And welcome to South By South West week in the good old Austin, Texas! For those of you who don't know about this special time, let me explain. South By South West is a huge yearly festival held in Austin that has sections for interactive, film, and music. It lasts about two weeks and brings thousands upon thousands of people to this place of warmth, technology, and lots and lots of noise. I call it noise because with this many crowds, and the vast variety of music, that's what it becomes. It's talking everywhere you go, hip-hop beating out the good ol' country tune playing next door to disco rock. There are street vendors and police on horses and all sorts of promoters walking around. You are within 100 square feet of entertainment at any given spot in the city. With nearly two thousand bands participating in just four days (and that's the amount on the
official calendar... who knows how many play unofficially,) there is barely room to house them all, so every bar opens its doors to live music and even offbeat places, such as the church on Seventh Street, get involved as well.
SXSW, or "South By" to regulars/locals, has been in our lives for all of our time here. Eight years ago when Peyton bought this three bedroom/two bathroom house he began participating in the group that hosts international bands. It made perfect sense: they get free shelter at a time where available hotel rooms are like flying pigs and the host gets wristbands for all housemates. He had the space, the time, the love for music, and the urge to party.
This year's band, Still Corners from London, will be my third. As exciting as it is, it's a
lot of people, which means a
lot of beds. Beyond this group of six we are also housing two friends from Baltimore and another from London. So this weekend was busily spent preparing for their arrival, which is T-minus 1 hour. Peyton is still scouring a leaky air mattress, I've just finished vacuuming, and then we will just wait and enjoy this hour of silence before four days of craziness begin.
Usually I try, albeit unsuccessfully, to relax and soak in my spring break weekend before guests arrive. This one was no exception, though through the activity and work I did get enjoyment in the final product and that glorious tired feeling deep in my bones as I hit the bed at night. It started off with a sharp downturn: we gave Clementine back to the shelter. It was time. She was a grown up puppy ready to find her forever home. And even though my head knew all the reasons why we couldn't keep her sweet self, my heart wouldn't have it. It knew she was special and didn't want to let go. It hurt. I cried. I sniffed her little toy frog as it came out of the dryer and missed her furry munchkin self. But sometimes smarts need to beat out hearts, and deep down I know we made the right choice.
So, with this lovely start to the weekend we had to keep our minds off of the lack of pee on the floors, chewing on our legs, escapes out of the back gate, etc. So we worked. We worked on the garden and the bedrooms and the office and the front yard. We worked on cleaning all surfaces we could find and cooking up yummy meals to fuel our working selves. We worked with music and without, with laundry detergent and vinegar spray, with a white cat that came in the door a dirty grey. And we feel good. We are ready for the onslaught of people in forty-five minutes and for the first year are not tearing around the house tidying up just to make the place semi-presentable. Not saying that we should create puppy heartbreaks every year, because my emotions just can't take that, but it did help keep me on track. That and the fact that I would get to blog about our progress! Let me warn you, there were no major overhauls or much money spent, so it might not be as monumental as I've made it out to be. But it's livable and we've done well with what we had. So here are some pictures to show you the slight transformation that's happened these past 72 hours.
LIVE THE MURRAYED LIFE
