Birthday Shenanigans in the Great ATX ~ The First Day

It had been a three-hour drive, and after a Buc-ee's stop for gas and a barbeque brisket sandwich, Big Blue Morpho...that's the name of my Xterra...finally touched down in Austin. Getting to my Vbro was easy. And because it was in the east end of Austin, just four minutes away from Ariana's and Chris's apartment, I got to avoid the downtown traffic. Booyah!

Finding the Vbro wasn't hard. The guest haus stood out with its bright green color (that was nowhere near as bright as my green hair color). 

Most people would not find the front of the property much to look at. After all, that au naturel prairie look is a bit shaggy. But this was not something that was going to bother me, especially since I was just using the place to crash. But at least the inside was cozy and had a cute cowboy theme running through the entire guest haus.

Overall, the place wasn't too bad. I rather liked it, and could see myself living there, even though it was a tiny space. The only thing that I did not care for was the faint lingering smell of stale cigarettes. Cigarette smoke is pervasive and very tenacious. It can linger for years, sometimes even decades, after the last cigarette had been lit.

Here's yours truly, just shortly after arriving. Looks like I would not be having time to eat my Buc-ee's sandwich. So I put it in the refrigerator to save for tomorrow's brekkie.

Shortly after I got to my Vbro, Chris picked me up and brought me to the apartment.

When I got to the apartment, Britney, her sister Megan, and their dogs were already there.

Ariana gave a neat cool cat pin.

I added it to the rest of the cat pins on my vest.

We then set out to walk to the Buenos Aires Cafe, where Ariana made reservations for my birthday dinner.

After we were seated, we were joined by Danny. And then we proceeded to order our meal. I had a creamy carrot and ginger soup, carne picante empanadas (which I ate before thinking of taking a picture of them), and a vegetarian gnocchi quartet. There was so much food that I had a really hard time finishing what I had ordered. 

And then there was the very rich and decadent cuatro leches cake.

There was also a video of our server bringing out my birthday cake.

After a gut busting dinner, we headed back to the apartment. Britney and Megan gathered their pooches and were off on their way.

Ariana, Chris, Danny, and I were going to take a Lyft to our next adventure. While our Lyft was still on its way, Ariana realized that she had forgotten to grab something from the apartment. So while she dashed off, I took the opportunity to snap a couple of selfies with these two fine characters. (Danny standing right beside me and Chris in the back)

Our first destination was Papercut on Fifth Street.

This unique venue is not only a bar, it is also an art gallery. Each month a different artist is featured. The drink menu (as well as the playlist) changes to reflect the current exhibit.

We all got this shot when we sat down at the bar.

This drink is called “Electricity.”

The ingredients include: amarena-infused community vodka, hayman’s sloe gin, kinsman rakia, sage-infused roku gin, lemon sherbet, lacto-fermented cherry.

My Electricity and Ariana’s drink that’s garnished with cotton candy.

Here’s the bar menu.

Ariana’s goal for us was to get through the entire bar menu. And we did meet that goal by each of us ordering different drinks and passing the drinks around so that everyone could get a taste. My favorite concoction was Chris’s Verdoni. The mystery drink was a horchata based drink that had a great cinnamon punch.

Folks are giving me a birthday toast.

The drinks match Ariana’s claws!

THE IZAKAYA

The ingredients include: yokka koji awamori, condesa prickly pear gin, house yuzu liqueur, house wakamomo liqueur, cocchi americano.

VIVO MARGARITA

Ingredients include: mijenta reposado, mijenta blanco, grand marnier, sour orange, lime acid, salt.

The bar gave us some complimentary bubbles!

And here we all are!

After sampling the entire bar at Papercut, we caught a Lyft and moseyed to 

Rozco's Comedy Club to catch some comedy.

In addition to our original crew, we were joined by Will, the dude in the back row.

This is a Smoky Paloma. After the fine glassware at Papercut, it was a bit of an adjustmentt to holding a flimsy plastic cup. But the drink was mighty tasty.

After the comedy show, we walked back to the apartment, via the shortcut Ariana took us through.

Danny was so sweet in indulging this old crone.

After getting back to the apartment, it was pretty much it for me. Ariana summoned me a Lyft, that wound up being driven by a young man from Brazil.

It was time to go to bed and rest up for the next set of adventures.

Birthday Shenanigans in the Great ATX ~ Pre-Trip Prep

Friday was my birthday, so I opted to take the day off from work. This is not normally something I've normally done on my birthday, as it is always nice to make that extra money. But because my vacation was fast approaching, and I wanted to get a jump start, especially since I was scheduled to leave for Austin on the following day.   

My day started with a visit to the Meraki Salon. My hairdresser, Amanda, is a wickedly talented whiz who especially loves playing around with funky colors. She always loves it when I come. And I always love the final results.

This is what Amanda had to work with when I walked in.

The color was seriously washed out, and the grey roots were a bit long. Overall, it still wasn't a bad look. But I wanted something a lot more fun and fresh for my trip to my favorite city.

The really fun part of working with Amanda is not knowing what to expect. While I may have a general idea of what I want, I put my hair in Amanda's talented hands and let her do her thing. Neither Amanda nor I may know what the final result will be, but when Amanda gets into her creative zone...often making things up along the way...that's where the magic happens.

Of course, this approach is not for everyone. For one thing, one has to be unafraid to take risks with their hair and with how they express their sense of style. One has to be comfortable with being "different." And one has to trust their hairdresser. There has to be good communication.

I trust Amanda. She is open to my vision, and I am open to her professional skills and interpretation of my vision. There is constant consultation throughout the process.

I already showed you my "before" picture. This was Amanda's perspective of what she was going to be working with.

The first step was to apply bleach ~ 20% volume peroxide ~ to my roots. The reason for this was to lift whatever remaining pigment was left in my grey hair, and to open the cuticles to accept the vivid color. The the "vivid" was semi-permanent, it would not have much staying power on my virgin grey hair. That was definitely apparent whenever I would apply the Arctic Fox to my roots to refresh the color. The color would start fading right after the second or third wash.

Once the bleach was applied, I had to sit for a bit with a cap on my head.

 

Once the bleach did its job, my roots were incredibly white.

My roots were so white that I felt I looked like freaking Legolas from Lord of the Rings. (Not that that was a bad thing.)

Here are the views from Amanda's side of the chair.

And from my side of the chair, this is what I saw.

Let the coloring fun begin!

These were the colors to be used on my hair. The greens were not just straight out of the bottle. Amanda had to mix various greens to achieve the shades she wanted.

We first started with the lime green. It was already getting exciting!

Amanda thought it would be full to have the lime green merge into a delicious raspberry color.

 

The teal green and the purple were the next colors applied. And Amanda applied them such that the colors flowed into each other organically.

The original magenta and blue were "vivids" that were applied over berry and blue permanent hair color that was done last year. The purple "vivid" went over those previously dyed colors, thereby creating a different and novel color effect.

After five hours in the chair, here is the spectacular final result.

I feel like a peacock! Maybe this will be my year of the peacock. Or, maybe I can be ready wicked early to celebrate Mardi Gras.

That was five hours in the hairdresser's chair. I had some time to run to H.E.B. to get some quick grocery shopping done before heading back out to get my nails done at Citrus Nail Spa. Thankfully, my appointment there only took one hour. And my nail tech Linh did a fabulous job! I love how my nails look like opals!

After spending a full day of beautifying myself, I was ready to settle down with a nice margarita.

Happy birthday to me!

After that, it was early to bed for me, as I needed to get up early to bring the dogs to the bark park, before I was to bring them to Town & Country Grooming & Boarding, their home away from home from Saturday through to Wednesday.

I really felt sad leaving Alice and Domingo at the dog hotel, but I knew that they were in capable hands.

Anyhow, now that the doggos were checked in their doggo hotel, it was back home for me so that I could pack my bags and hit the road.

the handsome stranger

who was this young handsome stranger 

standing in nonchalant self assurance

calm confident debonair 

like a 1940s movie star

who had women licking their lips

and sighing

when he passed by

cigarette smoke trailing

clinging to his dark wavy hair 

his black wool coat

and the fingers of his black leather gloves 

who was that young boy 

who stanched his tears 

when his mother had died 

and then stanched them again 

when his father brought home 

this dreamy young thing

and said here’s your new mother

who was that young boy 

who ran away from home

with his kid brother

never to see his family again 

who was that young boy 

who resurfaced as a german soldier 

making a deal with my grandfather 

to marry my mother

what became of his missing years 

how did he learn to read and write

how did he learn to count

did he even get a chance 

to do what young boys do

catching frogs in the pond

fishing in the river

throwing snowballs at his friends

pulling his sisters’ braids 

picking berries in the woods

sneaking cigarettes

and looking at dirty pictures in the outhouse

was there a special girlfriend

whose kisses he stole when no one was looking 

i never knew that man or that boy

instead i knew the old bald man

with a beer belly

whose skin would turn a rich deep chestnut

in the summer 

who spoke very broken english 

yet still charmed the ladies at the bank 

and had factory maids competing 

for his attention and the candy in his pocket

who wanted to be left alone

when he drank too much

which was often 

who smoked too many unfiltered

camel cigarettes 

that finally stopped his heart 

he never talked about his past

his secrets were buried with him