Every time one of my nieces or nephews turn 16, they fly out to where I’m living to spend a week with me.
As soon as I whisked Jasmine from the airport, we went straight to a locally owned 24-hour diner.
As much as I wanted to impress my niece, I loved my entree as well: collard greens pasta!
Since we were already on South Congress, we walked North so she could see the sights on this historic street and get some local ice cream.
Then of course, I had her stand under the famous penis-shaped hotel sign.
Followed by posing in front of some famous grafiti.
Later that evening, she had her first, and perhaps last, capoeira class. Everyone assured her that it’s always confusing for the first couple of months.
Unfortunately, I had to drag her to a 6-hour meeting on Tuesday, but she was a trooper, texting and reading an actual book. Since the meeting was a few blocks away from the State Capitol, we took a little mini-tour.
In the evening, we went to a Spanish conversation class, followed by poetry slam. The poets were their usual, high-energy extreme emotion selves, but the featured artist was a sword swallower.
It was bad enough when he swallowed the sword and bowed at the waist, but then he had to do 20 pushups.
Followed by lifting several purses by the swords in his gut.
My insides were already wrenching when he did the ultimate: the snake with swords in his gut.
The next day, Jasmine tried her first bikram yoga class and we went to a dinner theatre to see a sorry movie that she picked. At least the food and drink were good! We had to endure a 3-hour meeting Thursday. Yet on the way to put my parking permit on the dashboard, I found a $20 just lying on the asphalt. At the conclusion of the meeting, I was gifted 2 bottles of red wine, but only one was palatable. I later took the other one to a party. I figured since one had to be drunk to drink it, then a party would be the perfect place to offload it.
We attended a book signing at a local museum where a married couple had documented a brief history about the traditionally Black Rosewood neighborhood.
At the same museum, there was another event, which featured a beautiful dress made of a thousand red origamy cranes. That was a fundraising, concious-raising occasion to bring awareness to domestic violence.
After her second bikram yoga class on Friday afternoon, Jasmine enjoyed an oreo custard shake. While still sipping our shakes, we walked into an Indian-fusion restaurant.
We regrouped at home and then a few hours later, we went to an art opening where the featured artist had won a contest for his acrylic collection of “discard piles.”Although the gallery was small, the crowd was huge, full of interesting people. One of whom had attended the last Austin Writers Roulette and was promoting my show! Of course I couldn’t leave during that high moment.
We arrived late to our second stop for the evening at the natural history museum. We only heard a song and a half from the live band playing in front of the museum, but we were in time to get one of the most delicious brisket sandwiches. They were so packed with meat, I had to pick out and eat half the meat first before I could eat the rest as a sandwich.
This is as close as Jasmine got into the museum of natural history. When we finished our “sloppy joes,” we wanted to wash our hands in the bathroom, but by that time, the museum was officially closed except for the employees who were cleaning up. I thought I’d sweet talk my way in. Yet the way one of the guards asked me “What for?!” when I asked to go in, told me that my charms were not going to work. At least he agreed to take our picture and smiled when I asked him if my lipstick was OK.
We were right on time for our 3rd event for the night. We’d gone to listen to a forro band, but before the start of their 1st set, there was a 30-minute forro class. I was happy that Jasmine wasn’t at all timid about trying it out.
She even danced with the forro teacher once the band got rolling.
Toward the end of our evening, blessed rain started pouring in sheets. We stayed an hour later just so the rain could lessen. Fortunately, I’d parked right in front of the place and had a short walk to the car. Nonetheless, we stayed up until 2.
Saturday afternoon, Jasmine had her first tango class. Jasmine’s mother didn’t want her to dance with “older men.” So, I’ve got evidence of each one she practiced with.
Here’s partner #1.
#2
#3
#4
Not counting this dance partner since she’s a woman.
#5
Then she enjoyed her first tango dance after class.
We high-tailed it to a BBQ restaurant after tango class.
I knew that she’d like the moist brisket, creamed corn and ribs, but what really surprised both of us was…a peacock just strutting around on the lawn outside of the BBQ joint.
Since the BBQ place was near the mall, I took Jasmine there for some last-minute souvenir shopping. Out of all the things, this was my favorite–she didn’t buy it for anyone though.
Later that evening we drove over an hour to go north of Austin to attend an outdoor historical musical. We were almost on time too, given the wild goose chase GPS took us on when we were about 15 minutes away from the destination. I knew something was up when no other cars were around. We came across a group of about 10 men. All with hunting rifles, but we didn’t stop to ask them for directions.
This musical has run yearly for 21 years. I loved it when the only black actress in the entire cast said one line and her family applauded as if she recited a soliloquy. The costuming and props were very rich-looking although I found the firecracker gunfire far too loud and frequent.
I was pleased to see that Texan women were portrayed as having spunk, which motivated one male character to declare, “There are only two ways to handle women, but no one knows what they are!” During another scene, the proud townswomen chased away the harlots who’d come to set up business. As one townswoman chased them away, she said, “Hit the trail, Jezebel!”
After two nights in a row of going to bed at 2 am, I finally got Jasmine out of bed on Sunday morning so she could pack up her things, get dressed and have the fastest brunch ever at one of my favorite Sunday brunch places before whisking her off to the airport. I was relieved when I got her text 25 minutes later that she was boarding her plane. I hope Jasmine enjoyed her week with her coolest aunt as much as I did!
