Texas Top Ten

Hello Readers! Sorry for the temporary vaca from the blog. I have no excuse, except for the lack of time and motivation to do anything on the computer that I don't have to. (Excluding facebook, myspace, people.com, usweekly.com, popsugar and drudge...oh and the Austin American Statesman)

There is so much to update you on that I don't even no where to start. So we will just fast forward through the past months up until last weekend (I know I am even late on writing about last weekend).

I was in Winnie, Texas Friday and Saturday. Winnie is a small town on the southeast coast (Texas is not landlocked Jess!) and was seriously devastated by Hurricane Ike. There are lots of cattle in this area and so many of the ranchers fences, barns and houses were literally washed away. TSCRA was down there rebuilding some of those fences. I was down managing the press, not building fences. I heard a rumor that Bush Sr. was roaming around the area somewhere helping out too...but I didn't see him. Anyways it was a great event...see more here.

The real prompting for this blog came on Friday's drive. I realized that one of my favorite things about Texas is the speed limit. I was in the fast lane, going 75ish when this dude pulling a four wheeler behind his truck started riding my rear. I moved over to the slow lane and he passed me, but as he passed me, he threw his hand out the window and made some sort of hand motion. At first I thought he waved so I waved back...but the more I think about it, I think he was flipping me off. I thought Texans didn't flip people off while driving...

So in an effort to save time and sum up the last couple of months I have compiled a top ten list of the things I took for granted while in D.C. The first one being...

1. Friendly highway drivers, except for this dude of course...if he was, in fact, flipping me off.

2. The ability to drive incredibly fast on any major highway. (Speed limit in VA...60, and heavily enforced. Speed limit in TX...70, technically making it 75 and not so heavily enforced)

3. A garage for my car, and a yard for my dog who has learned to poop in the neighbors yard, which was great until they realized what she was doing.

4. The ability to attend weddings of college friends. It was so good to see everyone at Katy's wedding, especially the bride herself. Who knew you could lose such contact with people you once lived with.

5. Walmart and its cheap groceries.

6. A good old Southern Baptist Church where we can become members and get involved.

7. Cheap Mexican food...that tastes like Mexican food.

8. Red Dirt Music (courtesy of Mr. Fenton)

9. Being close to my best friend, Jason's best friend, and both of our families.

10. And finally...the ability to go to the White Deer Rodeo (All you bucks out there know what I mean by that).

Clearly we are happy to be in Texas...but I also miss D.C. a lot. I miss my friends, my bible study group and even my job. I miss being in the middle of all things political, but I am also grateful to be more removed, to gain a little perspective and enjoy just being a Texan.