My husband and I just moved from the Washington DC area to Austin, Texas in December. It has been an emotional roller coaster, and I’ve had so many thoughts running through my mind over the past few months. I wanted to share a few of those thoughts on the blog today.
We made so many great memories in DC during our three years there. It has been a little difficult for me to let go of that part of my life. I’m going to miss my dear friends and seeing them on a regular basis. I’m going to miss the seasons (especially fall) and even those snow days that everyone there seems to hate. I will miss taking the metro into the city and the ability to walk past the Capitol and the White House on any weekend I want to. I will also miss the ability to hop in the car and be in another state in just a few short hours. I will definitely miss our time on the East Coast.
But we are happy to be back in our home state. We now live in the same city as one of my sisters, two hours from the rest of my immediate family, and four hours from Daniel’s family. We are surrounded by an insane amount of delicious food – most notably, fabulous Mexican food and BBQ, two of our favorite things. We live walking distance to a trail that runs right along the river and right across that river is Downtown Austin. Just a short drive away lies the Hill Country, the most beautiful land in all of Texas. And I had forgotten how incredibly nice the people in the South are. I’m having to adjust to it being the norm for a man to hold the door open for me or to allow me to get into the elevator first. Strangers don’t look at us like we are crazy when my husband and I say hello while passing them on the street. Even my office provides a comfortable environment; the people have been so welcoming and have gone out of their way to make me feel comfortable. I can already tell that the culture in this office is going to be a welcome change.
The process of moving down here was not fun. I won’t get into the details, but you can imagine how miserable a twenty-four hour car trip with a cat who hates the car would be. My poor little kitty didn’t eat or drink or use the litter box for the two days we were on the road. We tried to keep him contained in a crate in the back seat, but he would not calm down until he was being held by one of us, and even then he was trembling the whole time. Once we made it to Austin after spending time with family over Christmas, we had to deal with several issues with the company who moved our things in moving pods, so that wasn’t fun. But in the end, we all made it to our new home in one piece, and very few of our things broke in the process.
Now, we are mostly settled in our new apartment in this great city. I can’t wait to hang out with our old friends here, meet new friends, explore our new city, have new adventures, and make new memories!