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Aug. 23rd, 2014 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariYesterday's roadtrip was a much needed stress reliever. I've had a lot of it this week. Including a mandatory re-promotion looming for a job I've learned to hate, a friend coming down from PA for a week(which, in all the other stress, I forgot about), and learning that a friend, who had worked for Nintendo since it's very beginnings was laid off (which means it's not nearly as forever as I hoped it would be). While I enjoy the sightseeing on roadtrips, they also give me time to decompress and relax. And time to think.
I visited Castell, the only surviving original Adelsverein colony left in the Hill Country. I walked into the General Store, a transwoman in rural Texas, and talked with the owner and his son, as well as the locals taking a break from swimming in the Llano River. I visited the sites of the failed colonies. Driving home, I got hungry and instincively knew to go to Laird's for dinner. Best BBQ in Llano (don't let Cooper's tell you otherwise). While there, I had a long talk with the owner's and a few of the locals about how different Austin is from the Hill Country, and how much we actually do have in common. When it got dark, I pulled over and stargazed, seeing the Milky Way and pointing it out to a passing patrol car who worried about why I was on the side of a dark rural road.
A return to the Pacific Northwest has been on my mind lately. Especially as the job and economic situation has been bad here, and continues to spiral down. But I would only go back for two reasons - (1) Going back to Nintendo and (2) living with Crystal and Lissa. If I have to stay in tech support, at least Nintendo was a place I very much enjoyed working, and Crystal and Lissa were amazingly compassionate and understanding roomies.
But then a mutual friend of ours lost her job there, after being employed for 20-some years. And then, I applied that thinking to myself. What if I had the same rug pulled out from under me. Would I want to stay in Washington? Work somewhere else? The answer was...no.
And after yesterday, I realize a return to Nintendo, however much I miss it, and enjoyed it there, should not happen. I am a child of the Hill Country. I KNOW this place. I AM this place I know where to go, what to see, the history of the area, the people of the area. I enjoy their company, and, for the most part, they enjoy mine.
I don't know how I can STAY here. But I know I BELONG here.
It's time to move forward, in the Hill Country, rather than return to the Pacific Northwest to recapture lightning.
I visited Castell, the only surviving original Adelsverein colony left in the Hill Country. I walked into the General Store, a transwoman in rural Texas, and talked with the owner and his son, as well as the locals taking a break from swimming in the Llano River. I visited the sites of the failed colonies. Driving home, I got hungry and instincively knew to go to Laird's for dinner. Best BBQ in Llano (don't let Cooper's tell you otherwise). While there, I had a long talk with the owner's and a few of the locals about how different Austin is from the Hill Country, and how much we actually do have in common. When it got dark, I pulled over and stargazed, seeing the Milky Way and pointing it out to a passing patrol car who worried about why I was on the side of a dark rural road.
A return to the Pacific Northwest has been on my mind lately. Especially as the job and economic situation has been bad here, and continues to spiral down. But I would only go back for two reasons - (1) Going back to Nintendo and (2) living with Crystal and Lissa. If I have to stay in tech support, at least Nintendo was a place I very much enjoyed working, and Crystal and Lissa were amazingly compassionate and understanding roomies.
But then a mutual friend of ours lost her job there, after being employed for 20-some years. And then, I applied that thinking to myself. What if I had the same rug pulled out from under me. Would I want to stay in Washington? Work somewhere else? The answer was...no.
And after yesterday, I realize a return to Nintendo, however much I miss it, and enjoyed it there, should not happen. I am a child of the Hill Country. I KNOW this place. I AM this place I know where to go, what to see, the history of the area, the people of the area. I enjoy their company, and, for the most part, they enjoy mine.
I don't know how I can STAY here. But I know I BELONG here.
It's time to move forward, in the Hill Country, rather than return to the Pacific Northwest to recapture lightning.
