Where Was I?

I spent a few days in Austin, Texas.

First of all, they have a great airport. At least two different barbecue restaurants. Not chainey airport crap either, but outposts of good local places. And to get to your rental car? A shuttle bus? No! The rental lots are right outside the terminal! Where other airports would have parking. But who parks at the airport anymore? You can't go down to the gate without a boarding pass, and if you're picking someone up you just have them call on your cellphone. So the rental lot is right there! Genius!

The first day I got there, I had lunch with my friend T____ and some friends. One of her friends who ate with us, "S_______", is, among other things, one of the Texas Rollergirls, the local roller derby league. How cool is that.

Some of the other people I met: A classical flutist/interior designer; a prop master for (currently) a Lifetime movie shooting in Louisiana; an aide to a Texas state senator; belt-makers, hair-dressers, documentarians and many other very interesting people, who live in cool houses.

Monday night, T. and I went to see "Friday The 13th, Part III in 3D!" at the Alamo Drafthouse. The Alamo Drafthouse is a movie theater where they serve food and drinks. They had a band playing before the movie. So, already it's enough of an experience to merit a blog mention. But I go in ahead of T., who's out looking for a lost dog before the movie. And I'm looking for seats, and it's crowded, and I'm asking a woman if the seats next to her are taken, and they are but there's a couple at the end of the row. And the woman is wearing a Texas Rollergirls T-Shirt. So I ask "Are you one of the Texas Rollergirls?"
"Yes, we all are."
"Do you know S.?"
"Yeah, she'll be sitting right here."
So we ended up seeing one of the seminal horror movies (It's the one where Jason gets his hockey mask, plus, no other movie has ever had a better use of 3D? Every scene has a pitchfork coming out of the screen, or a machete, or a flying eyeball.) with the Rollergirls, drinking beer and eating melted chocolate cake with ice cream.