texas observation #1

things feel so different now. this break has been an eye-opening one, to say the least.

leaving new york and returning to the south was something i was dreading, but once i got here, things seemed to fall into place rather nicely. perhaps it's because we moved into a new house and i was there for the entire process so i feel included. maybe it's because i was ready to get out of the cold for a little while. maybe i just really needed the break from school. i don't know. but tucked away in my room here, with my stuff the way i remember it- the grey comforter on my bed that i'm so used to, my black and teal and green rug under my feet, my lava lamp and trophies and pictures and 'broadmoor lives' sign (if you don't know what it is, just google 'broadmoor lives') that i stole the first time i went back to new orleans after hurricane katrina- i just feel at home. maybe because this is a house and not some temporary apartment that only served its purpose as a place to shower before and sleep after work. it's not the same feeling of home that new york offers. new york as a city feels like home to me, a place where i choose to live, whereas houston feels like a place that i happened to end up only as a result of the hurricane.

since i've been here, things have been going fairly well. i've been relaxing so much and keri drove down from austin (three hours away) to visit and has been here since last thursday, which has been so awesome. she's one of the few people that i miss like crazy while i'm up in new york, so the fact that she's here with me makes this so much better. maybe that's also part of the reason why i feel so at home. she and ronnie kind of round out the familiarity of friendship from back home, and by home i mean, of course, new orleans. my one true home.

i saw my sisters, too. (well, two out of three ain't bad, right?) my dad and i drove down to louisiana to visit his mother and father and sisters, and my sisters were there. that definitely made my christmas a lot better than it would've been otherwise.

it's been nice to be able to relax though. digital cable isn't really a big deal to me, but the ability to walk around a spacious house, take a BATH (not a shower), eat from a well-stocked fridge, and all that jazz certainly has its upsides over the verticality of manhattan, where everyone and everything is on top of each other. it's true that everything in texas is big- houses, people (houston was ranked #1 on the list of america's fattest cities), cars, personalities, bills, etc. and even though the way of life is slower down here, despite houston being the fourth largest metropolis in the country, there's something to be said for the hospitality and geniality of the lazy way of life. people take more time to stop and appreciate things down here. when you're in line at the grocery store, it isn't uncommon to strike up a conversation with who ever's in front or behind you while you wait. people say "y'all" and hold doors open for the people behind them and smile a whole lot more. in the doctor's waiting room, a woman may give you her magazine after she's done reading it if she sees you sitting unoccupied- even if she bought the magazine herself. (now, there's no such thing as courtesy or southern hospitality on the highways, but houston traffic is a whole 'nother story.) it's just different here. things aren't so rushed as they are in manhattan. everyone has somewhere to go, but since you have to drive there anyway, it's not as big a deal to be delayed three and a half minutes. here, culture is eating chinese food and watching movies that are only shown on one screen at the local amc 24 movie theater as opposed to two or three. you can buy your groceries in bulk here, and most people do- even if they only have one kid at home. suvs aren't just for those who can afford to pay the limo services that rent them out- they're for soccer moms, men who feel that they're too large for sedans, and teenagers who inherit their parents old cars. for that matter, women drive pickup trucks just like men, and backyards are the size of some people's apartments in manhattan. it's harder to buy booze, it's more unusual to see foreigners, and the majority of the people around have a drawl. it's texas. and i'm starting to think it's pretty great in its own way. i mean, it's no new york and it's CERTAINLY no new orleans, but maybe i was a little too hard on poor houston.

maybe i'll try my luck at actually liking it here. i doubt i'll be calling houston my "hometown" any time soon, though. i am a new orleans girl, through and through.