Update from Austin

Drove about 4500 miles, is what. It was truly, truly great. I really enjoy long road trips by myself, and I got exactly that. Here's the tale:
I set out around noon. I detailed the car-inspection delay in my post before I left. After that post, I got my tire patched and got about 40 miles from Austin before getting the call that I'd left my laptop at the tire place. So I had to turn around and go get it, which was a further delay.

I made it the eastern edge of Louisiana that night, and slept at my first rest stop. There was a sign that said (I'm paraphrasing a little here), 'You may be approached by someone claiming to be from a religious organization who will ask you for money. This rest stop doesn't sanction or encourage this behavior, but the courts won't let us make them stop. You dont have to give them money if you don't want to.' I thought it was funny that they were all huffy and "the courts won't let us!". For an official notice, it had a touch of the whine about it.

Set out Tuesday and made it to Athens, Georgia by that evening around 6. I saw my friends Ashley and Chris, and their children Bryce and Morgan. Bryce, who was around 4 when they (or I - I don't remember at this point) moved away from Natchitoches. He says he remembers me, which is super cool. Spending time with Chris and Ashley was great - it'd been about 6 years since we'd seen each other or spoken, but in a way it was like no time had passed. Chris is working on his dissertation, Ashley home schools the kids and watches about a million other kids - they're both such great people. Chris is one of the very few people in this world who has the patience to have a theoretical discussion with me to the depth that I like to take it. (Not surprisingly, his Ph.D will be in Philosophy). Ashley took me to an Irish dancing practice, which was lots of fun. I think I did pretty well, considering it was totally new to me. It's definitely high-energy. Later we went to a Yule gathering at some friends of theirs' home. Chris and Ashley described them as again hippies, but they were certainly very clean for hippies. It was very neat, though I was pretty tired by that time and ready to call it a night early on.
Wednesday Chris showed me around Athens, and we had lunch at a nifty little restaurant, the name of which I don't remember. I also enjoyed the public art bulldogs around town.

Wednesday afternoon I left Athens. I was a little ahead of schedule, so I decided to check out the Appalachian Trail - something I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember. I found it on the map and made my way there - I didn't leave Athens until about 6, so I got there after dark. I drove right past it at first - there's just a hiker sign at the road, and that's it. I went into the little town just past it and they directed me back to it. It was at the top of the mountain - the drive was very turny and windy - I mistook the turn sign for a sign telling me I could u-turn until I realized it was just that the road curved *that much*. So it was fun, if a little nerve-wracking. Several drivers behind me got impatient with me, I'm afraid. After finding the trail, I pulled into the parking area next to it for a night's sleep. that was my scariest night - rest stops have lighting, and generally there are people around. here it was deserted, there was no one. But it was fine. And the stars! Oh my, they were amazing. Just beautiful.
I got up the next morning and hiked about a mile south on the trail. Only a mile - but at least it was a mile! I had thoughts of hiking all morning, but I hadn't brought any water with me, and had to pee - all in all, it seemed ill-advised. Also? The Appalachian Trail is in the Appalachain Mountains, it turns out. Which are...mountainy. Uphill, in other words. Even though the road was as high as it went at the point it intersected the trail, the trail was still uphill (steeply uphill, for the most part). So it wasn't an easy walk. Still, I got to a spot that was far enough away from the highway that I could neither see nor hear it. It was...amazing. Georgeous, and absolutely silent. I could hear the breeze in the trees intermittently, and that was it. I don't know how many years it's been since I've experienced true silence. It was incredible. I think the thirty minutes I sat up there were the highlight of the trip for me.

I think I'll stop here and post another installment a little later. Stay tuned!

...often go awry. For example, my plan to update this blog regularly. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
Reason #423 I love Austin: I'm sitting in La Tazza Fresca, the coffeehouse that adjoins my favorite local oil-change place, Groovy Lube. And I'm online through their free wireless. And when I booted up my computer, there were no less than 6 wireless networks in range from other local businesses. Free wireless is rampant here - it's in almost every coffeeshop, and many bars and restaurants. I'm not sure why you'd want to connect while throwing down a pint, but in Austin, you can.

I'm getting my oil changed (and my inspection done, a few months late - oops) because I'm about to set out on a humoungous road trip, that will take me to Natchitoches, Louisiana; Athens, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; and Sarasota, Florida. Also Louisville, Kentucky if Alexendra calls me (Alexandra? call me). In Natchitoches, I'm hoping to track down my first Sensei, Sensei Romulus Rocquemore, and ask him to teach me the sai kata I learned 12 years ago and have long since forgotten. The sai are my favorite martial arts weapon, and there's just not a lot of weapons work in my current style. Athens holds the Cotton Patch, my friends Chris and Ashley and their children Bryce and Morgan. I was at Morgan's birth (or at least in the general vicinity shortly thereafter), but I wasn't alround for much after that. Bryce is 10, Morgan is 6. Columbus, OH holds my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and related embryo. Florida has Mason and her family. And then back home. I haven't had a road trip in a thousand years, and can't wait to get started. But I was (over)due for an oil change and thought I should get one before driving 3,000 miles. I guess I'll need one when I get back, too. I'll be gone for about two weeks. I've got my laptop with me and will post from the road if I get the chance and a notion.

I wish I could say that one of my New Year's resolutions is to post more regularly, but I've found this year that I have a lot of resolutions, and this one, alas, is a lower priority. Here are some I've made:
-- excercise more. I excercise a heck of a lot already, but I've got a black belt test coming up. I want to swim twice or three times a week and lift weights more regularly. I also want to do gym kata (that's my oh-so-original phrase for doing kata in the gym).
--Do 2,006 kata in 2006. That works out to about 40 a week. Seems reasonable, and I have a fondness for numbers with meaning (or at least round numbers).
--Eat better, more healthily, and cook once in a while.
--Dancing - I want to become a really good two-stepper and swing dancer.

There are more, but my car's ready. Bad news - I need a new tire! But at least I know about it before I head out. Worse news - somehow the 20 oil change bloomed into a 100 dollar deal. I hate it when that happens. Here's praying for some cheap gas...

All for now.

...but i do at least have time to post an entry. I'm dizzy because I've been sick all week (and the end of last) - with a cold or something. It started with my ears, and I presume my ears are still involved, since they keep popping, and the aforementioned dizziness. I've been putting hydrogen peroxide in my ears (like my mama used to do) - at this point, I don't know if it does any good, but it feels nice. Funnily, my right ear (which seems the most mixed up) doesn't cause the hydrogen peroxide to react much, while the left one does.

In other news...I had a busy weekend planned last weekend, but ended up cancelling most of my activities because I didn't feel well. I have a moderately busy one this weekend, too - we'll see how it goes. I'm supposed to see some music Saturday night, and go to brunch Sunday and later watch a movie with a friend. None of these are high-energy, which is good.

That's all for now. I'll try to update more frequently in the future.

I'm trying to keep up an at-least-one-post-per-week regimen, but last week I slipped. Mea culpa.

As an update from my last post:
Rita - my mom's house was indeed fine (though a tree dropped onto my step-dad's truck), but last I heard they were still without electricity. My mom went to Katy for a few days, and was actually going to come here to stay with me for a while, but it turned out that electricity is coming back in Moss Bluff more quickly than expected, so she went home instead. Not that they have electricity, but apparently they have a generator, and the expectation of lights sweet lights soon, so it's all good (or as good as can be expected).

Lyle - was pretty cool. I got there a little late and left a little early, and the set was only an hour anyway, so I saw maybe 40 minutes of it, but I'm glad I did. I think my favorite song that he did was "If I had a Boat" (read the lyrics. I also went to ACL on Saturday and Sunday, but I have to admit I didn't stay very long either time. It was too damn hot - over 100 degrees both days - and that really dampened my enjoyment. I don't know that I'll go next year. It's too bad, really - it's a great opportunity to hear a lot of awesome bands, but the Austin heat (even at the end of September!) is just too much to withstand. Of course that means it's going to be 78 degrees and beautiful next year, but what can you do? It's necessary to buy tickets months in advance because they sell out so quickly (though I guess I proved that you CAN buy them at the last minute on ebay, if you're lucky - so maybe I'll do that if I have a change of heart).

More news - I've gotten the official word that I'm going to be gamutting (testing for my black belt) in April. It will be almost exactly 5 years since I started training (in April of 2001). I wish I remembered the exact day I started training, I'd request the gamut to be on that day. actually, I bet I could figure it out.
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I bet it was April 4th, though it may have been the 11th. I know it was a Wednesday. Well, technically, i guess it was the 5th (0r 12th), since that Wednesday I only watched. It was an advanced class. I remember Joy (now Sensei Joy) coming over to say hello to me, and having to make sure it was ok that I was there (I had emailed Sensei Suzanne that day and asked if I could come, and she said yes). I remember that I got lost looking for the dojo and drove around for 30 minutes looking for it. I remember that someone (I want to say it was KJ, but I don't know for sure) learning that "yoi" (Japanese for "ready," basically - it's said at the beginning of forms) rhymes with "Joy." April 5 2006 is a Wednesday, though. Maybe I can do it that Saturday.

A couple of weeks later, I went in for surgery (to remove my gall bladder - and I wish I had it back), and almost never went back to training. I'm glad I did.

Anyway, I've added gym kata (that's what I call kata I do in the gym - clever, eh?) to my extra-karate training. It looks like it'll be on Mondays and Fridays (and maybe Wednesdays). I didn't do my cardio this week, but I did everything else. And I've eaten better for most of the week. So good news on the health front. Knowing I'm gamutting gives me extra motivation (it really all comes back to karate for me, usually).

What else? My cd player in my car spontaneously healed itself this week. It's been out of comission for over a year (since Jason and Elaine's Baby Shower of Aunt Amy's Bad Luck) - a cd got stuck in it. I guess it's been trying to eject that thing all this time, and earlier this week (Monday I think), it finally did it - just a little bit, but enough for me to grab it and pull it out. And the cd player seems none the worse for wear. Hurrah! As much as I've gotten used to listening to the radio (and learned to appreciate Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, Marketplace, Selected Shorts, Tales from Lake WoeBegone, et al), I've learned that much of commerical radio is crap, and I'm just not enlightened enough to enjoy the jazz and other esoteric music of KUT much of the time. So it's nice to have control over that aspect of my life again.

Aaaand - Agliff (Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival) is this week. I've seen a few good films, and one really bad one. As luck would have it, that was the one that Sun Dragon was spotlighted for. Good exposure, but I had to sit through the movie. Awful, awful, awful. It was done by a local production company, and the acting, writing, and production values were abysmal. Other than that, it was great! I actually saw another film by the same company last year, with much higher expectations, and so I knew what I was in for this time, and it was a marginally better experience because of that. But it was still bad, bad, bad. I'm going to see more (hopefully better - they couldn't be much worse) movies tonight and tomorrow. yay, movies!

And finally, some political commentary. I did not listen to Bush's speech, but I did read it. And a couple of lines struck me as telling.
First [speaking of terrorists]:
"The radicals exploit local conflicts to build a culture of victimization in which someone else is always to blame and violence is always the solution."

and then, later:
"No act of ours invited the rage of the killers, and no concession, bribe or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder. . . Against such an enemy there is only one effective response: We will never back down, never give in and never accept anything less than complete victory."

and still later:
" Throughout history, tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that murder is justified to serve their grand vision. And they end up alienating decent people across the globe."

I'll leave interpreting and analyzing these various statements as an excercise for the reader.

'Til next time...

# posted by Amy @ 3:11 PM 0 comments

Rita:

is headed straight towards my mom, who has decided to duck. She's in Lake Charles, and they haven't evacuated. The official word is that people south of I-10 should have evacuated, and she's a little bit north of it. She's of the opinion that the house will be fine, but there are many things in the yard that might fly about, so they're staying and securing the premises as best they're able. I think they'll be fine, but of course we won't really know until Sunday-ish.

Austin probably won't get much, although there is a high-wind advisory for Saturday.

As a result of Rita, I downloaded Google Earth. It's WAY cool - it's an application that shows you the earth, and you can zoom in on specific places, down to street level, anywhere on earth. It's done with satellite photos (and other technical stuff). It's not real time, but it's still awesome. I saw my dad's old house, my mom's house, my current street, the dojo...very cool, and very nice for my deficient geography skills. A co-worker asked me today if Lake Charles was south of Port Arthur - I fired up Google Earth and checked it out (turns out it isn't - lake Charles is almost due east of Austin, actually). Lots of places don't have great resolution when you zoom in real close, but you can easily see block level for all the places in the US that I've looked at. Here's the url to download Google Earth for yourself: http://earth.google.com/


Lyle:

is playing in Austin tonight, at the ACL (Austin City Limits) music festival, along with about 120 other acts. I have a three day pass, after much consternation. See, I bought my ticket ages ago (back in June or July). It arrived in due time, late August. And then I promptly lost it. I remember getting it, and I have no recollection of what happened after that. I know I decided at some point that I'd leave it on my fridge. Well, it's not there. Nor is it in my office, living room, bedroom, or any other room. I looked in my car, too - no joy. So today I emailed the festival peeps and asked if there was anything that could be done. They put it nicely, but the answer, ultimately, was "No." So off to ebay I went, and I found quite a few up for grabs. I bid on one whose auction was ending within the hour. It looked good, but I got outbid. I was sad. Then I got an email from a nice person who offered to sell me an extra ticket at face value. Hooray! So I paypal'd her the money, and rendevoused with her on the south side of the capitol building, and I now have in my possession a 3-day pass.

Yesterday, I had resigned myself to missing it - I've been overtired and overcommitted lately, and I didn't really know if I had the energy. Plus, I didn't have a ticket (that I could find). But then they were talking about it on KUT, and I remembered how much fun I had last year, and I decided that I really wanted to go. Besides, I got 13 hours of sleep Saturday night, and at least 8 every night since, and am actually feeling pretty good in the energy department, so that's less of an obstacle than it could have been. I'm still hoping the extra ticket will show up, in which case I'll invite a friend along, and there will be much rejoicing.

My friend the Riveter also graciously offered to pay for 1/4 of the new ticket price because she wanted an ACL buddy. Thanks, Riveter! You're the best. I have great friends.

So, my schedule tonight is tai chi at 6:30, Lyle at 8:15, and dancing at 10. Depending on the weather tomorrow, I have karate at 10, self defense at 11, and ACL fest afterwards. And on Sunday it's all acl all the time. I have a few people I'm looking forward to seeing, but if this year is anything like last year, the best acts will be those I just wander into. Here's the schedule:
http://www.aclfestival.com/festival/default.asp

In other news, I'm planning on starting a pilates class next week. My extra-karate schedule will hopefully be lifting weights twice a week (went back to that this week after 3 months of absence - weights are heavy!), pilates once a week, and cardio (running or swimming) once a week. I'll probably do the cardio on Thursdays, since I don't have karate on Thursday.
I also hope to start eating better - always a challenge for me.

And that's all the news that fits.

Just thought I'd put up a quick post since I haven't since I recounted my adventure in Houston.
I'm in training this week to learn how to create c#.NET web applications. It's a 5 day course, and I've just completed the first morning. So far it's been pretty basic, but I'm looking forward to plugging some gaping holes in my knowledge.

This weekend was pretty busy. I went to San Antonio Friday evening and Sunday morning for a jujitsu seminar. It was a lot of fun, though challenging. Friday was a flow drill and a punching drill, Sunday we worked more on locks and a "your evasion is your strike" excercise. I ran into some frustration which is pretty common for me when trying to learn physical skills (most obviously in the martial arts, since that's the predominant physical skill that I try to learn, but I've run into it with dancing) - I get really frustrated when I don't get something, and I really want lots of words to help me understand it. Unfortunately, words aren't always very effective in learning to do physical things. I feel like I have to get it RIGHT NOW, and if I don't, a) I never will, and b) that means that I'm completely hopeless and awful. Learning to be patient with myself is a real struggle. My training has helped a lot, but the journey continues.

Thinking back on it, acting was another realm where I didn't excel, and had expectations for myself that were too high, so I abandoned it because I felt like I couldn't do it. Acting also involves a lot of emotional availability and emotional IQ (if you will) that I certainly didn't have then and am really still not that great at.

The most significant progress I see in myself is that I'm willing to put myself in that uncomfortable position of trying something -- and sticking with it -- that I'm not talented at.
Part of it, of course, is learning that my self-worth isn't defined by my abilities - that if I'm not good at something, it doesn't mean I'm not good on the larger scale. It's hard to divorce the ego from actions like that, and it's hard to develop the ego strength to believe myself ok regardless of my physical talent, intelligence, etc. It's hard, but it's important.

And so I journey on.

So, I went to Houston on Sunday to volunteer to do what I could at the Astrodome. I left Austin around 9:45 AM and got to the Astrodome around 1. The Houston Red Cross Astrodome volunteer website had claimed that there were 4 to 8 hour shifts going on throughout the day, the reality, though, at least for the 'walk-in' volunteers was that it was an ongoing thing. My friend and I got there, parked, and signed in (name, address, phone number). We then went to a 10 minute 'orientation,' and were then sent to a staging area where we were to wait until needed. The staging area had quite a few rows of chairs (probably 100 chairs in all), but not nearly enough, and there was a big clump at the back. My friend and I took it upon ourselves to try to get the back clump organized into rows, walking around the center looking for the post-and-rope thingys (like the red velvet ones, though these were considerably lower-end), but when we found the Head Guy, we were told that they were out. So that turned out to be a futile excercise, and of course when we got back to the clump (which had thinned out considerably in our absence, since they had stopped admitting volunteers), we were still at the back of the crowd. Next we were asked to distribute drinking water to the other waiting volunteers, since many of them had not brought any with them.

And here I'll pause for a short digression about people not following directions. There were really only a few publicized guidelines for volunteers - y0u must be at least 18 years old, able to climb three flights of stairs, bring drinking water, and don't bring your purse. And yet most people didn't bring their own water, many women were toting purses, and there were several kids there with their moms - one actual baby, and 2 or 3 teens/pre-teens. Now, these were all well-meaning people who were spending their Sunday helping out strangers, they definitely weren't bad people. They just didn't notice or chose to ignore the few directives they were given. These directives were on the website, on the recorded phone message, and posted in the center itself, so they were easy to find for anyone who bothered to loook.

Ok, back to the story - after handing out water to everyone who wanted some, we again got in line, in the back of the line. We moved up relatively quickly, though, and eventually got assigned to an actual job with actual evacuees - we were asked to corral the many kids who were playing and keep them away from the triage area/quiet area. We were given these instructions by a volunteer, and led part of the way by another volunteer (I think, it may have been the same woman) who got distracted on the way because they were no longer admitting volunteers and they needed more volunteers - the last group they had asked for was supposed to be 50 people, but there were only 13.

And now another digression to observe that it was still pretty clear, in the relatively calm situation of the Houston astrodome, that those 'in charge' were making it up as they went along. They were clearly doing the best that they could, but they were not well-organized (the miscommunication about turning away volunteers when in fact volunteers were still needed, the congestion and confusion in the volunteer 'holding area', and the lack of someone in charge of our pack of 20 volunteers).

Anyway, we made it to the floor. Note that we never actually made it to the Astrodome proper - we were in the Reliant Center, which is part of the same thing, but in a different physical building - it's like a conference center, I guess. So we were on the floor, striding purposely, but none of us really knew what to do. We passed lots of kids playing with various sorts of balls, but they didn't seem to be doing anything they oughtn't be doing, and they were far away from the triage section (or, more accurately, the 'elderly' section). Eventually we sort of made a plan, and my friend and I set off to find the guy making PA system announcements, to ask him to make an announcement that the kids should head over to one section of the room for games. We were successful in that he made the announcement, but it was pretty clear that nobody listened to it - you know how inaudible these things tend to be - big room, cement floors, lots of people - the acoustics are horrible. Probably half an hour later, one solitary kid came up to us and asked us where the games were. We pointed him in the right direction.

Which is not to say that we didn't have some measure of success - there were some games of dodgeball and duck, duck, goose organized, and we were able for the most part of curtail the throwing of balls near the elderly and the very unquiet 'quiet area'. There was one kid who was in the area because he had to stay near his family - an understandable directive, and not one we attempted to circumvent. We just asked him to stay on the far side of the corridor. We also had some success in using tape to mark the borders where kids could play and where they oughtn't, and that helped. The tape itself was a precious commodity, and the Red Cross guy we got it from was very adamant about getting it back (which eventually he did - though there wasn't much left of it).

I also got to play a kind of basketball game with a very cute little girl - probably 6 or 7 - who was very forthright in asking me to play with her. So that was fun.

As we were about to leave, a kid pegged me (hard!) in the back of the head with a football. I took it away from him (well, my friend took it away and then gave it to me, and I kept it), and took it to a table with various toys to be picked up by another (hopefully less agressive) kid. It was a pretty aggressive act, but it's hard to be too mad at a kid who was probably pretty hopeless about life before Katrina, and now is even more hopeless and angry and having to deal with being homless and with no possessions about the clothes on his back.

The evacuees we saw were pretty clearly doing what they could to deal with an awful situation. They weren't in the dire straits of the first days when people were trapped without food, water, or electricity, but they were still living in a sports arena with no privacy and no idea what was going to become of them. One woman was telling her kids to stay in eyesight, and told us that someone had been raped there last night. It could very well be rumour, but it could very well be true. It's hard to know from this vantage point. And, I don't think I saw any white people amongst the evacuees. I know the storm destroyed lots of lives of folks of all races and classes (even Trent Lott lost his house, though I tend to doubt it was his *only* house), but the people who are in the most dire straits now are the people who were in the most dire straits before the storm, too. The straits are just dire-er.

So, I plan on signing up to volunteer with the Red Cross in Austin shortly, though from everything I've seen and heard they're even more disorganized than Houston. Still, there are lots of people here who will need our help in the coming months, and I hope to be able to offer some small amount of that help.