The summer camp feeling [and a slightly random post transition]…

Throughout college, I worked for my school newspaper [the Washburn Review]. I started at the same time as two other girls and we decided it would be fun to write a column called “The Freshmen View” to talk about our experiences as freshmen on campus. In one of the columns I wrote, I talked about my transition from living at home with my parents to living in a dorm three hours away. I compared it to feeling like I was just away at summer camp. Between classes, extracurricular activities, hanging out with friends, and everything else, it just didn’t really feel like I had moved. I was so busy that it hadn’t actually sunk in that I lived there and wasn’t just away at camp for a few weeks.

Since moving to Houston [nearly six months ago now], I’ve had this same “summer camp feeling”. A few examples from the past couple of weeks:

• When filling out a form for work, I put that I was from the Kansas City office…oops.
• I told someone that I have only ever eaten at the Grand Lux Café when I was out of town. This was the day after I ate lunch there in Houston.
• When a friend asked me how long it took for our new house to really feel like it was ours, my response was that the house felt like ours pretty quickly. But that it still feels weird that the house is in Texas.

Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely loving living here - it is just taking me a while to realize that we live 13 hours [approximately 800 miles] away from the place we had always called home. It still feels more like we are just here at summer camp for a while.

But one clear sign that Houston is becoming more like home was how excited I got that an amazing new e-zine was founded by someone from my city. My city being Houston. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you need to go read the premier issue of High Gloss right away. It is amazing. All 181 pages are packed with great style tips, beautiful home decor inspiration, fun party ideas, gorgeous photos, interesting articles, and just all around incredible-ness. My favorite articles were:

• Modern Makeover
• Putting on the Glitz
• Striking a Balance
• Valentine’s in the Valley
• La Vie en Roses