This is a thread of tiny stories from my travels, beginning in September 2024 with my tour of the Eastern Seaboard. You can check out the first two parts of my travelogue below before jumping into my December 2024 tour of Austin, Texas.
READ PART ONE
READ PART TWO
12/10/2024
I thought it would be warm in Texas. My toes are cold from the second I land in Austin until Dallas, where the hotel maintenance guy jailbreaks my heating system.
Jasmine from 90 Day Fiancé said it best: “I was not born to be in this kind of weather. I’m scared of stepping out and dying. Immediately. Instantly. From hypothermia.”
However, weed is illegal there, which makes smoking it openly that much more exciting.. From the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent: “So every time we do something with an uncertain outcome—taking a “risk”—increased dopamine is released while we are determining what happens. This release alerts other parts of the brain that the activity or situation is new and deserves attention.” Yes, yes, I am not a developing adolescent, but I have AuDHD (ADHD + Autism), which is kind of the same thing. What I’m saying is smoking weed openly in a red state is the closest I’ll ever know to what it feels like to book me.
I was too early to check in, so I sat in the condotel lobby for several hours in nerd heaven (a three-hour psychopharmacology lecture for my ADHD Clinical Course.)
By late afternoon I was hungry enough to close my laptop, and went out in search of BBQ or tacos. The wind felt mean, and the buildings were so tall and spread out that it felt weird to be walking. Years ago when I headlined a one-nighter in Dallas, the booker told me I shouldn’t walk to get coffee the following day or my nails done or anywhere, at all really, because “walking is for poor people.”
The first Google approved place I encounter, BBQ, was drafty and devoid of customers, so I let the cashier continue to scroll her phone and wandered further uptown. I stopped to hit my pen and saw a neon sign hung in an alley that just said Tacos. Inside I found Taqueria 10 de 10. You have to walk through a bar called ReyRey to get to it.
It’s a speakeasy, but you can see it from the entrance to the bar. If there was a door between them, it was propped open. The owners of ReyRey created the taco shop to look like a Mexican market, with white tile walls and Coca-Cola logos on high tops scattered throughout the space. The pair also bartend, which may be why the taco spot is so easy to find once you’re there. That way, when the uncountable hordes of drunks spill off the street demanding to know where the tacos are, all a busy bartender has to do is point in the other direction.
The tacos were fucking perfect. I say this as an Angeleno. The meat was high quality, the green hot sauce was the perfect balance of tomatillo, jalapeño, and cilantro, and the tortillas were made in-house. Probably by someone taught by their abuela.
Late night I got chips and white queso at the closest food truck park and found a (heated) bar to eat it in, have a beer, and read my book. When I saw the resident cat winding around the bar stools, I realized that I was happy. I looked at the cute bartender and said, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”
12/11/2024
Completed the lecture “Rethinking ADHD: A New Treatment Approach” and met with my Autistic Peer Support Coach before I’ve even had breakfast.
Near sunset, I walked nearly two miles to the Congress Bridge to see the large bat population that lives under the bridge stream out into the night. I took a long, winding path through some green space, flanked by the Colorado River on one side, the city on the other. In the middle distance, an installation of Christmas lights sparkles. I love Christmas lights, fairy lights, even the sun glancing off the ocean. They remind me of being small, on the Peter Pan Ride at Disney World, as your pirate ship flies over London. The glittering lights below seemed to bid safe passage to Neverland.
I accept a microdose of ketamine nasal spray when all dates and collabs were done. I know it’s to treat trauma & depression, but it also pairs nicely with 90 Day Fiancé.
Both collabs I did in Austin (lesbian & MMF) went smoothly & are available on my Onlyfans for $25 each if you mention this blog post.
12/12/2024
I’m up early, packed, and checked out. I’m taking a ride-share app I just downloaded called Hitch to Dallas.
See you there.
