Austin City Limits Music Festival

Every year Austin hosts the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park over two weekends in October. I had heard about it when I lived in Denton from friends/coworkers who went to it over the years. Being an Austinite now it seemed my duty to attend, so two weeks ago I decided to get a ticket.

ACL is like a lot of other multi-day festivals - multiple bands throughout the day at several stages, with headliners anchoring the evenings each night. I really only cared about three acts though:

• Mumford and Sons - I've wanted to see them since their first two albums, with dream location being at Red Rocks. That just never happened, but now they would be playing in my very own city!
• Kacey Musgraves - I really liked her performance of "Rainbow" at the Grammy's this year (where she won Album of the Year!). She's not an artist whose songs I know though, even if I am aware of her in general (she's technically country which I don't really follow anymore). But I definitely wanted to see her.
• Lizzo!! - she's been around for awhile, bus has been having what we call a "moment" this summer with her hit "Truth Hurts". I most definitely wanted to dance to it live. 

I'm going to write about each act separately, because each one had moments that were so special and magical that they need their own space :)

The entire experience was TRANSCENDENT.  

Cool Bike

Today I rode my bike to the Violet Crown theater to see Wild Rose. It's super easy to get to by bike from where I live, thanks to the Lance Armstrong Bikeway - a protected bike lane on 3rd Street right through downtown Austin! I literally live right off this bike route and it's pretty amazing.

As I was unlocking my bike after the movie, the guy standing close by smoking a cigarette said "Cool bike. I like the color." My bike IS cool, and the color is great. It made me super happy.

I jetted quickly over to the nearby Trader Joe's to pick up some lemon ricotta ravioli for dinner (it is to die for). I hadn't planned on stopping, and therefore didn't have a side bag with me; the paper bag would just have to hang off my handlebars. As I was unlocking my bike, a guy inside Trader Joe's looked at me and motioned handlebars and a bag. I nodded and he gave me a thumb's up.

I rode home with that Trader Joe's bag on the protected bike lane back to my apartment, where Biscuit and Chance were waiting for me and I felt at home in this city.

The Mindless and Endless

I went off Facebook two years. I did it in direct response to a mean-spirited attack against me from a family member over email. Tuning out of Facebook seemed like a good way to shut everything out for a little while. That little while turned into a year.

It was amazing.

But also somewhat of a hindrance when wanting to know about goings-on and being invited to things. Even hosting my annual Piesgiving became a bit more difficult because I didn't have email addresses for everyone I usually invited (through Facebook). Thankfully my friends were pretty good about telling me about movie nights on the Square and get togethers, so it wasn't as if I was completely removed from social gatherings and society in general.

Then I remembered my friend Will Bishop. Will was, and still is, old school in that he hasn't joined the smartphone ubiquity and still owns a simple flip phone. While I "celebrate" over ten years on Facebook, Will has also never joined the social media site. However, Will was ALWAYS invited to any and every event or get together that was being held. People just knew he wasn't on Facebook, so when an invite went out there was usually a last line to the effects of "And someone let Will Bishop know!".

In my sabbatical from Facebook I was still on Instagram, and I was running the Bike|Walk Denton Facebook page, so it wasn't as if I was completely off the grid. I reactivated my account purely for March Madness and the competition I run on an Anderson extended-family page (that I created and was admin for). It seemed selfish to not create the event since every one seemed to have lots of fun with it.

When I first came back on, I only checked it in the morning for the Memories. I am a very sentimental and nostalgic person, and I love seeing old posts of what I was doing on the same day but one, three or nine years ago. Then I was checking it at work. And at home. And all the time.

Facebook can be really great. But it can also be a huge time-suck. While I work to be better about not spending so much time mindlessly, endlessly scrolling through the same twenty people that the algorithms have deemed and countless ads, I'm going to attempt to blog more.

And get out and explore this new city of mine more.

Three Years and One Sold Home

Three years ago today I signed papers making the home at 2601 N Locust in Denton, TX MY home.

Two weeks ago I signed papers making the home at 2601 N Locust in Denton, TX NOT my home.

I had moved out two weeks before signing the papers, and was at my new job in Austin when a mobile-notary from the title office came to my office. It was a bit strange, but I was already removed from it as my home since it had been opened up to strangers for showings and an open house.

But now it was official.

When it officially became mine, my friend Stephanie was with me and we had tacos afterward. It was super hard to concentrate on work the rest of the day.

When it officially became not mine, I was at work with coworkers I don't really know yet. None of them know me or the joy I felt in buying that house. I went back to work to my desk, then made a quick trip to the bathroom to shed a couple of tears. I texted some friends back in Denton, to have a small and fleeting connection to something familiar.

The first month of this change to Austin has been tough. Just because change is tough in general. Many, many emotions were felt, including some very intense feelings about a haircut I had paid a lot of money for. Things have finally settled into a groove, though, and I am meeting people and getting to know my coworkers.

I will also love that home on Locust Street. I painted and hung shelves and weatherized my pipes and had friends over. It was full of love, from friends, family and my cats.

Stranger Sightings

Last night I set out from my apartment, on foot, around 5:15 p.m., headed to the Alamo Drafthouse to catch a showing of Toy Story 4. As I walked in the crosswalk taking me from one side of the I-35 service road to the other, I passed a person walking in the opposite direction. The person "stood out" with their dreadlocks, tight green shorts, white shirt, and multiple tattoos. As I often do when passing strangers, I wondered where he was walking to.

I continued on my way down sixth street, saw the movie, then meandered around downtown Austin before finally heading back home around 9 p.m. As I made my way to fourth street to cross under the interstate, I enjoyed the pleasant evening air. I walked in the crosswalk taking me from one side of the I-35 service road to another. And as I walked under the interstate, I passed the same guy I had passed earlier in the evening! I wanted to say hi to him, to some way mark the small connection of our lives, but didn't want to be a creeper under the bridge.

So I let him pass, and thought about what he had done with his night on the east side of I-35 while I was on the west side of I-35. Where was he headed to?