I’m off to Austin to help keep it weird. For those of you not from Texas, the advertising slogan for the city is “Keep Austin Weird,” and it doesn’t need much assistance. It truly is a great place with honky-tonks, barbecue joints and more than 200 music venues, not to mention being a laid-back college town and the state capital.
Did you know that the capitol dome is taller than the U.S. capitol? I don’t think that is supposed to happen, but everything is not bigger in Texas for nothing.
Although I really like Austin, it truly is pretty outlandish, and if you don’t believe it, try visiting a few of the high schools. I chaired the reviews for all eleven, and I can confirm that the dress code is not exactly enforced; and I’m talking about teachers!!! Let’s just say that piercings and tattoos are allowed for young and old alike, and they are proud to sport them.
The funniest attire I saw though was this very large female teacher dressed in a purple velour sweat suit, a purple hat and purple shoes to match. But she didn’t stop there; her fingernails were at least an inch and a half long—so long they curled under, and they were painted purple with a little gold jewel in the middle of the index ones. Where did she find this outfit? How did she grow these nails? They had to be real—fake ones just don’t look this bad.
But the best story of my accreditation visits occurred at a high school in the southern part of town. Judy, the fearless former high school principal, was serving on the team. Just as the last bell rang, she stepped toward the front door. Just as she did, two students were scuffling playfully, and one accidentally fell against her. She didn’t fall, but obviously he made contact.
The other student yelled at him, “You f—— fool, you nearly knocked that ole lady down.” Judy was horrified when she came back to the room where the other members of the team were working. She related the story and reiterated, “Can you believe he called me an ole woman?” Forever the principal who could no longer be shocked, the f—— part went right over her head.
On this trip I’m going for an accreditation meeting and then to present a training for schools going through an upcoming accreditation review. So, I’ll be working some and playing a little. We always manage to go to great restaurants and find time for fun.
When this trip is over, I will have logged over 50,000 miles on Continental just since January. That doesn’t count my travel on Southwest Airlines this year, and there were several trips with them as well. I told you I traveled a lot. I don’t make this stuff up or anything else in my blogs. My life is just one big crazy happening, and I love it that way!