A Few Things About Austin
We have been in austin long enough for me to notice a few differences between here and dallas and develop opinions about them.
1. people in austin love to tell you how great austin in- this goes beyond the normal texas pride, it is almost annoying.
2. no donut shops- they seem to be in every shopping center in dallas, but I have only seen one here and it was a fancy one, it even had a name instead of the generic "donuts" sign.
3. there are a lot of goodwill stores/centers (whatever they are called). In the town where we live there are at least 2, Cedar Park is not that big. I am going to have to check out the one by us, just for kicks and giggles. But i guess the hipsters need somewhere to shop- was that mean, okay it kinda was.
4. the shopping bags. This is the one i need to elaborate on. Austin has a city ordinance banning plastic grocery bags, stores will sell you either reusable bags ($1+) or brown paper bags ($0.10), but there are no plastic bags within the city limits. I guess it is fine, but what gets me is when the snotty cashier asks if you really want to buy brown paper sacks... yeah I do. Clearly I don't have anything else and how am I going to get my stuff to the car... and besides that do I really look like I am in a place where I can remember grocery sacks in addition to the 17 other things it takes to get out the door with two small screaming children? Yeah I'll pay the $0.10, heck charge me a dollar just bag my stuff and let's go! Ok so maybe I have some strong feelings about that. I went to Walmart today, it didn't go well, but this has discouraged me from shopping at Walmart... until the brand new one opens up 2 miles from my house in a few weeks. Why am I willing to go to the one near my house, well I am glad you asked. It just so happens that the walmart near our house will be in Cedar Park and not Austin (we live close to Austin, maybe 4 miles from the border if that), but the ordinance only applies to stores within Austin city limits, which this one will not be, I CAN get all the plastic bags I want there. There is an HEB about a mile from my house and the first time I went they asked if plastic was ok. Coming from Dallas, I didn't know this was a thing and I was confused. The cashier explained it to me, and I told her yes, yes I would like bags. Now I kinda want to say, please bag every item in a separate bag... but I am not that wasteful. In addition to the bag thing, even when you get plastic bags (cause you specifically avoid stores within the austin city limits like me) they cram as many things as possible in them, the bag cannot hold that much, but I guess we use fewer of them. I may get my act together and have reusable ones, or I may just continue to avoid stores in austin (probably this option).
So all in all austin is fine. I like the house we are renting (it's bigger), I like where we live because it is SO close to everything, and I like that Brian's office is really really close. It is so so so nice to be close to things, we have been talking about where we will move when our lease is up and after living near things I don't think i am ready to trade that in... Lavon was great but so far, this is better. I can run to the grocery store for one thing at 4:30 (you know the missing ingredient for dinner that you want to skip but can't because it is essential, like when you want to make beach street lemon linguini and forget the lemons) and be home before 5- that is so nice. We don't spend all our time trying to get places and that is great, but I wish all the people we knew moved here...
1. people in austin love to tell you how great austin in- this goes beyond the normal texas pride, it is almost annoying.
2. no donut shops- they seem to be in every shopping center in dallas, but I have only seen one here and it was a fancy one, it even had a name instead of the generic "donuts" sign.
3. there are a lot of goodwill stores/centers (whatever they are called). In the town where we live there are at least 2, Cedar Park is not that big. I am going to have to check out the one by us, just for kicks and giggles. But i guess the hipsters need somewhere to shop- was that mean, okay it kinda was.
4. the shopping bags. This is the one i need to elaborate on. Austin has a city ordinance banning plastic grocery bags, stores will sell you either reusable bags ($1+) or brown paper bags ($0.10), but there are no plastic bags within the city limits. I guess it is fine, but what gets me is when the snotty cashier asks if you really want to buy brown paper sacks... yeah I do. Clearly I don't have anything else and how am I going to get my stuff to the car... and besides that do I really look like I am in a place where I can remember grocery sacks in addition to the 17 other things it takes to get out the door with two small screaming children? Yeah I'll pay the $0.10, heck charge me a dollar just bag my stuff and let's go! Ok so maybe I have some strong feelings about that. I went to Walmart today, it didn't go well, but this has discouraged me from shopping at Walmart... until the brand new one opens up 2 miles from my house in a few weeks. Why am I willing to go to the one near my house, well I am glad you asked. It just so happens that the walmart near our house will be in Cedar Park and not Austin (we live close to Austin, maybe 4 miles from the border if that), but the ordinance only applies to stores within Austin city limits, which this one will not be, I CAN get all the plastic bags I want there. There is an HEB about a mile from my house and the first time I went they asked if plastic was ok. Coming from Dallas, I didn't know this was a thing and I was confused. The cashier explained it to me, and I told her yes, yes I would like bags. Now I kinda want to say, please bag every item in a separate bag... but I am not that wasteful. In addition to the bag thing, even when you get plastic bags (cause you specifically avoid stores within the austin city limits like me) they cram as many things as possible in them, the bag cannot hold that much, but I guess we use fewer of them. I may get my act together and have reusable ones, or I may just continue to avoid stores in austin (probably this option).
So all in all austin is fine. I like the house we are renting (it's bigger), I like where we live because it is SO close to everything, and I like that Brian's office is really really close. It is so so so nice to be close to things, we have been talking about where we will move when our lease is up and after living near things I don't think i am ready to trade that in... Lavon was great but so far, this is better. I can run to the grocery store for one thing at 4:30 (you know the missing ingredient for dinner that you want to skip but can't because it is essential, like when you want to make beach street lemon linguini and forget the lemons) and be home before 5- that is so nice. We don't spend all our time trying to get places and that is great, but I wish all the people we knew moved here...
Sorry about the shopping bag thing. That might be a problem for me. I have a couple thousand in my garage waiting to be recycled if you ever need to borrow any... And donuts! You'll have to try some fancy ones to compare with ours here.
ReplyDeleteThey have that same plastic bag law in Seattle, you will get used to it. I love my reusable ones because they are heavy duty and can hold more. We use them for various purposes around the house all the time. And you will be amazed what great stuff you find at good will (says the not cool, non-hipster). Can't wait to visit and have a fancy donut!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.roundrockdonuts.com
ReplyDelete