We have been in Houston for a little over two weeks now, but it feels like so much longer. My eyes have been opened to a lot of things that I’m not used to. I guess you could call it culture shock. We are starting to look for a good church family to be a part of (which is kinda weird for both of us) and we went to one this Sunday that I guess you would call a ‘mega church’. They have 5 services every weekend! Immediately as we walked in I found myself comparing it to my San Angelo church and it falling short in every way and its not that there was even anything wrong with the church, it just wasn’t my church… I am realizing that there won’t be a church exactly like my ‘home’ church because no other church is going to have the memories that my church has and no other church with have the relationships and family that my church has. It really makes me miss ‘home’. I’m still struggling calling Houston my home. I know with time we will find a good church and make new friends, but at this time those are still prayers of ours.
We have found a little community that is about 10 minutes from our house that has any kind of shopping we will need. We have also gotten involved in a Bible study through Rice. We really like it so far. I guess we have a few friends… I sometimes have a hard time though because they all go on these tangents about things that are so far over my head about physics related things. At least with the ASU physics group I could follow for a little bit. I don’t even try anymore.
Daniel is liking his job so far. The fact that he gets paid for doing science is pretty awesome. He gets to play with worms all day (or at least that’s how I interpreted it.) Rice has such a beautiful campus. We have gone multiple times just to walk around campus and enjoy the beauty. One interesting thing that we have found is that Rice has an overwhelming number of rabbits around the campus. Kinda like ASU has a cat problem, except rabbits are way more awesome.
We have been working hard on the house. I’m still working on painting all of the rooms (its getting OLD fast.) We also planted some trees and built a garden in the back yard. It has been a task to keep the dogs out though. Super frustrating when we spend time and money and they tear it up. Hopefully we will have fresh vegetables soon!
I’m looking forward to the next few weeks. We have lots of family coming. Jason, Val, and my sweet little nephew are coming this weekend and my parents are coming the next. Hopefully after that I will have a job lined up.
I kinda had a melt down last week from being home and alone. I thought that taking a month off from working would be so great, but I’m seriously rethinking that. It’s not the same when you don’t have company. I literally can count on two hands the number of people I talked to last week. My dogs have been good company though. I find myself talking to them a lot, as if they can understand me. Its kinda like the guy in the movie Castaway. My dogs are my Wilson. Haha… Ok that’s a little bit of an exaggeration but you get my point.
I am starting the searching part of getting a job. I’m realizing that no matter how hard I look, none are going to be my old job. I miss it. I miss my second family. The deep friendships and good times. All the laughs. I miss the craziness of clinic days, but feeling so accomplished by the end of the day. I miss making people smile and the cast room, gosh I miss the cast room. There’s something so special about the time you have with patients while casting them and you can’t understand it until you have done it; or maybe it’s just me. A relationship and trust that you built with patients. A chance to do what I went to nursing school for… encourage, comfort, and listen. It’s a time to get away from paperwork and stress and just love on patients.
I know with new chapters come new adventures and new relationship. I just never want to forget the past ones.
~Jessica
awifeandherphysicist 