I have a friend in WY who was talking about going to TX next winter cuz... you know... WY in winter is only fun if you're insane. Or a snowmobiler... or a bear... or retired... or a retired bear. (Full disclosure, I'm not saying my friends in WY are insane... except most of them are in some way, but aren't we all?!) Anyway, he was looking at the San Antonio area, which is one of my very favorite areas of TX and we got to talking about New Braunfels.
Lemme tell ya... I am SO nostalgic/homesick/Texan friends-sick right now. So let me tell you of some of the things that made living in TX for 12 years so great.
1) the people - my best friend and her hubby, my Stewart family, my crazy Mexican family, friends from Honda and GRMC - some of the best people I know are not afraid to tell you how much they love TX (or how much they love the TX women that they moved to TX for). These are the types of friends that you hold on to forever... and not only cuz they've got a lot of dirt on ya.
2) the food - OMG, the FOOD! Anamias for the best Tex-Mex EVER, El Tamarindo and El Gallo in NB for the b-fast tacos, BJ's brew house for some of the best pub food and beers, Glorias for margaritas with the bestie, the great Mediterranean food place whose name I can't quite recall, Papa Muphys for take-n-bake pizza, stopping at the Czeck Stop in West for kolaches, sausage rolls, and cookies... the list goes on. I'm telling you, when I get a TX vacation I'm gonna spend the whole time EATING!
3) the drinks - TX has a huge variety of breweries, distilleries, and wineries that you can try. I suggest having a friend who doesn't like beer and whiskey to be DD when you decide to go to those, and who is married to someone who doesn't mind the 2 of you getting wine drunk when he's DD. Hehehe... I loves my friends.
3a) The breweries sometimes have live music and food - looking at you, Revolver - and it was always fun getting a group together to enjoy some good brews, good music, good food, and good company.
4) the driving - TX had everything you could want: under-patrolled back roads for speeding, crazy traffic for aggression, ample opportunities to rock out in the car while stopped at traffic lights, opportunities for interesting ways to get into Arlington from GR to meet people at Chuys for margaritas; you could listen to a ton of music, pod casts, books on tape, really whatever you wanted cuz it was going to take a while no matter what. If not distance, then traffic would usually make your ETA underestimated.
5) the concerts - Gexa (or whatever it's named now), Gas Monkey Live, Trees, The Door, the Bomb Factory, Canton Hall, House of Blues: so many venues that would have so many bands. And that was just in Dallas, Austin had other places (Dirty Dog Bar springs to mind, cuz that's where I saw Scar Symmetry, don't remember the venue that had Hatebreed), we didn't spend as much time there (traffic, you know... always bloody traffic in Austin).
I had a lot of fun during my 12 years in TX. And yeah, there's a part of me that wouldn't mind going back. I'd want to find a pretty good paying job tho... and they just passed a law where they are now collecting state income tax, so it is less of a great option in my opinion. Meh, I'll probably end up looking in the PNW, assuming that I don't get the job with the state dept that will send me overseas. We'll see what the decade holds.
Anyway, that's kind of my love letter to TX... I miss that big ass state... although the Mexican food does NOT suck north of there anyway. ;)
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