Friday, January 20, 2012

Long time no blog....

Hola Amigos!  This is my first blog from Texas and I'm still not sure that I'm ready...  No matter how batty my kids drive me, since they are pretty much the only thing I blog and/or talk about, you've probably noticed that they are not only vital to my life, but also my identification in general.  Moving to Texas without one of them basically makes it hard to breathe.  Something about blogging about my life when part of it is missing is just harder than I can explain.  The good news is, no matter how many miles are between us, Will still gives me material :)


The good news, and the bad news:


The good news is, technology makes it easier than ever to feel close to someone no matter how far away they are.  


The bad news is, technology makes it easier to only call your mom when you want her to transfer money onto your debit card.  


Honestly, even though I joke about it, I'll take what I can get.  Whether I'm putting money on Will's card or sending him the code to an X-Box card that I just bought, it makes me feel like I'm still vital in his life even though I'm days (and by all appearances,) light years from home.


Speaking of light years, Welcome to Texas!  Now that I've been here a few weeks, I have some observations to make.  Actually the first observation came about while we were still traveling....  


1.  Texas is huge.  Of the 1200 miles we traveled to get here, most of them were in Texas.  I left Kentucky, and passed through Tennessee and Arkansas while it was still daylight.  The rest of that glorious trip, (and by glorious I mean me, two kids, and a cat in a vehicle that was so packed I couldn't see out the windows,) was spent in Texas.  Which brings me to my next observation.


2.  For years I've been reading about how everything is bigger in Texas.  Much has been made of it's size...  I learned from my friend Jen that you can actually fit Texas into Alaska not once, but twice.  You don't hear as much about that though, do ya?  Wanna know why?  Because much of Alaska is still in it's natural state and Alaska knows that you don't brag about the size of something unless you plan to use it.  Which brings me to number 3.


3.  The entire second day of our trip here was spent in a barren wasteland.  As far as I can tell, once you get past Abilene-ish, it's mostly tumbleweeds, and final resting places of big, rusty, metal things.  Honestly, I was ridiculously excited by the first tumbleweed I saw.  I suddenly identified with Snoopy's brother Whatshisname who was besties with a cactus.  When you've spent countless hours looking at nothing but dirt and wind turbines, a tumbleweed passing in front of your car is not unlike seeing the last inhabitant of a ghost town...


4.  At some point I realized that I could probably ignore the speed limit and just drive as fast as I wanted.  I came to this realization when I realized that there wasn't even a gas station for at least a hundred miles.  Which begs the question- Hey Texas!  Did you ever consider the thought of posting some sort of warning?!  Something along the lines of "Get gas now, or you're about to be shit outta luck"?  If you lack proper signage, you could spray it on the side of one of those big, rusty, metal things.  I say without a trace of humor that God had to have gotten us to a gas station because my gas light was on for ummmmm  an hour?  Yeah.  I can't remember what astronomical amount I paid for gas there, but I would have paid double.  Seriously.


5.  By the end of Day 2 two things happened.  1.  We were home.  Praise God.  and 2.  I was pretty sure I would never get in my car again. 


6.  El Paso is huge and I need to learn Spanish.  Like yesterday.  I practically  had to do charades at Wal-Mart one day in order to find out that the checker was ready to close their lane.  No amount of smiling and nodding fixes the fact that the checker is telling you they are closed and you are still unloading your cart...


Please excuse me while I go and downgrade my phone to one that doesn't have apps.  Jace has been shoving my phone in my face and whining about race cars for the last 8 minutes....