Remembering That Free Food Tastes Good

Damien, Colin and Analiese

Some of my friends from my capitol days have been loudly dropping hints about being taken to pizza for a while, so a few weeks ago we made it happen.  Despite Austin’s reputation as a liberal, politically active city, I find there’s not actually that many people that want to don fancy clothes and bear the hurricane-force winds of conservatism and lobbying that steamroll good ideas at the state capitol.  The number of lefty political types in Austin who know that “sunset” isn’t just isn’t always pretty is actually quite small.

And for those who actually want to make a real difference, the capitol can be a hard place long term.  The true-believers tend to get co-opted and absorbed or frustrated and defeated.  The life of a staffer is thankless and low-paying, and temptations to cash in through lobbying or getting some cushy state job can be strong.  But the legislative session is the only place where 20-somethings truly have the illusion of being to affect great change.

During the legislative session, we’re drowning in free food (provided by lobbyists), which we confuse for “happiness” or “work/life balance”.  When the session ends, however, free food becomes a lot more precious and exciting.

As the liberal wing of staffers, we tend to get depressed at our constant defeats, thus the need to drink.  So we went out for pizza and beer, although I think I passed on beer this time for some reason.

Damien was about to leave for Guinea to work as an election observer for the summer.  Naturally, as he was leaving his luck with the ladies increased, just when he was least able to enjoy it. He had a party a few weeks before and I stayed at his house until 5am drinking wine and tequila alternately while talking about social change, technology and girls.

Analiese and Colin (not to be confused with this Anneliese and Colin) just moved into a new house.  I give them shit for becoming suburban, quiet, boring types, but that’s mostly because I can’t afford to buy a house.  Colin gave me a few job leads which was nice, and Analiese was charming as always.  They rode their bike to Home Slice, which wins them a gold star in my book.

They were amenable to trying anchovies, and while I don’t remember if it was much of a hit, I do remember enjoying this pizza more than most.

Cost: $25.00 (I guess)
Total this year: $723