Like this:

I was thumping my hands on the steering wheel and enthusiastically jamming to “Boogie back to Texas” by Asleep at the Wheel when we crossed the Texas line near El Paso.  My daughter rolled her eyes (she is 5, mind you!).  Ah, country music, and not just any, but LOCAL Austin country music.  How I have missed it!  Hearing Kevin Fowler wail “I ain’t a-drinkin anymore… but I ain’t drinkin’ any le-ee-ss-ss” on the radio as we neared Austin made my heart sing.

In a 7-11 in a dusty 1-horse town in West Texas, I first visually noticed the difference: there was a prevalence of rich Mexican skin tone, jeans, cowboy hats, and trucks. YIPPEE!  (there are bunches of convenience stores in Texas and they ARE convenient – who would have thought I would miss this!)  And room to spread out – I mean ROOM TO ROAM – just WIDE OPEN SPACES ever’where you gaze.  So unlike the crowded bay area.

We went to Dallas to visit some dear Mexican friends – well family, really, and I could not stop eating that amazing Mexican food Brenda and Jojo cooked (yes, she also cooked for our wedding).  They put on a party for us, complete with Tejano music blaring in the back yard from the boom box, crushed bud-lite beer cans piling up rapidly in the trash, and no-name tequila shots passed around later in the evening.  The grin on my face was wide.

One of the first things we did as a family was eat sizzlin’ fajitas at Serranos.   Really hearty helpings of food - and we got away for less than $20.  Unheard of back on the west coast.  The people really ARE bigger here… well, wider anyway. In fact, I am bigger… as you’ll read, food is a recurring theme in this blogpost!  What with new job, travel, moving, and all this great food, I put on 5 – yikes, I gotta get that off!

Other values: Gas$3.45 vs. $4.25.  Noticeable differences, sometimes 2x, in everything from nail care to food to clothes to childcare to gym memberships – it’s all cheaper.  Texas golf: 18 holes + breakfast + golf cart: 18$ vs Cali golf: 18 holes, no breakfast, no golf cart: $50.  I cant wait to spend my “raise” in my paycheck from not being gouged any longer by state income tax.

I dug out my shorts, tank top, and flip flops from the bottom of my drawer and wore them for the first time in a year.  My hands and feet were not cold – begone, ubiquitous slippers of the past year! It’s 88 degrees out there!  SUNNY SUNNY SUNNY MMMMMM

In the Austin airport at 9am on my way out for a business trip, I stopped at the Salt Lick Barbeque stand and loaded up on, then shamelessly slurped on - yes, slurped – their succulent ribs, brisket and sauce.  The guy at the next table was feasting as hard as I was.  Finally, we both leaned back and sighed.  He looked  over at my empty plate and then back at his, and opined, “I’m from Minnesota, and I am so lucky to have experienced this heaven”.

The people are more youthful here, partly because of UT Austin.  There is an energetic vibe that is palpable.  And is it just my imagination, but it seems there are more smiles and more laughter, people not taking things so seriously (or is it ME not taking things so seriously! )  The folks dress down alot more here, believing in comfort and plus it’s hot.  Back in Los Altos Hills, it was a much older demographic, more conservative, more buttoned up, more serious (more rat race anxiety?  more worry about paying for that $3M house?). 

This past weekend we went to a festival/cookoff  in Dripping Springs.  We used to go religiously every year and we were not disappointed again this year.  The friendly crowds, monster bbq grills festooned with longhorns and barbed wire; contestants serving up all manner of brisket, chicken, chili, salsa, beans; the crafts, the fun, the straw hats, the twang, the girls with shorts and cowboy boots – AH HOME.  I had to stop at one of the booths and buy a Texas flag-adorned toothpick holder.  I mean I know how silly it was even as I was forking over the $ but I felt, not just happy to be back, but  a sense of belonging; in fact, a rush of PRIDE to be a Texan, and an Austin Texan, at that. 

Ronny observed that California already feels like a DREAM.  We slipped right back into our Austin life, our house, our friends, routine, our daughter even back on the same soccer team.  It’s great to converse with our friendly neighbors in the cul de sac.  It’s as though we never left.

 I think we were meant to go to Cali – so that we would appreciate Austin and the wonderful life we have here, no offense meant to California at all.  We are truly blessed.

There’s no more fitting wrap up to this blogpost: Kevin’s song – YEE-HAW!

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