A Year Ago Today

The first anniversary has arrived. Hard to believe, but, indeed one year ago today I was on the road and headed to Los Angeles for what I thought was going to be the new life there. As it's about 10:42 AM right now, I don't think I was even in El Paso at this time last year. If I'm totally honest, I have to confess that as I left Midland behind and made it past more state borders than I've ever driven in my life, I wondered if I was doing the right thing. But I needed to see if the feelings were going to be there, when I took the Lincoln exit, turning at the Tasty Goody shopping center and down Vernon Ave, and further on when I walked to the ocean and felt the salt air on my face. It was supposed to be transformational, but as I confessed a few sentences ago, for that whole drive and amidst teary eyed sentiment, I wondered often about that place LA and in tandem wondered about "Austin."

And one year later, having escaped the inverse of expectation, the chill of body, mind and heart, here I am in Austin, where in the past (almost) two months I already feel more at home than I ever did in the Golden State. (Note to self: Florida is the sunshine state.)

Now how about that for drama? I've probably logged over 10,000 miles, easily, in my year-long quest to figure out what I wanted and where I wanted it. Now I think I know where I want it, and I finally have some ideas about what I want, I just need to solidify them, steel my spinal cord, and go. Funny, for so long it was Go West, when East was the better West. ;)

Last year was also bustling with post-Halloween thoughts, at least on the first of November. Those goings on are well documented close to the beginning of this blog, when it was titled "Le Soleil est Pres de Moi," or the sun is near me, if I've translated loosely albeit correctly. There was the contest, the kids, the home spun carnival as created by my Mom's magic realism. The loading and the leave. Wistful much, Gabriel?

This year I spent Halloween away from the kids and my family, yet somehow closer to their hearts. They went as sideshow freaks, and my sister sent pics, I'll have to post them later. But I was here in Austin, where David and I decided to take in the 11:15 PM showing of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. While the theater wasn't packed, there were a good number of people there to appreciate the film. Also, PWK productions (headed by P. Kellach Waddle, a local bassist) presented new compositions and some film favorites by Mr. Waddle. He strives to bring "classical" music to unique locations and broaden the appeal, so it was great. Plus you can eat while you are watching the movie, and it doesn't really detract from the experience as I thought it might. I had a yummy root beer float, though I was done with it before the movie started.

We definitely enjoyed the movie, as did the appreciative audience, which I suspect would have been bigger on any other night, after all Baby Jane is not exactly a Halloween type movie, but plays beyond that genre. Still, it was great fun, and we didn't get home until about 3:30, the movie and music having finished at 2:45 or so, and the Garmin having directed me badly such that I wound up caught in post-club downtown Austin traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular.

That's how the weekend started, as we moved into November. A contrast of time and space for sure. I just returned to edit this post and add the finish, so, this time last year I was probably about to go to bed after a long drive from Midland to Phoenix, AZ (a place I'm not terribly fond of, preferring Tucson). The next day would find me in Los Angeles with a chill in the air and the beginning of a chill in me, despite a few warm people in my life, and they know who they are, and the others who added to the chill well, they know who they are. But, blame it on that lucky old sun, I guess, he hid too much.

In contrast, as I mentioned, today we had Sunday lunch outside, after a Universitarian outing (I'll have to blog about that later), and it was a beautiful day, warm with just a perfect cool breeze to keep it comfortable. I love the little bit of blue in a red state that I'm in.