Best day.

Okay, for those of you who don't know, I'm staying with relatives in Austin for the week because of back-to-back weddings in Central Texas. I had one in New Braunfels on Saturday (congrats, Mia!) and another one this coming Saturday in Austin (Yay, MS!).
Living in a different house (and sleeping in the office...totally my choice since a cousin is gone, leaving his very large bedroom free) and away from what I know is difficult and I was feeling a little down, until today.
Today was the best day.
I started out meeting a friend at Kerbey Lane Cafe right by campus. There I enjoyed a delicious veggie burger (I like meat...but I was feeling the veggie burger today!) and we discussed boyfriends, weddings, shoes, life in general. It was good. Then we walked down to Urban Outfitters and looked at almost everything in the store (well, the lower level at least!). Then my friend had to go to work, and I decided to spend more time downtown. So, I went to the wonderful Whole Foods Market and got a chocolate gelato. I got their tiniest size and could not finish it! Then I walked across the street to Anthropologie and looked around the entire store. I get so happy looking at beautiful things. It's funny, too, because I often leave happy because I am proud of myself for not buying anything. There were some cute tea cups for 3.75 on sale, but did I give in to temptation? NO! I kept my resolve, because really I don't need a tea cup, even if it has my favorite number on it.
Then I walked to REI and looked around. I found a perfect skirt for $35 which once again I did not buy, and left the store happy.
Then I went to Book People. Book People is just so wonderful for all the people watching you can do while pretending to read. I passed by one family where a woman stopped a little girl (probably about age eight) to read her a Dorothy Parker poem, which the girl found hilarious. I wanted to be a member of that family. I perused the anthologies looking for more folktale collections (found none...they said it might be in Mythology but I could only find the children's mythology section which was mostly greek. I'm so tired of people thinking Greek mythology is the only important folklore!), looked at books written by Emile Zola (I love his short story "Complements" but his books look a little dark for my current mood), thought about some Wodehouse books, found an annotated version (with scans of manuscripts and photos of older printings) of my very favoritest book, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, and decided that I need to devote myself to reading some classic literature. I realized that I have not had a study-free summer since I was eighteen years old, and so two summers from now, I buckle down! I have a feeling things will be a little crazy this summer...though I may try to finish Mrs. Dalloway.
On my way out I chanced upon the clearance table, and found and fell in love with two books instantly: "Tigger on the Couch," a psychoanalytic case study of various storybook characters (funny because my Abnormal Psychology professor used the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood to illustrate personality disorders to us) and "Street Gang," which was the entire history of Sesame Street. I am currently in love with Sesame Street because they have been so instrumental in the development of children's educational programming. If my decision to be a Child Life Specialist doesn't pan out...I'm running away to work as a child development consultant at the Sesame Street Workshop. They work so hard to keep the program true to its original vision and to keep things developmentally appropriate. So cool. So, those go on my list of books to read, along with actually trying to get through Jane Austen (shameful, I know) and some other classics. I really want to read the Three Musketeers and other Dumas books, probably starting with The Count of Monte Christo at MS's urging. There are so many wonderful books to read...and I waste so much time on this stinking machine. I, admirably, did not spend money there and headed off.
Anyway, then I drove back to the house using a road that I very much love because it is wonderfully scenic. Then, I got to watch So You Think You Can Dance (which, surprisingly ;) I LOVE), and then I took my cousin and her best friend to Chipotle for burritos, which we ate on her screened in deck, christmas light bulbs plugged in.
Such a very very good day! Tomorrow I'm thinking of going to my new college town (as of August!) to hang out, do some drawings, and familiarize myself with the place. I may, however, stay around Austin and go to the Zilker gardens to do some Moleskine drawing!