So it has been a whopping quarter year since we packed up our family and headed from the Great North to the Deep South. Ok, Michigan to Texas but whatever. I’m trying to be dramatic which is why I said a quarter of a year. Really, wow, 3 months? And I’m still not unpacked.

I had some realizations during our trip to Columbus and all that driving cross-country allowed me to reflect on our move, the pros, the cons and the changes we’ve all made.

Pro:
Look at that weather, people!!! It has been like this almost continuously since we moved here three months ago. People keep saying “just you wait” but I LOVE the heat. I love the humidity. I love the sun. I can not get enough of it. I think I have a deprivation of like 20 years to make up for. Give me heat. Hot hot hot heat.

Con: The “grass”. It isn’t really grass but no one tells you that before you move here! The stuff in our neighborhoods is the very stuff we kill off with heavy duty toxic weed killer back in Michigan. Or it’s like moss. Really weird. But not the stuff that picnics or barefoot gallivanting are made from.

Pro: The pool. Let me paint a picture for you….. every day my kids strip down into their swimsuits and we all head out into the pool where we can swim in the privacy of our back yard surrounded by huge pines and other towering trees and our privacy fence with not a soul to be seen. I could be naked and no one would know. Except my kids who would be horrified so the only naked tushy to be seen is Addy’s The pool is like bathwater at almost 90 degrees. Sometimes we have to turn it down, it is just too warm. We float around, we splash and flip and never want to get out. While I’m swimming back and forth in the pool I frequently inhale the aroma of peppermint that emanates from two small trees that shade part of the pool. It’s like aromatherapy for me. While we are all splashing about, the dragonflies flicker in and out of our play, sometimes landing right next to the pool so we can admire them. This is every. day. of. my. life. And because pool maintenance is part of our lease and we have an automatic vacuum, there is literally no thought or effort. It is just there for our enjoyment. We get out, bundled up in towels but quickly warm up by lounging on our outdoor couches that Tony got my for my birthday last month. Which I love and could sleep on! And after hours in the pool I often feel desperately like a nice nap out on the patio! It is usually right about now - every day - that I think “Wow, this is my life.”. Do people really get used to this?

Con: The mosquitoes. I hate them. They don’t just have the regular northern variety. There are also big black mosquitoes with white stripes that look like flies until they stop and bite the hell out of you and leave your baby with huge welts on her forehead. The brown skeeters come out and dawn and dusk so aren’t an issue. But the black ones are out during the peak of day when we are out in the pool. So then what? You can’t use bug spray while you’re in the pool! I hate them. But I will say that they draw the dragonflies

Pro: The people here are so damned nice. I mean really really friendly. Once I was up getting my car inspected and two women got into a conversation with me (not Michigan-like, in and of itself) and then one of them offered to drive me home so I could get my other car and bring it up. The logistics didn’t work out but I was totally blown away by the kindness here. I have had more conversations with total strangers since moving here than I did in the last 10 years combined in Michigan. The wait staff, the baggers, the cashiers, people in waiting rooms, people in lines. What you do here is talk. No one ever seems grumpy or cranky or angry or impatient. Well except me but I’m coming ’round.

Con: The drivers here are the worst I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean they are nasty as the people are ordinarily friendly! They don’t even pull over for emergency vehicles!! And heaven forbid you should need to get over a lane, forget it. No turn signals, no waving or nudging in will get anyone to acknowledge you. I thought at first it was me, that I had turned into a nervous driver in this new environment. Admittedly the highway system here is about a trillion times more complicated and larger than in Detroit. But after doing most of the driving up to Columbus and back, I realize it really is just isolated here. Try a 4 way stop and you may never see the other side. There aren’t even rules for the road turn-arounds that I can see - it’s just a free-for-all. It takes a strong constitution to figure out the roads here.

Pro: That southern drawl. I used to think it was a con. No one can understand me. But now I realized when we left the south that I have come to find it very comforting. I hear a southern accent and it feels like home to me. I shouldn’t even admit this but I definitely hear the southern in my own voice when I’m around other heavily accented folks. How did that happen so fast?

Con: The music here totally blows. Again we drove through the deep south all the way into Ohio and had great - GREAT - music the whole way. Options of great music. But as soon as we get into our home territory the music options end. It all sucks here. There are two options: country and gospel. I can’t stand country music and I’m not a Christian. We usually listen to CDs on road trips but I listened to radio the entire way so I could get my fill. Why aren’t there any good music options here?!

Pro: Market Street. We have this downtown area in town that is just a few minute’s drive. It has a bunch of upscale stores and then a central park area right in between Tommy Bahama’s (yumm) and another good restaurant with that wonderful moss grass (haha) and a fountain that the kids play in. There are almost always bands playing in the park and events going on. Tonight we went to a big cooking demonstration outside where they were doing car test drives and giving $25 gift certificates, free food samples, the Vitamin Water (my new favorite drink!) people were there giving away bottle after bottle of free water. They had live music and videos of my favorite bands (U2!!!) and the kids never want to leave! We just all hang out and take it all in, people watch, relax, dance to the music, run around the park, whatever. I went out with a girlfriend last night and it was the same crazy scene. On a Thursday night! It is also just a block away from the big outdoor concern pavilion so sometimes you can hear awesome bands like Blue October playing plus they have free lawn seats all the time to symphonies and other cool concerts and events. Market Street was built for my whole family

Con: Red ants, cock roaches, ticks, fleas, lice, chiggers. It takes some getting used to but the red ants aren’t really bugging me TOO much yet. You just learn to look where you walk. As for the rest of that list, I have only seen one cock roach so far and as long as I see them outside, they don’t bug me at all. If I see one inside I may freak out. I haven’t seen ticks, fleas, lice or chiggers but I know they are there which makes my skin crawl. I am just so not a fan of things that live off of people.

Pro: Lack of snakes, scorpions, tarantulas and other icky creepies. We like snakes actually but I don’t really like the venomous variety and don’t really want to try to differentiate in my own back yard so I’m thankful for the distinct lack of snakes. Let me clarify that our county has all of the 4 types of venomous snakes present so they are HERE but they are not *here* in my yard. Then I found out that scorpions and tarantulas aren’t really around here either and, well, I can live with the red ants if that’s as bad as it gets. Once in awhile there are gators but they are like suburban mind-your-business gators and usually get removed which is actually sad since they help keep the ecosystem balanced in a big way.

Con: We are away from extended family. I’m hoping this turns into a pro becuase it forces us to not take those relationships for granted and to really be present when we do get to see each other.

Pro: The Parks. There are these beautiful parks everywhere, full of nature, ponds, great play structures, pools, sports complexes, bike and skate parks, etc. It is hard to ever appreciate a park outside our community once you get used to the parks here. The way they planned the parks incorporated the natural preexisting nature into the park, instead of the typical open expanse of grass with a play structure placed on it that we midwesterners are used to. The result is that the parks aren’t just a place for the kids to play. They are really relaxing and enjoyable and quiet and beautiful.

All in all, it really feels like Michigan here only hotter, sunnier and more friendly. Which, actually, that’s a pretty big deal for me! There are other things I love about it here. I love that it has such great medical resources, should we need them. I love that it is within an hour’s drive of the gulf - close enough to enjoy the ocean but too far to be seriously impacted by hurricanes. I love that there are enough day trips just in the greater Houston area that we will be busy exploring for years. I love that Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Cristi are all day trips, too, and New Orleans is a short drive away. I love that even though it is a distinctly red, christian state that there are enough resources that even a green liberal non-Christian like myself feels at home. I wasn’t expecting that. Our homeschool group is awesome, there is a HUGE acceptance for homeschooling in general that is lacking in Michigan despite similar homeschool laws. There are far more opportunities here. I could go on and on and on about all the ways living here just can’t even compare to living back in Michigan. I’ll do a one year recap and see if I still feel the same. I’ve been warned that I may not survive the Houston summer heat. haha.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 11:47 am and is filed under Moving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.