Flashbacks

As we drove to our friend's comedy debut tonight, I gazed out at the scenery along LBJ freeway. Sometimes it seems almost unreal to me that I live in Texas again. It's almost as though the 9 years I spent in NJ never happened. But then, I looked closer and I saw how things have changed. In those days, I saw Dallas as a glittering city of the future...lined with shiny skyscrapers and encircled with endless freeways leading toward limitless tomorrows. It might have had something to do with my address at the time, which was in the (then) redeveloping area of Knox-Henderson. Everything seemed shiny and new. I was recently out, too.

The LBJ-scape has changed since 1999. West of Mac Arthur, the stores, restaurants and office buildings now stretch almost all the way to Grapevine. I remember there being little other than grass and wildflowers back in my Dallas Alpha days. Back then, my office was in Farmers Branch, right near what is now the new DART line and the new Sam Moon center. But "Hole in the Wall Burger" is still there on Harry Hines. And so is that place that makes the custom lighted Christmas decorations there at the corner of LBJ and Stemmons.

Those 9 years in NJ did happen, too. A colleague at work shared with me today how he and his partner have parted ways. They recently completed renovating their new home, and now they are splitting up. I couldn't help but think about the two breakups I endured during my Jersey period. The first one came years later than it should have, but happened after a particularly trying time of buying and renovating a "fixer upper" house. I thought it would be a home for many years. While you're living it, it's easy not to realize how much things change over time, whether it is our relationships, life plans, homes, or the scenery along LBJ freeway between Irving and Grapevine.