Matt and Devon, ACL and Swine Flu

Matt, Devon and Erin, post-ACL, pre-pizza

My friends Devon and Matt came to Austin for ACL two weeks ago.  We went to Homeslice on Saturday night, right after the amazing Ghostland Observatory set.  None of us had seen them before, and we were blown away by their performance.

We were also cold, wet and muddy.  It rained all day, and while Devon, Erin and Matt decided to fight the rain with jackets and ponchos, I embraced it by wearing a swimsuit, quick dry shirt, etc.  Well, they were right and I was wrong.  I became miserably wet, and two days later, came down with the swine flu.  Pretty ironic that a Jew who doesn’t eat pork gets the swine flu.  For the last two weeks I’ve felt like crap, although I’m doing a lot better now and just have a residual cough.

Anyhoo, my memories of the night are sorta hazy, partially due to the feverish haze that I endured after that weekend, and partially due to the three pitchers of beer that we split that night.

I had told Devon and Matt that the staff all knew me pretty well, so when they beat us there, they used my name to get a table and got a blank stare.  Guess I’m not as much of a big kahuna at Homeslice as I thought.

In a small world moment earlier in the weekend, I learned that Devon was friends with Nano Whitman from an exchange thing they did together in Ghana.  Devon had just gone back to visit the program and hung out with Nano’s brother, who’s still there.  One of her tertiary goals on her trip to Austin was trying to catch up with him, and she was pretty amazed to learn that he manages Homeslice, a visit to which was even higher on her to do list.  I think they met briefly towards the end of the weekend, but I’m not sure.

After we were seated, we jabbered with Mark, our waiter, for awhile and brainstormed strategies for the next Hands on an Eggplant Sub contest.  After a soggy day, the hot pizza and cold beer were amazing.

We got basil on half because they weren’t sure if they could handle the hardcore basil.  Devon and Matt loved the pizza, and there were no leftovers.  Hopefully they liked it enough that they’ll come back again.  If so, I hope there trip doesn’t portend another visit from their friend Mr. Swine Flu.  He’s not so welcome.