true life stories...my weekend trip to austin

In general, I am a ridiculous procrastinator. Usually, my procrastination works against me, but in rare cases it works in my favor. This past weekend, it did both.

For months, I had been planning to take a trip to visit my good friend Michael down in Killeen, TX. Of course, Killeen is about an hour from Austin, TX, and I've never been to Austin. So the plan was always to go see Mike and end up in Austin.

Also, my lifelong best friend Jen's thirtieth birthday was yesterday. {Happy birthday, Jen! I love you!!!} Jen lives in Mansfield, TX {Dallas/Ft Worth area}, and of course I was planning on visiting her to celebrate her birthday.

I use the word "planning" loosely. What I mean is, I had thought about visiting Mike and visiting Jen, and I had even chatted with each of them about it. No actual plans were made...for months and months. Then I realized the summer was getting away from me, and that Jen's birthday was coming up quickly, so I logically decided to combine my two non-planned trips to Texas into one planned trip. I talked with Jen to see if she would want to celebrate her birthday by going to Austin. She did. I talked to Mike to see if he was cool with me bringing extra people to stay with him during my visit. He was.

Awesome. I had plans. Sort of. See, in case you all forgot, I am still car-less. I mean, I am currently and temporarily driving my parents' car {yay for being a grown up}. But I don't have a car to take on a road trip. Plus, I kind of wanted to ride the train down, since I've done that once before and loved it. Okay, so I decided I would probably just ride the train. {It seems that plans in my head aren't actual plans. Lame.}

Then, last Monday or Tuesday, I was on the phone with my friend Kelly, and while discussing our upcoming weekend, we discovered that we were both planning on going to Killeen, TX, on Friday! The difference here is that Kelly had actual plans, to drive down with her husband and children. But guess what? Kelly is one of my very best friends {which makes it somewhat humorous that we hadn't discussed up to that point we were both going to Killeen}, so I pretty much invited myself to ride along with her family. And just like that, her plans became my plans! {Thanks, Kelly Beane!}

And since I hadn't purchased a train ticket, my procrastination worked in my favor in this case. I rode to Killeen with Kelly and her husband and their cool kiddos. I was able to chat and sleep and listen to good music. It was a wonderful ride!

Once I got to Killeen, Mike and I pretty much headed straight to Austin. I was determined to make it there in time to do some vintage shopping for a present for Jen. Jen and I have been friends since the second grade. So I needed to find a cool present for her thirtieth birthday!

Mike took me to this cool store...



I had exactly one hour to look. If you shop at thrift stores or vintage, at all, then you know that an hour is just enough time. Because you have to be thorough. Thankfully, there are thrift store gods who smile upon me and reward me for all the time and money I have spent in my lifetime on used clothing. I found an amazing pair of truly vintage, high-waisted, bell bottom jeans. They were tiny and looked like they might fit around one of my thighs - so I knew they would fit Jen perfectly! ;) I had also spotted an adorable little paisley print dress. I decided both would be perfect for Jen, and I purchased them while holding my breath and praying they would fit her. Can I just say that in order to shop used clothing for someone else, it helps to know them almost as well as you know yourself - for style and fit purposes! :) {Sidenote: When I picked up the little dress, the girl working in the shop informed that the dress used to belong to the same person as the jeans I had already decided on. Sweet!}

The next afternoon, Saturday, Jen and our great friend Jake arrived and we all got ready and headed back into Austin. We walked down 6th Street for a bit. And then, we had the most insanely delicious dinner at Z'Tejas. Seriously, so! good!

Then we headed out for a bit for Jen's birthday celebration.

I love, loved my outfit that night. Cool clothes make me so happy! Almost as happy as these shoes make me...




{beautiful Jen and myself :)}

The next morning, Jen and Jake and I headed back into Austin again for some more super delicious {and healthy!} food at Austin Java Restaurant & Coffee House for brunch. I seriously wanted to try everything on their menu. And the iced cinnamon dulce latte I ordered there almost put Starbucks to shame. ;)



I am including this pic just to show you the cute vintage dress I found for Jen... And to show you how cute Jen's hair looks in a ponytail. Jealous.



After brunch, we made the drive back to Fort Worth, where Jake had to catch a flight and I was supposed to get on the train back to OKC. However.....I had not made a reservation...Who needs a reservation? There's always plenty of seats available on the train. Except there weren't any seats available. Not one. Crap. And here was a perfect example of my stupid procrastination working against me.

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, there happens to be a bus station right there in the train terminal. So, I figured since I needed to get home, I might as well ride the bus for the first time in my life. Up to that point, the only buses I had ever been on were church buses. I never even rode a school bus, thanks to my homeschool/Christan school upbringing.

But I swallowed my apprehension and purchased a ticket. For twice as much as a train ticket! What?!? And I learned that I would be getting home two hours later than if I had ridden the train. Awesome. The experience was off to a great start.

But from there, it really did get better. After transferring buses in Dallas {really, DFW bus system?}, I chose a seat in the second row of the bus to OKC, thereby managing to avoid the somewhat rowdy group of guys further back in the bus. I ended up learning that the nice woman I was sitting next to had suffered a hard life and was on her way to rehab. Really. She told me her whole story and we talked a lot about God and His love and mercy. It was actually pretty cool.

The bus driver was a total trip. As in, hi-la-rious. But not on-purpose-hilarious. Just truly entertaining. Every single time we stopped and started, which was several times, he tapped the horn a few times. Every stop and start. My seatmate and new friend and I couldn't help but laugh about it every time. He also stated, over and over, that if anyone "do be disturbing anyone" to just let him know and he would handle it. And I was quite confident that he would. Thankfully, there were no disturbances.

I arrived safely home in Oklahoma City late Sunday night, having added a new experience to my life. Fun times. Over all, it was a wonderful few days, comprised of awesome times with lifelong friends, great food, captivating people watching, and interesting travel. I loved it.

~abi~