Dancing in the Streets

As this week winds down and blends into the next as they always do, I bid farewell to another energetic week in Austin.

South By South West, aka, SXSW,the University of Texas Spring Break, March Madness, and a mid-week Saint Patrick's day has brought out many, if not most, of Austin's finest. Only to be paired with tons of "out of towners" who have flocked here to soak up the sun as well as the endless tunes sweeping through every watering hole and venue in town. And as the good times begin to wane I am again reminded of why I love this city.

However, when the tourist hit the road, we will have this little gem of the Colorado back to ourselves and you know what happens when we are left to our own devices? Austin will still be weird, it will still be beautiful, and the sun will still shine nicely on us, there will just be less people around to enjoy it.

All we hear on any given news station is how bleak times are economically. Yet this week as I strolled through this fair city I couldn't help but notice that money was being spent all over the place. It kind of makes a person wish they could really invoke that whole "if I had a nickle" statement on something. We would surely fill up our pockets.

I thought yesterday as I cabbed out of downtown...Austin needs a Statue of Liberty, or at least some emblem to mark our citizen's seemingly collected mission. "Give us your poor, your tired, huddled masses, yearning to breath free." As if to have been a beacon to a "mishmosh" of free spirits, the city welcomes one and all. And to think I stumbled on this city by a stroke of fate.

I had never been in Texas aside from the massive airports of Dallas and Houston upon moving to Austin more than a year ago. I knew very little about this place I am calling home. But it didn't take me long to pick up on the pulse of Austin and before I knew it, I too was tapping my foot to the beat.

Of course I will always be Jonathon Storms from Dawson Springs, Kentucky; but my heart has opened wide for Austin, Texas. Come on down and see us sometime! "Ya hear?"