Joe's benefit

So, Joe's thing was today. I wandered on off to Austin -- late, as usual. I got out of College Station at about 2, which meant I got to Austin about 4...which meant I missed the only band on the bill that I actually knew. Oops. Fortunately, it seemed to be fairly unregimented as to when people were coming and going. Once I found someplace to park near La Zona Rosa and had sufficiently gawked at the partially demolished parking garage (which was simultaneously completely awesome and really fucking scary), I wandered around for about half an hour staring at the stuff that was up for auction. (BNL related stuff was a RS gold record, autographed BLAM and mini-poster, and an autographed scale? BNL Nascar hood. Other-Nettwerk-wise, there were 3 or 4 autographed Sarah Mc. CDs, and a couple of (unautographed) Avril CDs which got stuck in the teacup auction. The FNL guys sent out an autographed football and some T-shirts, as well as I guess mostly putting together the video. There were several autographed UT basketballs/footballs. And a bunch of other random things. There was a lot of stuff up in the silent auction.)

A bunch of the FNL crew (apparently) was there, as well as some of the actors. I saw Taylor Kitsch running around (Riggins - he was wearing a Roots sweatshirt, which was kind of adorable (he's from Alberta or something)), as we were leaving I saw Scott Porter (Jason Street), and the guy who plays Buddy Garrity was also there. Kyle Chandler I guess was there, although I didn't see him. He (or whoever was bidding for him in the silent auction) has girly handwriting.

I was glad to be there for a good cause and all, but I would have been bored as hell if Robin and Morgan hadn't found me to say hi, at which point I sort of glommed on to them for the rest of the evening. As it was, we jabbered for a while about the auction and things and then wandered off for a couple of hours in search of ATMs, with a lengthy detour at Starbucks, then wandered back to La Zona Rosa and jabbered for a while longer, then stared at each other for a while (Robin and Morgan were both really tired, and I run out of conversational steam very quickly), then watched the DVD they'd put together, and then wandered off to the Magnolia Cafe at about 8, after which I headed back to CS.
It was good to finally have a conversation with Robin (and to meet Morgan). Thanks for letting me follow you guys around all afternoon. ;)

I wish gas was cheaper. I remembered while driving this afternoon just how much I love taking a long drive on a sunny day. (Admittedly, my legs and neck don't appreciate it as much, particularly if it's 4 hours of driving all in all, and if half of it isn't when it's sunny.)

I think I may be actually turning into one of those people who actually listens to NPR. I haven't in the past, usually because when I'm normally in the car here they're either playing classical music (which I have to be in a certain mood for), jazz (which I am rarely in the mood for), or they have some soporific guy reading a poem (which I am never in the mood for). (And my other programmed radio stations are either playing music or have BBC news, and are thus much more interesting.) But I have discovered their podcasts (and I think I'm finally understanding the utility of the podcast in general), and there are several that I'm liking.
Of course, this is starting to drive my brain a little crazy with wanting a program that afaik doesn't exist (in short, a personal radio station programmer -- I'm pretty sure I'll rant about it in here in detail shortly because as I said, it's starting to drive my brain a little crazy because it really ought to exist, the pieces just need to get put together).