a world devoid of proximity and (thus far) 10-gallon hats

I'm sitting in the rental car center, in the heart of the DFW airport complex. (yes, it's a complex. A 10 minute bus ride just to get to the rental joint. Proof that yes, everything in Texas is big?...)

My traveling compatriot is due in an hour or so's time, and so, as I'm wont to do, I'm multi-tasking. Sans preschooler and spouse, I have to dream up novel ways of feeling accomplished... so I'm ravenously devouring what is, in all likelihood, the worst sandwich I have ever purchased, and a comparatively fresh (and hence, delicious) bag of salty, greasy Lay's. And checking email. And tracking Susan's flight (bless it, it looks as if it will be late. Delta...). And blogging (well, that last one was sort of a duh...)

I haven't set foot in Texas as an adult... as a tried-and-true city girl (and, let's face it, Easterner at heart, if not in residential history), The south/west (depending on to whom to talk) has no appeal to me. No. Appeal.

But, alas, I'm here (and, admittedly, excited about it) to meet some clients, who I feel like, in a way, are like old friends. And I'm here to observe the fruits of our labors on the first project I completed in this role (I typed "new job", but that just seems out of character...), and so its a short trip, but worthwhile nonetheless.

Additionally (and I'd say coincidentally, but I'm having a hard time believing the world is random), this trip gives me my "air legs"... we set off for Ireland in, what... 10 days now (wow!) and, honestly... once I do a bit of traveling, I ache to do it more often. This is perfect timing... and a couple of weeks after our return from Ireland, I'll head out to Detroit for our quarterly team meeting.

A couple of observations about Texas:
1) I knew this, but you know how you don't know something, really... til you experience it? Anyway, it's bloody hot here. Not like, ooh, it's going to thunderstorm tonight, hot... but the "oh my god it's been this hot for 3 months now" hot, the hot that hangs in the air like a lead curtain. Now, I'm a big fan of summer... really, I (mostly) rue the fact that I live in a state where the average winter temperature is 19 degrees in January. But I like summer because I can have my windows open all day and enjoy what my silly midwestern meteorologists affectionately call, "good sleeping weather". I've only been here for about an hour... but honestly, A/C (or living underwater) is the only way to go in the summer here.
2) Maybe this just wasn't an observation I was able to make as a pre-teen, but the space! I know, I know... everything's big in Texas. And I'm just slightly disturbed by that... I'm sure space is just fine, but dark nights and quiet kinda creep me out. Seriously, I had to sleep with a light on and a fan blowing in the middle of February when I lived in a small town through high school. I need proximity to life. Sirens, or people, or music, and streetlights, please! Bustle. I like bustle. I cannot imagine living in a large city (like Dallas) just to think how spread out everything is... I have just started growing on the idea that a whole 44x80 foot yard is a waste of space (when you think about what is done on such lots in Chicago and New York and the like).

Long story short -- it takes all kinds of urban terrain to fit all the faces on the planet. I was beginning to think I was just going to fall in love with any city that I wasn't born in. The jury's still out on Texas, but I'm glad to know, for my own sanity, anyway, that I'm beginning to define the urban that fits me.