-----------------------------
September 21, 2000
Greetings and Howdy y'all guys,
I'm a total Idatexahoan. I feel like I have a foot in both worlds at the moment. Oh, hi, it's me, Nancy, ringwriter and roadie for The Johnson Traveling Circus. This is our official change of address statement. I know it's longer than one statement, but you know me: one puzzling statement leads to another. Anyway, in case you haven't heard, our family has moved and we didn't want to just skip town without telling you all (if we owe you money, please disregard this notice). We're back in Texas, (everyone say Yeehaw) in the Dallas area. Keith has a job with Hewlett-Packard in the city of Richardson.
Frequently Asked Questions:
FAQ 1. Where exactly are the Johnsons?
Our house is in McKinney, an adorable little town full of big tress and creeks and parks and southernly-hospitable people. We felt like stranger here for about fifteen seconds. I'm amazed at how welcoming the kids at school and church were to my kids. And I'm relieved. And I'm jealous of my own darling children. If only I had some place where I was forced to go every day to hang out with a huge group of potential friends. The only thing that isn't ideas about McKinney (besides the fact that it's a three day drive from Idaho, there aren't any mountains, all the houses have cottage cheese ceilings--Okay, it's not perfect, I'll admit it) is that K has to drive about thirty minutes to work. That's a bummer after living five minutes from work for nine years.
FAQ 2. Why did the Johnsons most to Dallas?
Keith moved here because he's been a Dallas Cowboys fan his whole life (ever since Danny White was his Sunday School teacher) and he's sick of the ridicule he's had to endure from jealous fans of all the other NFL teams. Here, he can mourn through another lousy football season in sympathetic company. My reason for moving here is similar and probably obvious since most of you know about my lifelong dream to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Just wait, next year, after I get TV exposure in one of those perky little costumes everyone will be bugging their plastic surgeons to put stretch marks on their tummies.
In reality (which I sometimes confuse with, you know, other stuff) we're all still reeling with the shock of moving here. Our future plans were all set in Boise until one day in June Keith came home and said his company had some interesting job openings in Dallas. I said, "So what?" but at the same instant I knew we were moving to Dallas. I was bummed but it felt right. And then everything about it worked out perfectly: Keith was offered the job, he liked the work, they offered us all the benefits we needed leave, our house sold quickly, we got an incredible deal on our new house blah blah blah. This isn't supposed to be bragging. It's just me being amazed on paper by how perfectly everything went. Life isn't usually this straightforward so we're going with it.
Our kids left Boise because we told them if they didn't get on the airplane they'd never see any of their possessions again. One day before we left George said to me, "So we're moving to another state because you had a feeling? One tiny feeling? Are you sure it wasn't something you ate?"
FAQ 3. Where do I mail Christmas Cards, birth announcements, wedding announcements, long or short personal letters, Holiday catch-up-on-your-family newsletters, care packages, money, round trip tickets to Florence, Italy, etc.?
Our permanent address, write this in pen because it's not changing, is:
K, N, George, Kirsty, Jake, Andy, and Nate Johnson
#########
McKinney, TX #####
Email is the same: n######@netzero.net
Phone Number: 555-555-5555
Most Frequently Asked Question: Where do existentialist hang out in Texas?
Emotionally, the finality of this move didn't hit me until I went grocery shopping here. I'd predicted that my grief would hit at Albertson's in Boise, you know, an insignificant place that symbolized everything I love in Boise. And plus, many of my defining moments have occured in grocery stores. (Probably because grocery stores are parapsychodynamic epicenters of our dimension. I mean, can't you just feel how freely the chi flows up and down those long aisles and the florescent lighting makes everyone's aura so obvious. I don't know, or maybe I just spend way to much time in grocery stores.) Anyway, I didn't fully miss Boise, Idaho until I walked into Albertson's in Plano, Texas. (We lived in an apartment in Plano for a few short weeks of hell before we closed on our house in McKinney.) My girls were with me when we went to the Plano Albertson's for the first time and the moment we walked through the doors George gasped. Kirsty said in hushed voice, "It's our store!" and she wasn't just quoting the commercial. It was exactly the same as the Albertson's that's a block away from our Boise house. There was Starbucks on the left and the magazines on the right, pharmacy straight ahead. In the distance I could see the rotating dog sign spinning above the pet food section. For a few minutes I allowed myself to believe that if I walked back out the door I could look across the parking lot and see the familiar homes of my Boise neighborhood and if I walked farther inside the store and up the aisles I would run into three or four people I know. (So I have fantasies about grocery shopping, I'm big enough to accept that I might have a problem here.) Anyway, my fantasy dissolved when we pushed our cart past the pharmacy and saw that the health and beauty aisles were running vertically when they should have run horizontally because that's how the health and beauty aisles were in our Boise Albertson's. Then my sense of loss finally hit. I never really cried when I hugged my friends in Boise goodbye or walked through my house for the last time or even when our airplane lifted off the Boise runway. The loss never felt real until I stood in front of the Tartar Control Crest and realized My Alberston's isn't in Boise now. I'll have to find a new parapyschodynamic epicenter here in Texas. We'll all have to find new everythings here. Our family lived in Boise longer than any of us have ever lived anywhere and it's painful to have completed this permanent move away.
Frequently Insisted Truth: The Johnson's are not wimps
Okay, now, watch me Cowgirl Up. We live in Texas now and it's great here especially since God forgave us a few weeks ago and lowered the temperature below 100 degrees. Yikes, now I'm talk about the weather but if I didn't mention the weather it would be like me not mentioning that I'd been mugged, if I'd been mugged, which I haven't unless you count that all Texans were majorly assaulted by the weather for the first two weeks we were here. It clobbered us. We could barely walk outside without those little dots of light dancing in our eyes from the heat. The asphalt was soft and gooey and stuck to our shoes, just like when you're trying to run in a dream but when you pick up your fee the entire road gets pulled up too. (or am I the only one that dreams that on a regular basis?)
We're talking awe-inspiring heat. On Labor Day McKinney had the high temp for the nation at 112 (and all the Texans were out mowing their lawns and cleaning their garages like it was nothing.) But finally, the day after Labor Day, the heat broke. We were forgiven. It's amazing how refreshing and delightfully balmy the nineties felt after that impressive heat. This morning it was 72 and Kirsty insisted on running back inside to get a jacket.
Okay, that's enough weather report. To those of you who are still awake: We love you. I'm sorry for sending a form letter and I probably won't have time to add even a tiny personal not to each one since I'm really supposed to be unpacking my office and setting up dentist appointments. But I've sneaked (is that a real word?) away from my dayplanner's life to spend some time taking care of my real life. That's you. Take care an keep in touch.
Love,
The Johnson Traveling Circus
