things i think about while powerwashing 56

i am not where i usually am

Hi all!

Well, I’m not where I usually am. Not in California, that’s for sure. Maybe yall can guess using this picture. Anyway I’m writing this from the floor because it’s pretty comfortable and I’ve been having a good time since I gotten here!

Life has definitely picked up a bit since I last wrote to you all. Here in Austin I’ve already had a lot of fun exploring new restaurants, meeting up with subscribers, and almost getting hit by cars – probably like 4 or 5 occurrences now. These guys do not care about how they drive and in the words of esteemed subscriber Kristi Nguyen: “[they] be testing me.”

The restaurants, though, have been an experience in themselves. I haven’t had a lot of experience with not being able to speak the same language as the waiter but at this particular taco restaurant we definitely struggled. “More time” was taken as modelo and many thumbs up were exchanged. Through hand gestures (tapping wrist for time) and Google Translate (surprisingly useful) we were able to order some excellent tacos. All while getting assailed by the onion vapors flowing like a river throughout the restaurant.

But the pain was worth it! As you can see from the photo, these were three very nice tacos accompanied by some great sauces to boot.

The next night, I got to meet up with esteemed subscriber Emi Chan (our animal section GOAT) and ate at a more upscale-ish American restaurant. And here I was greeted by some solid American food that was pretty good and I have no other words besides it was really great to catch up with her! The last time I met up with her I think it was edition 22, almost exactly a year ago, when she and her partner visited me in the Bay.

It’s weird being a tourist in someone else’s town. I’ve been a host so much that I don’t really know what to do when randomly showing up at my friends’ door at 1am. Do I want to go out at night? What museums are there to offer? Do I just want to drink some coffee? Without my hyper obsessive planning I am a lost soul.

So anyway there’s the ramble while I lay on the floor writing this newsletter. We’ll be back in CA for a while before the next trip so stay tuned and see you all later!!!

anonymous subscriber news

Keeping it short today — as always, hit that link when you got news to share with us all! https://forms.gle/EapnUJ1RzXfALtWZ9

• anon relates so hard to that other anon who bought a zojirushi water boiler. We all deserve nice things
• anonymous subscriber is thankful Ryan is restarting Tech Tuesdays (TM)
• anonymous subscriber got viciously ill on their business trip
• anonymous subscriber is going to do something exciting and they’re not telling us what it is!
• anonymous subscriber built a desk

animal of the week

Though we talked a lot about Emi today, esteemed subscriber Ellie Wang (keeper of plants, baker of chips) is actually the one bringing us today’s picture of an armadillo.

A quick search tells me that it’s most likely the nine-banded armadillo (thanks Texas Parks & Wildlife!). Outstanding facts that catch my eye include

• cat-sized
• prolific diggers
• often found as victims to automobiles. Actually to invoke esteemed subscriber Emi, armadillos have a natural instinct to jump up when they feel danger. Unfortunately, that is the last thing a cat-shaped object wants to do on the road.

And that is all! We should get a better and more complete newsletter next week. See you all later! And send your animal photos to ryanjchen2@gmail.com!