Sunday, April 29, 2001

The last few days I've been second guessing my decision to go on this trip. I keep thinking that it's going to be a horrible mistake. That I'll be homeless when I get back. That I won't be able to find gainful employment. That pestilence and famine will sweep across my path for the entirety of my future. But then the reality of what I'm doing sets in. Knowing that in a matter of days I'll be in a place I've never been before and seeing things I've never seen. That I'll be refreshing my senses...doing things that are important for the "living" part of life. I keep thinking that someone who would quit their job, go off to South America, put their life on hold, and have no security when they get back must either have really big balls or must simply be blind to the reality everyone else lives in. And I did it all within earshot of my 27th birthday. How sweet it is.

The self-doubt has certainly been a factor in my mood the last couple days, but the journey presses on. Even if this is the stupidest thing I've ever done, I have no choice but to see it through...and believe me, I've done dumber shit than go see a couple foreign countries. Selah.

So yesterday Lisa and I drove up to Austin to see some old friends...mainly Lisa's old friends from the CollegeStudent.com days. It was good to see those guys and hear about how excited they are to see us off. It really felt good to see how much people care about Lisa and think she is such a good person. And while she played hostess to the females at one end of the group I chatted up the fellows who were sitting around drinking Shiners. One conversation I found particularly interesting was with current cc sales guy Bill W. who was sharing some of his "dark and evil" pre-bankruptcy cc stories (the ones that invariably involve the former ceo of cc, michael pousti, spending investors money in all sorts of unscrupulous ways). Those stories just never seem to stop coming out of the woodwork.

After drinks at the Iron Cactus, we strolled down to Shakespeare's and I took a solo trip to Joe's Generic Blues Bar which was across the street. It was a shitty little dive bar, with a small stage and a smokey atmosphere. There was a trio up on stage echoing the sounds of SRV and very handily working the crowd. The coolest thing about this bar though was that you had to practically walk across the stage and out the back door to use the men's bathroom. The men's bathroom was located outside in a particle board shack. When I went out to use it I saw more guys pissing in the weeds than I did inside the bathroom (which was basically a cesspool with a sink).

As is usually the case in Austin, we closed down sixth street with bellies full of beer and liquor. Lisa had not drank much at all and was the designated driver (designated to drive my drunk ass home). By the time we got back to San Antonio, it was 3:30am and we were both beat.

Our days in San Antonio are quickly wrapping up and soon we'll be flying out to Lima, Peru. Lisa had her prescription for panic medicine filled, so there won't be the usual hysterics I associate with flying with Lisa. Poor girl, I know the flight has been bothering her for weeks now. Ahhh, better living through chemistry. As for me, I am 100% ready. One of the fringe benefits of visiting Lisa's parents is that they receive the Wall Street Journal, and just the other day they had a story in there about a city discovered in Peru that is reportedly the oldest city ever found in the Americas. Now that sounds like a worthy side trip to me. I have 50 different kinds of pills to take to keep us from getting sick, so the air of invincibility is around us.