Sunday, October 5, 2008

Texas-y Things

Being since I don't have a job yet (I think I'm in denial that I've come back to Austin as an adult, not a college student) I have been filling my time with all things Texas, Austin and yoga. For starters, Stephanie (who I nannied during college and who now ATTENDS college) went with me to see the wonderful documentary The Unforseen. The film is about conservation of water here in Austin - particularly of the Edwards Aquifer, where our city gets all its water, and Barton Springs, a natural wonder where I grew up swimming and that is my zen place. Austin is so gorgeous that people keep trying to build here, but developing sensitive areas will pollute the water and ultimately destroy something we humans have no right to obliterate: Barton Springs. Time and again the community here has spoken out against these developers, and The Unforeseen exposes that struggle against big corporations and deep wallets. It has been critically acclaimed and hopefully its message will not only inspire more Austinites to protect their community and public space rights, but it will also help the conservation movement nation wide. It is a wonderful, touching movie made all the more meaningful by being shown at the springs! So, Steph and I brought oversized towels and sat out under the stars with fellow movie/Austin nerds watching a film in the very place it focused on. Ahhh. . . so satisfying.

Alright - enough about my pet causes. Now, it's time for ice cream! Texas has an ice cream company called Blue Bell Creameries and they make the yummiest, creamiest treats! If you grew up in Texas, this stuff is like mother's, uh, frozen milk. Susan and I made a little day trip to their headquarters and learned the following: although Blue Bell is only offered in about 13% of the US, it is the number 3 ice cream nation wide! Also, it takes the milk of 50,000 cows to produce one day's worth of ice cream - and all of that milk comes from independent, Texas dairies. Oh, and my favorite piece of trivia about Blue Bell is that Bush, Sr. used to have it shipped to the White House while he was president. Hooray for ice cream!

Susan with the sculpture of the little girl and cow that are always on Blue Bell products.


That cow looks pretty content, right? Surely this ice cream comes from "happy cows."

Me with Blue Bell's first refrigerated truck, purchased in the 30s. Its a Ford, naturally!



1 comment:

Holly said...

Both please! I want to watch that film at Barton Springs with you while enjoying some Blue Bell Ice cream. EX-cellent ( finger tenting )!