Houston: Week 3

Well, we have officially survived our third week as Houstonians and Texans. Hasn't been too tough really, the AC has made it reasonable. Goodness, without that I don't think I would be in nearly as good of shape. The heats gets to me as it is. Houston is definately not home yet, but I don't hate it either. It has potential and I think I'll really like it in a very short period of time, and that it'll be home sooner than I think. The break has been really complete from everyone it seems. I've talked to my mom a couple times, and my grandma and sister, but that is it. I don't think I've heard from much from anyone in Utah since we left at Christmas, and nothing since we've gotten here. Our life in Utah and Provo seems so far away now- in both time and distance. I don't feel like I ever was a Utahn, didn't want to be, and it didn't feel like Utah wanted me either.

I feel so much more joy from the city here, the people. They definitely know who they are, and they love it! I have had so many more people at the grocery store or walmart or in line somewhere, just start to chat about whatever. I have had so many more laughs with complete strangers than I ever thought would fit into a 3 week period. On the airplane before our last leg to Houston a nice lady talked to me about 'her city' as we waited for the restroom and how much it was to her. And another lady talking to us as we got of the plane and the poor babies and how late it was for them and we walked together to the baggage claim, as I am feel about to panic in this huge airport in this huge city with so much to do and no idea how to do it all. The ladies at the apartment complex who are so sweet. The couple who I passed by at Walmart while shopping and they cooed at my sleepy, sleepy Colin, who fell asleep not 15 seconds after we walked by (they walked by later and laughed that he had finally given in).

The best way to explain the difference is that in Utah, people knew who they were and were proud of it and happy because of it, so they always looked at others and how others could be more like them, and thus be more happy. [I know, it isn't what everyone does, but I'm trying to give a general rule of how I felt]. Here people are just as happy and just as proud of who they are, and just try to make others happy by being happy! Now, I am not saying that everyone is happy all the time, because that is definitely not true, but there is less effort to try to change someone into something else. There is no feeling that there is this great ideal who we all need to become exactly like. I suppose alot of that in Utah comes from mistaken ideas about the gospel, that since we are all supposed to be trying to be like Christ, that we are all supposed to be becoming more exactly like each other. I am so glad that isn't true, that we are allowed to be our own selves, that there is enough room in "perfect" to allow for any number of personality quirks.

I'm still awful scared of the traffic though. Everything that we need is pretty close though. There are some things that are pretty far away, but really it isn't too bad. The temple is half an hour north west of us, the family storage center is a half hour north east. There is a mall about 20 minutes north and another about 10-15 minutes west. Jon's work is really close, only 10 minutes or so, which is great. Even in traffic it doesn't take much longer than 20 minutes. He's able to work when he wants though-a couple guys on his team come in just after 6 in the morning and leave about 3, so he goes in a bit early to miss the bulk of the traffic and then he gets home by about 4, which I love. There is plenty of time to get dinner on the table and still have leftover time to go the grocery store or even walmart if we want to. (Walmart is just down the road, I love that it is less than 5 minutes away). I haven't found any of the neat stores I'd love to find yet, like a cake decorating store, or a embroidery store or kitchen store. I found where they have a rocky mountain chocolate factory, but it is a little ways away, but luckily in the same mall as the Correlle/Corningware factory store, which is great, because we have a Correlle set we need to get some bowls for. (My grandma gave it to us, I almost said I didn't need it, but it had 12 (!) plates and saucers and small plates and cups, so we replaced all our old mismatched dishes; but it didn't have any bowls, so we need to find some bowls to match)

So, I think I like Houston, though I don't think the stress from the move has completely left me yet. I still have dreams on occasion about missing plane flights or forgetting to pack any number of important things or last night it was finding a ton more boxes that I had forgotten to unpack. I found a box of pancake mix of all things. Weird.