We're here in Houston, about to finish out our wonderful trip home.... flew in earlier this week to celebrate my niece's graduation from nursing school! I have to say that I'm really missing the south right now. Yes it's the retarded bible belt (and we all know how I feel about bible thumpers) and you can't really drive very far without seeing a billboard telling you to praise the lord... but I can see past that crap. It's hot, it's muggy, there are mosquitoes everywhere waiting to mutilate me and cause anemia - but there is something else here. Something really, really positive...
There's a "homey" feel to the south that does not exist in CA. In general people are nicer, more accommodating and just generally better mannered. But that's still not really it...
The food is great!! No food anywhere else in the country like there is in the south. Yesterday we had some fantastic BBQ (including baked potato salad which is definitely a step up from the plain kind) some boudin and today we'll be boiling crawfish.
But that's not it, either...
Last night we were all over at my niece's house and I looked around the room at the 20+ people hanging out. We had just finished dinner and were watching Avatar, and I was holding my beautiful little nephew in my arms while he slept. Our group was quite the mismosh of people... divorced parents and their respective significant others, sister's in-laws, friends of S & A, doggies, etc. For a change, everyone was getting along and the stress level was actually low.
It was then that I realized what I love about the south. My family is here. Doesn't matter if I love CA and everything that goes with living on the West Coast; what matters is that when I visit Tx and La, I feel at home. And I miss it.
Doesn't mean we'll ever move back (way too many variables in our life right now to even see that as a future possibility) but there is a lot of comfort in knowing that I have a place to go where I can feel comfortable and at home if I ever need it.
Maybe some day my brother, my sister and I will all live on the family farm that we will inherit from my dad, all in our retirement. We've gone out, made our lives, traveled the world, received our respective educations at our parents' insistance, grew our families and lived our lives... so maybe one day we'll all go back home and end up where we started.
Just a thought.
