El Paso 2019: Temporary Home

 

My temporary home in El Paso, Texas. January 2019.

Something special has happened this year, my ninth rootless year: The awesome power of a social network.

While still in my Missouri year, I thought about how I'd navigate my way from Missouri to Tucson, my 2019-2020 home.

What would it be like, I wondered, if, on the way to Tucson, I were to:

1. Drop down to South Louisiana for a few weeks for an injection of danse joyeaux et amis;
2. Revisit Big Bend National Park for a week;
3. Pass over to El Paso for a month's revisiting friends and sights there; 
4. Jog north to Las Cruces, New Mexico, for a month's intermission there; and only then
5. Land in Tucson? 

And this itinerary would begin after a month in Mexico City!

The plan was so delicious, so elegant, I kept it in a mental recipe-card size box, only opening the lid enough to peek inside occasionally, for fear of drawing the attention of mischievous fairies who delight in tossing mortals' cards into the air and laughing while their victims scramble to catch their wispy little plans before the wind carries them away.

OK, well, I did have that unfortunate car thing (RIP sweet Camry), which extended my stay in Opelousas (never a bad thing), and the weather turned in Big Bend (and on Plan B outside of Corpus Christi), but other than that .... El Paso!

A good six months before the end of my Missouri year, the friend of a friend in El Paso put out the word that she had a room in her house to rent. I noted this information, then pulled it out a few months later, contacting "Audrey," about said room. Still renting? Yes. Affordable to me? Yes. Available for my time frame? Yes.

And the universe aligned it just so. (Except for that car thing.)

A damn comfortable bed. A gigantic shower with kicking water pressure.

When I walked out the front door, this view:

View across the street from my temporary home in El Paso, Texas. January 2019.

When I looked over to my right, the uplifting view of the next door neighbor's house and xeriscape yard:

View of next door neighbors' house from my temporary home in El Paso, Texas. January 2019.

 Damn, I'm a lucky chica.

Now how do I know this friend of a friend, anyway? When I was fresh on the scene in El Paso back in September 2017, I went to Upper Tom Lea Park to participate in a drum circle. I met a woman there, "Dana." One of Dana's many attributes is her pleasure in bringing together people who she thinks might hit it off.

Dana arranged for me and Audrey to meet one day over lunch.

Who'd've thought that more than a year later, I'd leave El Paso, come back to El Paso, and rent a temporary home from Audrey?

Thank you, Dana!