Welcome to the Adventure

Hanging out with Suzy's cows in Brenham, summer 2008.

That's right, dear family and friends, much as I did with my blog about living in Spain, which I can no longer access because my college email address is dead, I'm going to use this blog to keep you up to speed on my adventures in a foreign land.

This time it's Pennsylvania. Where they have snow and no respectable Tex Mex.

After six months and three interviews, I was offered a job with andCulture and put in my two weeks with the Taylor Daily Press. I'm on my way to getting the hell out of bedbug-infested dodge. While I'm thrilled to be leaving my over-stressful job as a journalist, I'm not as excited to be leaving Austin. There are things here in ATX (and just in TX) that I truly love. I'm not eager to get out of this city, but it was the one catch for the sweet gig I landed.

Let's be real: I'm scared shitless. 

For one, the temperature difference alone is a solid 30 degrees and I don't have the wardrobe for that. But really, while I'm psyched that my good friend Liz (they call her Liz Rose up there - the effect of her superb branding skills), I'm already missing Texas.

Twelve years ago, I got out of the car in our Houston driveway after a three day journey from Colorado and said, "How do people breathe here?" I eventually adjusted to the humidity and two-season world of Gulf Coast living, but once I left H-town, I had no desire to go back.

I was a little more country in high school,
but I still have the hat and the boots.

Still, I love Central Texas. Sure, I may not love barbecue and football as much as a native Texan should, but you can't help but associate this state with your personality when you've been here this long. I met my boyfriend on his first day here after an epic road trip for California, and ever since I've found myself saying pretty often "at least that's how it is in Texas." I'm realizing that Texas is what I know. All I know about Pennsylvania is that it's a less cool shape with cheesesteaks.

And so, with the help of my "I'll-never-move-you-again" father, Mom's expert and far more organized packing skills and John's ability to move anything in flip-flops, we loaded up the apartment I've been in for about a month. In a few days, I'll be skipping away from the Press and on my way to visit PA - and hopefully find a place to live.

"I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans."

John Steinbeck