New Online Friends

You can meet real people online. A woman that just moved her family here from Michigan has been corresponding with me since February 2010. We met on the Austin forum of http://www.city-data.com/, which is a great resource for people facing a move to a new city. Cecilia moved here this summer with her husband and 3 daughters (all close to Dani's age). They were actually planning a move to the Lakeway community (where we live), but they ended up in Steiner Ranch. It's close but a different school district.




As you can see, the girls really hit it off and enjoyed an afternoon in the pool. It was interesting to hear Cecilia's perspectives on Austin. Since it's not truly a new city to me, quirks like the way streets are arranged (& how the names change so often) don't really bug me. The fact that I-35 is unusable (except as a parking lot) is just something I accepted a long time ago. These things bug her. I also didn't hear a lot of gushing about the "weird" Austin, most-cool city thing from her. And that's in spite of the fact that she's already enjoyed the easy availability of live local music. Maybe all that really doesn't matter to newcomers that aren't in their 20's.

It's funny how things turn out differently than you planned. We are truly enjoying the pool, much more than expected. We have my family over every other Sunday and basically have a big party. It's a nice draw to invite kids over to meet Dani and Nile. And I am finding I can actually get some exercise out of it and use it to relax in the evening. We looked at a lot of houses that didn't have pools & it wasn't high on our list. Now I would list it as a "must have". I figured I would not be able to tolerate working at a hospital that wasn't in South Austin, but I've found the commute up to 32nd street not bad at all. Saturday was especially sweet, only 25 minutes. And this is corny, but I love driving through downtown between the high rises and then skirting along the edge of UT. I love being back in the city.

The kids start school tomorrow, so soon everything will change drastically. I have most of the week off so that I can help ease the transition. The painters come on Tuesday to paint much of the interior of our house. I start orientation for my second job the next week. Ken's been invited to play a big poker game in Houston one weekend in September. Dani & I are planning a Thanksgiving trip to NYC to visit Holly. I was concerned Nile would never replace his beloved Clinton TaeKwonDo studio, but in some ways I think he found an even-better school (smaller, more of a family).

Life is good and I'm living in Austin, where I always wanted to come back to. It's great.