My todays

I've been in Texas for seven weeks now, which is the longest amount of time I've spent here since I moved out five years ago.

My life here is so different from my life in New York. For instance, in Texas people frequently use the freight elevator to get to the second floor of their warehouse style office building. In the city we walk dozens of blocks every day, and bounce up and down multiple flights of stairs just to ride the subway. And when we take the elevator, it's not because we're lazy, but because we work on the 67th floor (or whatever). Here I'm trying to get used to paying $4 for a gallon of gas, instead of $80 for an unlimited train card. I bitch about it alot but the reality is that I'm only paying $3 for every beer I drink here, so it probably ends up about even. When I'm engrossed in my life in New York, my weeks fly by so fast I feel like I barely get the chance to be in them. Here life kind of marches along: steady, dull, consistent, predictable, yet at a brisk pace.

Every other Tuesday a woman comes to clean my mom's house. This cleaning lady is the worst bed-maker I've ever known, so here I don't wash my own sheets, but I do remake my bed every two weeks after Rosario makes her pathetic attempt at it. Here I have to take my nose stud out before I report for my intern duties, but the president of our mortgage banking company wears Nike tennis shoes to work every day. Here the world seems a bit upside down...

... in some ways...

... but in other ways it makes a different kind of sense. I'm greeted every morning by a fresh pot of coffee, thanks to my early-rising father and his commitment to a good strong cup to start each day. I spend an hour and a half every day in the private, protective capsule of my brother's Toyota. This is my time to think, pray, sing along to my iPod, or simply exist without interacting with the outside world. Barnes & Noble is where I spend most of my lunch breaks, and on the weekends minutes fly by while I sit under the sun lost in worlds someone else created while reading whatever I want. Dinners with family and drinks with old friends and breathing and remembering not to underestimate the value of a good twirl when you're wearing a white skirt, and you kick off your shoes to feel the surprising coolness of the lawn. These are my todays, for now.