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I spent the better part of the day with my good friend Austin. I couldn't make it to his going away party on Saturday (well, I could have, but it wouldn't have been for very long and Austin is best in large doses)
He's really one of those "You had to be there" kind of people , because things happen when he's around and they make for good memories, but not always the best anecdotes, because, well, you just had to be there.
Vijita and I took him (and Sean and Barrett) with us to Berlin in the summer of 2000 when we went to visit our host families from high school. We found them Germans to stay with. Good times were had by all, but one of the first things my host sister asked about Austin upon our arrival was, "Is he retarded?"
No, he's not retarded. He's Austin.
In his own words "[He's] not afraid to live like a hobo." He called me up once during my sophomore year at Smith, and was like "Hey, I'm moving to this little town in Massachusetts called Northampton. You've probably never heard of it, but it's quaint and shit." And move he did. And he lived in the woods for awhile, in a shack-like construction that he found on the UMass grounds...'til the cops came and kicked him out.
Today we hung out at Nate's, while Sean tried to tape a mini-Maglite flashlight to his pinky to use as a guitar slide. Then we went to the Macaroni Grill for some free grub and to buy a bottle wine from Kris so that he could get ahead in the wine-selling contest at said restaurant. After that, I helped Austin sort through his toolbox, before meeting up with Guy and some dude from Louisiana for drinks at The Mill. We listened to Manfred Krug and Michael Jackson (not on the same song) in his car and planned another trip to Germany in 2008, when he finally graduates.
Funny stuff happened in between, but, you know...you just had to be there...
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