Yesterday marked exactly six months to the day that I moved away from my childhood home in the Lonestar State and laid eyes on our new home city of Cincinnati for the first time. On Friday I’d hugged goodbye to all my work friends and left my job though those black metal gates in Hemisfair Plaza for the last time, and on Saturday, October 9, 2010 I sniffled goodbye into the fur of my cat who, understandably, had not a clue what was so terrible that warranted the attack of salty tears on his coat and bounded away, annoyed and offended – tail thwacking, as soon as I released him from my clutches. I boarded a San Antonio airplane bound for Chicago, IL in the wee hours of the morning. In my carry-on I had a wedding dress, and in the belly of that airplane, a massive suitcase crammed to oblivion with clothing, shoes, and wedding stuff. Two full boxes of clothing had been shipped ahead and my Buick and the rest of my belongings would be arriving via Mom, Dad and U-Haul at Thanksgiving.
I loved my life in Texas, my home, my job, my friends, and my cat, and I was sad to leave as the airplane took off and ascended into the sky, leaving a teeny tiny, ever shrinking San Antonio behind. It was a sad feeling despite the fact that I was extremely excited to become a wife in 12 days, have a beautiful Door County wedding, and marry a wonderful man surrounded by our dearest family and all my friends who would be traveling so far to be there. I was thrilled to begin our new life together in Cincinnati, excited to find our very first home of our own, overjoyed to not live 1500 miles away from Ted anymore, and jubilant to have new stomping grounds to explore. Leaving was bittersweet, but exciting.
I landed in Chicago and Ted was there to meet me, ready to begin our new life together.
We jumped into Ted’s truck and drove six hours to Cincinnati. And that was that. Has it really been just six months?
There are things I still miss about home. Most of them are food related. Please don’t judge me.
That list includes Blue Bell Ice Cream – the official ice cream of Texas (Dear Moo-llenium Crunch: Please come visit pronto!), authentic, fattening and flavorful Tex-Mex cuisine, strong Texas margaritas done right – on the rocks with a salt-lined brim, sweet tea, enjoying all these delicacies with my friends, toobing the river and the potent stench of sunscreen and burning flesh as the back of your arm singes against the scalding rubber of the inner tube, seeing Texas wildlife like armadillos, deer, roadrunners, and jackrabbits right in my backyard, my mom and dad, and, of course, the great Sancho. However, I can at least be thankful for the things I definitely do not miss about Texas, including scorpions and pavement so hot you could incur third degree burns from walking barefoot to the end of your driveway.
And despite the outrageous occurrence of snow every two minutes for the past four months and the giant flying bugs that like to hang out in our backyard and threaten to devour me in one sitting should I dare to venture outside to pull the trashcan to curb and are so fat that I have no idea how they can possibly stay afloat, Cincinnati does have many redeeming features that I love and am greatly looking forward to for the next six months.
These include opening our windows to let in the nice breeze, the lush, soft and vibrantly green grass from plenty of rainfall, little glowing fireflies littering the summer sky at dusk (which have all but disappeared from Texas over the past few years!), a thriving performance arts community, quick and easy accessibility to neighboring states and all their fun offerings and adventures, people who actually do stuff (gasp!) outside like play lawn games and cook out, go biking or rollerblading, take their dogs for a long walk down the street, and sit on their front porch talking to neighbors (instead of barricading themselves indoors, sufficiently draped over the nearest air conditioning vent), and of course, living with Ted is pretty cool too. ;-)
So, Ohio, thanks for a great first six months and here’s to six fantastic more!
….that is, after I escape to Texas for a weekend to tube the river and wreak havok on society with my girlfriends, drink margaritas on the porch with my parents, swaddle my cat until he can take no more and claws at my face in a desperate attempt to escape, and gobble up all the Blue Bell ice cream, Tex-Mex, and Bill Miller’s sweet tea my little belly can hold and I have to be rolled onto the airplane Violet Beauregarde style. Yes, I am indeed looking forward to that….
…and then coming home again to my sweet husband and our happy life in Cincinnati.
