It Ain't All Bad

When we moved to Houston, there were some aspects of life in the big city that intrigued me. I really am an urban kind of gal - I love life in the city. Amng my favorites are New York (where I've only vacationed, never lived), London (lived there for a semester in college and know it well), Paris, San Francisco, and Washington DC (visits only). With these cities, when I've been there, I've been in the heart of the city - enjoying mass transit, walking, the sights and sounds. Here in Houston, we've been relegated to the northwest suburbs, so the big-city feeling eludes me, by a good 30 miles.

Houston is actually quite the cosmopolitan place. And there are some of those benefits that I'll miss. Such as:

• Baseball: I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I enjoy an occasional game. And I do like to check out MLB parks. We've seen several games here, and I like Minute Maid Park. Like most new ball parks, it is designed to look like an old park, but with all the amenities of a new one (more food stands, more restrooms, most seats are decent for seeing the game). On Friday nights, they have fireworks after the game. Only two slight oddities: the giant Halliburton display when you walk in and the dome - when it's closed, you are watching baseball indoors and in air conditioning. Which is weird. But it is hot here, so I can let that one slide.

• Entertainment: Houston has fantastic theatre - from local groups, like the Alley and the Texas Rep, to big touring companies. You can see anything here that you want - this year we had, to name a few: Jersey Boys (loved it), Putnam County Spelling Bee, Drowsy Chaperone, and Spring Awakening (saw it on Broadway - loved it). I didn't even mention the plays. The opera is amazing, and the symphony is wonderful. We get all sorts of big-name concerts. I could gush with superlatives. But it is all top-notch - this is what you get in a city with 4 million people. You get the best. I am spoiled.

• Houston has a great museum district - from the Museum of Fine Arts and the Contemporary Arts Museum to the Children's Museum and the Museum of Natural Sciences, the museum district has it all. There's the Holocaust Museum, the Menil Collection, the Health Museum, John C. Freeman Weather Museum, the Czech Center Museum, and the National Museum of Funeral History. We've got it covered.

• Restaurants: Sure a lot of them are chains, but many of the chains are good (Pappadeaux, La Madeleine, Cafe Red Onion). And we have lots of options. We have eaten at some excellent non-chain places, including Shade in the Heights. Problem? The good ones are sooo far away. Sigh.

• Montrose and the Heights. Cool parts of Houston with lots of quirky shops, cool houses, fun people. The gay areas. Love them.

• More than one UU Church: I've never before lived in a city with more than one - it's an interesting phenomenon - UUs that you don't know. It's been great for Alison - she is very involved in YRUU. For us, a drag - we live so far away from all of them; on Sunday morning it's one thing, but on a weeknight, it would be more than 30 minutes. Can't do it. I'm back to cursing the suburbs.

• The beach: I love the smell of the beach, lying on the sand, how warm the water is. Love it. I remember Galveston, from my childhood, as being sort of icky. Not so - we've had some nice days there. I love the ocean - I'll miss the proximity.

• Summer: I do miss winter - I do. But I love summer just as much. And if we had actual winter, then I think I would be OK with six months of summer. I love wearing sandals and shorts; I love swimming and the beach. This is the opposite of Kiel, where we had what felt like 11 months of dreary February. I need a balance. But I do love the summer days when they're here.

• Schools: True, the schools are big and impersonal. And I don't always like the attitudes. But I have to say, with my kids, there has been very little anxiety here. My girls are good students who do not misbehave. For them, school has been a breeze. In Lafayette, there was always one issue or another. Oh well - life shouldn't be too easy, right?

• Famous Texans: It's been fun living in the home state of Ann Richards, LBJ, Molly Ivins. They're all gone, but their words live on.

• 9/80: We have major traffic here. So Houston Mayor Bill White encourages the 9/80 initiative: employees of participating companies work 80 hours over 9 days thus getting every other Friday off, easing the traffic on Fridays. Gary's company started participating this year, and it has been great - he still works from home those days, but no commute, and he is free for lunch. I'll miss it. But we'll get that time back every day, so no loss here.

• River Oaks: When a movie opens, you can find it in Houston on opening day. Usually, the movies I want to see are at River Oaks. It's a little art deco film house in River Oaks, where the streets are lined with trees and mansions. They tore down part of the shopping center last year, much to the dismay of historic preservationists. But part of it remains, with this jewel of a theater. It's been divided into three screens, but they show the best of the best, all the indy films, so we frequently make the trek. A 25-minute drive, but so worth it. Don't know how I'll recover from this loss.

• Shopping: Houston has EVERYTHING - and some of it is at my local mall. People here complain about the quality of Willowbrook Mall, but compared to the Tippecanoe Mall, it is great - full of stores I will have to drive to Indy to access. They just got a Mac store - ! I love the Container Store, The Woodlands Mall is great (Pottery Barn), and the new outlet mall has an Ann Taylor outlet, which has lured many precious dollars away from me. IKEA. The Galleria is the mall of all malls, surrounded by very high-end shopping centers - they have every designer my humble means could dream of, and then some. (Let's face it, I'm not really going to buy Mahnolos or Carolina Herrera.) The problem, of course, is that most of this is a drive for me - I just cannot drive 30 minutes to pop into the Container Store and pick up a few items. Figure in traffic, and it makes the drive to Indy seem almost doable.

• Friends: I doubt many of them even read this (I generally share this blog with friends from out of town), but there are some very special people I will miss. And they cannot be replaced.