without a net
Okay, so here's the scoop, I've traveled roughly 195 miles to check my e-mail and update my blog. I'm on vacation.
About six months ago my good friend, my best friend, the guy I've known since the third grade said to me, "I'm moving to China for a year to teach ESL through theater classes to Chinese kids. We should go on a road trip before I go."
"Okay, let's do it." I said.
Usually I'm the one that torpedos these ideas. I don't like my world of waking up, forcing myself to go to the gym, and then working 8 hours at my retail job, but I'm comfortable with it. Theater Guy is constantly jet setting to New York, Seattle, Chicago, and other places that all seem relatively foreign to me. He used to invite me to come along, and I'd think about it for a bit, and then end up not going because I didn't want to spend the money. I'm the safe and mostly boring one.
There was something different about this joint adventure.
1) Theater Guy was leaving for a year to the other side of the world.
2) I am just now 30 years of age. Perfect time to go out on the road, to have my pre decade mid life crisis.
3) I haven't been on a real vacation in about 5 years.
Our plan was called "The Great Texas Road Trip". We had planned to drive out to Fossil Rim to look at dinosaur fossils (I love me some dinosaurs!) out to Big Bend National Park for some camping, back up to Marfa, Tx to see some crazy locals and art and maybe the Marfa lights, then over to Austin for some theater (Theater Guy was scheduled, and now has performed in a comedy sketch festival) then drive around the hill country, down into San Antonio, and back home. The trip was going to take two weeks to complete, it was going to be magnificent. We were going to be Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, perhaps not as much drinking as alcohol is much more expensive nowadays.
We'd gathered maps, started internet searches, flipped through Texas Highway magazines, perused the travel sections in bookstores, looking for all the interesting things to do while out on the "Great Texas Road Trip", it was an exciting time, till reality caught up with us.
Theater Guy came over to my apartment last Friday, four days before we were supposed to leave.
"We might have a problem." He said.
Theater Guy had just finished his final meeting with his graduate advisor. He was all set to get a masters degree in theater, but there was one hitch. He had to put together a staged reading of his thesis play, and since he was moving to China in a month and a half, he had a limited amount of time to pull this off. Plus he went and got himself cast in a children's theater play (for money, cause he was going to China in a month and a half) and they were threatening to kick him out of the show if he didn't make it to more rehearsals, which were during the "Great Texas Road Trip". There was no question that we had to be in Austin by the weekend of the 19th as Theater Guy and his little buddy Origami Jeff were performing in the a comedy sketch festival. The problem was Origami Jeff had no way to get down to Austin. Our initial plan had Theater Guy and me way out in west Texas before Austin, and it would be a huge inconvenience to travel all the way back up to Dallas to pick up our third person, then travel back down to Austin. Add all that up, plus the possible lack of funds and we had a huge wrench thrown into the works.
"Let's do this," I said, "We can take day trips to places if we want this first week, that way we can come back to our apartments at night, and not have to spend money on driving out too far, plus this way I can watch the games."
Another thing that I had forgotten about was the NBA playoffs. I love basketball. I grew up watching the greatest player to ever play the game of basketball. I loved watching basketball, I loved playing basketball (I never played organized basketball- although I wish I would have in my younger days, I was just a devoted weekend warrior back then), I liked playing fantasy basketball, all of it. Back in college, during the playoffs, every night, Married Guy (this was before he was married, I guess he would have been called, Seriously Dating Guy back then) would be planted in the t.v. room in the dorm, watching Chicago take on Miami, Utah take on Pheonix, and so on.
Now I live on my own. I don't have cable or satellite television, so I don't get to watch many basketball games, as most of them are on ESPN or TNT, so I don't get to keep up with the NBA like I used to, but I love my Dallas Mavericks, and have a special hate in my heart for the San Antonio Spurs. The two have been pitted against one another this year in the conference semi-finals. It's been a great series, a seven game series in fact, with the seventh game being played tonight (May 22). Every game (except for one) has been close, every game (except for one) has been won, or lost by five points or less. Three of the games have been won, or lost on last second shots, one game went into overtime. This has been a great series, and it pained me a bit to think that while I might be enjoying camping under the stars, somewhere in the world the Dallas Mavericks needed me sitting in a bar, or on a friend's couch cheering them on.
So my first week of my two week vacation was spent bumming around during the days, maybe going out to eat, and my nights were spent in front of a television, watching tall men bouncing an orange ball.
Friday finally came around, and Theater Guy, Origami Jeff, and I hopped into a giant black suburban and made our way down to Austin.
My friend Over Opinionated Girl moved to Austin a week ago. She offered to house us, but as it turns out the sketch comedy festival rented swank hotel rooms for us (well, the rooms were for Theater Guy and Origami Jeff), Theater Guy, who was fighting food poisoning ended up staying with Over Opinionated Girl so he could be nursed to health, while I took his swank hotel room with the sleep number bed. My sleep number is 45 till about 4 in the morning, which is when I usually woke up annoyed that the bed was so soft, and I pumped the bed up to a 60, and slept soundly for the rest of the morning.
Theater Guy and Origami Jeff did their thing (I got to see half of it, as game 6 of Dallas vs. San Antonio was just ending that night- damn it all, Dallas just couldn't pull it through with out Jason Terry) as we hit Austin running.
Okay, actually we've been sleeping in everyday, eating "breakfast" at 1 in the afternoon, driving around till 4, taking naps, watching movies, and doing a whole lot of nothing on this "Great Texas Road Trip"
All that planning, all the magazines and books, and websites have been thrown out the window, we are calling the audible, working without a net, and I love it.
This is the most relaxed I've been in years, and while I have done absolutely nothing touristy, and Theater Guy and I have done almost nothing we had initially planned to do (minus watching the bats fly out from the Congress bridge) this is the best "botched" vacation I've ever been on.
Now we're on day four. We've decided to make Over Opinionated Girl's apartment our base of operations. We plan to head into Fredricksburg and San Antonio (enemy territory) in the next two days. I've already told the others they need to have me infront of a television by 7 pm on Monday night. I'll have a beer in hand, I'll not be thinking about what books I need to take out of the system, or how many bundles of boxes I need to order, but rather I'll be thinking about how great Dirk is, and how much Tim Duncan complains, and I'll probably be smiling.
About six months ago my good friend, my best friend, the guy I've known since the third grade said to me, "I'm moving to China for a year to teach ESL through theater classes to Chinese kids. We should go on a road trip before I go."
"Okay, let's do it." I said.
Usually I'm the one that torpedos these ideas. I don't like my world of waking up, forcing myself to go to the gym, and then working 8 hours at my retail job, but I'm comfortable with it. Theater Guy is constantly jet setting to New York, Seattle, Chicago, and other places that all seem relatively foreign to me. He used to invite me to come along, and I'd think about it for a bit, and then end up not going because I didn't want to spend the money. I'm the safe and mostly boring one.
There was something different about this joint adventure.
1) Theater Guy was leaving for a year to the other side of the world.
2) I am just now 30 years of age. Perfect time to go out on the road, to have my pre decade mid life crisis.
3) I haven't been on a real vacation in about 5 years.
Our plan was called "The Great Texas Road Trip". We had planned to drive out to Fossil Rim to look at dinosaur fossils (I love me some dinosaurs!) out to Big Bend National Park for some camping, back up to Marfa, Tx to see some crazy locals and art and maybe the Marfa lights, then over to Austin for some theater (Theater Guy was scheduled, and now has performed in a comedy sketch festival) then drive around the hill country, down into San Antonio, and back home. The trip was going to take two weeks to complete, it was going to be magnificent. We were going to be Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, perhaps not as much drinking as alcohol is much more expensive nowadays.
We'd gathered maps, started internet searches, flipped through Texas Highway magazines, perused the travel sections in bookstores, looking for all the interesting things to do while out on the "Great Texas Road Trip", it was an exciting time, till reality caught up with us.
Theater Guy came over to my apartment last Friday, four days before we were supposed to leave.
"We might have a problem." He said.
Theater Guy had just finished his final meeting with his graduate advisor. He was all set to get a masters degree in theater, but there was one hitch. He had to put together a staged reading of his thesis play, and since he was moving to China in a month and a half, he had a limited amount of time to pull this off. Plus he went and got himself cast in a children's theater play (for money, cause he was going to China in a month and a half) and they were threatening to kick him out of the show if he didn't make it to more rehearsals, which were during the "Great Texas Road Trip". There was no question that we had to be in Austin by the weekend of the 19th as Theater Guy and his little buddy Origami Jeff were performing in the a comedy sketch festival. The problem was Origami Jeff had no way to get down to Austin. Our initial plan had Theater Guy and me way out in west Texas before Austin, and it would be a huge inconvenience to travel all the way back up to Dallas to pick up our third person, then travel back down to Austin. Add all that up, plus the possible lack of funds and we had a huge wrench thrown into the works.
"Let's do this," I said, "We can take day trips to places if we want this first week, that way we can come back to our apartments at night, and not have to spend money on driving out too far, plus this way I can watch the games."
Another thing that I had forgotten about was the NBA playoffs. I love basketball. I grew up watching the greatest player to ever play the game of basketball. I loved watching basketball, I loved playing basketball (I never played organized basketball- although I wish I would have in my younger days, I was just a devoted weekend warrior back then), I liked playing fantasy basketball, all of it. Back in college, during the playoffs, every night, Married Guy (this was before he was married, I guess he would have been called, Seriously Dating Guy back then) would be planted in the t.v. room in the dorm, watching Chicago take on Miami, Utah take on Pheonix, and so on.
Now I live on my own. I don't have cable or satellite television, so I don't get to watch many basketball games, as most of them are on ESPN or TNT, so I don't get to keep up with the NBA like I used to, but I love my Dallas Mavericks, and have a special hate in my heart for the San Antonio Spurs. The two have been pitted against one another this year in the conference semi-finals. It's been a great series, a seven game series in fact, with the seventh game being played tonight (May 22). Every game (except for one) has been close, every game (except for one) has been won, or lost by five points or less. Three of the games have been won, or lost on last second shots, one game went into overtime. This has been a great series, and it pained me a bit to think that while I might be enjoying camping under the stars, somewhere in the world the Dallas Mavericks needed me sitting in a bar, or on a friend's couch cheering them on.
So my first week of my two week vacation was spent bumming around during the days, maybe going out to eat, and my nights were spent in front of a television, watching tall men bouncing an orange ball.
Friday finally came around, and Theater Guy, Origami Jeff, and I hopped into a giant black suburban and made our way down to Austin.
My friend Over Opinionated Girl moved to Austin a week ago. She offered to house us, but as it turns out the sketch comedy festival rented swank hotel rooms for us (well, the rooms were for Theater Guy and Origami Jeff), Theater Guy, who was fighting food poisoning ended up staying with Over Opinionated Girl so he could be nursed to health, while I took his swank hotel room with the sleep number bed. My sleep number is 45 till about 4 in the morning, which is when I usually woke up annoyed that the bed was so soft, and I pumped the bed up to a 60, and slept soundly for the rest of the morning.
Theater Guy and Origami Jeff did their thing (I got to see half of it, as game 6 of Dallas vs. San Antonio was just ending that night- damn it all, Dallas just couldn't pull it through with out Jason Terry) as we hit Austin running.
Okay, actually we've been sleeping in everyday, eating "breakfast" at 1 in the afternoon, driving around till 4, taking naps, watching movies, and doing a whole lot of nothing on this "Great Texas Road Trip"
All that planning, all the magazines and books, and websites have been thrown out the window, we are calling the audible, working without a net, and I love it.
This is the most relaxed I've been in years, and while I have done absolutely nothing touristy, and Theater Guy and I have done almost nothing we had initially planned to do (minus watching the bats fly out from the Congress bridge) this is the best "botched" vacation I've ever been on.
Now we're on day four. We've decided to make Over Opinionated Girl's apartment our base of operations. We plan to head into Fredricksburg and San Antonio (enemy territory) in the next two days. I've already told the others they need to have me infront of a television by 7 pm on Monday night. I'll have a beer in hand, I'll not be thinking about what books I need to take out of the system, or how many bundles of boxes I need to order, but rather I'll be thinking about how great Dirk is, and how much Tim Duncan complains, and I'll probably be smiling.