and I'm cuckoo for queso, y'all) to Polvos, this amazing restaurant in Austin that everyone knows about because there was an hour-long
wait.
(Worth it.)
For that Friday evening, after a day of shopping and eating
tacos at HUTS, we all changed into little black dresses and pearl necklaces (hehehe) and
I learned another fantastic thing about Austin: Everyone I met was super cool, inside
and out.
This includes the strangers I met who agreed to escort me
across a dicey major intersection back to the motel, the manager of the motel who told them to go away (hahahahhahahahaaha since when did they hire my dad at the front desk?!?)
And of course, even more fantastic, all of Angela’s Austin’s
friends.
I had such a great time meeting them all, who came out to
eat The Best Queso In The World, who danced with us at a tasteful gay club, and
one friend in particular, Christina, who drove us around town in her mom mini
van (“Don’t steal those stuffed toys, my kids will be upset.”)
I spent quality time with everyone, laughing through the
hangovers, feeding headaches with more tacos, trying out as many different
preparations of tequila as possible.
REALLY. WE BANGED IT OUT.
We also banged out a proper vacation, which I’ve come to realize gets hard to do when people
have things like jobs and lives and schedules (and kids who own stuffed animals.)
But we still all put forth the time and energy to plan a
trip across the country, and the New Orleans bridesmaids planned a fantastic itinerary
for when we got there (“dance the two-step...check.”)
I'd say the “bachelorette scavenger hunt” was even a success, if only
for the inside joke of Angela awkwardly asking the Uber driver where he got 'dem
shoes”
Silence.
Bwahahahahahaha
Amidst the tequila sunrises, there was a moment at Saturday brunch, a moment where we all went around the table and said how
we met Angela and how happy we were that she was marrying the perfect person in
the world for her (that was my speech anyway).
Angela, my best friend since 1999!! So much love.
Angela, my best friend since 1999!! So much love.
Then she went back around saying how much we each meant to her,
and maybe it was the tequila but I thought about how of
all the millions of people in the world, of all the millions of places in the
world, the eight of us, from far and wide, were together at this
exact moment for this momentous occasion, to celebrate our dear friend.
And I felt lucky to be in that number.
...And then I don’t remember much more about Saturday.
WHAT?!?!? I had to keep Austin weird.
(Sunday Jenny was not amused.)
Haha
So now, I have a big, fresh bag of memories from my Austin
vacation and a bunch of new friends.
And I can’t wait to be by Angela’s side when she gets married in one week.
!!!
It will be an awesome new chapter in our wonderful, wonderfully weird life.
And I can’t wait to be by Angela’s side when she gets married in one week.
!!!
It will be an awesome new chapter in our wonderful, wonderfully weird life.
:)
Love ya girl.
Love ya girl.
-Jenny
P.S. I know where you get dem shoes...
Ahahahahhahaa
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