#billsallans

“When I moved to the U.S. from Torreón Coahuila, Mexico, I stayed in San Antonio for a year and a guy I met there told me Austin wasn’t too big of a city and it didn’t have a lot of the troubles they had, and so I moved to Austin. And now I’ve worked at Dirty’s for how long? What date is today? Today I’ve been here for 11 years! Wow!”

“We have three kids—two boys, eight and five years old, and a one-year-old girl. Both our boys were born in New York and we were getting a bit burnt out there. We needed a change of pace and Austin was on the radar so one day we just up and moved. Some of our favorite things to do in Austin are hit up a watering hole or take a hike on the Greenbelt. Pools like Deep Eddy and Barton Springs are a real gift for this city. I often take the 801 Rapid between South Austin and downtown. The bus is a great example of how nature is immersed in the urban core.”

“Like my wife says, our Austin Senior Softball League is kind of like ‘Little League with beards.’ It’s just a bunch of old fraternity guys that get together and drink a little beer and harass each other. It never ends. Just constant harassment, but it’s a lot of fun. Sometimes the leagues can get a little overdone, but out here, we realize we’re playing a kids’ game and we get to relive our childhood. We’ve got one guy who’s 84—he’s our senior guy in the league. When I asked what he’d recommend for a younger man, he said, ‘Don’t quit doing what you’re doing, because you lock up.’”

“When I moved to Austin in 2009, my rent was $1,200 in East Austin for a one-bedroom, 300-square-foot home and it was really cute. It was built in the 1950s but my landlord wouldn’t fix issues like black mold in the home. I had wanted to fix up, and live in, a trailer so it just forced the issue. I searched for a few months and found a 1958 Spartan trailer on Craigslist. Four months normal rent in Austin pays for my trailer, a full year will pay for the entire renovation, and then I’ll have more money to travel. I love the idea of adventuring, and being able to travel and not have such a strict landlord. It’s kind of nice to say to people, ‘I’m not sure how you’re going to get a hold of me.’ I’ve always wanted to be a little bit more free.”

“I've always been drawn to writing since I was young, and photography was just a fun thing I played around with in high school. In college, I realized how powerful the two mediums could be in really capturing the true essence of something, whether it's a really amazing concert, or a portrait and profile of someone with many stories to tell.”

“I started rock climbing about three years ago and generally climbed two or three times a week. Climbing requires that some of my favorite things all be in the same place: friends, outdoors, movement, my dog, Green. All of these come together to make pretty much every climbing day great. Climbing at Potrero Chico in Mexico is one of my favorite destinations. It’s home to towering limestone walls with amazing texture and high-quality rock. It just feels different down there. The people are kind, the rules are a little more lax and the scenery is beautiful.”

“I grew up in Tifton, Georgia. Started playing piano at age 6. I performed at a chamber music festival in Italy the last two summers, in Arcidosso, a tiny medieval village in Tuscany that is ridiculously beautiful. They put pianos throughout the town and I practiced in a church that was a prayer hub during the Black Plague. Pretty cool. I moved to Austin in 2011, during the heat wave, and started working as a piano instructor at South Austin’s Clavier Werke School, where I teach about 30 students a week, from five-year-olds to adults. Everyday I make up a metaphor (or several) for practicing or playing the piano that I hope my elementary school kids can understand. Today it was, ‘Think of any piano challenge as a mission. You are a character in a video game and you want to get to the next level.’"

“I’m always looking for plane tickets. My husband will look over at my computer and he’ll ask, ‘Um, where are we going now?’ People say I should be a travel agent because I’m always giving out airfare advice, or telling them what day of the week to buy their tickets, anytime my friends tell me about a trip they’re planning. Planning my own travel was planned around where we live. We bought a house based on how close we would be to the train. So we ended up being only a 10-minute walk from the Cap Metro train station. Also, I am just super into rewards. I love rewards. Coffee shops? Love their rewards. A nail salon I go to? I’ll probably be using their rewards. I just can’t get away from that stuff. I guess I’m a penny pincher.”