Before The Actual Move
I feel like a leaf in the ocean. The past two days have been filled with the sadness and joy. I’m leaving my friends and family again, but this time it’s to another State.
California has been apart of my entire life. I mean look, I even have a nickname of California for pete’s sake. How could I deal with the idea of moving from California to Texas? I had answer YES to the job offer. It was either now or never, and I needed a change in my life.
A couple of friends have asked me if I’ll change my nick name to Texas Girl or TexGirl. Each time they ask this, I would have the tendency of getting touchy about the subject. My roots are from California. There’s no need to change my nick name, especially since I wasn’t born/raised in Texas.
The week I was in Texas caused me to think how can I feel a sense of belonging? The U.S. State seems so foreign to me. No mountains can be seen from anywhere!
The day before I flew out to Dallas for that week, April stayed up so late to put my hair in rag curls for my brother’s wedding the following morning. As much as I turned into a kinky afro. My other friend Dawnelle came to my rescue the following morning. She curled the top hair and put them in bobby pins, giving me that old-fashioned classy hair style. The only problem was the bottom of my hair being so kinky. She didn’t have a curling iron to help that so I called April to see if she could bring one over since we were going together to my brother’s wedding. Dawnelle jumped on the phone and started saying what the problem was, giggling because we had gobs of tiny curls that made the back of my hair look really off with how elegant she did the top part of my hair. April came over with her curling iron and mellowed the curls down.
I am moving away to a place where I may have guy friends but who would be as patient as these two were to even care about Jody’s awful and crazy abnormal hair days. I pushed that thought aside to not ruin my makeup. Plus, I didn’t know if I would take the job offer in Texas, yet.
Wednesday – January 23rd
I got choked up last night. My friend Justin and his beautiful daughter, Kyelie who is 3 years old was there. I grabbed her precious hand and looked at her dad, Justin as I told him, “ She’s not going to remember me.” The idea of that ached my heart… literally, I felt a pain of hurt in my chest. He blinked with almost a painful expression then said in a comforting tone, “Nah, she’ll always remember you.” Her mom is in the service and has been gone for months now. She’s coming back in March. I love this little girl like I would my own niece.
The last two nights have been full of insomnia. I didn’t want to face the idea of moving. I’m now getting my stuff packed in my truck for the long trip out to Texas. I love the strategy of packing all of my important belongings in one little Ford Ranger.
I went to the gas station to get my oil and tires checked as another problem started to unfold. The tires weren’t drivable to drive to Texas. One tire had a nail in it that was leaking air. The gas station attendant put water over it and it was bubbling so it wouldn’t even last my drive to even Phoenix, Arizona. It had to be the recent trip to Irvine. I accidentally ran over pieces of a wood pallet on the freeway. I ended up getting about 3 hours behind on schedule from this but at least I’ll have a safe drive to Phoenix.
I left Rancho San Diego, California around 1pm PST. By 6:30 pm PST I arrived in Phoenix, Arizona. Little did I know that I was actually back tracking about 50 miles by seeing my friend Kasim (XP-LordInsane).
Thursday – January 24th
By the next morning, I was off again at 10:00 am (Arizona time). I drove from then till 9pm that night, stayed in Odessa, Texas. I asked the lady that worked at the Inn how many hours it would take to get to Dallas from there and she said about 6 more hours. I am glad I stopped. About two hours before arriving in Odessa, there was this jeep that reminded me of one of those ones you saw in that old Mad Max movie. Two young guys were driving in the vehicle. It seemed like each time I drove in the fast lane, they would get over in my lane so I couldn’t pass them up. Finally once they did let me pass them, they would speed up and go the same miles per hour for a while… almost as if they wanted to talk to me but their window was up… so I left that alone and ignored them.
I ended up talking to the border patrol guy for about 10 minutes. I was being asked some trivial questions. I didn’t want to be blunt on answering because then he’d probably make me open my truck’s bed lid to search it. Then again the questions he asked, they weren’t things that allowed you to respond with a simple yes or no.
Friday – January 25th
I got some good sleep in Odessa, Texas at this Inn, which is something I haven’t had in 3 days. I am dressed nice with a leather jacket, black gloves and jeans with alight purple sweater. It’s really cold today.
I am off once again. I drove an hour and I’m here sitting at Denny’s writing my thoughts about the journey. Eating Grand Slam in case you’re curious, along with coffee with lots of cream and sugar. There’s this biker guy over in the next booth that looks to be in his mid 30s watching me. I think he wants to know what I am writing. I wonder if he thinks I am writing about him right now. Hehe.
I cant say this enough but I really do love driving through places I’ve never been. I can’t get enough of it right now. Reality hasn’t caught up with me yet. Hopefully it will with time.
On the drive out this morning I passed this giant peacock that was on this hillside. I had to blink a few times, it looked as big as a two story hours. So I am off once again…
There are so many Dairy Queens. Only about forty five minutes after I left the Denny’s in Big Springs, I believe the city is Sard.
Only 3 hours later I have this craving for a frosty?!! I know it’s the power of Dairy Queen advertising. I ordered a frosty that ended up not meeting expectations.
I finally arrived in Dallas Downtown and called a friend. Then I called my other buddies Marcus and Mike. Now I am out here thinking it’s still a dream. :/
Saturday – January 26th
I checked out Galleria Mall today. It’s as nice as Stevie (Killcreek) told me. It’s a bit like a three story maze. On the drive back to Frisco, some folks were flying kites and remote control planes. This type of hobby would be so much fun to get into, especially if Dallas doesn’t have any paintball places. If I got a remote control plane I’d paint it with a leopard pattern.
Tonight I tried these chocolate covered Espresso beans. I must say… I love mochas but that is insane. These have to be one of the most disgusting things I have tried. It reminded me of cigarette tobacco. My mom used to use her half empty Pepsi cans as ash trays when she couldn’t find one. If I wasn’t paying careful attention or keeping tabs on my Pepsi can those cigarette ashes were never a fun encounter.