Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Am I still alive you all may be wondering. I guess the answer is now self-evidently yes unless I've died, not realized it, and yet still found a way to tap into the internet from beyond the grave. You can guess which is more likely.
Only two major things have happened since my last post...
I. Connecticut visit
I flew to Hartford under the pretext of interviewing for a job with Enterprise Rent-a-Car. I rented a car from Enterprise (hey, might as well see what the job does if I'm applying for it, no?) and stayed cheap in a Motel 6. I explored around a bit in the car and was surprised at just how rural it gets not far out of the city. Most of the town really are fairly small. The city, however, was a bit different. While it did not give off quite the same big city vibe as something like New York or Atlanta, it definitely had a city personality that Athens doesn't have. To me, Athens is a vast improvement over Peachtree City but I discovered that in reality Athens and Peachtree City have much more in common than Athens does to any "real" city. As I drove through various areas of the city, I discovered that I really don't know anything about how to evaluate which areas are safe and which areas are not and which areas are desirable and which are not. I also definitely got a feel for the whole industrial north vs. agricultural south thing. Those titles aren't exactly the best to use since they aren't very accurate, but somehow I mean to say that there is a distinctly different feel to the north than there is to the south. I don't know if it is the weather or the architecture or what it is though, but I tended to feel that the cold-north,warm-south stereotype (in more ways than weather) was validated despite the people being plenty nice. I really can't describe the difference. Perhaps there isn't really one but just the south feels more comfortable to me since it is home. I also got dinner with someone that I had met on an airplane years ago that lives up there and checked out the state employment office.
Conclusion: I'm not quite as entranced with the idea of CT as much anymore, but I'm still leaving it in the possibilities.
II. Texas move
After several assorted trips of various sizes to Peachtree City throughout the month, on 28 February, the last day of my lease, I left Athens. I spent that morning doing last minute packing (including the animals which couldn't go in the night before) and pre-move errands. I left at about 11:15AM EST and traveled through Atlanta to Alabama to Mississippi to Lousiana to Texas and arrived at 2:00AM CST/3:00AM EST. The drive was long, but I found it interesting how different the scenery was in each state. Alabama was far hillier and prettier than I had expected. Mississippi had stronger/deeper colours, but was overall scruffier, both man-made (e.g. litter) and natural (dirt/rock formations, trees). Louisiana was marshy and flat and very sparsely populated. By the time I got to Texas, it was dark, but you can guess what it would have looked like. ;)
Other events from the drive... the vibration of the car kept draining the animal's water bottles so they weren't too happy with it. The bridge over the Mississippi river sneaks up on you and is huge. The bridge that the train goes on over the river looks cooler than the one that the cars go on. When I was driving through Shreveport I almost felt like I was in Las Vegas because of the amount of casinos/advertising for casinos.
I discovered that if I were ever to move to one of the southern states that I drove through I would have at least one major issue..... the radio sucks. I couldn't find any really good stations once I got out of range of the Atlanta stations. If I managed to find an okay one and then took a phone call, then by the time I got off the phone and turned the radio back on I was in new stations and literally every single time I turned the radio back on, the new station on the frequency that my old station was on was always a country station. For one part of the drive I listened to a show where the host was talking about black history month and interviewed Michael Eric Dyson.
So, since my arrival in Texas, I've been working on settling in. The city here (Georgetown) is smaller even than Peachtree City and it definitely shows. I've managed to locate the wal-mart, grocery store (HEB), and a good walking path which I believe is associated with San Gabriel park (which I have yet to visit). I drove through the historical downtown area which is relatively small like the one in Athens, but it was interesting to see the distinctly Texan architecture.
This past friday, we (my mother, her husband, my sister, and I) took a driving trip down to Austin to see what we could find to do there. We checked out a place called Spider House Café which I found to be interesting due to its very thematized look, however, I would tend to get bored there pretty quickly if I went alone and I'm very much not the type of person that will just invite myself to someone else's table to meet people. We drove through some of the areas that are supposed to be the big places for things to go on at night and found them all basically deserted. It is possible that we simply weren't there late enough for the night life to begin, but overall we didn't find a whole lot to explain why people like Austin so much.
As far as whether the reasons I moved to Texas have actually played out.... overall no. I don't find myself in possession of any more time than I had in Athens since I still have to work and sleep. In fact, I may have less time since I'm now obligated to spend more time with family and to pitch in on projects to earn my keep. I don't have any fewer worries and in fact have more. Since the room I'm in has storage things in it as well, there have been numerous times that the room has been invaded when I wasn't in it to get things out and people tend to invite themselves in to talk and whatnot. I think I have them trained to knock for the most part, but that doesn't prevent their entry once I answer so I am basically forced to keep both myself and the room publicly presentable at all times, which was certainly not the case at my apartment. Due to the number of cars here, my car is very often blocked in and so leaving is more difficult unless I feel like shuffling another car around in order to get mine out. I have barely even begun the refridgerator battle and my mom doesn't understand why I wouldn't want to just contribute groceries that I buy for my use to the collective use. I guess she doesn't understand that the grocery items I would be buying would tend to be more expensive and better tasting than the cheapskate stuff that she buys and so it would be eaten up quickly since most meals here are "fend for yourself." I'm supposed to be saving money on groceries and simply supplementing what I need that they don't buy, but I would end up being a supplier to the family and would not end up saving any money on groceries at all and would potentially lose more on it. As far as having more resources.... the dirt is terrible and my mother put me in charge of the garden and then completely planned it out herself in pots so it leaves little option for me to grow my own things or do any sort of planning on it. There is a trampoline here which will be good though and it is fun to be able to go out on the roof from the window.
Conclusion: Texas isn't as bad as I thought it was and will have a few perks, but other than saving money, life will be no easier or more restful here than it was in Athens and I will be subject to other limitations and irritations.