Getting Settled

Here I am, over a week in Austin. I've been breaking away from unpacking a bit (but how I want it finished!), most notably to go swimming at a nude beach at Hippie Hollow Park, where I got burned.

Yes, those are tan lines. It's odd getting strange looks because you are clothed. The beach was beautiful, but the water had really cold and really warm spots (and not of the pee variety), it was so weird. I'm going to go to Barton Springs this week (maybe even today!), which is THE pool in Austin. I hear it's more consistently cold. But, I'm glad I got to branch out a bit with my first swimming experience here.

I've done a bit of shopping now that I've gotten my finances together. Meagan and I went to Ikea, and on the way we stopped at Room Service Vintage, where I got this cool gold swivel chair for $25:

Of course I had to do some less practical shopping as well.
I got the sunhat (finally!) and the orange faux suede dress from Cream Vintage on Guadalupe (where I learned that my new walking limit is 6 blocks, whereas it was about 15 in Seattle). The rest is from some shops on South Congress (Goodie Two Shoes, Parts & Labour, and New Bohemia if you care). The red dress is made by a girl from Austin, Curry Beth, who's on Etsy.

I finally got some bus riding in on my way down to South Congress and there was a bit of drama. A driver got "run over" as my driver said. She continued "someone's supposed to take over this bus at this stop, so let me make sure it's not him". What?! How about seeing if he's ok first? Ambulances and police showed up and after awhile, our new driver got on to tell us that he had to give a statement to the police and that we were running 7-10 minutes late. Oh, and that the driver's BONE WAS STICKING OUT OF HIS LEG. "But we'll get you guys back on schedule". Who cares about my schedule? A man was run over!! Why was he even crossing the road?? I have not heard many good things about Capital Metro, but the drivers seem to care about keeping a schedule.

Anyway, the room is getting better, I've pretty much emptied all the boxes, now it's just down to dealing with piles of random stuff.

I've also handed in a few job applications and finally got that walk around campus I've been meaning to do. I was covered in sweat. The weather report yesterday said it was 97, but "felt like 109". I don't think I would be able to tell the difference. It did rain, though. Weird.

I'll leave you with a passage from The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, which I'm reading now. It's a dystopian novel about a future run by corporations and corporate police. The main characters are part of an environmentalist cult called The Gardeners.The leader, Adam One totally reminds me of the Uptight Seattlite (may Seattle Weekly rest his soul), though it's not meant to be funny:

"Others may take the Specist view that we Humans are smarter than Fish, and thus an April Fish [an April Fools joke where the children tape paper fish to the backs of the adults] is being marked as mute and foolish. But the life of the Spirit always seems foolish to those who do not share it: therefore we must accept and wear the label of God's Fools gladly, for in relation to God we are all fools, no matter how wise we may think we are. To be an April Fish is to humbly accept our own silliness, and to cheerfully admit the absurdity - from a materialist view - of every Spiritual truth we profess"