I moved into my apartment with the help of my parents, a cousin I’d never met, and my good friend Brent who I went to seminary in New Orleans with before Katrina. We were done in less than 2 hours, and I spent the next two days unpacking, organizing, and cleaning. Unlike in Alabama, Texas requires car inspections in addition to registration. It takes three stops at separate places to get a driver’s license. It’s a little complicated, and tomorrow I have to drive to downtown Fort Worth to the Tarrant County Tax Assessor’s office to complete the motor vehicle registration, after which I can finally drive back to southwest Fort Worth to get my driver’s license. All of that was after I changed my insurance over from Alabama to Texas and got the car inspected. Needless to say, moving is a complicated process. That’s all I have to say about that.
My apartment, aside from a couch and chair, is essentially sponsored by Target. I have a TV cabinet, kitchen table, curtains, kitchen cart, and a bunch of smaller items from Target, and visited the store three times in two days (including two separate stores). My friends Britt and Michaela went with me to the Target in Burleson where they live now, and we talked about how I should call Target for a corporate sponsorship. Maybe I could “live a year only on products bought at Target” for free. It’s a thought, anyway.
I live in Benbrook, which is on the far southwest side of Fort Worth. Benbrook isn’t Fort Worth; I didn’t really know that when I moved out here, but I didn’t have much time to secure an apartment once I arrived nearly a week and a half ago. Benbrook might pretend to be part of Fort Worth, but in reality it’s a country town near Fort Worth. Just two very short exits (less than 3 miles) east on I-20, I’m in the real Fort Worth… even if it’s super-suburbian Fort Worth. You can find anything there. Here, the view from my balcony is of the mailboxes… and the plains west of the Metroplex heading toward Aledo and Weatherford. There’s just not a whole lot between me and the wide openness, which I like… but…
But I have to say I already miss living in the city. Even in New Orleans I had to drive at least 10 minutes to get anything, but it was always in the city. The urban island feel of the Crescent City is non-existent here. Downtown New Orleans was so close to where I lived. Fort Worth may be a city, but downtown is still about 25 minutes away. There’s something to be said about the compactness of New Orleans. Fort Worth reminds me of Atlanta and Houston- a large city that stretches outward instead of building upward (did I just imply that New Orleans builds upward? Whoops.). So I drive to get anything, and I live in the country. I’ll have to get used to this.
I guess I’ll have a lot to get used to.
by Joe Kennedy
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