One is the loneliest number…

Derek’s in Chattanooga, and I’m in Houston. We’re both alone, but Derek got the better end of the deal. He’s got all our furniture (not to mention the bed) and the cats too, so he’s surrounded by familiar things.

I guess I could say that my cot, and my folding lawn chair are familiar too, but that’s all I’ve got.

It’s hard having the minimum, and because Derek left in a bit of a hurry, we didn’t exactly think about who would need what the most. Derek has complained about wanting the shower caddy, and an extra trash can, which I still have, and I have gone through the motions of trying to microwave something without having a microwave!

It hasn’t been too bad though. We’re already down to 30 days left at most. One month left.

I’ve settled into a routine, which isn’t too different than the routine we had when we were together. I get home from work, cook dinner, and then watch an episode of something through a streaming service. I have gotten into The Last Czars on Netflix, a miniseries about the Romanov family. Then I usually read, and chat with Derek through FaceTime.

Before I know it, it is time for bed. Once I’m settled, I watch YouTube videos. I have settled on watching the YouTube channel Super Carlin Brothers, which features videos on Harry Potter, Disney, etc. Each night I have watched them go head to head on various Harry Potter quizzes. Last night’s video was a Christmas themed quiz. There are so many quizzes that I’ve been watching them for a week straight, and there are enough to go on for another week at least.

Sleeping on the cot isn’t uncomfortable, but I would prefer my own bed. I alternate between sleeping well and not sleeping well. I have been having anxiety dreams about job prospects. I hope that something will work out in real life sooner than later.

To miss or not to miss

I have been thinking about the things I will and will not miss about Houston. Here’s a list:

Things I will miss:

The rodeo, and its cheap country concerts
Hermann Park and the Arboretum (Now there will be mountain trails to hike though)
Our many favorite eateries: Phoencia, La Madeleine’s, Niko Nikos, New York Coffee Shop, to name a few.
Pit stops at Buc-ees
Going to Galveston Island and the beach
Cajun food (I found restaurants in Chattanooga that serve gumbo, let’s see if it’s just as good…)
Kolaches
Bluebonnets

Things I will not miss:

Traffic
Traffic in rain
Terrible drivers (I sense a pattern here…)
Flooding
Generally living in a massive city
No fall foliage
Grackles (a very big, squawk-y bird that’s native to this area)

Changes…

Everything can change in an instant. A week ago, on Tuesday morning, my dad called me. He told me that the company that he works for, New England Motor Freight, is shutting down. He is, or was, a truck driver. He worked there since before I was born. By the end of this week, my dad will be out of a job.

I never thought that my parents and I would end up going through the exact same situation. It has made me think about all that has transpired in our lives the last few years.

We thought life was great in Pennsylvania. We had good jobs, and a brand new house, bought in our first year of marriage. Then I got laid off from my job. We both bounced around with other jobs after that, and nothing was ever the same. We were not happy. We decided to go back to school and get bachelor degrees in graphic design. That was when Derek knew that graphic design was what he wanted to do professionally. There was nothing holding us back in Pennsylvania, so Derek applied to graduate schools. Even though it was a three-year process, me getting laid off lead us to Houston. We had no idea what was going to happen, but we knew we could no longer stay where we were.

Now my mom and dad are facing that same dilemma. They live in New Jersey, which is one of the most expensive states to live in. Property taxes are high. Like us three years ago, they can no longer stay where they are. They are planning on putting their house up for sale next month.

They do have a plan in place. They want to move to Maryland. For the last few years they have been volunteering with the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. Through that, they have become familiar with the area. They have their favorite coffee shops and restaurants, and they have made friends with other railroad workers. This was always their retirement plan, but this was not supposed to happen for another few years yet. Dad is not quite at retirement age, but at least he is close. He has looked at all of the figures, and although the budget will be tight, early retirement is doable.

There is some comfort that they are not going to this place sight unseen, which is what happened to us when we moved to Houston. We had absolutely no idea what we were getting ourselves into. It is still going to be scary for them though.

They have a really nice home that they moved into when it was brand new, (when I was 11 years old) and it was customized for them. They might have to move into a less than ideal home in Maryland, to keep costs down. Dad is a handyman though, and he is capable of fixing a lot.

Again, this is also similar to what we went through. We loved our house in Wellsboro. It was the perfect size, actually, almost too big for just the two of us. It was pretty too. I still mourn my beautiful knotted pine kitchen cabinets. It was hard to downsize and get used to a new, cramped setting.

Since then we have worked our way up, and we are in a nicer apartment, and I know mom and dad too, will make a new house a home. Everything gets easier with a bit of time and hard work.

Derek at the University of Houston

I have written all about our day to day life and our little adventures on Texas Tales for two years now, but I realized that I hardly ever mention what Derek is up to at school, which is the number one reason why we moved here in the first place.

Derek is starting his third and final year in the graphic design masters program. I am impatient and I want the year to go by fast, and he is the opposite. He wants it to s-l-o-w down.

This year he will be quite busy. He has to spend the whole year working on a thesis project. He has narrowed down the topic he wants to do the project on, now he just has to just figure out exactly WHAT to do. The third year students will have a thesis show at the end of the school year in the spring.

The University of Houston has provided Derek with some great opportunities, but he has also chased a few opportunities on his own time as well.

Derek has taught two graphic design software classes to undergrads. This opportunity is offered to the best students during their second year of the masters program. He will continue to teach this year as well. In addition, an unexpected teaching opportunity popped up as well. There were some summer openings, so Derek, along with one of his classmates, taught a six-week summer software class.

Derek also was the Teachers Assistant for one of his professors last year, and was set to do that again this year for a print production class. However, this professor was recently named the interim associate dean, which is making her extremely busy. She has trusted Derek enough to let him teach the class on his own! This is perfect, because when Derek was in the workforce (seems like ages ago) his job was in print production! He is excited to get this class started.

Last fall, Derek submitted a pitch for a session at the National College Media Convention in Dallas, and his pitch was picked! We went to Dallas for the weekend and he spoke to college students about typography.

Derek, and one of his classmates, also submitted a research poster for GRaSP (Graduate Research and Scholarship Projects). The event showcases research taking place at UH and is typically a STEM event (science, technology, engineering and math), so it was new for a graphic designer to join. It gave the graphic design program good publicity.  Here is a link to an article about the event:https://www.uh.edu/kgmca/about/news/2017/11-01-grasp-research-posters.php.

He also spent a year working for Gulf Coast Journal, which is a literary magazine that is published on campus. He helped design pages of the magazine. He was specifically recommended for the job, because of his magazine experience, and was able to get class credits for this.

All of this reinforces the idea that moving to Houston was a good thing. Derek hopes to be a professor after graduation. We are hopeful because there are plenty of higher education places in the city.

New apartment

We have moved into a new apartment! Everything about it is bigger and better, which was sorely needed.

We live in the same neighborhood, but in a better, quieter spot. Previously, we were right off of the highway, but now we are on a side street. We are still walking distance to the stadium, just on the opposite side now, which is great. I foresee a lot more rodeo country concerts in my future! We are also now walking distance to the metro rail, which will be great for downtown events. Prior, we had to go to the park and ride and pay $3 in addition to our metro ticket.

Judging by some of our neighbors wearing scrubs, this complex seems to be a popular living spot for medical students and or doctors working at the Texas Medical Center, which is just a few stops away on the metro.

Our first apartment in Houston was a one bed and one bath which was a tight squeeze, especially since we were used to a three bedroom, two bath house in Pennsylvania. There was room for everything, but there was no denying that we were cramped.

The main goal was to get a second bedroom that we could turn into an office for Derek to do his school work in, and for me to do my scrapbooking! Previously, Derek’s desk was the first thing you saw when you walked through the front door, which meant you also saw his messes! I am much happier now that his mess is contained to a room that is NOT the living room. This will also help the both of us because now Derek can keep the light on at night if he needs to stay up late, and I won’t hear the click-clack of his keyboard either, so hopefully I will sleep better!

In the end we got much more than just that extra bedroom. Now we have two walk-in closets, two bathrooms, a new washer and dryer ( that we just purchased last week) and a private balcony! Something that we definitely did not need, but what made me fall in love instantly with the place was the big brick fireplace! It’s funny that it takes moving to Texas to get a fireplace.

When walking through the door, you can just FEEL that it is bigger, even with all of the boxes still laying everywhere. I can only imagine how it will feel when everything is done and put away. When we were in the process of moving in, Derek would call my name from somewhere within the apartment and I had to call back, “Where are you?” That is a good problem to have.

We thought it would be tough to find a place that we liked and we would have to see 10 different apartments and have a hard time making a decision. However, we only looked at two apartments and knew right away that the first one was the one for us.

I was initially worried because this apartment was at the top of our budget, but sometimes good things happen at just the right time: I got a raise at work! Now we are more comfortable and don’t have to worry about being stretched too thin.

Even moving a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment is tough work, and we had over a week to do it too! I hope that we stay in this new apartment for quite a few years, until, hopefully, we are ready to buy a home.

Stay tuned for pictures of the apartment, which will come once we are more settled in.

One year later – an editorial

One year ago today, we pulled out of our driveway in Wellsboro, and started the 1,600 mile drive to Houston. I wrote an editorial for the Houston Chronicle about the last year and how Houston is different from Wellsboro.

I have included the link, and a copy/paste version of the text below.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/To-Houston-from-Wellsboro-Pa-population-3-326-11526896.php

 

I’ve discovered the wonder that is Buc-ees. I’ve photographed bluebonnets in spring, and I’ve eaten my way through multiple flavors of Blue Bell.

Since moving to Houston last August, I realized that everything truly is bigger in Texas (except for our one-bedroom apartment.) I moved from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, home of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, population 3,326.

We moved because my husband is pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Houston. Imagine my surprise when I realized that the amount of students at the university (more than 40,000) is around the same amount of people in our rural county.

Coming here has been like living in a completely different world. There are so many city-related things that are a part of anyone’s day that I would have never given a second thought before.

For one thing: Traffic reports. They’re on the news every morning! The only traffic I had to worry about was the occasional bear and deer running across the road. I would sometimes get stuck behind a truck going 40 miles per hour, but here I realize that you’re lucky to be going that fast any given day on 610.

I’d much rather stay home than try to battle other drivers if it’s more than a 10-mile drive, a far cry from being used to driving hours all over the northeast.

And the noise. Not only the noise of the 10 or so lanes of traffic right outside our door, but the sounds of planes and helicopters constantly overhead. I had not seen an airplane overhead in the 10 years I was in Pennsylvania. My husband constantly has to repeat himself if he talks to me outside our apartment, because I cannot hear him over the rows and rows of air conditioners that are consistently running.

The loudest thing I have ever heard, without a doubt, was the fighter jet flyover during the Super Bowl. We live close to NRG, and it rattled the whole place. The cats ran under the bed.

And the many options … for, well, everything. How do Houstonians even choose? Where to go, what to do, what to eat, where to shop? It’s all mind-boggling at times. We visited more stores in the first week of being in Houston than in years of living in Wellsboro. The first time I went grocery shopping, I had an anxiety attack.

It’s the worst with restaurants. There are so many options here for each cuisine, and a lot of it’s unfamiliar territory for us.

I remember trying crawfish for the first time. I am a picky eater, and I kept finding excuses not to try it.

But it was the season, and I found a restaurant hosting a crawfish special for $7 a pound on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, perfect for my work schedule — and my frugality.

My husband and I tried to prepare ourselves in advance by watching YouTube videos on how to open them, but they left us more puzzled. You really have to suck the fat out of the heads?

But we got there, and the platters were put in front of us. We asked our waiter for good measure how to open and eat them, but he just chuckled and walked away.

We eventually figured it out after consulting the internet once again on our phones. The crawfish, along with the corn on the cob and potatoes, were excellent, but my lips were burning so badly by the spices that I was crying at the table.

I do miss Pennsylvania, at least some of it. I miss homemade maple syrup, and I miss the mountains, especially in the fall with the bright foliage. I miss making trips to the Mennonite general store.

But I feel like Texas, with all of its hustle and bustle, is where I am meant to be.

Our apartment

In Wellsboro we had a three bedroom, two bathroom house. Just for sake of affordability, we knew that we would have to downsize to a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment, at least for the first year that we are here.

So, officially, we downsized from 1,836 square feet to 602 square feet. It’s really not that bad when you think about it, because our house had a large dining room that was empty, and the kitchen and the living room were over sized. Plus there was that extra bedroom that was never used except for when someone spent the night.

Our apartment makes efficient use of what little space it has. The rooms that don’t really matter, like the dining nook, the kitchen, and the bathroom, are tiny, so the livable spaces like the living room and bedroom are larger.

I can handle only having one bathroom, but in the future I definitely want to have two bedrooms, just for the sake of having an extra closet and a place to shove all your extra stuff!

It is tough having so much stuff and not very many places to put it. Sure, our walk-in closet is huge, but when you put your clothes in, that fills up most of the space. So we’ve gotten clever, and we’ve hidden things behind doors and behind and underneath the bed. So that second bedroom would be helpful.

If there is one thing I could change right now about the apartment, it would be the cabinet space in the kitchen. There wasn’t a drawer wide enough to put our silverware in, so we had to buy a holder to put on the counter top. All of the dishes are stacked up on top of one another, so just one more cabinet or drawer would help.

But we’ll survive. We got everything we wanted to reasonably fit inside, and nothing important was left behind in Pennsylvania.

 

Buc-ee’s convenience store

When we were still in Pennsylvania, I was wondering what type of gas station/convenience store chains there would be in Texas. Growing up in the northeast, I was fiercely loyal to Wawa and Sheetz, and would miss them terribly after the move.

I starting searching online for what kinds of stores we would encounter down in Houston, and Buc-ee’s was the top hit. I was reading the website and newspaper articles about this chain, and there was a lot of hype about the beaver.

During the planning of the trip, I told my dad that we had to make a stop at a Buc-ees. Once we had crossed over the Texas state line, Derek and I went ahead at the 75 mph limit (woah!) to get to our apartment early. Dad, pulling the trailer, had to stay at about 60 mph. He decided to stop for lunch at a Buc-ee’s. I got a call from dad after he left, and he said, “Holy smokes.”

I have to admit, I am glad that the hype was warranted. Dad said that it was unbelievable inside. The floors were clean enough to eat off of (it was voted #1 cleanest restroom in America) and there were 96, count ’em, 96 gas pumps.

So now Derek and I were even more excited to experience Buc-ee’s during our day trip to Galveston. (There is a Buc-ee’s on the way to the beach.)

When we got there, we were not disappointed, but dad was. This station had only 56 pumps! Ha!

We entered the store and there was so much to look at and purchase! You could do your Christmas shopping there for the whole family!

After leaving the store, I have come to the conclusion that things really are bigger in Texas!

 

The road trip

Well, we made it! 1600 miles spread out over three days. Here are some photos of the highlights:

My favorite parts of the trip were:

Crossing into Tennessee: The whole first day through Virginia were all roads that I was familiar with. Tennessee was new and exciting to me.

Lookout Mountain, Tennessee: We passed a gorgeous mountain range in lower Tennessee. One of these mountains, Lookout Mountain, was the site of a Civil War battle. It was called the battle in the clouds.

Fort Payne, Alabama: My favorite oldies Christmas song is “Christmas in Dixie,” by the band Alabama. They were formed in Fort Payne. The last line of the song is, “And from Fort Payne, Alabama, God bless you all, We love ya, Happy New Year, Good night, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas tonight”

Crossing over the Mississippi: Doing this just made me FEEL different. Like we were truly on our way. It also made me feel like a modern pioneer, and I remembered the multiple times that Laura Ingalls Wilder (my favorite author) had crossed the river in her lifetime.

And: crossing into the Texas state line of course!

 

1600 miles

The trip from Wellsboro to Houston will take 1600 miles, give or take a few.

This is the route we are taking:

The route shows our planned stopovers each night in Harrisonburg, Virginia and Picayune, Mississippi.

We are leaving Wellsboro on Friday, but at what time remains to be unseen. My dad will arrive early on Friday morning with the UHaul trailer, and we will leave whenever everything is loaded.

We will try to get a decent night’s sleep on Friday night in Harrisonburg, because Saturday is going to be one heck of a long drive – about 900 miles total. Once we’re in Picayune, it’s only five and a half hours left for Sunday morning.

Stay tuned for pictures along the drive!