MOVE TO TEXAS!?

Driving in Houston is horrible. I can't stand the place for the most part. Also, all unexplained smells can be blamed on Pasadena, no matter how far away from it you actually are.

Texas is gorgeous and full of very interesting people. I love going into a gas station and standing in line behind a cowboy covered in hay and horseshit, a crackhead, a Paris wannabe, and one of those crazy goth types.

Pasadena, CA? Pfft!

Sounds like an evening in the Castro.

Which is why I ended up not moving there. It was on my short list, but Portland won out.

Lake Travis and the Colorado River. You should be set.

I miss Austin.

See, these replies are all posted by urbanites who do not know Texas. If they'd allowed themselves, they could have found much more. I once moved from Texas to Wisconsin, and the good advice I had was 1) see more than Madison and 2) get involved in winter sports, or you'll hate the winter. I followed the advice, and I love Wisocnsin. If you are too focused on Austin, you'll hate the rest of Texas. Love the summer by finding all the great swimming holes and learn to kayak and canoe, love the fall by visiting the state and national parks, love the winter by the weather and the local bands, love the summer by the touring bands and the great nights.
Texas is eclectic, and people outisde of Austin and Houston tend to be conservative, but good people. If you are willing to be open to new experiences, I suspect Texas will be great for you because people tend to be more open here.

I realize, after all of my glowing reports of Texas, that, for the first time in my life, I'm about to live somewhere else. I'm moving to L.A. at the beginning of the new year, to all you L.A. suicidefolk.
Also, I only fairly recently started commenting on the boards or really circulating the site on a regular basis. I still try to keep my internet time to a fraction of my, you know, flesh and blood world time. But, for those of you that might see me, the miniscule amount that I post, I'm a friendly guy, and I like to talk. Um... a lot. Too much, in fact.

This, however, is completely true. I think if you get lost somewhere in time and space, you wash up, cosmically, in Texas, and join the throngs of people here of all shapes and sizes, and all walks of life. Hell, there are enough people of different viewpoints and lifestyles in Texas than when GW comes back and makes Texas an independant country, run by the Bush family line, (shudder. It'll happen, people! Texas can succeed! We can be declared an independant nation!) I think there will be a fairly diverse representation in the people that live here. Fingers crossed.