How did I ever get to Houston?

So first things first. Last time I left off, I was sitting in a Starbucks in Indianapolis waiting for a friend to pick me up. Slightly far from Houston…. I guess right there is as good a time as any to pick back up. So, after my laptop had died and I had switched over to consuming sweet 802.11 nectar on my phone instead, my friend arrived to pick me up. The two of us proceeded to unload the entirety of my life from my Prius to her minivan. Once the van was loaded I was truly able to admire how well I packed my car. Even if it did likely contribute to it’s demise. The van, despite being vastly larger than my poor car, was still… full.

Now my plan for getting to Houston had been to go with all my stuff from college minus some cold weather clothes with my dad in the passenger seat. Unfortunately, packing my car proved impossible while still preserving room for a passenger. So in the end, my car dying was one of the only ways I would have not had to drive 17 hours alone. But anyway, my friend drove the remaining 5 hours to my house from Indy. Which was extremely thoughtful of her considering she had left campus the same time as me, gotten home exactly when I called her for help after driving 2 hours, drove an additional 2 hours to save me, drove 4 hours to take us home, and drove 5 hours to go home herself. It worked out however because we had been discussing her visiting my home town for some time. We just couldn’t find a good time to. So she just ended up staying a few days before heading home.

Houston sure is bigger than Athens, Ohio…

Then, a week ago today, my father and I started a road trip. We left on a Thursday afternoon and arrived on Saturday evening. It’s definitely not a drive that I look forward to making alone at the end of the summer. Especially since I might not even be able to book a hotel. But finally I we arrived. He had a flight out the following morning so I didn’t get a chance to explore the city until Sunday. Houston is unlike any city I’ve been in. and certainly the largest place I’ve ever lived by a few orders of magnitude. I now fully understand the meaning of “concrete jungle”. This is due largely to the fact that Houston doesn’t really zone buildings or have a city planner. Sure, there is a downtown with skyscrapers, but there are also just random ones surrounded by apartments and fields.

This does however mean that I am only about 5 minutes from 2 different Kroger’s and only 10 minutes from work. Honestly the traffic isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I think this is mainly due to me going to work in a weird way but the exit left turn on to the main road still has no wait at 5:00. For as much planning didn’t go into the city as a whole, I sure have grown a love for my neck of the woods.

Where am I now?

For the summer, I’ll be taking up residence in a one bedroom apartment that is sparsely furnished but increasingly decorated. I get my first weekend to kinda catch up on life here in a few days as well. In that time I’m planning to work on some drafts for other posts I have tried to flesh out in the last week. That, of course, is because I have gone without WiFi until today. Which is exactly why I haven’t written anything in a week. Did I mention that I have an undying, unquenchable, irredeemable hatred for Internet service providers? I’m just warning y’all now there is a rant incoming. Because you all should hate them too.