Thank you Mike, Garth and Nina for the giant birthday cookie! Ignore the A at the end.

Texas - where you can never have enough kinds of tortillas

Always.

 There is very little that cannot be fixed by a Michelada.

Hahaha. I have to watch this show already.

I can’t believe that the grad school era of my life is over. Today I sit in a coffee shop (with free wi-fi) in Austin, Texas.  Frankly, if I could travel back in time and warn Alvaro circa 2008 (a.k.a this Alvaro was living the NJ/NYC reverse commute for a job I love era) that I would end up half across the country I would have panicked and burrowed myself under my cheap duvet and only peek my head out for the last season of Lost and possibly a Levain Bakery cookie. 

I’ve been here five days and I can already tell that I am going to like this era a.k.a the chapter of the Austin.  I managed to wrangle a one bedroom apartment (with a sexy pool), a new car, and even a few new friends in a very short time.  Things are simpler here and I mean that in the most positive way possible. Work I expect will be challenging and productive and I truly cannot feel anymore positive about it.

I miss people in New York dearly and miss that big ol’ city in ways that I never thought someone could miss an aggregate of buildings on an island, its outer boroughs, and Jerseylicious.  It really is a fascinating place and I hope to make its acquaintance again.  It’s home, so I doubt that we’d ever have a problem reconnecting again.  I also don’t think I’ll have a problem keeping in contact with the people I love. I’m lucky to have plenty of them.

I start work on Wednesday and could not be more excited. This is what I worked so hard for and I really do think it’s going to pay off.  I can’t wait to see where this is going to take me and how this will make my relationships, experiences, and my own world richer. This is what life is about if I’m not mistaken; constantly expanding your frame of reference and searching for ways to affect the dynamics in your life.   I’m constantly searching for new experiences and this choice to move away from what I call home will bring it in spades.

So bring it Austin. Send me as many quirks and confounding variables that you can produce. I’m sure you’ve got the stuff. Let’s see it.

I took the photo above after shopping for some groceries from the store parking lot. They say Texas puts on quite the show at sun down.  I concur.  Mike thinks that this is a big alien space ship hiding behind a synthetic cloud of spaceship foam. I like to think they are just pretty cloud formations.

Please keep this site in your bookmarks.  If you’re ever having a bad day Paula Deen will fly to your rescue on a giant cat.