On the Brighter Side

Here is a view of my life here in Houston. It's kind of fuzzy, but on the left in the foreground is Alice Pratt Brown Hall, the main building for the Shepherd School of Music at Rice, where I spend most of my time during the day. This view is at night, with the skyline from the medical center in Houston as background on the right. Bear with my lack of photography skills, I just got the phone today, and I was slightly inebriated when I took this.

The internet works in my apartment! That means now, instead of being online sporadically during the day, I will be online consistently and over long periods, mostly at night! Hooray! In other news, the electricity works again, the stove was fixed so that the apartment no longer smells like natural gas (or maybe that's just how Texas smells...), and I now have two teaching jobs. I am teaching in two high schools about 45 minutes Northwest of the city, one on Tuesdays from about 6:30 to 8:30 or 9, and the other on Thursdays from about 3 to about 9. I'm going to be raking in the dough. Hopefully I will be able to stop myself from spending it all.

It has come to my attention recently that, while this page was intended to contain information about both me and Houston, specifically contained in humorous anecdotes about things that happen to me when in or around Houston, everything I have posted so far has been mostly about me and not as much about Houston. In fact, whenever I do mention Houston, it is usually to complain about the driving or the weather. In light of this fact, I would like to say the following positive things about this city which I must call my home for the next two years.

-The sky here is beautiful. I don't know what else to say about it except that it's not fair. The rest of the country should not be deprived of this view of the blue sky mixing with fluffy clouds at all times of the day, changing to any number of colors at sunset. Often when I am walking or driving around, I feel like the sky is not real, like it was painted on a cliff by Wile E. Coyote, and I am about to smash head first into that cliff (I hate that coyote!). I wish I could describe it better.

-People here, when outside of their vehicles, are quite courteous. If I'm waiting in line at CVS (it's around the corner and 24 hours, so I'm there often), and another line opens, and the cashier motions to the man behind me to go over, the man invariably will point to me and say, "He was first," as if there is this predetermined order to the world, and far be it for him to try to skip a turn. I thank him and proceed to the checkout, and everyone is happy. In New England, the man behind me would have pretended I wasn't even there, and cut me without a second's thought. It is something to think about.

-I consider myself to be an excellent long-distance driver. In short sprints, I will often be outrun by sporty cars and their constant lane-maneuvering. But over the long haul, my slow and steady pace will win every time. As a long-distance specialist, I have always considered the highway to be my friend. And nowhere am I among more friends than in Houston. There are highways everywhere. The streets are practically highways themselves, with as many as six or eight lanes in places. As much as I complain about the traffic and the bad driving, I want to also say that I appreciate the amount of road space available to me here. It makes driving on Main Street feel like riding a bicycle down a football field.

Well, despite my best efforts, it seems that I have run out of good things to say about Houston. I will go try to think of more in my sleep, and perhaps there will be more good news in the morning.