I Hope We Move To Austin, Texas

A little while ago I was hopeful about something, and even though I knew intellectually that it wouldn't make any difference I didn't tell people about it for fear of "jinxing" it.  It didn't work out.  My darling wife's old boss, who had brought us down into this mess in the first place, had got a new job in Dallas.  She said she was going to get Christina out of her present job and into one in Dallas.  The job was going to be something that Christina was very interested in, and if nothing else it would be almost impossible to have a worse working environment.
Dallas?  For those who know us the idea of us being happy in Dallas must seem bizarre.  A few years ago I would have agreed.  However, in all the cities in the USA there was a period of house building that took place before the automobile became ubiquitous.  Those areas still exist, with their Sear's Craftsman wooden houses, their sidewalks, their local parks, and their high streets.  They are less than ten miles from the city center and for much of the last few decades have fallen into disrepair, poverty, and often crime. 
 However, these areas are being invaded by young, liberal professionals interested in art and community.  I think that originally in San Francisco and New York intelligent, young people wanted to live in vibrant, city communities but only had limited money and so needed cheap places to live.  The result was the invasion of these areas by young, active, liberal, artistic people with college degrees bent on changing where they were going to live.  *

This idea spread to a few cities, Austin, TX, Portland, OR, Boulder, CO and in many ways this is the dominant theme of these cities.  In Portland, OR you have to go several miles from downtown to find something different (Gresham or the West Hills).  Now having visited three cities in Texas I can tell you that in each of these cities there is such a place.  Austin, of course, Houston has the Montrose district, and Dallas has the M streets.  So, I did some research, found the M streets and walked around (being able to walk is a vital part of these communities).  It felt like Portland.  There was the finished urban renewal of NW 21st street and fifteen blocks away the last remnants of working-class hispanics scraping out a living (and about to sell their houses for a big, big profit.
This trend is like a fungus, sending out tiny spores that multiply rapidly.  I predict that some of the most vibrant, artistic communities in the USA will spring into being in the dying rust belt states cities, like Detroit and Buffalo.  Artists need to live in cheap, cheap places, in communities that inspire them.  The average house price in Detroit right now is less than $30,000.

So, the job in Dallas didn't work out because Christina's old boss is extremely optimistic, to the point where she predicts wonderful things, and never delivers.  She doesn't have the power to hire anyone, and the particular job doesn't even exist.  Still, she's looking out for Christina, and recommended her for a job in Austin.
Austin is the origin of the "Keep X Weird" phenomenon and bumper sticker.  It is sunny all year round and that is very important.  It is one of the founding areas of this fungus.  Still, it is big enough that there are still cheap enough places surrounding these areas that we can afford to live very comfortably, and yet still be able to be involved in such a community (we can bike there in fifteen minutes).  The job environment is described as casual and team oriented.  Casual and team oriented basically describes the personality of my wife.  Christina would be fantastic at the job.  There's a shower so that Christina can commute by bike, and a real biking system throughout the city.  There's a large park right next to the office.  It is just across the river from downtown, a place full of music, irish bars, and college students.  There is even talk of a relocation package in which the company pays for moving costs and will buy our house at market value if we can't sell it in three months.
We really, really, really want to move there.  This could be home.  However, the anxiety and tension is building as Christina hasn't heard back, and it's now in the fifth working day since she applied.  We keep telling ourselves that it can often take a couple of weeks before anything happens in the hiring process, but we have already gone from hope, to despair, to a little candle flame we are hoping doesn't gutter out.

*  By the way, if you ever want to make money on housing follow the gay men.  An increase of such people into an area raises property values higher than surrounding areas.  This is probably because gay couples tend not to have children and two jobs, giving them the time and money to improve their property and area.