After I finished my whirlwind travels of June I returned home and set all my final steps into action, as furniture was sold and picked up by various Facebook Marketplace buyers it all began to really set in. This was really happening. Sure, it was happening, I had spent the last year positioning myself for it to go off without a hitch. However, until it all finally starts to come together it seems like just steps in a direction that you may or may not eventually reach, but I was here. Close enough that the steps were just that, steps, no longer fanciful leaps in my mind.
The lease at my Austin apartment would come to an end about two weeks before I would leave for Vietnam, this meant that my time would be up sooner than I would walk onto the plane. I had traveled across the United States and Texas saying goodbye to my friends and family, but I hadn’t yet said those special goodbyes to the people who had made my time in Austin so very rich and full. It was time for one last hoorah!
My girlfriends and I rented a room at the Westin Downtown and went at our celebration with gusto! Crystal came in from Houston, Megan traveled from Beaumont and Rachel came from New Braunfels to celebrate. They joined me and my Austin friends who had become my family as we lived it up with a full weekend schedule of activities. My former boss at The Belmont, Ham, had planned a special experience for us at the scheduled Silent Disco and we partied the night away with so many tequila shots I lost count. Apparently at the end of the night, there were bets placed as to whether or not I would vomit in the Uber home. I am happy to say the people who bet against me lost their money. I held my own!
The many tequila shots were probably not the best decision as I was scheduled to teach my first yoga class to complete my teacher certification the next morning. I made it up and to the studio on time without an issue, however, in my first down dog the tequila shots from the night before decided to make their presence known. I did more teaching than demonstrating, but after it was over, I had my certification in hand and the assurance of my friends that the class went off without a hitch.
The Westin allowed for only two additional guests at the pool per room, so we all went from yoga class to my old apartment to spend the afternoon soaking up more of the beautiful Austin sun and when we finished at the pool to return to the hotel and prepare for dinner, I turned in my key to the leasing office. That was it. I no longer had an actual physical home in Austin, although I doubt the feeling of home there will ever end. However, I did have a hotel room for one more night.
We returned to the hotel and dressed for dinner. Dinner was at YuYo, a Peruvian restaurant my all-time favorite of Austin hot spots. Truth be told, I had already eaten there at least 4 times in the month of August, but I wanted one last chance for my friends to enjoy it with me. After dinner we ventured to Sahara Lounge for one last performance of Hail Marley!, a Bob Marley cover band headed by my friend Michael Hale. I am sure there have been other times when I have felt as special and celebrated but looking back, I can’t put my finger on them. We danced and laughed and drank. I did a little better time holding my liquor that night and actually remember returning to the hotel.
The next morning, we all met at Cisco’s, an Austin staple since 1955, for breakfast. The greasy spoon provided the perfect backdrop for an end to an absolutely epic weekend. I ate without a care and soaked up every moment of company with some of my dearest friends. It didn’t occur to me as we paid to leave that when we parted ways after breakfast it would be the last time, I would be seeing Crystal before leaving for Vietnam. There, while ugly crying in the middle of the Cisco’s parking lot, Crystal gave me a small gift with a sweet note and a hug like only she can give.
She then drove away in the loaner car I had been given by the dealership. Crystal was not able to drive away in the actual car that she purchased from me before leaving because when I had dropped it off at the dealership to have some recalls addressed before the weekend started and she took possession, they had backed it into another car when pulling it out of the service garage. Crystal took the setback much better than I could have anticipated, with a positive — accidents happen kind of attitude. She coordinated with them and the car was delivered to her in Houston and traded out with the loaner after I had left the country.
That was that. I was left in the parking lot with no Crystal and no car. Though I had planned for this for more than a year, that was the moment when it actually felt real. I wiped my eyes and loaded into Rachel’s Yukon and we headed back to the hotel. This was it. This was really the end of my Austin chapter. We packed up our things at the hotel, loaded them into Rachel’s car and checked out. I had slept my last night in Austin, Texas for the foreseeable future. Hasta luego ATX!
Without an apartment in Austin and still ten days out from my departure, I had to find someplace for both my bags and me to go before leaving. Rachel was happy to oblige. She and I have been friends for nearly two decades. Having met in college, it is one of only two relationships I still cling to from my time in Lubbock.
Sometimes, though it is a bit morbid, I refer to my old friends as B.D. and A.D. friends to differentiate whether or not I knew them before or after the death of my father. Rachel is a B.D. friend. She attended my father’s funeral and helped to stabilize me when I returned to Lubbock and just wanted to crumble. We have traveled the world together, navigated post-college introduction to adulthood and, in many ways, grown up together. Staying with her and her family provided the comfort and stability I needed before leaving, like a nice warm cocoon provides shelter and protection for the caterpillar before the butterfly emerges.
We did all the real-life things together for that last week. We dropped her son off at school, went shopping for last minute must-have travel items and generally just spent time. You know those people in your life that you can do nothing with and still feel like you have had the very best day? She is one of those people for me.
We took a day-trip down to San Antonio for a special Andy Warhol exhibit at the McNay Art Museum. She drove and I rode. On the highway from New Braunfels to San Antonio I had a realization. It was a very strange feeling that there was absolutely nothing behind me. I had no car to worry about. I had no apartment to concern myself with. Where I was in that moment was my life. Everything I had was right there at that moment. It was a strange concept for someone who had been so attached and stable for the last twenty years and a reality that cannot be understood until you are in it — no matter how carefully you plan and no matter how many items you check off the list. I was at the end of the high dive and the idea of turning around to climb back down the ladder was even scarier than the thought of the leap.
