Three+ more days in Texas

R and I have only three more days (plus, if you count Saturday) in Texas. We don't know when (if) we'll ever come back, so I've been thinking about what Texas means to us.

When I think about Texas, I think about people saying a 2-hour drive to Austin or Houston is "just up (or down) the road."

I think about oil pumps in seemingly random places. (We drive by more than a few just going about town).

One of my absolute favorite Texas things is the sea of wildflowers you see in the spring, especially bluebonnets. These flowers are gorgeous. When you take a drive--like when we drive to visit my brother and sister-in-law, you drive past fields and fields filled with red and orange and yellow and blue and purple wildflowers. I love it.

When I think of Texas, I think of bugs the size of your hand.

And I think of heat. Oh, the heat. When we first moved here we started nearly every conversation with "can you believe how hot it is?" and now we're almost sensitized to it that I can't remember the last time we really brought it up.

I think of prickly grass and J's allergies. Poor J has really suffered with his allergies down here--suppposedly, because there are so many different varieties of plants, and there are multiple growing seasons, there's always some allergen or another floating about.

Some Texas-isms we've picked up or heard a lot: "yes, ma'am/sir," "how're all y'all doing today," "Y'all havin' a good time, now?" "I'm fixin' to _____."

Some Aggie things: "Howdy" isn't just a greeting. Students refer to themselves (regularly, and generally without irony) as "The Proudest Member of the Fighting Texas Aggie Class of XX." Classes are never cancelled for Labor Day, but Good Friday is always a "Reading Day" and no classes are held, even if it falls a month before finals.