I slacked off a bit before heading out for a walk around Austin, with my journal in hand. I decided to go to Austin Java, the nearby coffee place, but it was way too expensive and crowded. So I wandered around, and took a looping course back to where Hillary and I were two days earlier, on Guadeloupe St. I hit 7-11, and got a slurpee. Boy, it sure was hot. Golleeeeee. I decided to head to the air conditioning of CC's coffeehouse, and catch up in my journal. I was there for about an hour, and started to get the feeling that this place, too, was part of a corporate chain. Didn't see Erica, the girl from Freehold, though. Went back to Monica's, and got another Slurpee. Man, I should be doing 7-11 commercials or something. On the way back, took a few wrong turns, and wound up around some pretty cool mansions, but then finally made it back into the nice AC. It turns out that Austin was having a heat wave, so it wasn't normally this hot. I think it was 105-110° or thereabouts.
Grauer came back around 4, and we went to pick up his friend, whose name I don't remember at all now. They studied some botanical heating technology for awhile , so I spoke with his roommate Cobb, a crazy Englishman who spoke at length about drinking, puking, and then drinking s'more. We finally then went to the mall to watch X-Men. the 5:15 was sold out (!) so we had time to kill for the 7:00 showing. Killed said time in the mall, watching the sales antics of the plastic-helicoptor salesman, as he targeted the kids, not the parents, to get them hooked. We also saw similar sales antics of the young and pretty hussy at the "Shades of Summer" stand flirt with the oh-so-cute teenage guys, to woo them into buying some overpriced plastic shades. Blech, the mall scene is so sickening. I should know, I'm from Jersey, for Chrissakes.
We tried to get to the top level of the mall, but all escalators aimed down, kind of like a Hotel California thing. Grauer conviced us that running up the down escalator was the only means of getting to the forbidden land, so me and his forgotten-named friend ran to the top. Grauer then wussed out, and then sought out a stairway which conveniently presented itself after we were already on the top level.
We then went back and watched the movie. Entertaining, at least. Got back home at 10, and Monica was awaiting us. so we went to the previously-visited-and-deemed-expensive coffeehouse Austin Java for dinner, we all got some pasta, sandwich, and soup to share. Good, but way too small servings. A cute gray stray cat wandered around the restaurant courtyard, and Monica divulged her philosophy of Austin as the city of stray cats. Even her cat, Rett, was a stray.
We went back home to figure out where to go on a Friday Nite. Monica pulled out her violin an ran around the house scaring the bejeezus our of Rett, as she made frightening shrieking sounds on her violin. Rett ran away every time, but Monica was somehow convinced that despite Rett's panicked running away at top feline verocity, that Rett really liked the violin playing.
Eventually Grauer fell asleep and we realized that we weren't going out tonite. I fell asleep shortly thereafter, and Monica promised to take me out the next night.
| Location | Austin, TX |
| Odometer | 132,063.8 Miles Total 3310.1 Miles On Trip 0 Miles Today |
| Coordinates | 30° 16.8' N 97° 45.0' W |