Photo via NYT
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me IRL that I’m not Texas’ biggest fan. It’s far away from my parents and my sister, and it’s sort of boring, landscape-wise. At least Dallas is, Austin was beautiful. Inevitably, usually during the dog days of summer, my friend and I (who are both sort of here against our wills – I’m joking!!) question each other “why do we live here again?”
The answer for me, is that my husband’s work is here, and I love Texas for the opportunity it provides to him in his field; there is probably no better place for him to be. And I love our home here, with him and our growing family. But that’s mostly it.
Oh, and these three things…
- The next best thing about Texas? how easy it is to leave 😉 – especially if you live in Dallas or maybe Houston; it wasn’t so easy in Austin. We live very close to the “small” airport (Love Field) in Dallas, which is super-easy to fly in an out of (on Southwest – my new favorite airline), easy to navigate within, and just…easy. Compared to my previous “home” airports in Austin and Atlanta, flying in and out of Love Field is like a vacation in an of itself. Highways are also well-maintained and plentiful.
- The sunsets (and sunrises). They are no joke – so stunning; bright pink and purple, always beautiful, especially after a storm. And since it’s pretty flat in most of the state, you can see FOREVER.
- Buc-ee’s (this NYT article is spot-on). If you’ve been to one, or if you’re from, or live in Texas, you know what I’m saying. What I love about Buc-ee’s is probably different than what many others, who actually love Texas, love about it though. First, it’s the bathrooms. THE BATHROOMS are huge, and sparkly clean ALL OF THE TIME. I had to pee for two hours and held it to wait for Buc-ee’s – they’re that good. NEVER PASS A BUC-EE’s!!! The employees truly love their jobs (they are paid well and get good benefits) and are pleasant to deal with. THERE IS A WALL OF CANDY. For meat-lovers and Texas-lovers there is more jerky and Texas “stuff” than you can imagine all in one place – I try to avoid all of that. Parking is easy and close, there’s a ton of spots to pull in and buy fuel, and they’re always easy to pull into and out of as you’re traveling OUT OF TEXAS on any of the major highways 🙂
What about you? What do you love about where you live?
(I don’t mean this to sound completely negative, I’m just not completely gung-ho in love with Texas the way a lot of people are.)
This is a great exercise! I just moved from CA to WA and am very homesick, so this will be good practice to think of the bright side of this situation.
Like you, my husband has a great job here and we have a sweet, older little home that I love. We live in Tacoma which turns out is a perfect blend of quaint, quiet neighborhoods that are also within walking distance of “city” things to do, and I love being a short-ish drive from beautiful hiking around the Puget Sound. After visiting Seattle this weekend where it took a half hour just to drive to a different neighborhood within the city, I realized that Tacoma has the same activities as Seattle — just with significantly less people/cars/crowds to deal with.
Also! Tacoma’s restaurants seem to always have vegan/dairy-free alternatives to choose from, and they’re actually GOOD alternatives. Being lactose-intolerant, that’s a big win for me 🙂
i love the seattle area! i’ve never been to tacoma though 😉 except rain, i’m not a fan of rain.
lucky that you have a lot of vegan places to choose from, that’s hard to find here in dallas…
yay for seeing the positive!!!
I love NC but there’s a lot I don’t like about the small town where I live. But we have 7 acres and a house we designed and built – that part I LOVE. So I enjoy what I can, suck up & ignore the parts I hate, and we travel often 🙂 [my husband and his parents own ~40 rental properties in that small town – so we’re not moving anywhere in the near future….]
Hah, I had to do this exercise for myself All. The. Time. when I lived in Las Vegas. And one of my favorite things about LV was its proximity to other cool places (LA, SLC, Joshua Tree, Mojave, Grand Canyon, Sedona, etc) so I totally know what you mean about easy-to-leave. The other places I’ve lived have all been a much easier fit for me so I can’t really complain: New Brunswick (Canada), Oregon, Vermont, New Hampshire (well, except for NH’s weird libertarian streak and NB’s brutal winters).
I get what you’re saying about being in a place you’re not exactly in-love with – Rochester, MN was like that for me – great healthcare, a good job, a nice little home. Ok.
But Montauk is probably always going to be the place I love the best. I live by the ocean, in a gorgeous mid-century house that our church built in ‘64 to house their pastors. They remodeled for us, so I have a new kitchen, a fireplace, and paint exactly the way I wanted throughout the house. Restaurants are great here, and there are TONS to choose from. (The downside? Our little town becomes a booming tourist mecca in the summers. Good for the local economy – but it can be a bit tiring dealing with loud drunks by the end of the season!) And people drop-off fresh seafood on your doorstep the way they do tomatoes and zucchini in Minnesota! Jobs in the summer are plentiful, and so my daughter is able to pay her way to an Ivy League school. She has blossomed here and nothing makes me happier. We’re only 3 hrs from NYC by train or Jitney, and it’s very easy to get away for a weekend because of generous friends with apartments in the city. I love our little church and their generosity is incredible. This has been a good place for us. I don’t want to move, but retirement approaches in 6-7 years, so we’re thinking about where we want to be for the long haul. Maybe closer to grandkids.