(no subject)
I helped a friend move to Bryan yesterday. She got a job teaching history at Blinn. She found a great little two bedroom for $560 with a washer/dryer hookup and a fenced in backyard.
Bryan/CS seems like it would be a nice place to live, if it weren't for all the Aggies. There's not a lot in Huntsville, for those who've never been. We have a Hastings, a tiny HEB and a WalMart. Our restaurants are limited. The only places that are semi-healthy are Cafe Cloud nine (which is mostly soups) and the sushi bar. Stephanie lives less than a mile away from a farmer's market, and three miles away from a health food store. There's a Lowe's, a Home Depot, a Target, at least one very large HEB, a WalMart, and about three times the amount of restaurants that Huntsville has. Of course, The Woodlands has all this, too, but The Woodlands is far more uppity and expensive than Bryan/CS, which suits my budget and life. All I have to do is not make any illegal lane changes, not run red lights/stop signs and go the speed limit. This will prevent me from being pulled over and suffering eternal damnation by the Bryan or CS police department a la ticketing. I have a Sam Houston School of Music decal on my truck. They find out I'm not an Aggie, I will suffer the consequences for going to SHSU instead of A&M, despite the fact that they don't even have a school of music to speak of, except the ROTC band, which should never count.
I was insulted three times in about thirty seconds. Her mother, who is from Richmond/Sugarland,a far suburb of Houston, told me that Austin is where the high and mighty go, where the liberal freaks live, and are not real Texans. I am neither high nor mighty, I'm liberal, but not a freak, and damnit, I am a real Texan! Never mind that Austin the state capitol, never mind that it's named after a settlement hero, never mind that I've seen more state historical markers in the city or metro area than in Houston, never mind that state icons like Willie Nelson called it home. None of it matters because hippie ecological freaks live there. Of course, Houston doesn't have any pretty land that's worth saving, or an underground aquifer that is easily poisoned, so excuse us if we realize and are proud of the beautiful place we have chosen to settle in and for having the smarts about us to preserve it. And, in my whole life in Austin, I have never met a stranger that wasn't the epitome of friendly and down-to-earth. I most certainly could not have said the same about her mother, judging by such comments.
I think I mentioned something to the effect of there are a lot more Republicans in Austin than she thinks and that bi-partisanship is a crucial part of the democratic process. I asked where she had been in Austin and she said she had only been there once, to see the capitol and to take her son there for some exam administered by UT. I told her there was a considerable amount of Austin that she hadn't seen and she said something about the roads and I mentioned the water supply and how fragile it is. She was trying to apologize to me by justifying her comments, which is not an apology, but adding further insult to injury, when she doesn't even know what she is talking about. I told her that and said that I didn't want to hear anything else she had to say and turned around and moved to talk with Stephanie and her sister.
I tried to explain what she didn't understand and she insisted upon keeping her mind closed. She can leave it that way, but not at the expense of my silence. I fear this is how a lot of other Houstonians and Aggies think.
Bryan/CS seems like it would be a nice place to live, if it weren't for all the Aggies. There's not a lot in Huntsville, for those who've never been. We have a Hastings, a tiny HEB and a WalMart. Our restaurants are limited. The only places that are semi-healthy are Cafe Cloud nine (which is mostly soups) and the sushi bar. Stephanie lives less than a mile away from a farmer's market, and three miles away from a health food store. There's a Lowe's, a Home Depot, a Target, at least one very large HEB, a WalMart, and about three times the amount of restaurants that Huntsville has. Of course, The Woodlands has all this, too, but The Woodlands is far more uppity and expensive than Bryan/CS, which suits my budget and life. All I have to do is not make any illegal lane changes, not run red lights/stop signs and go the speed limit. This will prevent me from being pulled over and suffering eternal damnation by the Bryan or CS police department a la ticketing. I have a Sam Houston School of Music decal on my truck. They find out I'm not an Aggie, I will suffer the consequences for going to SHSU instead of A&M, despite the fact that they don't even have a school of music to speak of, except the ROTC band, which should never count.
I was insulted three times in about thirty seconds. Her mother, who is from Richmond/Sugarland,a far suburb of Houston, told me that Austin is where the high and mighty go, where the liberal freaks live, and are not real Texans. I am neither high nor mighty, I'm liberal, but not a freak, and damnit, I am a real Texan! Never mind that Austin the state capitol, never mind that it's named after a settlement hero, never mind that I've seen more state historical markers in the city or metro area than in Houston, never mind that state icons like Willie Nelson called it home. None of it matters because hippie ecological freaks live there. Of course, Houston doesn't have any pretty land that's worth saving, or an underground aquifer that is easily poisoned, so excuse us if we realize and are proud of the beautiful place we have chosen to settle in and for having the smarts about us to preserve it. And, in my whole life in Austin, I have never met a stranger that wasn't the epitome of friendly and down-to-earth. I most certainly could not have said the same about her mother, judging by such comments.
I think I mentioned something to the effect of there are a lot more Republicans in Austin than she thinks and that bi-partisanship is a crucial part of the democratic process. I asked where she had been in Austin and she said she had only been there once, to see the capitol and to take her son there for some exam administered by UT. I told her there was a considerable amount of Austin that she hadn't seen and she said something about the roads and I mentioned the water supply and how fragile it is. She was trying to apologize to me by justifying her comments, which is not an apology, but adding further insult to injury, when she doesn't even know what she is talking about. I told her that and said that I didn't want to hear anything else she had to say and turned around and moved to talk with Stephanie and her sister.
I tried to explain what she didn't understand and she insisted upon keeping her mind closed. She can leave it that way, but not at the expense of my silence. I fear this is how a lot of other Houstonians and Aggies think.