Erin The Great

About a month ago I realized that I needed an outlet. Well since my ACL is torn along with 3 other tears in my knee cartilage I can’t go running, swimming or dancing. My only other option was to blog. Don’t get me wrong I love blogging and writing but I feel my creative streak has weaned since moving down to Texas. Call me crazy but you can only make fun of the steak houses per capita or the amount of cop cars parked in front of doughnut shops so often. The best thing about Texas is the ‘alive and well stereotypes’. I don’t want to offend anyone so I’ll keep it at that. Oregon and Texas have this in common. They have a lot of things in common…

I am an Oregonian living in Texas which is about as ‘fish out of water’ as you can possibly get, except for the fact that I feel right at home. I know by saying this I’m about to piss off every Oregonian not to mention every man, woman and child that calls themselves a ‘Texan’, but Oregon and Texas are the polar opposites of the same thing. I will try explaining so both parties understand. First case in point, coffee houses and bookstores vs. steak houses and bars, everything else looks the same. Both atmospheres have a similar ‘feel’. The feel of ‘welcome, welcome, welcome… just don’t stay too long’. Both states are very passionate in their beliefs, Red vs. Blue, same amount of passion. The words ‘you smell that? Some farmer is losing his crops’ vs. ‘you smell that? Some farmer is smoking his crops’. Lakes and rivers everywhere vs. dirty lakes and rivers everywhere, humid vs. humid, WV Vans Vs Ford F150’s (state cars), Birkenstocks vs. cowboy boots (state shoes), rains a lot there vs. rains a lot here, y’all vs. dude, classic rock vs country, and the most important is the amount of state pride we both have about our states.

It’s like I’m living in the country music version of Oregon. I think to fully appreciate or understand what I mean by this you would have had to have lived in both places. My Aunt Lynnie might get what I’m talking about let me know if anyone else would like to weigh in on this…. I swear I’m not crazy.