So anyway there I was, just sitting on your porch...

One pleasant surprise this month has been the discovery of front porches and front steps and how perfect evenings (and mornings, and afternoons!) are to sit, drink, eat and talk on them. It all started three weeks ago when J. served dinner on her front porch. When I arrived at her house that night her whole porch was illuminated with bright white Christmas lights and she had set the table really nicely and the whole thing looked like a picture from a Good Housekeeping magazine. Sitting out there was just perfect. And fortunately was replicated two nights later when we sat out there with cupcakes. Then the morning we went to the Gulf coast, I arrived at F.'s house to find him and J. eating breakfast out on his porch. The morning light shone on their faces and made J.'s hair look extra red and all I could think was what a wonderful way to start the day.

Later that same week I was inspired by F. and J. to give my own front steps/porch a try. Despite the fact that Austin's climate makes porch sitting possible in just about every month it only seems to have taken off (or maybe more accurately come to my notice) this month. I think it has to do with being out of school and having a more time to do those kinds of things without feeling guilty about it. Another (probably the single largest) factor for me was that I share my front porch and steps with a next door neighbour. Fortunately my neighbour moved out on May 9. He was rather strange and I wouldn't have felt comfortable sitting out there talking with someone if he lived there. So since the apt has been empty this whole month I have taken advantage of sitting out there on several occasions. I actually find sitting on those steps relaxing in a way I haven't felt with anything else- you get the comforts of being at home, while also being outside. And you can sit barefoot too which I like and which isn't really acceptable at outdoor restaurant patios. And the nights are really pleasant here right now -- warm but not too hot and the air smells good and if you're lucky sometimes fireflies will sparkle and then disappear.
I prefer front porches to back because you get to see who is walking or jogging or strolling or driving by and they can can see you too! More interesting and exciting, I think. The other night I was out there and made eye contact with several people who went by and it was really fun! The back can be good if there are a lot of people or if you want it to be more private, but otherwise I think the front is definitely better.

Catching the last train for the coast

This past Tuesday J. and I went to the Texas Gulf Coast-- specifically Padre Island, just across from Corpus Christi. I have long had an interest in coasts and I have always loved songs that mention coasts (think American Pie: "they caught the last train for the coast" or The World at Large: "I pack up my belongings and I head for the coast" or Mrs. Potter's Lullaby: "You can never escape, you can only move south down the coast"). However, I have always associated coasts with either east or west - specifically in North America. East and west are opposites, are counterparts, and maybe because of that I found it difficult to imagine this third North American coastline.
Now that I have been to the Gulf Coast,however, I need to readjust my thinking. As soon as we got out of the car all I could smell was the familiar and welcoming salt of the ocean. And though at first I resisted calling the Gulf the ocean, thinking that it sounded wrong when J. referred to it as that, I found myself calling it just that today. It certainly looked like the ocean and felt like the ocean and tasted like the ocean and had waves like the ocean, and gave my hair perfect salty curls like the ocean does-- in short, it is the ocean! And I need to accept that!
I think maybe part of the reason I resisted seeing the Gulf Coast as a real coast is because with the east and west coasts you have ocean stretching out in one direction for thousands of miles. There is something both romantic and magical about standing at the edge of the ocean on either the east or west coast of North America and imagining how that very same ocean stretches all the way to Asia or to Europe or to Africa. I think that is where, at least for me, a large part of the appeal of coasts comes from- and why I like those song lyrics I quoted above. One can feel like they're starting over, like they're escaping, they can become a new person either with no past or an invented one, when they're on the coast-- right on the edge of a continent and on the edge of the world as they know it... Beyond the horizon, where the eye can no longer reach, lies a whole new world, unfamiliar and mysterious... The Gulf Coast is lacking that appeal for me mostly because the Gulf, as the map above shows, looks more like a Bay, and because I know that really not that far away is the Caribbean... And while the Caribbean is also interesting and different and exotic, somehow its proximity makes it less interesting and distinct and exotic than Asia or Africa.
But ultimately it was so exciting to discover that one can spend a day by the ocean in Texas! After last summer, West Texas was my favourite part of the state. I think now, though, South Texas is giving the Western part of the state a run for its money!

The M-Word

I loved the opening credits of Season 1 of the tv show The L-Word when a bunch of different words that started with the letter 'L' would appear on the screen. Love, Longing, Los Angeles are the first three that come to mind just now. It was a much better opening than the one the show adopted for the following seasons which had an annoying theme song and all the characters in poses they would never normally be in. Each time I watched an episode of Season 1, I would try to spot a word I hadn't noticed the last time.
Today I was thinking about the month of May, specifically May of 2008 compared to May of 2009. And then I began to think about all the words that start with the letter 'M': May, Mom, Mountain, Magic, Marigold, Mad, Magnificent, Magnet, Miss, Mind, Maybe, Mango, Mail, Mud, Millions, Malicious, Mild, Magpie, Man and the list could go on and on... Quite an assortment!
But sticking with the first word on the list, I find the month of May a bit of a fickle month. Is it summer or is it spring? Is it cheerful or is it gloomy? Is it genuine or is it fake? At this exact time last year S. had arrived in Austin and summer had begun! As we drove off into the sunset (or really just west towards LA) I remember feeling super positive about the month of May because I knew that that month I was going to see all the people I care about the most in the world.
Now, a year later, I keep thinking about last year and making note of all the differences. This time around, summer won't begin for me for another month. I won't get to see all the people I love best and I'm going to be spending it pretty much in one place. But on the bright side, the prospect of staying here the next month is totally fine- unlike last year when I wanted to get out of Texas so badly that I practically cried tears of frustration as we passed El Paso and still hadn't reached New Mexico!
Last May had been anticipated for so long that though it lived up to all its expectations, I could still pretty much taste them (they were mostly sweet thankfully) in much of what I did that month. The lack of expectations for this May is actually sort of freeing, and hopefully a good thing. And if all else fails, I have lots more episodes of The L-Word to watch.