Skip to main content

Texas?

I'm a bit cranky this morning. So I've decided to write the top ten reasons why I'm glad to be leaving Texas:

1. Ted Cruz, Ron Paul, and Rick Perry. I almost feel like I don't need to elaborate on this. I will be happy to get someplace where the folks who represent me nationally and in the state are more closely aligned with rational, coherent, intelligent thought.

2. Mosquitoes. I went to my daughter's open house last night and got five mosquito bites. Five. Indoors. No me gusta. There are mosquitoes all year round here.

3. Hurricanes. Yeah, perhaps this doesn't need any explanation either. This year has been light, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been worrisome.

4. Food. This may sound weird, because southern cooking is typically associated with comfort and satiety. Six years of southern cooking is too much, though. I need a salad.

5. Heat. It starts getting hot here around Valentine's Day. It stays hot until Veteran's Day. You just sweat. ALL THE TIME. It's annoying, and I won't miss it.

6. Schools. TAKS becomes STARR becomes something else... Legislators telling teachers how to do their jobs because they don't trust them. No teacher's union to fight back. It's ridiculous. And it's stupid. And it damages our future because children suffer.

7. Petrochemical smells. I don't know what it is I'm smelling, but I'm pretty sure it's not good for me.

8. Ignorance is not always bliss. Seriously, folks... Pick up a newspaper. There is a whole world out there, and you're missing it. And no, that's not a good thing, despite the delusional head-in-the-sand attitude.

9. Bigness. Everything in Texas is big. Sometimes I think that's a good thing, but often it's just downright annoying - big hair, big trucks, big guns, big attitudes, and big egos. It's hard to be reverent when it's so darn loud. Plus, it takes 20 minutes just to get anywhere.

10. Rednecks with money. People driving a golf cart around the neighborhood (with extra lights and a gun rack) because they're too lazy to walk. Four wheelers in the drainage ditches. Huge, loud, obnoxious trucks with enormous car-crushing tires. Anti-Obama attitudes (which, I acknowledge, are not limited to Texas, but it's particularly onerous when I am surrounded by it all the time and it feels so institutionalized here - I mean, come on, folks. He's the PRESIDENT. Get over it).

I will write the top ten things I'm going to miss about Texas tomorrow. Maybe. If I can come up with ten.

(I did warn you I was cranky).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is this thing still on?

 Does anyone even blog anymore? I remember when it first got started and everyone was having a blog. I like writing, and I do a lot of it in my professional life, but not everything makes it onto this blog, which is where a lot of my personal thoughts come out. I put more into Facebook lately, too, because it's a little easier. But there's something to be said for this long-form writing exercise, and I think I will continue here periodically. You don't mind, do you? Well, in my last post I wrote about how difficult things were for me at the time. That changed in July when I finally got a job working for the State of Utah. I was the program manager for the moderate income housing database program, and that meant I worked from home a lot but also went in to Salt Lake when needed, mostly on the train. It was a good experience, for the most part, and I'm grateful for the things I learned even in the short time I was there.  In October I started working for Weber County in t...

The Other Art

I'm not sure we appreciate photography as much as we do other art forms. Part of this comes from the reality that surrounds and permeates a photograph - it's very, very real, and the photographer strives for clarity and crispness in the representations. Perhaps this is why black and white images continue to be relevant - they strip away extraneous information (color) and leave us with something that is at once familiar and also non-existent - for nothing exists in black and white. Nothing. I also think that pictures are becoming too common-place... Everyone has a camera in their pocket, and while that's a very democratic thing (everyone can express themselves in a picture easily and readily, and can find an audience for these images, which are casually taken and casually viewed, and perhaps just as casually forgotten) I think that we embrace that casual attitude, and it spills over to all aspects of the media, making it impotent. So I read this article this morning: h...

A Romantic Encounter

Him (tears in his eyes, heartbroken): I want you to know that I love you, that I'm sorry for my weakness and frailties, and that I will try and do better. I think I am doing better than I was before, and I just want to please you and make you happy. I am very grateful for your continued patience as I try to be the kind of man I want to be. Her: You need a haircut. It's getting a little long.