2:04 p.m. // 21 March 2005

We're engaged. To each other.

Dwayne asked me while we were eating ice cream in Austin last week. We have been talking about getting married for a while, but I was still blindsided.

He was very sneaky. He was going to carry the ring around all week until he found the right moment. I had just made a joke about rings and then a weird dude on the street mistook me for Dwayne's wife. Dwayne thought it was too much coincidence, so after we shared our coffee ice cream on the bench, he looped his arm through my arm and came up with a ring box. He started off by saying, "What would you say to..." -- and I thought he had some idea of what bands to see for the night -- "... this one?"

We're not setting a date yet. My mom is already freaking out with my sister's wedding in July, so we're going to take it easy.

South by Southwest was good. Tiring, too. We saw a number of good bands, although not as many as we could have seen if we weren't so tired of walking to venues and then seeing the long lines and then walking to other venues.

We saw: NX35 bands, Midlake, Mandarin, the Dears, Best Fwends, Fatal Flying Guillotines (tiny short pants), the Minibosses, some other video game band I forgot the name of, the Saltines, the Denton Music Showcase bands, Kathy McCarty, Daniel Johnston (who gave his theory on Christmas), Erase Errata (now a trio), Lederhosen Lucil (who's awesome), Shonen Knife (too old for their schtick?), the Strange Boys, Dumb Haircuts, the OldTimerz, the Tigers, some random whiteboyrapper, and one song by the Dr. Pepper Family.

Also, I had to write stuff for the paper (yeah, I volunteered for it) so a chunk of my time was spent agonizing over that. Next time I'd better just go to enjoy myself. I did get a badge and I got to see a discussion on the 13th Floor Elevators with most of the living members, a smart, funny talk by Erykah Badu, and a dull producers' panel.

The Beatdown made its debut at a co-op show on Saturday, and then we played last night with Palomar, Thee Fine Lines and the Observers (who were added at the last second). The originally scheduled touring band never showed, which made the night run a lot more smoothly. That's probably the last show Dwayne and I will be going to at Mable's for now, because joshaA is no longer doing shows.

I think I got hit on only once all weekend. Some dude introduced himself to me as I was talking with Sam by the escalators. Stuck out his hand, asked my name and said, "I'm Rob." My eyes went down to his badge which said his name was Ulrich from L.A. "Or Ulrich," he added. Also, later, some dude on a smokebreak saw from my badge that I came from Denton, and he said: "Thank you for the Riverboat Gamblers."

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