SXSW 2010

For those of you who aren't aware (as I wasn't until my decision to move to Austin), SXSW stands for South by South West. It is a week long music and interactive media festival that shuts down traffic in downtown Austin and brings in hundreds of bands and entertainers from all over the world. There are the big names, like this years' Muse, Stone Temple Pilots, Cheap Trick, etc whom all get to throw a full on concert at one of the cities massive venues. The rest of the bands get a half hour each and rotate all day long for the length of the festival. Most bands will play 3 or 4 different venues during their stay at what locals call "South by". So last night my roommate Michelle and I headed out into the craziness...these are our stories.

Driving into downtown was easier than expected as we meandered down Guadalupe and decided to grab a parking spot at a lot fairly close to everything. We parked, made sure to have everything we needed and walked first to a bar called The Ginger Man. I had heard a lot about it so wanted to check it out, plus it served food and we were both starving. In the standing room only bar, we got to watch a band from Spain while eating empanadas and drinking good beer. Great start to the night!

From there we wandered down 4th street and decided to keep moving as there weren't many people around that area yet. We ended up on 6th, which is the main thoroughfaire in Austin and popped in and out of several bars to listen to various bands. We listened to one purely because the drummer was HOT and ended up being invited to their next performance that night.


Michelle wanted to see the situation with Muse, so we headed over to the venue and I got a few pics of all the people waiting to get a glimpse of them as well as pics of their tour bus. No tickets were to be had, which suited me fine since I could honestly chew my arm off if forced to listen to even one of their songs.

The time went by quickly and we discovered it was time to walk over the bridge to see Cheap Trick! We made our way through the crowds and I got a free hug and then we watched the bats flying out from under the bridge. The venue for Cheap Trick is outdoors, so we got a bad shave ice and positioned ourselves as close as non-ticketed people could get. Cheap Trick was probably a pretty great band in their day...but one song in and Michelle and I were done. They played their big hit "I want you to want me" only three songs in, while I was in a massive line for the port-o-potties, so we met up with our friends and left.

First we walked to a stage in south congress at the advice of a friends' date which turned out to be a waste of time. Michelle and I grabbed a pedicab so we could try and see the band that invited us to their later performance, but when we got there they were behind schedule and I didn't want to miss HoneyHoney. We walked along 6th street again and Michelle had to run back to grab another friend so I wandered along laughing at the people and made my way to The Tap Room at Six. It's a lounge within another lounge...and the people were at fire capacity when I arrived...they looked like sardines.

While waiting outside, I ended up getting to chat with Ben, one of the singers of the band HoneyHoney and figured I couldn't get in since I didn't have one of the cities SXSW badges. After the band began setting up, the parents of another band member began chatting with me and ended up bringing me in with them!! So I got great pics of HoneyHoney and rocked out with all the other fans. I had seen them in Florida two years ago when they along with Matt Nathanson opened for Lifehouse. What I love is they are from LA, I am from LA, I have seen them twice, but never once in LA. That's rad, right?

With my purpose for the evening out of the way, I headed up to dance with Michelle and her friends at the bigger lounge, but they were ready to go. We walked loudly to Cheers and had shots and beers. We were meeting up with other friends of friends and I chatted with a bunch of them while Michelle and her friends danced. We ended up walking to Katz, an Austin institution that serves food 24/7. We shared bagel sandwiches, french fries, fried pickles, eggs benedict and 1lb turtle cheesecake. That's normal, right??


All in all, the evening had been a blast and a total success on seeing who I went to see! The energy of Austin was alive and well throughout the night and the characters we got to experience were nothing short of Venice Beach quality. Good times!

Lady Antebellum at Rodeo Austin

What a night!! Amy and I decided to meet at my work so that we could take one car. We headed out at just before 6, knowing we had plenty of time for the 8:45 concert time on our tickets. We decided on Suzi's Chinese food and I ended up getting sushi, which always makes me happy. The desserts were lacking, so we decided to head to the Rodeo to try and find something there. As we approached the fairgrounds, we saw the line for the entrance we needed to take and just started laughing. It was basically an entire block long...which in Texas is FAR.

After over 40 minutes, literally, we finally got to the front and paid, but then had to wait behind cars in order to actually turn into the parking lot. So much for spare time! We made it into the fairgrounds no problem and Amy saw some old students of hers as we walked around trying to find dessert. Everything seemed rediculously overpriced, so we decided to go wait in line to get in, even though we still had about a half hour. Good plan. This line was even longer than the parking and was about 6 people wide as well. We made our way to the back and had a smoker in front of us, a group of teens behind us and later a group of scandalously-clad college aged girls who tried to cut the line once it started moving.

We ultimately made it into the arena and were quite literally standing on the dirt that the rodeo had just taken place on. We positioned ourselves next to the stage and the concert began pretty quickly. As a new country fan and even newer Lady A fan, I hadn't heard more than a handful of their songs before, but each of them is so cute and talented it didn't matter. I had a great time and had fun taking photos and videos of the night. A few are here, but check out my facebook and you can see more!

Salvation Point 4

My goodness does time fly. This week we discussed resistible vs. irresistible grace. This is to say that while both sides believe that God asks all people to come to Him, one side believes that He can be resisted based on our will while the other believes that if we are to be saved, we will also feel an internal call which we will neither be able to nor desire to resist.

Confused yet? Good! Confusing = questions = thought. Thought is good. After reading as much as we had time to on this matter, I came to the personal conclusion that grace is irresistible. This is based not just on scripture (as if that's not enough), but also on my own experiences.

The day that I visited Bethlehem and really felt the presence of Jesus with me where He was born, something shifted in me. It is not something I could have taken or left, not something I was offered and not something I had any control over. From that moment everything about my feelings and decisions has changed. I immediately went back on board our cruise ship and was able to read and understand parts of the bible that had for my whole life sounded like gibberish. I felt intensely and personally connected to Jesus. And I felt an even stronger presence of the Spirit with me every moment. I always felt I was never alone, but this is a much more intense feeling. At no time have I ever even considered whether this is something I could say, "Um, no thank you" to. It's a feeling, an energy, a gift. It happened to me, through no will, request or acceptance on my part.

I do believe that others experiences could be different than my own. I believe God shows Himself to us in the way in which we will recognize Him. For me, and my understanding, His grace given to me was irresistible. And much appreciated!

Kite Festival

The parking in downtown Austin is always a piece of work, but with SXSW coming to town things have gotten even harrier. After church a group of friends and I decided to head over to the annual kite festival in Zilker Park. When it took us two sessions of light changes to get through an intersection, we decided to park behind an Austin Sco-Cone institution that I believe is called Sno-Beach.

The Sno-Cones rivaled that of my favorite Hawaiian shave ice and we ate our way to the park. From blocks away we started seeing the dots in the sky of various sized kites. There were those that looked like bears, some wind tunnels and even Disney's princesses made a showing. Food was our mission and we were quickly finding out that would not be an easy feat. The line for just the port-o-potties was nearly 50 people long and the food wasn't any better. What made matters worse is that halfway through waiting in the line for food we were finally told we had to go find a ticket booth as the food ones took no cash. One of our friends and I headed off to find the tickets as the others waited in line.

We finally got our tickets, after being nearly scalped by a kite wire and being told the tickets had run out. The Chipotle Carne Asada tacos with guacamole were worth the wait and we met up with other friends to eat and chat on the lawn. I took a few photos and we laughed at the alien kite that everyone seemed to have. Leaving, we again waited in line, this time for a bus that was supposedly going to take us closer to our car. After yet another pointless wait we discovered it would land us several blocks further than we were already.

Walking back was an adventure though. We were handed biblical literature, with the words "Please Don't Litter" written on the back, of which we also saw along the road many times; stopped into a cafe just to use the bathroom; a couple of our group got second sno-cones; and we were happy to discover our car had not been towed even though we technically weren't supposed to leave it where we did.







All in all, it was an exciting and fun afternoon in the sun. Did I mention it was 72 with the perfect kite-flying breeze? Happy sunbathing day!!

Austin Rodeo

The Rodeo is in town and opened today!! My boss and I took Sarah to her first fairgrounds. When we arrived, the parking was confusing and we made some wrong turns, but eventually we ended up where we needed to be. As is my usual, we ended up with an excellent spot (thank you St. Christopher) and sat Sarah in her Chariot (anyone heard of BOB?? Amazing stroller!)

Walking through the empty turnstiles was odd and we discovered that the rodeo was free opening day! Score. We decided we should get some yummy greasy food and settled on pulled pork sandwiches from a place called "Bubbas". Welcome to Texas! haha.

To the right was the childrens area, so we took Sarah over and let her wander around near the unopen petting zoo. She calls all animals "Doggy" and says, "Woof". Too cute. There was a band playing just outside, so we took her out and watched her try to walk on the grass in her new shoes. She loves the shoes and is walking so great with them!! She dances my shifting back and forth and then swaying her arms around. It's adorable.




Beyond that area was the shopping center and stables. We tried to have her watch some cattle herding, but she wasn't having it, so we headed over to the ride area. Wandering around an unopen carnival area is kind of odd, but Sarah liked the bright colors and we made note of the rides she could go on with her mama if they came back. After going to see the Chuck Wagon Competition area, Sarah was over it, so we walked quickly through the shopping area and made our way back to the car.




Having grown up with the Orange County Fair, this seems really small; but I'm excited to go see a real rodeo one of these days!! Super fun day and such gorgeous weather. I am a lucky girl!

Salvation Point 3

This weeks class was much lighter, which was nice. Lauren opened us up with worship and then we began by looking up various scriptures to support the two sides of Limited vs. Universal Atonement. This is the argument regarding Christs' death on the cross. Was his death the atonement for all sins of the universe or specifically for those who have been chosen by the Book of Life? We read through scripture that quite honestly points us directly in the middle. There are references to both sides and I felt like I left with more questions than answers; which kind of made me happy. It's nice to feel challenged and brought to scripture.

On one hand, it makes sense that Christ would only die for those who will ultimately have use for His blood. On the other hand, if you believe one simply chooses Christ to be "saved", then His blood has wiped all sin away and you must simply follow Him in order to "cash in" on it. For lack of better phrasing.

As usual, I am the ultimate middle-grounder. I am seeing very much my own personality sitting in my religious beliefs. I read through all scripture and see two conflicting sides, which to me means (since the Bible is divinely produced and therefore all correct) that the reality falls in the middle and the extremes are listed so that God can show us we need Him as we are unable as humans to actually follow all of these laws.

My response to limited vs. universal is this: whomever needs and wants it is covered. Period.

Tony Robbins

For anyone who knows of Tony Robbins, you are aware of his potential to help you with yours. I was led, through a retweeet believe it or not, to his website and took a survey that is meant to teach you more about yourself. I loved this section. It was headed with a disclaimer that this was for others, not for me to read. So here you are...

Things to do to effectively communicate with Molly:
• Find some areas of common interest and involvement.
• Break the ice with a brief personal comment.
• Be casual and informal with gestures and body language.
• Be certain to emphasize next action-steps.
• Join in with some name-dropping, talk positively about people and their goals.
• Provide clear, specific solutions, and support your position.
• Plan some extra time in your schedule for talking, relating, and socializing.

Things to avoid to effectively communicate with Molly:
• Don't be domineering or demanding.
• Don't force others to agree quickly with your objectives and position; provide some time to
warm up to the ideas and for mutual ownership.
• Don't be rude, abrupt in your delivery.
• Don't talk down to anyone.
• Don't leave decisions hanging in the air.
• Don't leave the idea or plan without backup support.
• Don't be short-tempered, cold, or tight-lipped.

Fredericksburg

Driving into Austin in December, I drove through a quaint little town called Fredericksburg. Today I finally got to go exploring! A new friend here, Peter, took me out for the day to winetaste and meander around the town. When we first got there, we parked at the visitors center and made our way through the little shops that line the street. We sampled cheese balls, olive oils, wine and fudge before heading to the brewery for some of the best porter and stout I've had in the US!! I figured I would let the pictures speak for themselves for this blog :) Enjoy!

Salvation Point 2

Conditional Salvation was the point of tonights' class. The idea being that if you are an Arminian, you believe that Salvation rests on your shoulders. There is something you must do in order to be "saved". That something is choosing Christ. If you are a Calvinist, you believe there is no condition. There is nothing you must do, say or feel in order to be "saved". You are one of Gods' chosen people or you are not, plain and simple.

To the surprise of anyone who knows me, I sat back and said nothing until the end of class, and even then it was a simple illustration to help drive in a point being made by someone else. The reason I was unusually silent was because there was a massive amount of thoughts all firing at once in my brain regarding this issue. They went something like this:

1) If sin did not exist until Eve ate from the tree of knowledge only after being told not to, then all sin exists solely because God set up rules He knew we would disobey. He shows the knowledge that we will disobey these rules because He also sent His son, Jesus, to save us from these sins that would not exist if He didn't make the rules. What is then the purpose of the rules? Why set people up to fail and then give them a way out? There seems to be something we're missing...something deeper.

2) If God created all people knowingly setting us all up to go to Hell and then "saving" only a certain predetermined subset, can He be called gracious, loving or just? When He who sets the rules then punishes not those who break the rules, but whomever He feels like, what kind of message does that send? We read that God loved Jacob (who was the bad kid) and hated Esau (who was the good kid) when they were still in their mothers' womb. Why then was Esau born? In using a person to make a point for another, as is part of scripture, is He not proving His superiority and power instead of His grace and love?

We are only sinners by Gods set of rules. But it is God who makes the rules. So He could have made different rules that would all be easy for us to live by. Like don't eat yellow snow, it's a sin; don't eat toast butter side down, it's a sin; don't go to bed angry, it's a sin...you get my drift. But He didn't. He made rules that go against the very fiber of who we are...no sex before marriage, no wanting what your neighbor has, no arguing with your parents.

So again, I feel like we're missing something, something deeper. God could have made up ANY rules He wanted. He chose rules that SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. Why????? Are rules that are easy to follow useful? Do rules that are easy to follow teach us anything? Does following a rule that is easy prove your loyalty to something? One way to see this is perhaps He saw that he made us flawed and set up the rules to save us from ourselves. But the other way to see it is that He saw, in His infinite wisdom, that we only grow as people from mistakes, from problems, from torment. Show me a person who has led an easy life and you will be showing me someone without any depth who knows not who they are. For without challenge, we cease to exist. Without extremes we cannot know where the balance should be.

When you look at Salvation, do you see having a say? Do you think you, this small person, get to choose God? Or did He pick you, specifically you, the day your soul was made by Him?