East Side Foodies

There’s a ton of foodie hype that sweeps through Austin – a food trailer featured in this magazine, a restaurant featured on that TV show. Once this happens, the place becomes a foodie mecca, turning to complete and total madness. Lines stretch for miles and miles, wait times span into years… As waiting in line for food is something I can’t bring myself to do – absolutely not worth it – I do my best to avoid these places during the insanity.

With this said, there’s a super popular hole in the wall Mexican restaurant in East Austin called “Juan In A Million“. It’s been featured on Man vs. Food, so as you can imagine, this place is generally a mad house. I had been wanting to try it at some point, but figured I’d wait for the madness to die down.

Welllll…a few weeks back, one thing led to another and I found myself there. Wait time was less than 5 minutes. A Christmas miracle!

Insanely large portions of  delicious, cheap, greasy, authentic Mexican food is what you’ll find at Juan In A Million. I’m fairly confident my arteries began to cry when my plate was set before me, but let’s be real, I didn’t go there for a healthy meal!

Here’s my plate:

I think I was able to consume about 1/16th of what you see in the picture. I also think I might have offended the waiter when I asked for a box after my plate looked like it had barely been touched. “I do like it.” I told him. “I just can’t eat my weight in nachos this morning. The leftovers will make for a great lunch, snack, dinner, 2nd breakfast, 2nd snack, 2nd lunch and 2nd dinner!”

Here’s the famous Don Juan taco:

The horchata is not pictured, but is some of the best I’ve had.

The wait staff also reminded me why I’m not in the food service industry. If I had that many people packed into a small space that I had to serve every day…well, I’m fairly confident it’d be an epic fail for all involved. (: On the contratry, the JIAM staff were great – friendly, attentive, happy, chipper…you know…all the great characteristics of awesome waiters/waitresses.

Life Is So Full Of Unpredictable Beauty

“Life is so full of unpredictable beauty and strange surprises. Sometimes that beauty is too much for me to handle. Do you know that feeling? When something is just too beautiful? When someone says something or writes something or plays something that moves you to the point of tears, maybe even changes you.”

No Presents On Christmas

About 438 years ago when we were kids, my mom would say: “Don’t get me any Christmas presents – I have everything I need!” I remember thinking: “Wow…I really wish I could say the same thing & actually mean it.” I thought it was so amazing that my mom was so content with what she had. I really really really wished I could be content with what I had. It’s not that I wasn’t content…it was more that the excitement of opening a bunch of presents on Christmas morning got the best of me…as hard as I tried, I couldn’t help wanting presents.

Fast forward to 2007. Study abroad. I was allowed 1 suitcase and that was it. How was I to fit 4 months of living into 1 suitcase? FML is what I was thinking.

But I somehow did it. And at the end of my 4 month study abroad, I realized I was completely content with 1 suitcase worth of stuff. And in fact, I was even more content than before because I didn’t have to spend time maintaining all of my stuff. I got to use this time to enjoy life. I lived in a room that wasn’t mine and had my suitcase with my stuff on the floor. It was perfect.

When I came back to the states, I made a decision: I never want to have more belongings than what I can fit in my car.

In 2009 I moved to Austin. I cheated and brought 2 suitcases worth of stuff, as this move was indefinite. Everything else was left behind and none of it was missed.

So now it’s 2011, Christmastime, and retailers are going crazy. Black Friday makes me sad as I am reminded of how gluttonous Christmas has become. I googled “What is Christmas?” and this is what I found:

“The annual Christian festival celebrating Christ’s birth, held on December 25″

So, Christmas is celebrating a birth. Of jesus christ. So, how does celebrating jesus translate to buying mass quantities of gifts for people who are not jesus? I’m not a Jehovah’s Witness, but I do wonder how excess and gluttony have become such a large part of this holiday season. I wouldn’t say I subscribe to a particular religion, but I will say I subscribe to common sense, educating myself, and  holding myself to the morals and values I’ve established. And with this said, to me, our society’s current Christmas traditions/behaviors/expectations don’t correlate with the original reason for a Christmas celebration.

I’m not suggesting we stop giving gifts at Christmas. In fact, I’m suggesting we give gifts year-round. I give a gift when I see something that I know someone will like, whatever time of the year it might be. This is the point of a gift. The reason behind buying a gift should not be because December 25th is rolling around.

David & I did not give each other gifts this year. And I am so happy about that. I couldn’t have said this and meant it when I was a kid, but today, I really can say this and mean it. Of course I still enjoy receiving gifts – I’d be lying if I said I didn’t – but I enjoy receiving gifts when they arrive unexpected and with meaning. For now, I have what I need and that’s enough. And although I might not have a ton of stuff, I am completely content. Why? Because to me, stuff just doesn’t bring value and long-term happiness.  The stuff that’s worth it to me? Memories, experiences, time with friends and family. 20 years later and I finally get it.

The Last Few Weeks

Driving through town the other day I came across this complete random and out of place ugly sweater sidewalk sale. Aside from the general weirdness I thought was so great, I most appreciated the unnaturally massive stuffed barney advertising the sale.

I really love reading. However, with so many life distractions, I’ve unfortunately put reading on the back burner more often than I’d like to admit. However, I’ve made it a goal to spend more time reading. Actually I’ve made it a goal to spend more time doing stuff sans technology. I will be the first to say how much I do love my technology…but I do love my IRL hobbies as well. I’m in the midst of reading 4 Hour Workweek. Perhaps this book will give me tips so I can be more efficient both on and offline.

Only in Texas. Need I say more?

When I worked at Old Navy 4 years ago, I could fit into a size small. I am more or less the same size now; however, now I can’t fit into any women’s sizes as sizing has increased so drastically. The small, medium and large tags stayed the same…the clothes are just bigger now. I’d say an Old Navy small today is probably the size of an Old Navy large cerca 2008.

Aside from the feeling of annoyance for having to shop in the kids section if I want to shop at Old Navy…I really just feel sad. If you gain weight, you get bigger clothes, if you lose weight, you get smaller clothes. Clothing companies shouldn’t make clothes bigger without changing the label. I presume this is done so people will have false hope that the bathroom scale is wrong and they actually didn’t gain those extra 20 pounds…impossible if they haven’t gone up a size at Old Navy!

Lame.

I tried this dress on at Old Navy. It’s a size small but it looked like I had tried on a garbage bag with head and arm cutouts. I put the hanger in the pic for size reference. Fail.

So speaking of gaining weight, I made some sweet treats that WON’T make you gain wait, if consumed in moderation. 85% dark chocolate topped with either banana, peanut butter, or died cranberries.

The end.

A Google Places Christmas Story

This month’s Google Places power user event was held at Alamo Drafthouse.Thank you Google, per always, this was an awesome event.

Pre-movie Alamo crowd warming activities/entertainment. I will never look at Ovaltine and/or mashed potatoes the same way again.

They showed “A Christmas Story.” It was the first time I had seen the movie AND I managed to stay awake during the entire thing…nothing short of a Christmas miracle! It was a cute movie!

Unfortunately this picture was taken after the movie, or else the milkshake would have looked a bit more pleasant. I’m not a huge milkshake fan, but this was perhaps one of the best milkshakes I’ve consumed.

The flavor was strawberry balsamic…or some similar sweet & savory combo. When I ordered, I figured it would be one of those really gross tasting foodie combos that foodies eat not because it tastes good but because it is original and unique and different…just like them.

AKA, something I probably would find le gross. But no, it was le delicious.

Gracias a Google & Drafthouse! (: