Here we are in Austin!!

Alright people, what’s good? We’ve been mad busy with our trip and we finally have a chance now to put another post up. Hopefully all of you are looking at the pictures; they do a better job of telling the stories than I could hope to on this blog.

In Atlanta we hung out with Jacqueline’s cousins. They were a fun bunch, but too young! We couldn’t go anywhere! Haha, it was no big problem though. We walked around the city of Atlanta for a while and then went back to their place. We got to see the gated community where the real housewives of Atlanta live. It was pretty sweet! Then we watched the new Alice in Wonderland Movie and left for Oxford.

Oxford Mississippi is a confusing place! There were so many streets that were one way but not well marked, a square in the center of town that had parking lots adjacent to the square but not clearly marked, and literally three stores called “Square books.” Like, what? It made getting directions quite difficult. But we made it! Mouse showed us around the college and told us about how it was where that movie The Blind Side was filmed. Good times! We spent the night there and it was kind of uneventful. Even though it was the night of my birthday, it was a Sunday and I couldn’t get any kind of drinks if I wanted to!! Lame, Mississippi, Laaaaame.

After leaving Mouse’s apartment we headed south to New Orleans for my birthday! The drive was beautiful. There were so many swamps alongside the roads and the highway on the way into New Orleans was totally a causeway suspended over the swamp with no exits. It was really cool, except that Jacqueline really really had to pee and there was no place to do so! When we finally got into the New Orleans city limits she ran out of the car to run to a gas station, but there was no bathroom there. Then she went next door to a restaurant but that was closed. So she had to cross a bunch of traffic to get to Wendy’s. I was following her the whole time and talking to her out the window. Apparently this looked creepy, though, because some cops in Wendy’s asked if I was trying to chase her or something. I’m such a menace!

The hotel was beautiful! We have some pictures that should be coming up soon so check those out. And the city itself is so picturesque. Jacqueline said it truly looked like how they animated it in “that racist Disney movie” (which one?) I was mad tired so I took a brief nap before we headed out for a Gumbo dinner. Then we spent some time walking around the French Quarter and almost got roped into a vampire tour by a guy who looked like Gambit from the X-men, but it cost $17 so we passed. However, he did tell me to pin a dollar to my shirt to let people know it was my birthday, a custom I had no idea existed! Its serious! You pin a dollar to your shirt and people are supposed to buy you drinks or give you money. It was great.

We ended up meeting a guy who worked at a fortune teller/voodoo store. His name is Lawrence and he was really friendly! We asked him to call us when he got out of work so he could show us where to go, so sweet. While we were waiting for him we talked to a man sitting on the corner. He was impressed that it was my 21^st birthday. When we told him we were going to try going to the gay bars in order to get people to buy me things, he said that they may, instead of asking for my ID, just take me into the back or something like that. Also, we would probably be “grouped” which I think means groped. But we went to the gay bars anyways.

We went to one and talked to a gay pastor and a gay bartender who spent 12 years at college getting his masters in theology. They were fun and we stuck around for a while until Lawrence called. Then we went to a pizza place/bar with a TON of gay people. So it was like a gay pizz-bar-ia…? We made our way back to the hotel and went to bed after that.

The next day we decided to stay in New Orleans for another night. Luckily, Lawrence offered to put us up on his couch! What a sweetie. We spend a quiet day inside because the weather was too much to handle. We watched The Dark Night and hung out. At dinnertime Lawrence made us some red beans and rice and it was delicious! A few more of his friends were over and they are all such cool people. That night we went back out, but not for too long. Jacqueline wasn’t feeling all that up to it.

The next morning we left for Austin, an eight hour drive. My stomach was killing me the whole time, but I made it. On the drive I saw a person pass with a rifle in his front seat… Awesome! We stopped in Houston for a minute, but it wasn’t too impressive. I loved the skyline, so we took some pictures of that.

When evening came, we were in Austin (nine PM exactly!) and we met up with Jacqueline’s cousin Michael. His apartment is really mod! We played rock band and had a night in. I was pretty barred out. It was still fun though.

Today we walked around Austin. It is a beautiful city to be sure. We went to the capitol building and saw pictures of really creepy governors (like George Bush). And some of the pictures were marked “president” for when Texas was its own country. Pretty cool! Then we went to Whole Foods Market which was the most glamorous grocery store around. We got so many organic samples that were just delicious. We got food for a picnic and headed to a park across the river. Except the river is called Town Lake, so I should call it a lake I guess? But it’s totally a river. There were botanical gardens and dinosaur statues in the park, so it definitely had something for everyone.

Now were back in Michael’s apartment finishing up this entry. By that I mean I’m finishing up this entry and Jacqueline is watching Rupaul’s Drag Race. Its good though, soon we’ll be swimming