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"but don't bands get enough free stuff?": austin day four
We start early. We always do. But this time there's the added incentive of getting it all in, all the things we've been meaning to do and see and get to. This is our last day to do it all, and though we don't quite make it -- the Go! Team and Against Me! and other exclamation points falling by the wayside as the day wears on -- we come close. We come close and we prioritize and we remain stress-free.
We start by returning our beautiful beautiful bikes, a short ride down the street to the amazing bike shop with the super-friendly customers and employees. The stoned guy with the crazy grey eyes who'd warned us to wear helmets and insisted that we could wrest control of the streets from the cars when we'd originally rented the bikes was there again. He chatted and flirted and wanted to know when we were moving to Austin, and his hard sell nearly won us over when he said the buses had bike racks. "Austin's a great place to hang out in," he said. "Though maybe too good. Sometimes it's hard to get motivated." With the sun and the weed, no wonder.
We stopped at the cool-ass coffee shop on the walk back, for caffeine and sugar, then packed and loitered until Mike and Lynn were up and ready to go. Magnolia's lunch crowd was out of control, so our hosts took us to a crazy macrobiotic buffet at a wellness center. I've never been a fan of lentils, but it was pretty tasty. We sucked down seconds and ran out, late for the Texas Rollerderby Exhibition Bout. Though the SXSW crowd wasn't as enthusiastic as they should've been to see girls on skates race and riot, I was impressed. Not as much by the fighting and penalty spankings, as by the excellent defense-as-offense. The Hot Rod Honeys took it over the Hustlers, while the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers steamrolled the Hail Marys. I felt my toes itching to get back to NYC and on skates, and when we left Lynn and Meg were all about joining up. Bring on the converts!
But first, the Flatstock Poster Artist Show. We'll just swing by and check it out and then head to some of the music parties and the Go! Team. Yeah. We'll just take a few minutes and, um, hey, maybe just an hour. Or maybe two. I need to get money, hold on...
Hours had passed so now, more food! We asked Mike and Lynn what their favorite place was, and so off we went to Veggie Heaven, where the waitresses knew them on sight and gave us cute keychains before we'd even ordered. Post-food was the Trachtenburg Family, who were as cute and harmless as always. Mike and Lynn had plans for more shows in a few hours, but Meg and I were done with the music. Not the fun though. "Mini golf!" I said, and no one was as enthusastic but they agreed to go. I didn't understand, considering that not only was the mini golf blocks from Mike's house, but it featured a giant whale, skull, bunny, dinosaur, and Peter Pan. Come on! Think of the photo opportunities! We did, and there were, and the final score was irrelevant. Well, almost. Lynn kicked all our asses.
We said goodbye to Mike and Lynn (they'd be coming home late, we'd be leaving early, this was it for our visit with our kickass hosts), got our last ice cream at Amy's (whose photobooth processing was sadly unreliable), and hit the sack to dream of armadillos and never going back.