The Unforseen cupcake on day 25 back in the US

I borrowed these images from edwardsaquifer.net

I'm starting to feel reemerged in the place and culture of my hometown. Austin is famous for being a cool, young, fun, creative place to live and like all Austinites I'm proud of that reputation but, the growth that Austin has experienced between the time I was a small child in far south Austin and today is ambiguously breathtaking. It's like I don't know if I'm once again watching the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen from the top of the hill at Davis Lane and William Cannon, or if I've been hit in the stomach with freeways, toll roads, and people who literally have bumper stickers advertising their zip code like it's freaking Beverly Hills. That and I'm lost all the time. I literally have no idea where all these freeways go. I guess my excuse is that I've really only lived here about 3 of the last 13 years. I can't stay but I can't really stay away either.

I'm so fortunate that some dear friends who served in the Peace Corps live here in Austin. Angela, Patrick and I went out to St. Edward's University last night where they were showing a movie called The Unforeseen about the growth down in south and west Austin and the fight local environmental groups put up to protect Barton Creek and the Edward's Aquifer. If you're not from here it's hard to explain what these mean for Austin. The creek feeds an huge natural swimming pool that is a place every Austinite remembers fondly and where many, many of us learned to swim. The Aquifer is the drinking water for all of the surrounding area but it also creates a really interesting ecosystem around here. If you're traveling here from west Texas you really notice when you get to the Hill Country because there is just so much more water. Anyway the fight to protect it was complicated because people wanted to move to this great place and economic growth is good for those of us who have been here a while. And a lot of it happened about 5 minutes down the road from the house I where I grew up. The film does great justice to the complex picture and interests at play, particularly for the main developer of the time Gary Bradley. It would have been easy, but not very compelling to make a movie about the greedy and evil land developer. Laura Dunn chose instead to examine the power and influence of our economic system in each of our lives.

So, as I deal with my ongoing reverse culture shock I'm going to make cupcakes. My brother recently moved out of a house where he lived with roommate who was a chef. We found tons of prepared Asian foods buried in the depths of the pantry, including canned lychee fruits and coconut cream. I'm off to make some Lychee-Coconut Cupcakes with Ginger-Cream Cheese Frosting. I'll tell you how they turn out.