Dallas, TX
if i could describe my life this past year in airport codes, it would go like this, not including all the miscellaneous trips made during and in between:
pty-phl-atx-mad-dfw
it feels like forever, not 2 weeks ago, that i was sitting in plaza españa with my friend, reminiscing over takeout chinese from an underground restaurant and comparing to the last time we had sat there just a few months ago with takeout chinese and smuggled pear-flavored beers talking about how far we had come, how much we had been through, how much more lay ahead in wait for us.
and now, i'm back in the states. and this time, there is no stop date.
i've never traveled, or lived, anywhere in my entire life for an open ended period of time.
to have stopped in a place that i never imagined myself, to a state that i never truly saw myself returning to, to be here without an end date is exciting when i don't think about it too hard at best, anxiety-attack inducing at worst. for the first time, i've come to place where i don't know how long i will stay. there is no limit. there is no time frame. there is no expiration date. to be honest, it is terrifying, bringing back that old fear of falling into complacency and/or slowly going crazy. i eloped with my wanderlust, and i had eloped hard. old habits are hard to kick.
on the positive side, i may have had enough movement recently to pacify my errant tendencies for a while at least.
the last two weeks have been a blur of packing, unpacking, retreading my favorite routes of a city i hesitantly fell in love with in order to imprint the sidewalks, the parks, the cafe-bars into my sandy memory, driving, driving, driving, moving from one place to another, constantly, never stopping until i finally arrived to dallas. staying out all night with my visiting friends at a dance club in madrid. flying all day. driving to princeton for a day to pick up a guitar smuggled over from spain. driving forever and a day to texas. and once in dallas, couchsurfing with total strangers - getting lost in the largest state fair in the nation trying to find my co-workers - driving from flat to flat in the search for a home - getting kicked out of my hotel - crashing at a friend's house - getting pulled over for the first time in my life for speeding (there's a story behind that one, i promise i'm not a reckless driver) - and all of the angels along the way that have ensured that i felt welcome, that i had a roof over my head at night, that fed me, that befriended me so that despite being brand new in an unfamiliar city, i am not alone.
the next few months will keep me busy learning more about my company and the roads that it maintains, driving between fort worth and dallas, learning new software, settling into my new home and meeting and making new friends. i never wanted to grow up but it seems that for now, this will be the real life.
ferris wheel at the state fair of texas
