We put a bid on a house in Austin, TX. We were out-bid. Sort of. We low-balled, thinking the owners of the house would counter and raise. We’d haggle. We’d get the house. It didn’t work that way. Instead, another family bid on the house. They needed an immediate answer on their offer. When the owners phoned our real estate agent to discuss the situation, our agent was unavailable. So the house we wanted (so fantastic, in Long Canyon) went. So be it. So now, we’ve decided to rent in Austin with a six month lease. Holy crap! This morning we put in our application to move to Nalle Woods. (And it was accepted!) While there we’ll have the chance to see if we really like living in Austin. The heat, the people, the lifestyle. All of it.
But why Austin? Everyone keeps asking. Cost of living. We can have a huge catalog of a life there. Now, I thumb through mailers and drool over outdoor furniture. I don’t even think I have a fire-escape. I have no outdoor space here. SPACE. Austin has space, and good weather, and wi-fi by the pool. But you could have that anywhere. I like that we can play tennis, daily, have a big house for the same price as living in a one bedroom apartment in Manhattan, and that while in the suburbs, we’re still only ten minutes from downtown restaurants, movies, and live music. It’s the blue part of a red state. It’s six months, and I’m eager to try something new. I think I’ve been playing things a little too safe. I’m ready for some adventure in my life.
“Yeah, but you are so New York. I mean, I picture you with stroller in Central Park,” my mother said to me last night. “You just are.” I know. I am a New Yorker; I’ll always be a New Yorker. And I do love it here, but I’m tired of what I know. I don’t want to be around New Yorkers anymore. I just want a change; it’s why I’m not moving to Florida (where so many New Yorkers go). Worst thing that happens? I move back, and then I know. Okay, worse things can happen, but I’m ready, bursting really, to have more in my life. A fuller life, a more active life, an exciting life making new friends and living in a new way. For a while. Or maybe longer. We’ll see. I think we’re moving April 15. Texas, just in time for taxes.
The worst that can happen? We go back for couples therapy. Joy. (Yes, my article on the very subject appears in the Back Stories section of Jane Magazine this month. In the March issue. Enjoy)
