The Big Move ...

527 Miles, 11 hours, and three Venti  Caramel Latte's and I finally made it to Dallas to stay.

What was only supposed to be a one week visit, turned in to two weeks, and then a permanent address change. I came to Texas with one suitcase filled with clothes, my cat Pete, and my computer. I had to borrow a blow dryer, purchase new shoes, and found myself a frequent flyer of the closest Target I could find.

First came the horror of trying to find my way around the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. I was not even prepared for Loop 12 and the impending panic that would set in as the Dallas Skyline got closer and closer when i wasn't supposed to be going in that direction at all. I missed exits, found myself  in the middle of traffic that wouldn't move more then 8 feet in an hour, and ran lights with cameras attached to them. I've been in Dallas a little over 1 year and i'm finally starting to feel like I have a  pretty good handle on getting around without having to ask Siri or GPS to save me from ending up in Oklahoma.

Can we just take a moment to talk about the bugs?  Is Texas some experimental bug testing ground that I wasn't told about? The first horrifying bug I came in contact with is some kind of mutant  cockroach only it's the size of a bird. They are cockroaches who are clearly eating their steroid soaked Wheaties! Not only was I introduced to this monsters by stepping on it, then I found out that they f-l-y! THEY FLY !!!!!!  These things live in the trees and down in the sewers and unlike the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... they don't save damsels in distress! Quite the opposite in fact... they put this damsel in a lot of distress! YUCK! I wasn't a huge fan of the outdoors to begin with and now i'm perfectly content with never going outside ever again!!! I mean.. Why!?!?!?

I'll be completely honest, I didn't know if I would make it for the first few months after I got here. I've always had some kind of support system, and once I got to Texas that was all gone. All of my friends and family were back in Missouri. I didn't have a friend to have coffee with, i couldn't just pop over to mom's to have dinner because i missed her, and who was going to be my exploring buddy? I cried a lot of tears worried that I wouldn't ever find a new tribe to do life with, but little by little my tribe has started to build itself around me. I've settled in and have found a few good people who I'll cherish for years to come.

It may have taken a year, but I have fallen head over heels in love with Texas and the slow rhythm of the South. I was itching for a change, and it looks like I found just the place for my heart to slow down and rest. They say home is where you're heart is, but I say... Home is where you find the best version of yourself, and that my friends is exactly what I found in the dry heat of Texas.