Deep in the Heart of Texas!

DISCLAIMER: (I feel like Jonathan)
This is more than likely one of the longest blog posts you'll ever read.
Don't feel bad if you get bored and stop reading, it's understandable.

Rain!? Why does it have to rain the day that i plan to do something awesome? I seldomly plan awesome adventures, but for some reason on the off chance i do, it seems as tho there is some sort of international meeting of awesome adventure destroyers that devise a plan to ruin and foil my plans. Fortunately, this time, i prevailed! So now i am talking to you from a hotel room in Austin TX . I'm in Austin woohooo! I came up with my buddy Sean with plans to party party party! (...or something like that)

...but unfortunately i forgot to bring the cables to hook up my camera to the computer. : /
What was i thinking?!?!

Lucky for me, Sean was oh so clever to remember his, so for the mean time i will have to use some of the lesser quality, more amateur photographs that were produced using his camera. :)

Testing 1...2...3...
















Planning an adventure for Spring Break was a pretty difficult task for Me and Sean to take on, I'm not going to lie. It wasn't due to money issues or transportation problems or anything "logical" that you could come up with...but simply because Sean didn't appreciate my suggestions to visit South Padre Island (TX), or Destin (FL) because he felt like "everyone is going to friggin be there!" and reversely I didn't want to go to New Mexico...and honestly, who would? So we picked a place that would be awesome for the both of us, Utah!

We have a mutual friend, Steve, who lives up in Utah. Steve used to live in Texas, but after a relative began suffering from severe health problems, the family made the decision to move closer to help out. So, they moved to Utah. I've been there a time or two and we always have a good time together when i visit...okay this post isn't about a long lost friendship, let me cut to the chase.... i haven't talked to the kid in 2 years because he got sent to some reform school and Sean has only seen him like twice since he moved (like 4 years ago?) So Utah it is! (*buzzer noise from family fued when you guess a wrong answer*) WRONG ANSWER! My mom is pretty much the chairman of the party crasher squad i told you all about in the beginning of this post, so of course she had to come crashing in on my parade with her say on how bad of idea it would be to drive to utah..."it's so snowy in Utah, and you have to drive through the mountains to get there blah blah blah" She even called Steve's mom and brainwashed her to partake of the fruit of the bubble bursting tree and convinced her to share with Sean's mom how poor of a choice she thought it would be having two "unexperienced" teenage boys drive through such foreign terrain. So much for utah. (the weather was horrible let me tell you weather report) But honestly, after talking to the friend, i found that all he does is smoke pot all day, so it probably wouldn't be that much fun anyway...but still, parents are gay! (oh boy, me and my teenage angst)

Thankfully we are quick on our feet and came up with a new and improved, even more outrageously exciting adventure to pursue; a road trip to Austin! "Oh great two teenagers going to Austin, with no game plan, no place to stay, nothing to do..." FALSE! We, in fact, have a great agenda planned out before we hit the open road, but i will tell you about that stuff later.

Tuesday March 18th, 2008
After two whole weeks of waiting mindlessly, Spring Break had finally come to pass. The day started off around 11:45ish when Sean pulled up to my house to pick me up and pack all of my belongings into his car. I didn't really have much to pack...a small(really small) suitcase, my guitar, our eight track recorder to make some music, and a backpack that (still) practically holds no purpose whatsoever.

One...Two...Three! We run to the car. At this time, mind you, the metroplex was experiencing what i like to call a "tsunamicane", and of course, inevitably, i find the car door on the side that i was supposed to be putting my belongings into the car is locked... yes, it's definitely locked, but yet sean is yelling at me, "it's unlocked, it's unlocked!" ...sabotage? more than likely. But anyways we get everything situated and hit the road. It is still raining like crazy but we carry on, nothing will stop us from obtaining our goal to get to Austin.

Google™ Maps informed us that our trip would take approximately 3 hours and 17 minutes to reach the hotel we are currently staying at, but it took us probably closer to 2 hours and 45 minutes (max). The fact that we arrived as quickly as we did surprises me though. We probably encountered at least 5 "traffic jams" due to people hitting guardrails! I understand that it was super rainy and the wind was blowing 23476 miles an hour, but wouldn't that make you think to slow it down a little bit? It's called common sense. Slow down or die. [i should trademark that and sell it to the State of Texas to put on signs on the highway]

We have only two things to do on our journey to the city.

1) find the hotel room (of course)

and 2) find the "University Federal Credit Union" building.

Sounds easy, eh? Well the thing is, we need to get to the Credit Union by 5 o'clock because a "Mr. James Nastar", (he's like the CEO or something cool like that) who left us tickets for the University of Texas baseball game that we were planning on attending latter that night, goes home at five, so any time after that we wouldn't be able to get the tickets, and at the same time, we had to get to the hotel by 6 o'clock to make the deadline, and on top of that the game starts at 6:05!

Who knows why we are freaking out, it's like 3 o'clock when we finally hit the the city, and definitely have plenty of time to spare, but having a deadline sometimes makes people go crazy, you know? Being the awesome persons we are, we make it to everything on time. (I didn't however didn't even get to meet "Mr. James Nastar" i was pretty bummed)

So off to the baseball game we go. Now the significance of the man i have mentioned in quotes about 3 times is that he is the head honcho of the company that funded the creation of the University of Texas's " UFCU Disch-Falk Field" - UFCU standing for University Federal Credit Union. The field in which they play all of their home games. So, naturally, we got ballin' tickets and sat like two rows away from the first base dugout. How did we get such awesome seats you ask? Well let's just say Sean's Dad has got "people." (if you know what i'm sayin') So the baseball game was epic, and we ended up leaving around the beginning of the 6th inning because it was freezing cold and still a little rainy. (Not the best combination) After the baseball game we went to chillis and i got a hamburger while Sean got "chicken crispers"....he can tell you all about that. On our way out we were approached by a homeless man trying to sell his mp3 player and cigarettes for 4 bucks to " get his wife into this hotel, it's cold and rainy outside...bleh" i hate homeless people that beg. When i told him i had nothing to give he got all pissy like it was my responsibility to give him money, when really, it was his irresponsibility that landed him into the land of homeless-ality. It was whatever tho, it didn't really phase me ( is that bad?) i just wanted to get back to our hotel!

The hotel we are staying in is a Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites, and it is pretty sweet...nothing like either of us expected, but still, beats staying at the Motel 6 down the road. It has all the usuals...two full beds, a bathroom with shower and tub, a coffee pot (my personal favorite accommodation...*barf*), a tv, free soap, and a gamecube controller....a gamecube controller? Well, pretty much the hotel has modified their TVs in way that you can only do what they want you want to do with them...you can't use your own DVD player, or game console, or even speakers. All you've got is the dumb "On Command" service that the hotel offers, an option to pay 50 bucks to "rent" a gamecube game via On Command, and a select few local cables channels.

One of the key ingredients of our trip was Sean bringing his xbox so we could play guitar hero when we didn't have anything better to do. Behold, another feeble attempt of the international party pooper clan to ruin my life. This really bummed us out. Let me reiterate really bummed us out. After many a google search i found a forum that explained in detail how to hack into the marriott TV system...which is actually pretty simple. You see, they put a black "lodgenet" box on the back of every TV in the hotel, and it controls what channels you can access and which ones you cannot. For us, the channel we need is channel 3 in order to play our xbox, but Marriott, being the selfish bastards they are, set it up so when you type in "3" on the remote control it says "channel 3 not allowed". That's just plain stupid. So, what is said to be done is to first buy a universal remote and then use a screwdriver to remove the box and we would be good. None of this was out of the picture for Sean and Me, we would go through whatever lengths to get the xbox to work. First we went to Wal-Mart and bought a phillips universal remote (with every intention to return it) and later went to target and bought a screwdriver to finally finish the last step, and of course, the screwdriver was too big for the screws on the back of the TV. So much for guitar hero.

Wednesday March 19th, 2008
We went to bed at a pretty reasonable time Tuesday night, and figured that we would be able to make it to the complimentary breakfast in the morning. We wake up at around 9:30-9:45ish, call the front desk to see when breakfast ends...it ends at 9:30. THAT'S FREAKING AWESOME! I woke up early to eat breakfast and now i get nothing, like a fat kid waiting for a birthday to come around so he can eat that delicious chocolate cake mom makes every year, but when the day comes, he wakes up ready, excited for the cake and all of a sudden a big man just jumps down from the top bunk and hits him in the face. Right now, i am that little boy...i feel his pain.

We missed breakfast so we ate an early lunch at "Which Wich" which was, in my opinion, far less than stellar. After brunch we headed to the "Moriss Williams" golf course to play a round of golf. The old man working the desk was a complete douche box...a reoccurring theme it seems. But still, we played 9 holes. It was funny to see everyone being all serious wearing their "ping" hats and polo shirts while Sean is hitting the ball happy gilmore style. The wind was blowing 100miles per hours and we both got sunburned. But all in all it was a blast.

After golf we went to The Highland mall. Yeah...there's not much to say about this mall, it's probably one of the crappiest i've ever been in. Ever.

We came back home and washed up a little bit, and headed out to find a place to eat...we were wanting to go to a place called twin peaks...but due to the misinforming billboard, we showed up and there was no one there. I called, and was invited by the automated voice message to "join us on monday march 31st for the grand opening!"...so much for twin peaks

We ended up going to hooters, which wasn't very good to me, our waitress was really lazy, and i just don't think the chicken wings there are all that great. But i guess if you're into big boobies it's a perfect place to go! ( don't get me wrong, i definitely like big boobies...i'm just saying, i really didn't like the food)

After dinner we went back to the hotel. Sean wrote his daily blog post, we changed to sleepwear, and caved in and purchased a movie on pay per view, despite the outrageous 12.98 it cost us, it was a really good movie. Definitely 12.98 well spent.

Thursday March 20th, 2008
This time we weren't going to miss free breakfast, so we woke up around 8:30, took showers, and headed downstairs to eat. The breakfast was just your typical hotel continental breakfast...bagels...english muffins...bananas...and JIMMY DEAN BREAKFAST SANDWICHES! Apparently that is a pretty big deal at the hotel. On their "hotel information" channel all that it informs you is to make sure to wake up in time to make it to breakfast with Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches. Seriously. That was all. Breakfast with Jimmy Dean!

So, after breakfast we just kind of chilled out. The only thing left on the agenda was to go to the Austin Toros basketball game. What do you mean you've never heard of the Toros!? Well, the National Basketball Association has something in comparison to minor league baseball called a "development league" (or d-league) and the Toros are a d-league team. It was just about time to go to the game and we were both incredibly hungry, so we journeyed off to the local McAlister's Deli. I love McAlister's. Seriously, my favorite place to eat hands down. I got a "french dip" sandwich while Sean got a bowl of chicken tortilla soup ( he would). But we got done and went on our way to the basketball game.

We left at 6:50ish from the restaurant and our game started at 7 so we really needed to go, go, go. That wasn't going to happen. I don't know if you've been here in Austin but if you have, you know how horribly slow traffic moves on I-35. For those of you who haven't been to this great city, I-35 is basically the heart of Austin, and unfortunately is unavoidable. We got to the Austin Convention center around 7:25, right when the first quarter was ending. I don' know what is with us and freaking awesome seats at sporting events but somehow, we got courtside seats off the internet for half the price they would usually be. The game was pretty awesome, but i think this pretty much sums it up.



No, not really, that was just the half time show, but the game was equally as awesome.

There weren't any signs on the way into the game that read "No cameras past time point" or "Please no pictures" so i figured it's cool to snap away. Much to my dismay, some lady comes up from behind me to say "I just need to make sure you're not taking pictures of the players...they are copyrighted by the NBA. You can take pictures of anything else, but just not the players"
















*oops. Hope i don't get arrested


After the game we walked up and down 6th street; a popular strip in downtown Austin, consisting mainly of bars and clubs...places we would immediately be denied access if we tried to enter. On our stroll we counted 16 homeless people begging for money, or cigarettes or whatever. I've told you how much i hate begging vagabonds, but i caved in gave a man some money. It is well justified though because he didn't approach me, i approached him. So that was that.

We went to our hotel, and then went to sleep after watching the last of the Utah Jazz game. (they lost)


Friday March 21st 2008
Once again we woke up at the butt-crack of dawn to eat breakfast. Woohoo! Let me tell you how much i looooove jimmy dean breakfast sandwiches! (yes, of course i am being facetious) So, after that we basically chilled out. Sean and I both wrote in our blogs and watched Montel, and Jerry Springer for a couple hours. We got bored of that quickly. (apparently not too quickly) Next on the agenda: Galaxy Highland 10! a movie theater cleverly disguised by a grove of trees and other miscellaneous plant life. We went and saw the movie "Drillbit Taylor" at 3pm. This movie was/is/will be horrible! I hate little kid actors. That may sound harsh, not honestly just because he's 12 and says "bitch!" a lot doesn't make it funny. What happened to The Little Rascals or even Toy Story? These movies are amazing! They have little kid actors playing crucial roles, but unlike movies of today, are both funny and non offensive. (okay, maybe Toy Story is pushing it) So we watched the horrible movie and went home. After we got home around 5, we had absolutely nothing to do... We resorted to watching Everybody Loves Raymond... that within itself depicts the amount of boredom being experienced perfectly. So after 15 episodes of Raymond we pick ourselves up and went to a little jazz bar called "The Studio." Neither of us had been there (obviously) so when we walked in and saw a front desk we waited to be seated. No one came. There are like 50 people in the restaurant so we know they are open but it has been 15 minutes and still no one came! "Screw it." Just as we are on our way out we hear a big black lady yelling (yes, i could tell by her voice that she was both big and a black lady), "excuse me sir! YOU! excuse me!" Okay, that's a little weird. She approaches us and says "You aint never been here huh?" She goes on to tell me that it is happy hour and the food is free and drinks are only 5 bucks...but the drinks are amazing. So we sat down, and finally a lady came and took our orders. We both got chicken wings and soda. To our surprise the waitress (server, whatever) says you actually pay before you eat... that will be $15.98...what happened to happy free food hour?! We got our food and it was a perfect example of "southern cooking" a.k.a. "greasy." While i am eating i look around me and notice that Sean and I are the only white kids in the place (probably why i had to pay). It was cool tho, the majority of the people were older businessmen type people...it was very classy. (matched very well with our t-shirts and jeans) I don't really know why i thought getting chicken wings would be a good idea but, i hate chicken wings. Every time i eat the meat of a oversized wing off the bone, the thought of a little chicken stuck in a coop somewhere on the set of Little on the Prairie comes into my mind. I'm no PETA activists but that just really creeps me out a little bit. After we eat, we go to downtown Austin on the well known "guadalupe strip" and walk around for a little bit. We finally went to a place called the "Texas Underground Union" and played a little pool, and bowled 987239487 games. We went to McDonalds soon after, got milkshakes (how cute, right?) and went home. It was 12ish when we got to our room but still decided that we had it in us to cave in again and rent another movie via "On Command". We watched the movie and went to bed.

Saturday March 21st, 2008
Finally a day to sleep in! Today we woke up around 9:45ish. We wanted to get home in good time, but there was definitely no hurry, so we decided to eat at Ihop. There were two Ihops in the area, one which was right next to our hotel, and one that was a couple exits down the highway. The dispute began. I was thinking of the one down the street and Sean had the close one on his mind, and we both knew that the other was wrong. So we drove down the road but sean got too antsy and exited 4 exits too early, and heads to the one he was thinking about. We pass his Ihop but it looked crazily crowded so Sean (reluctantly) makes a U-ey and voyages off to the one he hadn't made it to before. Of course we miss it, (Sean is pretty much the most incompetent person i know) so we go to the other one, but didn't have to wait that long at all. All the waiters/waitresses were mexican. (just fyi, you know?) We ate a ton of food, and finally left. Two and a half hours later i am here sitting at home writing this blog. That was my trip to Austin. Hope you liked it.


Work out, Eat right, Label your food in the company fridge before somebody else eats it.


A day in the life
~Brad


p.s. you can see Sean's point of view on the trip on his blog which is linked at the top of my page