Surprise, surprise...

We had a visit the other day from friends V and S... we lived around the corner from them in Clear Lake and they've been up here for our parties and other visits since we moved.  V and her husband were driving north of us for a funeral that day. When V realized how close she was to us, she used her cell phone to call me as they were passing our exit on the highway, and asked if they could stop by on their way home later that afternoon.

I told V to come on by, hoping that they would stay for a visit instead of just a quick hello/goodbye. They got here in mid-afternoon, along with two of V's friends whom I had met before when V's son got married up in Austin a few years ago. My husband and I have met most of V's close friends over the years, at various parties and family gatherings, and never have I met such a joyful group of people. One of V's friends is The Dancing Queen... at V's son's wedding, G was up and dancing every time the bank struck a note... didn't even matter if no one was dancing with her... she just loves to dance and she dances well.

V's friends hadn't been here before and they wanted to see the house, so we went room by room as they oohed and aahed over this hundred-year-old home's quirks and charms. It's a pleasure to look through this one-of-a-kind house, and I do truly love its Victorian rooms and original flooring and fixtures and stained glass. One of the ladies told me that it must have been "easy as pie" to leave Clear Lake for this, and I stumbled all over my words as I answered that.

How to even explain this without sounding ungrateful for this home. I do love this house. I do not, however, love the location. When we first saw this big Victorian, I was enthralled with everything... the property, the trees, the pastures, the big old barn, the little guest cottage... everything just said 'Welcome Back to The Past.'  We bought this house and I was thrilled beyond belief to be here. I missed our friends in Clear Lake but I was still just so happy to be living here. I didn't miss the Clear Lake house at all after we settled in, and I surely didn't miss the traffic and congestion in Clear Lake as it grew and grew into a city-ish part of Houston proper.

But... be that as it may... I do miss the bookstores, the museums, the galleries, the shopping, the ethnic restaurants, and the pure convenience of living within thirty-minutes from Houston on one side and forty-minutes from Galveston on the other side.

I was so enthralled with this vintage house when we first saw it that I didn't give a thought about the wildlife, the insects, the night-time creatures, the 12-mile drive to a grocery store, the serious lack of a good bookstore, the absence of a great shoe store... not to mention all of our city activities in both Clear Lake and Houston that are two hours away from in this little town.

Oh well. Here we are, and here we'll stay. In this big old house that I loved the minute I saw it.  I have to remember that, and I really did as V's car backed out of our driveway this past weekend... they were waving, we were waving back... and it took everything in me not to just run after their car and tell them to take me with them.

Must. Change. Attitude.