Another interesting week, but not exactly how I planned. I'm here listening to Damien Rice and thinking about how it would feel to have a new lease on life. Would I really be different? Or would I just be different for a little while and then go back to what felt most comfortable. It is that feeling after a close call in an accident or when you find out news that is a great relief.
I've made a decision that I'm hoping will bring down my stress level and help me manage my time more efficiently. But like many other decisions, the decision is easy in theory, but hard in practice. I watch and read too much news. Not only does it reveal how incompetent this president is and how corrupt the Republican party continues to be, but also makes me upset that democrats can't stand up and fight back in a stronger way. This war should be over and each day as I watch pundits sell their talking points I caught myself getting stressed when they use blatant lies or inflammatory rhetoric that ignores the reality of what is going on. So I read my huffingtonpost, dailykos, drudge and watch hardball, countdown (favorite news show) and a lot of other news (don't forget the amazing Daily Show and CR). You can't worry about things you can't control, so I need to stop worrying that Fox News sells an agenda, or what is going to happen daily in Congress. I'll always keep up with news, but I need to stop being a news junkie. I was watching CSPAN for God's sake. So the plan is to limit my daily news watching. I'm going to try to only watch Countdown and Daily Show to get the big news and not stress about the other details right now. Next summer I'm sure I'll become a much worse junkie with the presidential election being so close. Online wise, I'm not sure if google reader is helpful or not because I feel like it just exposes me to more stories. so I'm going work on just checking certain sites only once a day. I don't watch morning news (which I used to be a super big fan of), but once they axed the O'brien's, I just lost interest, maybe it was the timing in my life.
I must of been making up for lost time, but I have gone out a lot more than I had planned to during this week. It started on Tuesday night. I was at home getting ready for bed and Oscar invited me out to have some drinks. I thought about how I didn't have work in the morning, so I was like sure. We went out downtown and met up with Oscar's friends Ericka and Karina. Ericka knows Oscar's sister from college and is currently her housemate and Karina just started working in Austin. We had drinks at Key Bar and mainly just talked while I went on to make what seemed like a semi-bad impression. Maybe I shouldn't be so forceful with my opinions sometimes. It was a fun night and I welcomed having people to hang out with.
Wednesday night was another normal night and Oscar informed me of a Poetry Slam at a local bar and I thought it might be interesting, so I made a last minute decision to go. We got there and it was packed, but the place was filled with the more independent types and was a crowd that I really liked hanging out with. I didn't know what to expect really, maybe I was thinking sonnents or something, but man all the teams were really amazing. There were some I liked more than others, but all were filled with a lot of thinking and the performances were at times very creative. http://www.austinslam.com/ After a few teams went up, Ericka showed up and hung out with us. She had actually missed the ones that ended being my favorite, but she still got to see some good shows. We called it a night a little bit early due the it being a weeknight thing.
Thursday night Oscar and Danny went to a Bachelor party in San Antonio. I watched the Dallas Cowboys play their preseason game on an HDTV. I really like football on HD. Ericka was nice enough to hang out with me downtown. She is new to town too, but she knows Austin a hell of a lot better than I do. We started off at this bar that I had actually been to before with my sister Ana. Funny how places look different when you are buzzed and it is packed than when you are sober. Oh did I mention I didn't know where to park and parked totally across town, ok not across town, but it was still a walk. We checked out a few places and I really started to feel like I was getting a hang of this Austin thing.
So now it is Friday night and I'm pretty tired, funny how now it is the weekend. So I go and have dinner with Oscar, his sister Monica, her husband Joselo and Ericka. It was a Central American restaurant and the food for the most part was good excepted for a burned appetizer we got. I hadn't seen Monica since the one time I met her during my first year of college, but I had played poker with her husband before. They are really cool people and easy to get along with. They are expecting their first baby and you can see the excitement in their eyes and how they talk about it. After we checked out a bar of one of Monica's clients (she works at a bank). It had just started and we spent a lot of time sharing our ideas of what the ideal bar setup would be. After some dancing, we called it a night and Ericka and I went to check out 6th street on a Friday night. It was everything I expected, but I still am not sure if it was in a good way or a bad way. I had a good time and it really made me miss college. I got to see the UT USC game across the street on this big TV on the other roof from our roof.
On Saturday night, I was invited over to Monica and Joselo's house in I guess Northeastern Austin. Ericka is renting there since she just moved, so she is the Marty version of me living here at Oscar's house. I have to tell you I was so very impressed with their home. I've seen nice homes before, but I guess not as many for people in my age group. They had just got their patio furniture and had just set it up outside next to their Jacuzzi. We ordered out for pizza, picking Little Ceasers because when you are pregnant you have extra choosing power. I haven't had it since I was little. Ericka and I went and picked up the pizza and the lady working there was a strong burly man. I'm sure she had a good heart, but her voice did make me feel a bit on the defensive. Back at the house, we enjoyed the food on the patio and Oscar came by after spending the day tubing. Then it was times for games. I wanted to play board games, but the guys wanted poker and I'll never say no to poker. I worry that I try to teach too much when I play, but I did end up going broke. I had a full house with a board of K333 and I was holding a K. Oscar goes all in and everyone knows he must have that 4th 3, but going against my gut I decide that the odds of him having that 4th 3 is so remote I shouldn't be worried. I tell him he deserves to win if he gots the 3 (or pocket aces) and he turns over the 3. That ended my night. Ericka quit playing and we checked out the TV gameroom where I got to see the finale of Shaq's big challenge. Watching little kids lose weight is really motivating, but the show isn't that great. I had a really good time and on the drive home it felt like I had friends who I enjoyed spending time with. It was something I was looking for and now it seems like I'm meeting new people as each week passes. I am broke now though and will probably not be going out as much.Sunday I was useless and just slept and tried to plan out my upcoming week. I talked to Oscar about selling his place and moving into something else. It is hard for me to understand because he owns a home and it is really nice and the type of think I would dream to have. Why would you want to sell? But the more we talked, I understood that it was more of a family type home and maybe he would be happier in a more upscale condo. Sometimes I see it as the grass is always greener and at others I think that it is good to see that having a nice place isn't something that is impossible to achieve.
I talked to my cousin Adam from Ft. Worth and hopefully I'll be visiting soon. He was down in Austin this weekend, but I didn't have his phone number and he didn't have my new one so we didn't get to hang out.
What a difference a year makes. I think a year from now things will also be completely different too.
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