Spiderhouse

Hey there, it's been awhile.  After that first week of moving all the logistics came in to stay for awhile.  But they are slowly packing up and catching the next flight out.

One place i go on the occasional afternoon is the Spiderhouse.  Yes, it is fun w/ pals, but if you just want to write in your Moleskine notebook and ponder life while sipping the coffee elixir of your choice - it's a nice place to free your mind.  The surroundings are mainly responsible for this.

The entire backyard of the small, purple house is covered in archaic treasures.  Some may call this "junk", but they old wrought iron, vintage carnival lights and stone fountains really make this house a home.

These treasures are placed along the garden perimeter, triggering one to feel something blissfully secretive about your own little delinquent ice coffee sipping paradise.

And if that isn't enough inspiration for your thoughts, the House's insides are covered in beautiful art by local artists, a new artist being featured at least every other week it seems.  Art showings are a weekly event.

They also have a multitude of events.  Last week they had a "bike-in" - think drive-in w/ bikes instead of cars.  It's open from 7 am - 2am so there is always something going on, a place that definitely rides the ebb and flow of daily life to the highest heights.    I've yet to go there at night when it becomes a bar atmosphere, but from the looks of the patio lights, crowded parking lot and people it is just as enchanting in the evening as it is in the sun.

Day 1 of Commuter Cycling & a Milkshake surprise

Yesterday marked the first day in my life as a Commuter Cyclist.  Bike rider. Complete novice.  So of course, it was Fate's joke that i should be flung from my bicycle on the first day.

After going face to pavement, my wrists and knees being the only ones to bruise from the skid, i proceeded to rant a gigantic down pour of expletives.  No one was nearby so it was okay to go full-bore.

After the rage subsided, i realized, "Now I have an excuse to go try the Vegan milkshakes at Toy Joy!"
milkshakes = all better.  Equivalent to a band aid really. 

I rode a bit farther and low and behold, there was the toy store that serves Vegan treats - popsicles, milkshakes, soft serve, sundaes - THE WORKS. I am not at present a Vegan, but i had to try these.  They looked soooo yummy.  and healthy, of course!  After slurping down my frothy "Blood Orange" milkshake, it was totally worth the fall.  

Day two of being a commuter cyclist begins....ahhhhhh.  As much as it sucks to fall, the feeling one gets from zooming down the street is great.  Like flying around buildings.  It's much more stimulating than driving, when one is stuck in a car w/ their music and wards off the world inside their little, armored pod.  I've yet to get road rage from a car driver. that will probably happen today seeing that i'm heading downtown. Wish me luck.

muah xo.

Barton Springs

Our second day in Texas, the temperature broke 103.  Amazeballs!!!!

So obviously, we had to go cool off SOMEWHERE. Initially you think, what bodies of water are in Austin?  Isn’t Austin land locked? 

Similar to Michigan, but on a much smaller scale, Austin has several lakes to go cool off at. Lady Bird Lake (known as Town Lake to the born and bred), Lake Travis and Lake Austin are the popular, cool-down escapes. Along w/ lakes, there are natural springs, public pools, and to be more representative of a southern charmed life – swimmin’ holes.

Barton Springs falls into the natural springs category.  Long before Mr. Zilker bought the land it sits on – that land later becoming Zilker Park – Native Americans and missionaries enjoyed the cooling relaxation of this spring.  Barton Springs is open all year round and stays at a steady temperature of  60 degrees.  Not bad when it is 103 outside.  It starts at ankle level and progresses into a deeper depth of 17 ft.  The pool itself is as long as a football field.  Plenty room for every hottie. 

It being a natural spring the bottom is super slippery with algae and at times a family of seaweeds will dance around your ankles, reminding you that you are in something that was here before the historical signs in front. 

Elgin's Southside Market & Restaurant

We flew into Houston and drove to Austin.  About 30 minutes before we hit Austin, we decided to stop at the little city of Elgin’s Southside Market.  Approaching the austere barn, about two feet away from the entrance you can already smell that smoky, succulent air.   

Walking in, you may think you’re in an oven.  You are.  You are in a barn-shaped, mesquite- burning ember oven. An oven established in 1882.  

All the flavors that will inevitably hit your mouth when you eat the juicy brisket sandwich hit your nose at the door: The sweet bbq sauce, the crispy, fatty goodness sides – but the strongest scent that hits your nose is that rich, steamy, smoke ridden bliss.  You are in the back of the line and your mouth is already watering. “I hope this line moves fast,” you think.  But the others in line around you aren’t in that same Pavlov induced state.  Because they are the locals and get spoiled by the BBQ ridden state of Texas every day.  Well – maybe not everyday – but if they so wished, they could always taste the best, juiciest meat that just melts off the bone and into your mouth any day in Elgin.    

I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.

Writing poetry is one of my favorite things to do.  I've done lots of poetry classes and such.  Some of my stuff has been published and some of it has never seen the light of day -

until now.

Check out my original poetry collection (the Spirit is moving you...) !

Marzipan Moxley

Marzipan Moxley: "i like to write.
it makes everything better."

i made a Flavors.me account, everyone!!!

i'm gonna put my whole DIGITAL LIFE up in hizzzzahhhhhhhh.

visit my new digital home (if the Spirit should so move you).

Lake Shore

As much as I gripe about Michigan, one thing this state has is the Lakes.  I do not feel a summer is complete without visiting Lake Michigan. Or any one of the Great Lakes.  I guess I am just biased. 

After a hazy three hour drive across 94, we had reached the lake house we would stay in for the weekend.  Decorated in classic red, white & blue banners, it radiated the all American cottage ideal.  If there was pink lemonade waiting for us on a wicker table on the porch, I think it could’ve been in a Better Home & Gardens  ad.

As soon as we got our stuff on the floor we all sat and chatted.  As you get older you see the people you grew up with less and less - at least at this point in my life i do.  This reality has only recently sunk in for me. It hit me more after this past season of college graduations.  No more summers at home w/ the 'rents.  We all live in different states.  We all are interested in different jobs and boys and lifestyles. Yet, we can still laugh and giggle and say one word and all of us know what the other is really saying.  Although each time we go away and come back I do fear we are becoming less of who we were and more of who we are...now.  And, no – this is not a bad thing.  Change is the goal.  But sometimes I wonder if the way we are changing is in a direction apart -  even if it is for the best.  It is weird when you have friends and/or significant other and cannot imagine your life w/out any of them in it.  Then fast forward two or three years later, and you have more, if not a completely new set of people that make you feel the same way.  I hope this happens in Austin; even though admitting that is as exciting as it is frightening. 

After a weekend of laying in the sand, head phones on and off throughout offering the proper soundtrack, jet skiing, swimming and eating and drinking, I definitely have decided that everyone deserves to own a tiki bar/cottage/villa/beach house, on the water at some point in their life.  Herman Melville said, “Meditation and water are wedded forever,” in his Novel, Moby Dick.  The calm and felicity that is felt near bodies of water has to be some of the strongest healing and reflective powers one can experience.

Austin, TX has Barton Springs and Lake Travis. There is a restaurant that sits over Lake Travis called Oasis.  I guess the patrons actually clap after the sunset goes down.  A regular light show. :)    I will have to check those out and see if the sunsets can match Lake Michigan’s.