y boyfriend has been missing his college town lately. Fredericksburg, Virginia -- I imagine it all green and furry, sloping hills and colonial charm. He talks about it with a wistfulness only used for things in our memory. The air-conditioned coffeeshop. The fountain where he sometimes played guitar. The barbecue joint where he sat beside the locals, never saying a word.

******

I don't miss my college campus. I pass it nearly every day. The places I went in college - the bars and restaurants and stores - are places I still go, unless they've closed, which elicits a different kind of wistfulness. The kids on campus seem to love their Starbuck's; but as far as I'm concerned, that place is built with blood. It's the site where Les Amis once stood, the snug and unbearably pretentious cafe where we drank wine and talked big, where people actually wore berets and played chess -- people I knew, people I had crushes on. (Les Amis also boasted priceless bathroom graffiti. Back in 1992, I found this: "When tattoos and body piercing become passe, the truly hip amputate." I also enjoyed the terse, "I like to vomit.") Other hangouts hung on, like Trudy's. The waitstaff has changed, but my order hasn't: frozen margarita with salt. Neither has the price; it's still a merciful $3.50, a buck less at happy hour. Maybe if I lived far away - say, in Fredricksburg, Virginia -- I could wax eloquent about the robust tang of Trudy's drinks, the efficiency of their staff, or these pudgy dough things they called "flaquities" - but now, whenever we go (and we go all the time these days), I just hope we find a decent table. The frat boys sometimes come, and they ruin everything.

*******

I never planned to stay in Austin so long. I never planned to go to college here in the first place. I imagined myself a breezy East Coast co-ed - at Columbia, perhaps, or Williams or Yale. But I had neither the grades nor the last name for such top-tier schools. I enrolled at the University of Texas, and Austin did its voodoo magic on me. Ah, the music. Ah, the liberalism. Ah, quirkiness elevated to a civic virtue. Ah, the breakfast tacos. The breakfast tacos, the breakfast tacos.
I've been here 10 years now, and I've never gotten bored with the town. I left twice in the past two years, certain that I'd find somewhere else to lay my hat, but I only lasted a few months. Austin is Easy Living. I know a lot of people, I know a lot of places. I feel as though I've lived three different lives here - as a student, as a teacher, and as a writer - and at any time, I can visit some representation of that past. Last weekend I went to a college keg party. A month or so ago I had lunch with a former student. Yesterday I ran into some friends I've known since freshman year. Miss my college days? I sometimes feel as though I never left them.

To Be Continued...