And just like that, I have a social life.

So a friend and I were hanging out at one of the bars downtown about a month ago when I ordered a drink called the "Hemingway." A couple of sips in, I spilled it all over the table, but that incident is of no real consequence to this story. The two of us sat there, considering the sweet flavor of the drink and debating what a cocktail named Hemingway should really be made of.

I believe the consensus was bitterness and misogyny.

I'm reading Ernest Hemingway's debut novel right now -- The Sun Also Rises. And while I'm not finding it particularly bitter or misogynistic (yet), I do find it quite odd. Take, for instance, one of my favorite quotes thus far:

"The road to hell is paved with unbought stuffed dogs."

And then there was a bit of discussion about the cause of the Civil War being related to the fact that Lincoln, Grant, and Davis were all in love with each other -- and Lincoln only freed the slaves because he lost a bet.

Both of those little tidbits were treasures from the tongue of a single character, and oh how lucky we are to have him in the story.

The rest of the book, thus far, has involved an amount of wine that would make even a frat boy blush, various triangles of both love and lust, and a whole lot of upper-class snobbery. I'm certain that there's some magic symbolism in there, so I'll shame my high school English teacher and skim the sparknotes when I'm finished.

The last few days, I've had only my lunch breaks and a few quiet moments in the evenings to read, thanks to a full social schedule and a lot of Tex Mex.

Monday I met up with a an acquaintance I met during ACL weekend; we'd been planning to go get tacos since that day, and though our dinner was short (she had to run off to church to serve with the Interfaith Hospitality Network, a collaborative effort to care for Austin's homeless), we pretty much decided we'd be BFFs. I think I'm also going to be BFFs with Torchy's Tacos, where we ate:

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We went to the permanent structure on S. First, but there are several Torchy's trailers around the city, all of which claim their tacos are "Damn Good." I agree. The fried avocado taco is A-MAZING. Get it. And then go running. I don't even want to think about how many calories are in there.

Then last night I had an awkward blind friend date with someone who knows people I know. It wasn't actually awkward, except for the fact that's she's like 10 inches taller than me. Seriously. Yes, I'm really short. Shut up.

We went here:

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Trudy's Tex Mex. Just East of Guadalupe on 30th. The food is great. The Mexican Margaritas are killer. It was Top-Shelf Tuesday, which means all the top-shelf liquors were discounted. We still split one, and I still felt it. Don't worry, though. I washed it down with an A-MA-ZING portobello quesadilla. Win. It was even amazing as microwaved leftovers today.

Tex-Mex friend-date number three was tonight, with a girl I met when she rode with me from northern Michigan to Indianapolis for a conference a few years ago. Random, I know, but she just moved to Austin, so we got together to for food and (as we found out today) to also celebrate her new job! We went here:

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Chuy's Fine Tex-Mex on Barton Springs. I went to one in Houston a couple of months ago with other friends from Michigan, so that's apparently a new theme for me. It's good though, really good. Like Trudy's, they also boast excellent margaritas (though a little less lethal), and it was happy hour so they were cheap (which DEFINITELY makes me happy). I got the strawberry. And the veggie enchiladas. The atmosphere is really fun too -- it's old-school diner meets ridiculous mish-mash of awesome.

After all that, I'm officially Tex-Mex'd OUT. Next stop...Ethiopian. Oh, and the 1st Ever Gypsy Picnic food festival this weekend at Auditorium Shores. Pretty much every food trailer that matters will be there. I'm super stoked.




Little side note...I'm realizing that I'm giving these places free publicity. But since I have a booming readership of um, one (hi Kyle!), I'm not too concerned about it just yet. When I get up to 10 I'll start asking for royalties.