Austin Kleon – Page 519

BETSY 2 LIVES!!

Monday, August 6, 2007

My car is sitting in a tow yard in south Austin. The side of the driver’s window is messed up from the break-in, the ignition has been torn out, and the windshield looks like somebody threw a bottle at it. The thieves ate our Chex-Mix, took our Ipod adapter, but left our cowboy hats, umbrellas, and flip-flops. They took it for a 100-mile joyride (I know, because I had just got gas, and flipped the odometer) and dumped it in a parking lot.

Tommy-the-Tow-Guy and I, we put in the clutch, stuck a screwdriver in the ignition, and she fired up like nothing happened. It’s totally drivable, but we have to get the insurance company out to assess the damage before we can drive off with it and get it repaired.

So add this to the news that as of tomorrow, I will probably be employed, Meg and I are very happy. Here’s what I doodled last night, thinking I’d never see her again:

Even taking into account the car theft, we’re having a really fabulous time in Austin. Here’s the sunset over Lake Travis that we got to see last night:

Can’t beat that.

WHAT I GET FOR DRIVING ONE OF THE MOST STOLEN CARS IN AMERICA

Sunday, August 5, 2007

After putting a $1000 into my 1997 Honda Accord with 160,000 miles on it to get it to Texas, after it running like a freaking champ the whole 1500 miles down here, two days after it was full of expensive electronics, Ikea furniture, and my life — after all that, some asshole stole it out of our parking lot last night. The police officer I talked to said that 3 late-90s Hondas were stolen in the area last night, so most likely my beloved car is being chopped into a hundred pieces. We were having such great luck so far, too. Damn.

AUSTIN!

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

We made it. 1400 miles. The Honda took the trip like a champ. Our life was crammed in the trunk and a rented mini-van. Our apartment is great, but empty. The neighborhood is great. The city is great. Tacos and lemonade for dinner. It’s hot and beautiful. The air conditioning is on. I’m trying to put together an Ikea chair without instructions. Boxes are everywhere. I have a job interview at ten in the morning. Life is good.

GREENVILLE, TEXAS

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

It’s 11 o’clock Texas time, and we’re chilling at the LaQuinta Inn in Greenville, Texas, 45 minutes east of Dallas. In Greenville, they used to have BLACKEST LAND, WHITEST PEOPLE, painted on the water tower. Luckily, that isn’t the case anymore.

We swam in the pool, grabbed warm chocolate chip cookies at the front desk, now we’re watching some cable. Today we drove to Memphis and did something I never thought we’d do.

We went to Graceland.

Fun facts about Elvis that I did not know, and did not learn from the Graceland tour, but from my mother-in-law: that Priscilla was 14 when she met Elvis, and that “the king died on the throne.”

Here’s a fun sign on Vernon Presley’s (Elvis’s dad) office door:

I couldn’t get a good picture of Elvis’s office, but there were books about football, karate, World War II, and, oddly enough, Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha.

We drove out of Memphis, through Little Rock, and ate at the Whataburger in Texarkana: