The Road to Waco

I had the chance to be in Colorado right now.  Riding 4-wheelers, eating chili, roasting marshmellows around a campire, looking at stars until Saturday.

Am I in Colorado? No.  Why am I not in Colorado? Because I’m unfortunately responsible, and it sucks sometimes. So instead of doing all that cool stuff, I’m sitting in my office brooding in my heels, slacks and polo shirt.  I’d much rather be in jeans and giant puffy coat, running around in the wilderness.

I got asked to go on this seven-day, all expense paid trip on a whim – 10:48pm on Saturday night, actually.  The phone call went something like, “Come with me.  Right now.  Pack your stuff, meet up with me, and we’ll leave at 6am.”

This week I have work going on as usual, two birthdays of friends (both are 25th birthdays), one person coming in town, and my own birthday party on Saturday.  And it just seemed like there was no way I could make it all work without making people mad and/or getting fired.

I don’t know if I’m more mad at myself for not taking the opportunity to do something really fun and exciting and adventurous, or if I’m mad at myself for worrying about things that may or may not really matter in the long run.  Did I just miss an opportunity of a lifetime? Or did I just make the right decision of not ruining potential future jobs and friends, etc.? In the end, what really matters?

I think if I had a job that I didn’t care about and there weren’t so many birthdays and people coming in from out of town, I would’ve done it.  I didn’t have the right clothes, I would’ve had to rely on roomies to watch my dog, and wasn’t sure if I had gas to get to the meetup location, but I would’ve gone (or at least I’d like to think I would have).  But that’s the other part of me that’s kind of irritated… would I have actually gone if I could’ve made it work?  Or would I just have made some excuse and continue to be a responsible, boring, timid little girl avoiding anything spontaneous?

I’d really like to think that I would’ve been up for the adventure.  If there was some way I could make everyone happy here in Austin, I’d click my heels and magically appear in the mountains right now.  Hopefully that wasn’t my only opportunity for excitement.  Part of me wishes I could just quit my job next week and have almost three months to do whatever I want whenever I want.  That’s not really possible, though.

So this week instead of running away from grizzly bears, having snowball fights,  and freezing to death, I’m going to keep myself busy at work and at birthday parties and try not to think of how much I miss the guy who endearingly requested my company for a week in the mountains.

I also have my own birthday party on Saturday to prepare for…(If anyone reading this didn’t receive an invitation and would like to go, please notify me and I’ll give you directions and info.)  The theme is a super hero costume party, and most of us are making up our own super heroes.  I’m still up in the air about mine, though I’m thinking I’ll be Sarcastic Woman, or Sarcasto… or Sarcasmo.  Clearly I’m still working on the name.  But any other name or super hero recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve become manager/agent for my old roommate K.  He had an open mic last night at Cactus Cafe, and I dare say it went quite well.  He’s going to another at Ruta Maya tonight and one at Kick Butt Coffee on Thursday.  Hopefully these will be a regular thing, and hopefully I can get him a real show sometime soon.  If anyone wants to come meet us at any of these, let me know.  Oh, and his myspace just in case anyone’s curious:  www.myspace.com/musickalebwilliams .

I’ve been slowing down on the posts lately.  It’s not on purpose, but it’s just because I’ve been busy lately.  I had a really great weekend, though.

I absolutely LOVE Halloween.  It’s definitely one of my favorite holidays.  I didn’t, however, do very much this year.  I carved pumpkins and roasted pumpkin seeds.  And then I went to one Halloween party in 1960s attire (think of the TV series Mad Men).  I’ve been a little sick lately (apparently bronchitis) so I ended up going to bed around 10 on Halloween night.  It was a little sad.

The rest of the weekend was awesome, though.  I went to the Texas Book Festival with a good friend.  She and I had our nerdy moments and got a book signed by one author and were a little too excited about the Magic, Myth, and Mayhem panel discussion regarding young adult literature. I also got to see RocknRolla — which I recommend.  It was a good movie.  It perfectly set up a sequel, and for once I’m actually more excited to see the sequel than I was to see the first one.

Then there was the UT vs. Tech game.  I’m not even going to discuss it.

I was unaware (until this past weekend) that there is a HUGE Celtic Festival every year here in Austin.  The entry fee was $12, which I initially thought was a bit steep, but there were quite a few really good bands and lots of interesting stuff to see.  They were also giving away a free trip to Ireland… but alas, I did not win.

It was basically the nerdiest weekend possible.  But it was a lot of fun.