A Temporary Austinite

The Colorado River on my morning run

It's been a week since I've arrived in Austin and I've basically hit the ground running. Week one of Yoga Teacher Training is complete, my body hates me, but my mind wants more: "Moooaaaar!" That's a good thing right? My shoulders disagree.

So to fill up all of my non-yoga time and believe me, there's a lot of it, I've been trying to explore the city. It's large and slightly overwhelming. I am definitely not a city girl though the potential to become one is very, very good. I knew I would like Austin when I got here, but I didn't think I'd like it this much. To be honest, it just feels kind of normal to be here. Like Cinderella's foot in her slipper, I slipped right in. 

I'm a lover not a loner, though, and there's something to be said about the ease and comfort of good old friends you already know. While I've met so many amazing people so far, there's still the whole process of 'getting to know you, do I like you, will you like me, will we mesh or are we just different levels of weird that we'll never figure out a common ground?' and it's onerous. I'm not going to lie. Plus, I think that "re-joining" the hearing world has sent me for a loop. I feel somewhat spoiled that I've created a huge friend-family of deaf people and people who know ASL that when I go back to lip-reading and trying really hard to keep up with conversations in loud acoustically-unfriendly rooms, I'm lost. I don't know how I've managed to do this for so long before I discovered the deaf community and really, I can't remember how I did it.

I have faith though. Practically everyone is a transplant to Austin so they all have this general accepting vibe and willingness to help the newbies. It's pretty awesome because coming from a place where everyone knew each other for ages, I felt like I could start over. Try on different versions of myself and see what I like. No one's here to judge or to say, "That's not who you are." I'm making myself who I am and I like it so far. Plus, the rate of normalcy that people treat doing things alone is astounding. It's nice to not be gawked at so much.

I just keep telling myself, "Look, you got into a car with nothing but a bag to drive 22 hours all by yourself to go take Yoga Teacher Training at a school you've never even been to in a new city full of strangers. If you got this far, you have no choice but to go further."

"To be alive is the biggest fear humans have. Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive - the risk to be alive and express what we really are."
-The Four Agreements; Don Miguel Ruiz 

Things You Learn on a Road Trip To Austin

Lessons learned during my twenty hour drive to Austin:

1. Stop at your boyfriend's place and spend two nights with him. Especially if his place cuts about two hours off your drive. And especially more so if there's an awesome outdoor rock climbing wall and an opportunity for a picnic.
   
2. There are no toll roads even though Maps on my iPhone says there is. You lie, Apple, you lie.
3. Cincinnati does have a very pretty skyline.
4. Kentucky is surprisingly beautiful.
5. Driving around the ghetto in Nashville looking for a coffee shop that claims to specialize in local and vegan goods only to find a rundown mechanic shop and a dive bar is scary. Maps was wrong however it redeemed itself by guiding me to the second coffee shop. You lie again, Apple, you lie again.
6. But stopping in Nashville for coffee and cookies is worth it.
   
7. People driving between Nashville and Memphis are stupid.
8. Though Memphis is about halfway, the coffee and cookie you just had in Nashville will manage to keep you awake for another good four hours.
9. If you don't like the first rest stop, keep going until you find one you like.
10. When you're an abductable girl trying to go to the bathroom at a dark and nearly empty rest stop, running back and forth to your car is a good idea.
11. Arkansas is kind of ugly but has very interesting attractions: Gangster Museum of America and Toltec Mounds State Park for example.
12. You can drive for four hours in Texas and still be in Texas.
    
13. You can run over turtles. 
14. And it does not feel good.
15. I'm sorry, beautiful turtle, rest in peace.
16. You will come across two trucks having a macho standoff by refusing to let the other pass, backing traffic up for miles on a two-lane highway. Thanks guys, guess we all know whose dick is bigger now?
    
17. Health Camp is a burger and shake place in Waco. Well done, Texas, I like your style.
18. Texas has lots of land with nothing on it.
19. I'm over this drive. Oh hey! I'm here. Alive and kicking.

Thank you all for your well-wishes, blessings, and Namastes. It meant so much to me to get all your love and positivity and I'm completely certain that is exactly why my drive was as easy as it was. Your words buoyed my car across the country! Now... for the hard part...