One of the big things that I left when I moved from Dallas was my social network. There are a lot of people and places that I used to hang out with and at in Dallas, and I just haven’t replaced that up in Oregon yet. That being the case, I’ve really just spent a lot of time doing other stuff, and socializing or going out haven’t been on the agenda. Then, I got a call that beckoned me back to Dallas for a few weeks. I’ve been down here since last Monday, and quickly started filling up my schedule. I’ve managed to have something or another going on every day since I’ve been back. To be honest, I’ve really missed going out with friends, and hanging out with people. I’ve enjoyed the downtime, and relaxing that I’ve been doing in Oregon, but it’s been really great to get back into having a social life. At the same time, jamming as much in as possible has been a little bit crazy. It’s been years since I’ve gone out this much, and in truth it’s not even like I’ve been going that crazy here. I’ve not even been out past one down here. So far it hasn’t taken its toll on me, but I am wondering if by the end of the week it will. Sunday I just lounged around and read a book, and it was nice to have some down time to recharge. This week is filled with something going on everyday too so by the end of it I might really be missing the lack of doing anything. While there are a number of things that I miss about Dallas, my friends here are on top of the list. It’s been really great to get to see them all again, and I’ve had a ton of fun with them. At the same time, I’m really in love with Oregon. The geography has been calling my back all my life, and now that I’m finally up there it’s been great. I’m having fun while back in Dallas, and it’s definitely making me miss it, but so far, I’m still happy with my move.
Posts Tagged ‘Oregon’
Welcome Back, Life
Monday, April 20th, 2009Movin’ on Up
Monday, April 13th, 2009After spending the last ten years or so in Texas, I finally left. In January my family and I moved back to Oregon after having been away for a long, long time. So far things have been pretty good. One of the biggest reasosn we wanted to come back was to be close to the coast. It’s just a little over an hour from our house to the ocean. We’ve been out there a few times already. It’ll be even nicer once it actually warms up so we’re not dealing with cloudy, drizzly weather.
Being here is defintely very differnt, though, and in many ways. The biggest change is probably the size. The Dallas/Ft. Worth area has something like 3.5 million people. The entire state of Oregon has about 7 million. Where we are is maybe 300k or so. Obviously, this means that there just isn’t as much to do or going on here. On the plus side, I don’t actually do much so it’s not a huge problem. I kid, I kid, but it’s really not too bad. The biggest thing for me is the lack of massive commercialsm. In Dallas we had at least three of anything within a few minutes of your house. Here, though, there’s just one or two of something in the whole town.
I’ve not been able to sample a lot of the local stuff yet, but am slowly working on it. Of the few places thy I’ve been so far, it has certainly been interesting. While a lot of these types of places were in Dallas too, they weren’t really places I went. So far I’ve not found anything that is a lit like my old haunts, but I still have a lot of looking to do.
The other big thing here is the difference in the street culture. Dallas’s mayor all but had homeless people killed, whereas here there are at least three in every corner. I’ve not been hit up for money everywhere I go since New Mexico, so that’s some fun re-adjusting too. On the plus side, they have mostly all been polite, which is more than I can say for the New Haven homeless.
While there are a lot of aspects about Dallas that I really miss (despite hating Texas), I’m generally happy about the move. I do really miss my friends, though. I’m excited about what sort of new stuff I’ll get myself into up here. I’ll attempt to post updates, but can’t make any promises.