Chapter 1: Arrival and a Birthday Celebration
On Friday, May 4th, my early
morning flight (which I almost missed, I got to the gate 15 minutes
before the plane left. There was also a baby sitting next to me on
the plane who spilled it's entire cup of apple juice on my lap as I
was sleeping) arrived in San Antonio where I was fortunately able to
see my mom who was getting on a flight to leave SA. It was kind of
like in the “old days” where your family could be waiting for you
right outside the gate, instead of past security. We talked for a
minute and then I hopped in the car with Moppy who took me to my
mom's apartment. Luckily, because she was going to be gone for the
weekend, I got to take my mom's car wherever I wanted. Of course my
first stop was Las Palapas.
After a quick lunch with John Paul, I
hurried to Kohl's to get the clothes I needed to be an usher at
Courtney's wedding (a blue blazer, white button-down and khaki
pants). After that, and even though I was in desperate need of a nap,
I set off to Austin to pick up Jake and head to the wedding
rehearsal, which started at 5:30 that night.
Flash forward to 6:00pm with me and
Jake in a car, somewhere near Leander, wondering where we are and
trying to find the Hacienda del Lago. After a phone call to Uncle
Bubba, we realized we had driven 6 or 7 miles past the exit we
needed. We turned around and finally made it to the rehearsal around
6:15. Fashionably late, you might say. Luckily, we didn't need to
know much at the rehearsal, just where to stand and when, so we
learned what we needed and headed to the rehearsal dinner.
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| Uncle Bubba, Courtney and Aunt Anne. |
We had a
whole room to ourselves at Abel's on the Lake, which is a really cool
seafood restaurant in Austin. Jake and I were happily surprised to
see a large amount of our family there, as we figured it would just
be the wedding party. After toasts and catching up, we headed over to
Preston's apartment to begin the night of birthday celebration.
I've never been out in Austin before,
and I've gotta say, it was pretty great. We had a group of 7 that was
the perfect mix of my friends (most of whom I hadn't seen in a
long time).
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| The group, minus Jake, who took the picture. |
So after a quick meal of Whataburger, we got ready and headed out. Brittny (standing right next to me in the picture) surprised me with a limo that took us downtown so we didn't have to take a cab or have anyone drive.We each pitched in $5 and got to arrive in style!
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| In the limo with Brittny and Jake. |
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| After getting dropped off. |
After getting dropped off in our cool ride, we preceded to drink and dance and just have a good time. Preston and Brittny live in Austin so they know all the good spots to go on a Friday night, and they acted as our leaders, which was fine by me. We went to three of four different places that night, most of which were on 6th Street, and I've gotta say that Austin is a fun place to party. I had no idea that they closed the actual street down so you could just wander from bar to bar, but that definitely made for a cool festival-like environment.
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| Group picture on the street. |
After the bar closed at 2:30, we decided we were hungry and went to Taco Cabana. Nothing beats a late-night run for some bacon and egg tacos. When we got home around 4, it was extremely easy to just pass out, considering I had been up since 6am the morning before. All in all though, it was a really good night, and I never got too tired, probably because of all the exciting things going on.
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| Getting ready for bed. |
The next morning meant more bacon and egg tacos from Taco Cabana, after which, me, Preston, John Paul and Mikey hung out for a while before the latter two had to head back to San Antonio. That was alright though, because Preston and I had a wedding to get ready for!
Stay Tuned for Chapter 2: The Wedding
