Garage Sale Treasure Hunting
Austin has a pretty solid garage sale scene.
I love garage sale-ing not to buy stuff – I hate having stuff. However, I love looking around + observing…going on treasure hunts – an activity I am obviously attuned to.
Seeing what people have, putting stories together from the various things I see laid out for sale on these wonderful Saturday mornings. (familiar with “one red paperclip“? if not – check it out).
Oh and plus I love “This American Life” and going to garage sales sometimes makes me feel like I am creating a TAL episode. Maybe someday.
So, with this previous intro, I think you can probably tell that I went garage sale-ing last week and found some pretty great things. Check it out:
This actually was pre-garage sale. But its a man…riding a chili pepper? Not something you see every day.
A mailbox post with a sad face.
A freaking creepy baby doll. Who would buy that in the first place? Probably someone who bought this.
Woah:
Something about this picture isn’t right. Look closely…
…and for a few non related garage sale photos:
Opa Cafe – great ambiance…awful gyro!!! I think this would be a great place to go get a drink, sans gyro.
View from my balcony. And yes, that is a balcony and not jail bars. I love looking out onto the greenbelt.
My fridge. En espanol.
So I buy the newspaper every Sunday – I love reading the paper. Last Sunday the checker was a girl about my age. She looked and me and said: “Wow, I had no idea people my age read the paper…I don’t think I’ve ever read the paper!”
Me: “How do you hear about the news?”
Girl: “TV or Colbert Report”
…and I thought to myself…this is why my generation is completely clueless about what is going on in the world around us. And ok fine, I stereotype my generation and perhaps we are aware of some things…but it’s scary how uninformed my generation is. And how not many really seems to take much interest in caring either.
*SIGH*
Sweet packaging:
Nice Hippie Chick Dress
So I usually take walks before and / or after work – good way to clear the head…and get exercise of course. Over the last few weeks I’ve been hardcore about listening to Spanish podcasts during these walks (learning Spanish podcasts, conversation practice podcasts, news is Spanish podcasts, etc.). I realized that I have spent 8+ years studying Spanish…and I’m so close to being actually decent at it. However…as they say, if you don’t use it, you lose it. I’m working to not lose it. Slash, improve my Espanol.
Anyway, so as my previous post stated, I’ve been trying pretty hard to be friendly to the random people I walk by each day. Well, I set off on my walk this (yesterday) morning and who is the first person I pass? Oh…a motorcycle cop! He was radar-gunning people in a school zone. Ahhh. I have an irrational anxiety about cops…IDK why. …well, I suppose that in this specific instance, it might have had something to do with because I had just jaywalked. (although to my credit, it was because there was a weird looking guy a ways up pacing up and down the sidewalk + he made me feel uncomfortable!) but still. Jaywalking in front of a cop = anxiety. Unless that’s legal here in Texas? IDK. Anyway, I said to myself: suck it up! He’s just a cop. So this was our conversation:
Me: Good morning!
Cop: Hi, how are you doing?
Me: Good, you?
Cop: Good!
Me: Good! Have a good one!
And away I walked. And, he was actually probably the friendliest looking cop I have seen – he had a huge smile on his face to whole time! Probably because it was only 6:30 am, AKA he wasn’t about to die from heat exhaustion from being in a cop uniform…on a motorcycle…in this wicked crazy heat. Ugh. Motorcycle cops shouldn’t have to be out in this weather, it’s too damn hot for that.
The 2nd random hello came tonight (last night) at the gas station. Here’s how that went down:
Scene:
*Me, pumping my own gas, leaning against my car, facing the gas pump. Guy getting gas on the other side of the pump*
Guy: Nice colors!
Me: …thanks? uhhh…
Guy: *points at my dress* I like those colors. Usually you see people around here wearing colors like mine *points to his dark gray shirt and light gray shorts*
Me: Oh! haha…umm, thanks!! *completely awkward at this point. wondering if I should tell him my favorite color is black and I usually wear black / gray / neutral colors too…or if I should just take the compliment*
(I chose option B)
Guy: Yeah! *walk around to the other side to finish washing his windshield*
Me: *still standing there awkwardly, pumping my gas*
Guy: *comes back around to the drivers side* “This girl I work with came into the office today wearing the same type of hippie chick dress with cool colors. Your dress just reminded me of that. I like it!”
*he gets in his truck and drives away*
end scene.
…So…I think I’m going to take the above compliment. I mean…I never thought I wore “hippie chick” dresses. I’d say I’m more of a granola than a hippie but hey, at least he didn’t associate my style with something/where like, IDK, east Texas or Dallas (no offense to whomever is reading this…it’s just pretty clear that places like e. TX and Dallas are not…well…they’re not me).
Here’s my “hippie check” dress:
All-American
All-American, even back in 1st grade. Guess I was prepping for TX even before I knew it.
Wandering Around
Austin has some absolutely beautiful things to see. It’s easy for me to get caught up doing things indoors so I’ve been making a concious effort to get out there and check things out!
Wednesday night I went to Blues On The Green. Beautiful evening. Zilker Park (possibly has the best grass in the world, p.s.), and live music. And about 10,000 other people, just hanging out on the grass. And the city skyline as a backdrop.
Super good people watching. I was looking around at all the different people Wednesday night at Zilker Park. And I realized that one of the things that makes Austin unique is that there is SUCH a diverse population of people here (free-spirits, more corporate people who probably work for the government, Dell/tech. places here, educators…St. Ed’s and UT…a huge student population, a huge artist/musician population, etc.) however, everyone just seems to kinda co-exist. No one really judges or gives the ‘elevator look’ to anyone else…everyone just kinda does their own thing.
I think Michael was the one who told me the following and it’s so true: In Austin, if you are weird, there is someone more/less weird, if you are musical, there is someone more/less musical, if you are random, there is someone around here more or less random…the diversity (and I’m not talking skin color) is huge, but the thing that Austinites seem to have in common which makes this city unique is that there’s just this underlying “live and let live” mentality which I think is very very cool.
And then last night…just seemed like a good night for a little night driving / exploration.
I ended up at an archery field? Random…
Up toward Lake Travis…
Emma Long Park
Finally, ended up at St. Ed’s where there is a perfect view of the Austin skyline. This picture of course does not do the beautiful view justice, but wow, if you haven’t checked it out…do.
