Life in Texoma

On April 22, 2011, I moved to Texoma. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, Texoma refers to a part of Texas that is right on the Oklahoma border.. hence Texoma. Of course, Texans would never dive to low enough levels to put Oklahoma first, say Oklahexas perhaps? Nope, in Texas things Texan ALWAYS come first and God help me, I'm becoming more fluent in Texan every day.

Saying this, it leads me to think about what I like about this area and what I miss about home. So for the sake of an easy blog post today, let's do a comparison between Texoma and central Alabama... shall we?

Things I miss about Alabama:

• The greenery. The big trees covered with kudzu and the flowers that bloom pretty much all summer.
• The smell of fresh cut hay stacked in the barn and the sound of horses chewing.
• Making jelly with my mom and winding up with a kitchen that looks like someone was murdered in it.
• Laughing about said kitchen until I can't breathe.
• My Mom and simple things like soup and salad at Olive Garden on a lunch hour.
• Muscadines.
• Red dirt roads.
• Family.

 Things I don't miss about Alabama:

• Stress.
• The job I left quite happily when I moved here.
• Traffic to and from work every day.
• The humidity at 90% most days - oh. my. god.
• The history - which isn't entirely true, there was good history too but far more that needed to just be let go.

 Things I have come to love about Texas:

• The superb school system for my daughter.
• The easy friendliness of most people I've met. I've never been anywhere where people were so quick to start a conversation with a complete stranger. Whether this is Texas or just Wichita Falls and Texoma I don't know, but it's a nice change.
• The size of Wichita Falls, Texas, which is big enough to have everything you need but far enough away from Dallas and any big metropolis to avoid the traffic and crime rate.
• Low humidity - can we say 20% most days?  Boo yah! No longer am I soaking wet before I get to my car.
• The friends I am making here.
• Realizing that a fresh clean start was the best idea for me, even if I left many things I loved far away in Alabama.
• Night rides with Daniel on the bike when we get a chance.
• Daniel.... need I say more? Really?

 Things I am still adjusting to in Texas:

• HEAT - I would have to move on the year that is one going down as severe drought. I would have to look up the statistics but we have had a good month of 100+ degree days. See above about humidity though, at least it's dry heat and cools after the sun goes down most of the time into the 80's.
• WIND - Granted we haven't had any significant wind since the heat set in for the summer, but I bet it's coming back. Not breezy but hurricane force wind which I guess comes off the plains hard enough to blow a motorcycle over. O.o
• Trying to keep my patio plants alive - who I am kidding, I'm about to give up and buy plasti plants but they would probably melt in this heat!
• Flatness of the landscape with almost no hills to speak of.
• No green pastures or very few. Most horse facilities have dirt and haybales - which if you think about it kind of reminds me of home around our place at least :)
• Trying to find a place to put my horses so I can move them soon and missing my animals, both of which will be resolved when we find a house or a house with a little land to have the animals.

So I guess, overall, I'm pretty happy where I am now. I like my job (most days) but the angst there comes when I'm having a bad day, not because the job is bad. Actually, for what I get paid the job is pretty awesome and I'm happy doing what I'm doing. Daniel and I are doing well and the bills are coming into line slowly and life is good in Texoma.

When asked do I miss home the answer is "you betcha!" but saying that, if you turned around and asked me again if I was ready to move back the answer would be a resounding "NO". I'm starting to feel like a local to Texoma, if not a native and I find something new to discover here every week. So to my friends and family, I love you and miss you and even look forward to a visit home... but I hope you would come see me in my new part of the world as well and find out why people in Texoma tend to STAY in Texoma. ;)