The Finer Things In Life

Define “untapped resources.” Austin has several 24-hour coffee shops that have somehow escaped my notice. One place I’d been to months ago but it slipped my mind, but I don’t recall hearing or reading about the others until last night.

My sleep schedule is about 8 AM to 4 PM, on average. So when I’m not at work, I spend the nights sitting quietly, wishing I had someplace to go besides Wal-Mart. Now, my “quality of life” has just skyrocketed. No more feeling like a prisoner in my own apartment.

Monday night I didn’t have to work and I took a night all to myself. I watched Ocean’s 12 on my laptop at a coffee shop, then went exploring. I had an elaborate itinerary, actually. I wanted to check out several places I hadn’t taken the time to check out yet.

It’s been like that, lately. I’ve tapped into something… some specific state of mind that I can’t articulate… but maybe it will culminate when I watch Ocean’s 13 on one of my rare nights alone in a few weeks. I just need to recruit a posse.

Tuesday night I took my girlfriend salsa dancing. We went to a lesson right before the dance floor opened up. She’d been wanting to do this for a long time, and salsa dancing taps into that same… panache I was ruminating on. We’ll try to make salsa dancing a semi-regular thing.

I really enjoy shopping for women’s clothing—ironically, something she does not enjoy doing. But when I’m shopping alone, it makes me feel romantic and manly. Strike that—I don’t enjoy it. I like the concept of it, but I never have the money to buy the things I’d really like, so it usually just rubs salt in the wound. As for jewelry stores… let’s not even think about that.

For some reason, this feeling of independence evoked driving down Ward Parkway to meet Dean Yzon at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. I wish I could take a trip to the city of fountains, to feel like a couple of high rollers with him again.

In all the old familiar places…

As I was passing all these pricey restaurants, I recalled one specific night at the Plaza… I was living for free rent in exchange for part-time services as a personal assistant to a quadriplegic attorney in Overland Park. Unfortunately, sometimes I also had to cover the driver. This one night, I dropped him off to meet some friends at Kona Grill. I was unemployed at the time, gradually watching my unemployment checks deplete, so I couldn’t even conceive of dining at such an expensive establishment. Besides, in general, I harbored contempt for the trendy yuppies who went to Kona Grill on the Plaza just to be seen at that uppity place. But… as I sat, bored at Barnes & Noble, waiting for the call to bring the minivan back around to the front of the restaurant, counting the minutes of my life that ticked by, never to return, I promised myself that one day I’d get back on my feet and go to Kona Grill for dinner. A spite meal, so to speak. A revenge-against-the-universe meal at a restaurant I didn’t even really care about. I told myself that one day I’d take Brad and/or Dean there, and pay for the whole thing.

Living in Overland Park was a dark time for me.

I’m certainly no close to taking Brad and Dean out to Kona Grill; it was an empty promise from the beginning, and I knew it. I can’t even make a trip to KC at all, much less a highly funded one.

I’m going to go to Banana Republic and punch the mannequin square in the nuts.

So here I am, blogging from a coffee shop on my way to work—night watch at a very wealthy retirement community. Old, rich, white people. I was cruising the satellite view on Google Maps last night, as I am so wont to do at work, and I saw just how opulent some of the mansions around here are. I mean, I see a fair amount of them on hilltops just driving to work, but to see an overhead view of some the tucked-away mansions within walking distance of my workplace… it’s humbling. And by humbling I mean sickening.

Money. Cars, mansions, casinos. Hot tubs. Diamonds. Cigars, fine wine and cheeses. Live jazz. The opera. Nice suits and ties.

I try to “enjoy the finer things in life,” and I think I do a pretty good job of enjoying life on a shoestring budget. All I need is a full tank of gas and an appropriate mix CD. The rest, I’ll find on my explorations… or I’ll just make it up as I go. What makes me happy is, in a word, freedom.

But being surrounded by such big money all the time can wear me down.


Listening List:
Ocean’s 11 (David Holmes)
Ocean’s 12 (David Holmes)
Ocean’s 13 (David Holmes)
Out of Sight (David Holmes)
Cowboy Bebop (Yoko Kanno)
The World Is Not Enough (David Arnold)
Die Another Day (David Arnold)
Casino Royale (David Arnold)
Quantum of Solace (David Arnold)
One More Once (Michel Camilo)
This One’s From the Heart (James Darren)
Because of You (James Darren)