Happy Fall!

First post of October! I'd like to highlight some fun new stuff that I've done in the past few weeks:

1. Last night was my first visit to a Texas high school football game. If you're not from Texas, it's ok, you may be confused as to why this is such a major event. IT'S BIG. One of my friends is a tennis coach/teacher at a local high school, so she volunteered her free passes so we could go. Another friend that went used to be in marching band like me, and we got there just in time for halftime, thus my experience started with comparing Texas high school marching band to my experience in Kansas. Some differences include the twirler chick who throws the baton (raised from infancy with private tutors), only 2 drum majors (not dependent on size of band), and most notably that the marching band attends ALL games, even away games. So at halftime, the away team goes first and then the home team. Weird. As far as the game goes, the most disturbing thing was that there was no student section! No school spirit! All the students were spread out! How silly, right?

After my experience, my friend remarked to me that the game I just saw was not representative of a true game, and that I would need to visit a more rural location to get the full cultural experience. I'm looking forward to it!

2. I ate at my first food trailer in Austin. Food trailers seem to be a unique occurrence, as several of my friends have remarked they aren't that common elsewhere. Needless to say, the food was amazing and so was the experience. A lot of local Austin restaurants get their start in a trailer, so it's usually a good bet - and pretty cheap!

3. Another food one. I ate at a restaurant called Frank, which served gourmet hot dogs, anything pork, and yes, even a chocolate bacon martini. (Yuck, right? Apparently my friend who ordered it didn't think it was that bad!) The restaurant was really well decorated, with lots of "old" or unique items, like this sweet fan thing on the ceiling that was connected to one motor. Anyways, it was also in downtown Austin, which makes it that much more fun.

4. I love fall in Texas.

5. I just finished the book Atonement by Ian McEwan. Overall, I would not recommend it. All of the people on the back cover seemed to like it (but don't they always?) and even compared him to Jane Austen. Woah, buddy. I found it to be overdescriptive and had a really unnatural, odd plot. The premise of the book (from the back cover) is that little Briony, aged 12 or so, witness a flirtation between her sister and a family friend the same age. Because Briony doesn't have a grasp on adult motives and is just growing up herself, it results in a crime that spans year and years.

After reading that introduction, I started reading the book waiting for the event to happen that would supposedly change the course of everything. Well, it happened, but I didn't see any huge ramifications right away, and so was pretty disappointed. Then, another event happens that I think they actually meant to say was THE event, which in turn does effect a lot of things in the future. So I was thrown off for about half the book. In normal plot structure, you get a few pages of introducing the characters, then a problem arises. The rest of the book is full of ups and downs as the problem is worked out and finally resolved. This book did not follow that structure, so it was really hard to follow and lacked momentum. At times, the chapters were written from the point of view of the mother (who wasn't a main character) or trailed off talking about one of the main character's war experiences. And I had a lot of questions at the end. A LOT. And a lot of ways I thought it could've been a better book. Sigh.

6. Did I mention I love fall in Texas? It's 75 degrees and sunny outside right now!