Oh my...

It’s time for another blog. My last blog entry on http://eurobeto.blogspot .com apparently did not appease the masses as it ended quite abruptly. This is understandable given my incredibly somber mood when I finished the blog and my year in Europe simultaneously. This blog finds me much in the same mood, for much the same reason. I have unfortunately just endured a break up in the longest relationship I’ve ever had. But I’m not writing here to vent or even discuss this matter. That is for more private venues. This blog, rather, will track the vagabond summer that I have planned before I start working at L.E.K. consulting in San Francisco beginning September 10, 2007.

Allow me to set the scene. For a few weeks now, since the end of my senior year at Stanford, one of my good buddies, Johnny Hwin, has let me borrow a particularly good album called “So This is Goodbye” by the Junior Boys. If you do not know this group, please check them out; especially if you’re a fan of The Postal Service or Stars and the like. The electronic influence and smooth vocals are perfectly blended in this album. This isn’t the happiest of music, but I find it puts me in a very introspective mood, and thus good for blog entries. I’m listening to this album in a Barnes and Nobles not too far from my old house in San Antonio.

I arrived in Texas last Tuesday night for the first time in almost two years. Anybody who knows me or any Texan knows it’s tough to go that long without being home. My parents’ recent move to Denver, Colorado has made coming back here a real challenge. Even though last Tuesday night I was barely in El Paso, TX and still nine hours away from home, it felt good to be back. My road-trip companion James Vaughan was also happy to be back and we went for a brief night on the town in El Paso. Well, “night on the town” might be a little exaggerated, but we sure did hit that tiny bar district in El Paso. The very next day we did the entire journey to Austin, TX, where James lives and is working this summer. Granted, Austin isn’t home for me, but I still feel a certain comfort there. I lived in Austin for three months during Sophomore year. I arrived then during another particularly difficult time at Stanford. The time away from school was amazing and it invigorated me to go back to school, do the best I could in classes, and get in shape. Now I don’t know if I can credit all this to the city of Austin, but something about living and working in that environment really helped me put things in perspective and enjoy where I was in life.

I now find myself trying to recapture that feeling. After my weekend in Austin (and a couple of great nights on Sixth Street and a couple of intense sessions at James’ gym) I met up with two very good high school friends – Miles Donnelly and Ariel Rosen – to hang out on Saturday night. Amazingly, these two are the only people I can easily get in touch with! Even my best friend from high school seems to be completely MIA. The two came up to Austin to visit and I bummed a ride back to San Antonio that same night. I tried briefly to contact my aunt who lives in San Antonio to see if I could stay with her, but after I realized that she lives very, very far (next to Sea World, if anybody knows San Antonio), I gave up on that and contacted Norma Cantu, a good friend who has known our family since before I was born. She lives about half a mile from my old house and has way too nice in inviting me into her home an making me feel entirely at home. She’s a professor at UT Law School, so she’s not working full-time now, but of course she’s still fairly busy.

The best part about staying with Norma is that she set me up with an old Peugot road bike that she picked up from a garage sale. It was in a bit of a state when I first got it, but after a few quick adjustments, it’s riding like a beauty. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking: “but Beto, nobody rides a bike in San Antonio!” You’re right no one really does outside of their neighborhoods. And I can see why. These are some of the most biker un-friendly roads I’ve ever encountered. No bike lane. Decrepit sidewalks. Constant construction. It’s tough to get around this way! But I do give city-planners some credit. Along the newer stretches of access roads, it is fairly easy to fly up and down the new sidewalks with entry ramps at every curb. All the Via buses are also now equipped with bike racks on the front of the buses. But besides that, let me just say it ain’t no Palo Alto. But I make do.

Yesterday I biked to San Pedro and Hildebrand and caught a bus downtown. There I parked my bike along the river and rediscovered the famed Riverwalk, where I worked exactly four years ago at a local restaurant, Zuni Grill. I visited the place and recognized a couple of the waiters, but I’m sure they didn’t recognize me. I put in an order for our world-famous viper margaritas (rated number one in the nation by Food Network) and set to work doing some stuff for SELA that still needs to get done. If you don’t know what SELA is, I’ll get to that later. Right when I was sitting outside, enjoying my margarita and working on a revision of chapter guidelines, it began to thunder, then rain, then pour. It was not surprised as it has happened every day since I arrived in this area of TX! Speaking of which, looking at the clouds outside right now, my guess is it will begin to pour soon here – again. These thunderstorms aren’t the worse things. They bring down warm rain (as opposed to freezing bay-area rain) and impressive thunder. And they rarely last past fifteen minutes. I moved inside and ordered another margarita. After that I strolled the Riverwalk a little more and began to really feel my two vipers. So I headed a joint called Durty Nelly’s – a famous Irish pub here that I had always heard of when I was working downtown. I heard that there were always good times there and absolutely no minors allowed. Well, this was my first time back in SA and over the age of 21, so I went in for a couple of pints. They didn’t even card me! The Guinness was good, even if they didn’t pour it right. The entertainment was even better with old-timey piano players that sing all the hits you only know the chorus to and absolutely have to sing along to. I will be def heading back soon. A wandered around a bit more and when it got dark, I caught a bus back home.

My computer is about to die, so I’ll have to finish this later.

And I’m back. Whoa, this is kinda weird. I’m in the Jim’s at 410 and Blanco. But then again, I must be dreaming or something. It’s totally different. I’m sitting in front of a beer/wine/coffee bar, everything’s retro-chic/ and the restaurant has pretty much been cut in half to make room for, among other things, a Matress Firm store. I’m not so sure I like it. I literally cannot remember how many memories, many good and many bad, that I had at this old Jim’s. But not this Jim’s. The one before all this modern bullshit was put in. There’s a flat screen with CNN that I’m staring at for crying out loud! Okay, it might not be that bad: there’s a lot more window light now, they got rid of the smoking section (I know some friends that might be disappointed), and Mr. Stevie Wonder is welcoming me to the new place with some good jams. Whoa, and this is a first: the salad tastes like it has actual fresh ingredients! Must be the extra dollar or two they added to all the items on the menu.

Everywhere here seems to have gone through the same changes. Was I away for that long? Almost every strip mall here has been whisked away, changed stores, or turned into a mega mall with the latest designs. I guess I shouldn’t complain though. I’ve never been one to advocate stagnation and I shouldn’t begin now. Especially when it seems like so much investment has poured into this city (although not nearly the amount that has gone into Austin). But sometimes you want to sit down in that same old booth, order your $1.29 cup of endless coffee, and cough and rub your eyes from the smoking section that seems to permeate the entire place. I guess not here, not now.

One thing that seems to have not caught on in SA yet is wireless hotspots. Jim’s marks the fourth place I’ve tried in two days to get wireless at. No luck. My closest hit was a random signal in Durty Nelly’s that I found briefly. But I don’t think that the pub is the best place to collaborate on documents and check e-mail. Darn. Anyway, in my pursuit for the internet, I have accidentally spent a lot of money. I say accidentally because I needed every item, but I didn’t need every item. Included were: a memory card for my new slim digital camera (thanks Marisa!), “Times of Romance” by The Lovemakers (for only $10, def a steal!), a bike helmet (to protect my family’s newly minted $160k investment) and some athletic socks (damn you EBF dryer, eater of all my socks!).

Well, I suppose I’m really starting to ramble on now, so I’ll stop here, but be sure to check in for more rambling, more pictures, and (hopefully) more adventures of my vagabond summer.