it worked!

well, i can't believe the universe responded so quickly to my love letter. right after posting my last entry on here ~ way back on july 6th ~ things started happening with sean at work. on july 9th we got the news that he had a job waiting for him in houston ~ and we had to get ourselves there by august 16th!! woo hoo!!!!! we were in shock for a few days but pretty much had to swing into action ~ lots to do in those five short weeks. so happy and excited about moving home :)

hence my lack of entries here on the blog . . .

i still plan to continue my love letter ~ i'll just be doing it from the place i've missed so much. the bub and i will be exploring h-town together while sean works his booty off at HEB :) i'll share all that cool stuff with y'all ~ i've never been a mama to a 6yo in houston - it's gonna be new and fun!

i promise to get back to writing here as soon as we're settled in at our new casa (see above) in the museum district/third ward. we're driving away from our cool little cottage here in san antone on saturday ~ let the adventure begin!

The Menil

Menil Collection

~~~~~~~

My first real non-profit job after grad school was at the Menil. What a life changing position it was. I learned so much ~ about art and about myself. It's such a beautiful place ~ one of the most beautiful in Houston - hell, one of the most beautiful places in the world. It's my favorite museum after the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice - and that's because the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is in, well, Venice.

It was 1995. I met so many wonderful people while working at the Menil ~ my first husband, John, a poet, one of the smartest and darkest men I've had the pleasure to be married to - Miss Winfrey, the dry, witty, hilarious, grey-haired lady/retired teacher who worked the front reception desk at the museum for many years and who was often mistaken for Mrs. de Menil - Susan, my boss, my dear friend and the loveliest lady I've ever known - Mrs. de Menil, whom I remember visiting with Susan one afternoon and just marveling over the paintings she had hanging over her little daybed at her house, they went almost all the way up to the ceiling, hung like you would display postcards on your dorm room wall, amazing.

My time at the Menil was precious. I learned about Surrealism and 20th Century art. I developed an honest appreciation for works that before I would have walked right by ~ I fell in love with Joseph Cornell's boxes and Robert Rauschenberg's assemblages of found items ~ and I would never ever be the same again. I remember getting to go through the art that was in storage upstairs at the museum - I was looking for a painting to hang over my desk ~ I finally chose a small Max Ernst - it was a landscape of water and sand ~ unbelievable - an experience of a lifetime - and one that I will never forget.

I miss the Menil - and the greenspace and lovely grey bungalows that surround it. What a peaceful, mesmerizing place to be. I long to show it to my Lyle ~ to share with him a piece of my soul, of my past, of what I hope to become.

1515 Sul Ross Street ~ Houston, TX 77006 ~ 713-525-9400 Hours: 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday
http://www.menil.org/

Bell Park

Bell Park

photo credit to photine on flickr

~~~~~~~~~~

I remember going to this sweet flower-filled park when I was a little girl. We lived in a wonderful bungalow a few streets over, and my mom would walk me over to Bell Park to cross the bridge, skip rocks in the little pond and listen to the birds.

It's hard to believe the park is still there. When I was in grad school, I remember picnics and going there to catch up on my reading. Last time I got to visit was on a rainy November day for the Urban Dare ~ Stacey and I had to toss beanbags at a target before moving on to the next dare at Hermann Park. I was glad to see it again.

Now I look forward to having picnics there with Sean and Lyle, to showing my bub a little oasis in the big city, a place to just be. We need more places like that :)

4790 Montrose Blvd ~ Houston, Texas

Hobbit Cafe

Bilbo the Magnificent

photo credit to Subspace on Flickr

~~~~~~~~~

I wish I had a picture of my reason for going to the Hobbit for the past 14 years ~ the Fatty Lumpkin. It is the best tuna salad sandwich in the world ~ I've never had better, and I've tasted many, many tunafish sandwiches over my lifetime. The Hobbit Cafe - which used to be the Hobbit Hole - is a cool little joint off of West Alabama near Kirby.

When it was the Hobbit Hole, it was located in a old funky house off of South Shepherd. I used to go with my old friend, Kerry ~ we were both fond of good tuna salad and would make a pilgrimage to the Hobbit to satisfy our cravings. The inside was cool - I remember purple walls and lots of pictures of hobbits and fairies and other middle earth inhabitants. The vibe was new agey, old hippy, veggie lovers, montrose funk ~ I loved it.

They moved to their much nicer location several years ago - and though a lot of the funk is gone - the food is still outstanding, and they've got one of the best patios in town. Sean always gets the turkey burger or black bean nachos. I've tried a few different things - the fish tacos and the chicken salad sandwich - but they just made me wish I had ordered the Fatty Lumpkin. Such good tuna - with apples and celery - a big tomato slice, some alphalfa sprouts and melted cheese on toast - with shredded carrots or awesome fries on the side. You can wash it all down with their herbal iced tea of the day - or try one of their many beers on tap. If they have St. Arnold Elissa ~ well then, that makes for a perfect meal on the patio :)

I can't wait to take Lyle there on a regular basis - to meet friends there - to have a freakin' fatty lumpkin whenever I get the urge. The Hobbit is on my list of reasons I love and miss Houston ~ and I'm sharing it with you ~ if you're ever in the neighborhood, go!

2243 Richmond Avenue ~ Houston, TX 77098 ~ (713) 526-5460

Homesick

me & the bub - houston heights - 2006

I miss Houston - a lot. I dream about moving back ~ which is kinda weird for me since I dreamed for so long about escaping it.

I’m a native Houstonian – and there aren’t many of us around. I left at age 6 to live on the other side of the world, in Indonesia. Then, 4 years later, I ended up in Carlinville, Illinois – which might as well have been on the other side of the moon. Every time I’d get comfortable where I was, we’d have to move. I was none too happy about our return to Houston another 4 years later – I was 14 years old and a week from starting high school. Ugh. What a freakin’ nightmare that was.

High School in the burbs was hellish to say the least – thankfully my college years at UH introduced me to the real Houston – and I ended up in Montrose, an eclectic neighborhood near downtown where all sorts of folks from all walks of life live, work and have fun. I had some good times there and some bad ones as well – but my own wanderlust always had me looking to get out of town. I just couldn’t believe that I, the world traveler, would end up living in my hometown for the rest of my life. It just didn’t seem possible – it didn’t seem like me. I wanted to try living somewhere else. I had a couple of false runs ~ a few months in Orange County, CA – a few months in Austin ~ but I always ended up back in Houston. My friends and I would joke about how impossible it was to actually leave Houston permanently – it always seems to pull you back in.

A few lifetimes later, I am married with one kiddo, living in the burbs of San Antonio. We escaped the swamp of H-town four years ago, heading west to the beautiful hill country of Texas, hoping to maybe one day end up in Austin. We’ve given it a fair shot here I think ~ I joined a playgroup right away, got a part-time job, started a beer club, played bunco, started a website and a business, volunteered at Lyle’s school ~ all in an effort to make friends, real connections. I think I was okay with it all for the first two years, but now I find myself lost, lonely and unhappy. I’m not me anymore, and I don’t belong where I am. I’m hopelessly homesick and missing my life in what many call the armpit of the world, Houston. The old adage is true ~ you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.

Thankfully, my husband, Sean, is in the same boat with me ~ he longs for Frenchy’s Fried Chicken, shows at the Mucky Duck, ice cold Lone Stars at West Alabama Ice House, and raising Lyle in an urban neighborhood free of zoning. We don’t really miss the humidity, the traffic, the giant cockroaches and mosquitoes, or the lack of greenspace ~ but the people, our friends, the vibe, the diversity, the food, the culture, the funk and the grit more than make up for the crappiness ~ they make it a really cool and interesting place to live and grow.

So, this blog is my love letter to Houston. I’m putting it out there ~ hoping the universe will hear me and help us get back to where we belong. I’m planning to write about all of the spots in Houston - restaurants, shops, clubs, museums, bars, parks, buildings, neighborhoods, and streets - that we love and miss so much.