A Social Weekend

I went against my natural tendancy to stay in my own cave had a nice full social calender yesterday. It was surprisingly relaxing and I had a lot of fun.

I started out the day by going to suport a friend that was running in the Freescale Marathon. The weather was much colder than we in Austin have been experiencing lately, so I bundled up and with some cell phone coordination managed to cheer her on at a couple different places along the route. Last year, I ran along with her for a few miles, but not this year. The environment was very inspiring and I think the sense of comradery was even better due to the harsh weather.

Unfortunately, that same weather was blamed for over 400 traffic accidents in the Austin area this weekend. No the roads were not that bad, it’s that Central Texans really have no idea how to drive in icy conditions.

Once the marathon got close to downtown, I gave up trying to follow along; traffic just got too congested and parking too hard to find. So I headed back up North and had a lovely lunch with two of the Austin bloggers I met at GABE, Lisa and LostinTX.

We headed to Z’Tejas, which is a restaurant that started in Austin and has since expanded nationally. We have two locations in Austin and they are said to really represent the differences between the old Austin and the new Austin: the original downtown location, which is the only one I had been to before, is a really funky place and the northwest location, which we met at, is a lot more polished. I must say that the downtown better fits my style, but they have the same great food. Upon Lisa’s recommendation I had the Wild Mushroom Enchiladas, which were terrific, as was the company.

Due to the seating arrangement at GABE, I hadn’t really gotten a chance to get to know Lisa. We had lots of interesting things to talk about and she lent me a book that contains stories from the genocide in Rwanda, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families, by Philip Gourvitch. Thanks to LostinTX, who was definitely the most extroverted of our trio, our conversation stayed nice and lively. There is nothing as enjoyable as the company of similarly-minded people who bring in different experiences and perspectives. The time simply flew by.

A glance at my watch informed me that I had stayed much longer than I had intended and I rushed back home to get things ready for dinner guests. Luckily, I was making my Vegetable Lasagna, which is a recipe I’ve made many times before and have sufficiently tweaked to my satisfaction. I managed to get it in the oven just minutes before they arrived, so diner was only a little bit later than I had planned. It was my in-laws who come over frequently, so they were very understanding. Plus, it gave my husband sufficient time to catch them up on his current projects, of which there are many. We had a very relaxing evening, chatting with them. My father-in-law and I even managed to avoid any awkward political discussions, which frequently cause tension in our conversation. When I was asked about my new Save Darfur bracelet, given to me by Lisa, I found him to be quite knowledgeable and concerned. This was a real break through for us.

Slowly, I started to fade off a bit from my busy day and haphazard sleep schedule and they headed off for home. I managed to tuck in for a good nap before heading back out the door to work the overnight shift. The night went well and now I get to enjoy two full days off during which I hope to get a lot of things crossed off my to-do list, which seems to growing exponentially these days.

Also an update on my grocery store dilemia: Some wonderful person at the store created a little aisle chart to provide for compulsive people like me, taking most of the footwork out of readapting my system.