Final Days (supposedly i’ve said these words before).

As expected Hurricane Ike got my start date pushed back to wednesday. So instead of anxiously trying to fight off insomnia in Houston, i’m in Austin (decided it would be in my best interest to not drive head first into a hurricane, thus stayed in Austin) blogging to my audience of 2. Maybe 3. The funny thing is, I spent all last week telling my story of my 9 month layover and how monday was the big day, and they laughed at me and told me i’d find a way to get it pushed back. I laughed at them and assured them that Exxon Mobil waits on no man, but alas a random Hurricane came in and pummeled the coast into submission, knocked out power to the United States’ energy capital and caused an estimated 10 billion dollars of damage (insured damage). So as I’ve been running into people I get a lot of “you still haven’t left?!”, quite annoying i must say, and they too will find out when they’re in their last days and people are more less kicking them out the door. I simply tell them that i’m a displaced hurricane refugee and that i didn’t know if my house in houston was under 10 feet of water (there was an actual fear of flooding, seeing as how when it lightly drizzles the driveway turns into a lake). 

All of that aside I am scheduled to head back on Tuesday so I can (finally!) make my triumphant entrance into this “real world” that i’ve been hearing about for 9 months.  What i’m returning too has yet to be seen, so far i know two things: 1) My sister, who in typical head strong republican fashion decided to stay in Houston and battle Ike (the real reason is she didn’t want people looting our house while we were gone, So i really do picture her sitting on the staircase with a loaded shotgun just in case) is alive, so that is good news and 2) that we actually have power at the house, putting us in the extreme minority of houstonions. This is good news because I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to handle starting work and then coming home to a house of no power, so Thats one less thing to worry about. 

For my final (once again any time i’ve used the word final, finally, etc i’ve been proven wrong. Ex: I once said Aug 20th was my last day in Austin, needless to say i’ve was wrong, So i’m using the term final in a very tentative fashion, though i’m confident this time. That last sentence was a run-on.) weekend I tried to not waste away in my room such as would have been the case had i stayed with my parents, so i packed a bag and moved into 39th and Ave C for one more time. This time around featured stadium seating (actually a really nice job complete with cinder block raised couches and awkward viewing angles, but still fun for the entire family) and a goat. Yes i said goat, and no that isn’t a codeword for something other then a living breathing goat (why do i have to say living AND breathing. I would think saying the first would imply the second), named Edwin. Edwin was purchased for 30 dollars, and unlike puppies, or other domestic animals the initial purchase is the only money you have to spend. Sure its probably best to take goats to vets and get them shops, but they eat grass! Thats right, not only do you NOT have to spend money on food, but you get your lawn mowed for free at the same time. I seem to have a growing track record with roommates and live animals, as a few months ago while living at the 14er 3 roosters were purchased and placed in others’ houses as pranks. The prank was, 1) a rooster crows very, very loud in the morning (college students and roosters have differing definitions what “morning” is) and 2) they poop EVERYWHERE (an added unexpected bonus). So we placed these roosters in these houses and just waited to hear back through the grapevine. One of the houses actually chased the rooster with a gun and i’m not sure if they killed it or not (i’m hoping not). The second rooster I never confirmed anything on. But the third (and my personal favorite) rooster was returned to us, which we let free in our back yard. After about 5 minutes of doodling in our back yard the rooster disappeared from our sights, never to be heard from again, or at least not for another 3 weeks. Walking to school from our house we found out that our rooster found a new home at 22nd and Rio Grande, at the law office. The clerks at that office actually referred to bubba (our name for him) as their office pet and fed him every day! 

So yeah staying down here holing up to battle Ike has been hilarious to say the least. The funny thing about Austin is, we didn’t get a single drop of rain. Actually we were all quite disappointed with the absurd lack of rain.

rambling

I like posts that have no real direction, and if i had actual readers that posted comments every now and then i might do a “comment bag” or something but we’re a long ways off from that one.

-Learned what it meant to drive a German car the other day. For those of you that didn’t know (which i think the two of you that have actually looked at this do in fact know) i decided to buy a new car as the truck was becoming less and less reliable, actually the truck was quite moody and didn’t handle traffic very well. You might ask what “not handling traffic well” means, and i will tell you when rolling along at low rpm’s the truck would get frustrated and stall out. This stalling out would thus force me to turn off and turn on again. Houston as you might have heard, has been known to have some traffic (no. 3 worst in the nation) problems here and there, and by “here and there” i mean at all times no matter what direction you are going. Fact, my friend Tim Traister hit a traffic jam after midnight. Ahhh cannot wait to call the concrete jungle my home. Anyways so I have been saving a while and made a list of cars that i a) wanted and b) could afford. Obviously the first thing i did on this list was eliminate all american made cars, as i am forever biased against american made cars except for american made chevy tahoes. Also i wanted a more conservative car, which is why the Audi A4 was my car of choice. I couldn’t afford a lexus or a G35, and 3-series are flashy and quite honestly, common. Anyways i discovered that total cost of ownership is far different then the purchase price of cars. This is something i would urge everyone who is going to purchase a new car to look at, for one the fuel (premium, but is countered by my exxon discount) and the repairs/servicing. I took it in for the 35k servicing thinking i was still under warranty (warranty was for 50,000) only to find out IT EXPIRED in dec ‘07. I might not be getting a TV for a while.

-Hurricane Ike is currently having a major impact in my life. First thing, whenever ever these hurricanes threaten to wreck shop on the coastal region, the evacuees always seem to pick houston as they’re destination of choice. In fact, there are still many katrina evacuees living in houston today. I have no problem with this, i do have a problem with the news story that was reported on some of the families. Apparently all the families displaced were given a debit card loaded with 2,000 (courtesy of the tax payers like you and soon to be me) for things like clothes for their kids, food, you know things to help one survive a catastrophic events. So what do these mothers go buy? 800 dollars purses and flat screens. Yep sometimes (i’m looking your way extreme liberals) throwing money (at the macro level) at a problem isn’t going to solve it. I also have a problem with Joel Osteen for not opening up his church to house some (could’ve been many) of the evacuees, way to help out the cause Joel.

The next way that Hurricane Ike is impacting my life is my soon to be work. On monday i’m supposed to start at Exxon Mobil (i know finally) and now there’s a hurricane that’s threatening to flood the city. I get emails and phone calls everyday alerting me that their might be an emergency plan and now i might not start on monday? Everyone i’ve talked to this week feel i’m destined to never work as i STILL HAVENT started and yet they are now 3 weeks into the school year and just had the career fair. I find it actually fun trying to help the year below me sort out their lives while mine is still in a perpetual state of rocking chair (i’m moving back and forth but not really getting anywhere). I never did live out my dream (which with a little more warning could have completed today of drafting a fake resume and showing up to the career fair:

me – hands them resume.

them – “you had a 4.0, triple majored and have already interned at 2 investment banks and the boston consulting group?”

me – shrugs.

yeah that would’ve been great and may have been offered some jobs on the spot. Now THAT would’ve been good times. Also, Hurricane Ike has officially flexed his muscle over the NCAA and forced the hand of UT to move the game to another weekend. The funny thing is, the reason they moved it was concern for the amount of people in the city (and the safety of those people), yet the weekend they moved it to was ACL. Oh man talk about a weekend that i will NOT be in Austin. 100,000 people attend ACl, 90,000 attend UT football games (now i know some of those are the same people, but not as many as you would think. I would venture to say no more then 10,000 (and thats a REALLY generous estimate) go to both the football game and ACL), needless to say thats A LOT of people in a not very big area. The thought of how horrible parking/ traffic / general living during that weekend makes me sick.

-Going to El arroyo’s happy hour tomorrow. 1$ margaritas and probably live music. This was the highlight of my week last semester (while i was busy being unemployed) and one of the more “austiny” things one can partake in. 

-I really hope google chrome comes out for Mac’s soon, i’ve just stepped into the world of google reader (which i will be using on my blackberry, assuming i get a blackberry)  and it has lowered my productivity level during an already unproductive day.

a wedding of sorts

This past weekend saw the marriage (falling) of the first of my many engaged and nearly engaged former roommates from the magical house of 14 people. There’s a scene in wedding crashers when the fiancee is talking about the joining of two great american families and Owen Wilson says “and then you can challenge the klingons for interstellar domination”. 

That scene is all i could think about with the marriage between two westlake powers, The Smileys and The Coopers. I am certain that one day this family will be doing something ridiculous, wether it be ending world hunger, planting a church in Antarctica, or whatever that i will be able to one day claim (and if i save the program i took home from the wedding prove) that i was played a small role in THE SMILEY wedding. It’ll be my little ice breaker at dinner parties and black tie events that i’m sure to attend because I feel like houston is that kind of city.

This wedding really seemed to hit the mark, and (no offense to the other weddings i’ve attending, including that of my own sister) was the best wedding so far and has really set the bar high for the other roommates / friends. Namely this wedding had a few certain qualities that i hope to see at the rest of the weddings i attend in my career:

-The boys back together. Earlier today I called this category “Brett Wise” because he is quite the integral part to any weekend of fun. While he did bring the energy and fun to the weekend, I would be selling everyone else short for their contributions. John Hipp, Anthony Odem, John Porter, Tyler Richards, Jake Ashbaucher, Steve Cox, Colin Wood… there’s just a certain dynamic that we enjoy when we’re all together which unfortunately those times are few and far between because of the real world creeping into our lives and moving us to different cities. In fact, anything with that group mentioned above is really fun and i really could stop the list with just this item (we both know i won’t do that).

-A weekend of fun: With everyone getting into town by friday, we had 3 days to hang out and enjoy each other. I couldn’t ask for more.

-The band: There are two trains of thought on this one, DJ or band. Both are acceptable and I can understand why one would choose a DJ over a band (usually cost), but a live band can really step up the energy. The band Sauce strutted their stuff at the Smiley wedding and i was literally amazed, they really jammed out and had the entire screaming for one more song as they ended their set. That’s the first wedding i’ve been to where the dance floor was begging for more after 3 hours and not pleading for the bride and groom to make their exit so they could leave.

-Food: This is sort of a personal preference thing, having worked many weddings i’ve never believed its necessary, but a buffet is always an added bonus, just make sure its a good buffet. I would say the best BBQ in Texas would fall under the “good buffet” category.

-Party Bus: This is the first time i’ve ever experienced a chartered bus to take the wedding party from the ceremony to the reception, genius, absolutely genius.

-Location: This is more of a bride thing and less of necessary component to a perfect wedding. My problem with locations, they eat up a lot of money that could be used elsewhere. Like i mentioned in the first point, when all of us are together we’re bound to have a great time even if the wedding is in a worn out warehouse (actually that might be really cool). If there’s plenty of money to go around, then sure go with a sweet location, but if there’s not spend less money on location and spend more on…

-Free Alcohol: The number one most important thing for a great wedding. Nothing livens up a dance floor, keeps the party going, and breaks down the social barriers like an open bar. A beer and Wine bar is perfect (doesn’t require the use of professional bar tenders or a liquor license) . I was actually quite amazed at the maturity displayed by everyone in not getting stupid drunk even with all the free booze.

reunited

I guess the true sign of friendship is being able to grow separate without growing apart. I found this to be true this weekend as we all (minus a very important part wasting away in san fransisco, and by wasting away I mean living the dream) gathered to celebrate the death (i.e. marriage) of one brian smiley. His actual mortality will not cease until next saturday, so as to follow american tradition held a bachelor party. Also following tradition, I will not speak a word (or type a word) of the events that occurred during this sacred bond.

Since my entire weekend is off limits to the blog world, let me tell you about some other fun things. I found this website today http://www.colorwarecp.com , and was very intrigued. They do professional customized paint of a whole line of electronics. The most popular item have been phones and ipods, and the work is absolutely fantastic though a bit pricey. A custom blackberry curve can cost as much as 170 bucks to have colored. I would recommend playing with the website because it offers a lot of fun trying to mix and match colors to create the perfect expression of yourself.

 

A few things I learned about houston today:

- avoid the galleria on labor day and weekends. The amount of people there today was just mind baffling, and most weren’t there shopping but “posting up”. I somehow missed the intersection where the galleria turned into highland mall.

-Raisin Canes closes for labor day. This was actually a kick to the face, a very surprising round house kick to that. For two days me, will todd, and john david barnes (you will for sure be hearing more about this guy during my stay in houston) had this excellent plan of eating canes on the last night before will gives up his soul to merrill lynch. So i drove westwardly (yes i left the protection of the 610 loop (yes i’m still working on my inner loop pretention so forgive me if i’m over the top, i’m still calibrating) ) to meet them at canes only to find it closed. dagger.

-Houston is full of bad drivers. I guess that could be said of any city, or the world for that matter. But I’m writing my congressman asking for mandatory eye/driving tests once you hit 55 so renew your license. Yes, i’m willing to sacrifice my own father’s license in the process, we’ll call it collateral damage.

 

It also hasn’t hit me that i’ve actually moved. I have yet to spend a weekend here, and this upcoming weekend will be spent in austin as well. I’m waiting for that inevitable moment when i finally realize that i’ve moved for good.