Bar Blogging Austin Style

While I love the hotel I'm staying at, the only downside is that they charge for internet. I don't pay for internet.

The upside is that wireless is free in the bar.

Hello beer, bar and internet!

SO I am in the bar at the hotel, having a lovely Fireman's 4 Austin local beer, and writing this on the spanking new Macbook I bought today. The old mac is starting to die a slow, sad death. Also, 40 gigs of hard drive just ain't enough. Hello new 250 gig wonder computer with a really nice keyboard and bells and whistles and stuff and things!

So yes, I am still in Austin. Whenever I come back I wonder why the HELL I ever left. Yes I like Norway, yes I like my job and our apartment, and of course our friends, but this is home and that will never ever never change. Odd things happen here and I like that. I understand Austin. I fit in here. They like oddballs like me. Mainly because it is a town of oddballs. Like me!

Like, Saturday. A 40th Birthday party for my friend Margaret (Mags over there on the sidebar, I believe.) She hired a band, Karaoke Apocalypse (hard to spell with beer) to play at the Carousel Lounge, this awesome divey place just east of I35. Karaoke Apocalyose (shit) is a totally 100% professional band who can play any damn song you throw at them and you get to be the lead singer. They are patient with drunk ass forty year olds singing in front of them. They guide you. They support you. They help you along. All the while you get to play out your rock star fantasies by vocally butchering any song they competently and brilliantly play. All I can say is, I tossed back 4 Fireman 4's before I got onstage (I called them "Fear beers") and then I went on stage and I sang the FUCK out of Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, and then I did a particularly raunchy version of Joan Jett's "Do You Wanna Touch" that brought down the house.

And then I saw the videos.

Drunk people think things are much better than they are. They think they are AWESOME.

The level of suck I achieved is going to go down in history. I sucked so bad there is never going to be a suck to match it. I am so tuneless, a dying cat sounds better than me. I am very loud, however. What I lack in tunefulness I make up for in....loud. AND....I look very, very angry when I sing. What is UP with that? I look like I am wanting to KILL people. But Saturday? I thought I KILLED IT.

I was going to post the videos here, but now...not so sure. Do I really want to embarrass myself quite that much?

But oh yes I am happy to be here. Why? The warm weather, the cushy hotel that I booked via Priceline. The funky little VW cabrio my brother lent me that is a bit scruffy on the inside, but drives like a dream and when the top is down I am 17 again. The sunburn I achieved while driving it. The bed at the hotel that I never want to get out of yet I pop up at 8 am ready to hit the town and get going to explore my beloved Austin. The shopping. The girl at the Allen's Boots who speaks Swedish and majored in Scandinavian Studies (I did not know there was such a thing.) The incredible vintage stingray (shagreen) boots I bought for $89. The $20 silk dress I got at Last Call. The lunch at Matt's El Rancho, the dinner at Flying Saucer, the dinner tonight at my favorite steak place in the WORLD, Austin Land And Cattle.

The list goes on.

This computer is NICE.