The United States of Texas

Today I was doing my daily scan of CNN.com articles, and started reading an article about Jenna Bush getting married. Nice sweet article...President's daughter is getting married this weekend...met her fiance through the 2004 campaign...Ole' W is really excited to be the father of the bride....and then I saw this line:

"As is customary in Texas, Jenna Bush will have a "house party" of 14 women instead of bridesmaids. The first lady's office described them as guests of honor, with no role in the ceremony."

Two things strike me as odd in this statement:
1. They talk about Texas like it is a foreign country. Like we have these bizarre customs and you need your passport to enter.

2. I have been to hundreds of weddings in my lifetime here in Texas....I have never heard of the custom of having a "house party" instead of bridesmaids! I have heard of having a house party in addition to the bridesmaids (as Maggie puts it, it is the time to show your friends what you REALLY think of them by who makes the bridesmaids cut!) They make it sound like this widespread thing that everyone in Texas would immediately know about.

This made me laugh today. :)

For Ashley Nichols

Ashley, if you happen to read blogs while you're overseas and are sitting around in Budapest freezing, wishing you were in warm, sunny Texas...you're not missing much.

Here is Frog Fountain this weekend:

Snow Days

My Situation:

1. As I have mentioned before, most of my friends here are from the midwest or northeast - Chicago, Boston, Gettysburg, Omaha, Detroit, etc.
2. Starting on Thursday afternoon, we had a sleet/ice storm here in DFW. This caused the usual panic....cars flipping on bridges, semis jacknifing on the highway, schools cancelled, everyone urged to lock themselves inside because of the impending doom.
3. All of my friends decide to go on and on and on....and on and on and on...about how stupid Texans are and how "if they shut everything down for weather like this where I'm from, nothing would be open for 2 months" (imagine me saying this in a mocking voice)

My Response:

1. True, everything would have to be shut down for 2 months. I realize that. But just because you don't close things doesn't mean you shouldn't close things. It is just they don't have the luxury of closing down because of the number of days that they have bad weather. Here in Texas, we get maybe 3 or 4 days a year when roads are bad, and schools have snow days built in, so why not close down and be safe rather than sorry?
2. You're in my state now! Nobody forced you to come here. If you think its all so stupid, then go back to your stupid snowy state and leave me and my state's paranoia alone!

And last but not least:

1. I appreciate my friend Bill - AKA Boston Bill. Here is the conversation we had last night over google talk:
2. Bill: hey you didnt tell me it gets this bad out!
   Emily: you wouldn't have believed me
   Bill: it is like a suicide mission right now if you try to drive
   Emily: yep
   people from midwest and north think that we don't know how to drive in snow
   what you don't realize is we don't get snow....we just get pure ice
   you can't use chains in ice
   Bill: yeah and you have nothing to treat it
   i saw 4 cars get stuck on my hill at the end of mccart

Hope everyone stayed safe and warm during our snowy days! I got to battle the weather and come to campus to work on our big project, but on Wednesday, my 1st semester of MBA school will be done! I will be MIA for about a week while I work on this beast 24/7. Have a great week!

Christmas Already?

It doesn't feel like Christmas season yet. It obviously is, because I had to wait through 3 left hand turn lights before being able to get into the parking lot of CompUSA when I was trying to buy a new phone today. But it still doesn't feel like it. I love Christmas season. Everything is happy and pretty. So why am I not into it yet? Probably a few reasons:

1. It is currently 70 degrees outside with a high tomorrow of 77. Any weather in which you can wear T-Shirts cannot be Christmas weather. My friends that are home right now in cities like Boston, Gettysburg, and Detroit are cursing snow today, but I am wishing it would at least get cold enough to wear some of the sweaters that I could be buying right now.

2. This semester has gone by so incredibly fast. I cannot believe that I am starting finals in 3 days. To me it still feels like the semester should be in about October, so I can't comprehend the fact that it is almost December.

3. I haven't watched any sappy Christmas romantic comedies yet. Hallmark - you're letting me down!

4. I haven't decorated anything yet. I really don't have a reason to decorate my apartment since no one comes here because there is no parking. This is the first time in 3 years that I haven't been responsible for decorating the COBA building at ACU. I'm not living at home, so I wasn't there to decorate yesterday. Maybe I should get that sad Charlie Brown tree that Ryan had on his blog a few weeks ago...

So hopefully I will quickly get that feeling that comes with Christmas...not the one of frustration surrounding any major shopping area...the one of joy that you can feel when walking around a beautifully decorated Downtown. So if anyone wants to go downtown for dinner tonight, give me a call!

Oh What a Beautiful Morning....

Texas weather is ridiculous. I mean seriously...one day it is freezing with a chance of snow and the next it feels good enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt. I hate to keep pulling the A-card, but in Austria, although it was cold, at least you KNEW it was going to be cold. There was never any guesswork. It was going to snow whether you liked it or not.

But in Texas, no such luxury. When I got into the airport on Saturday, it was 80 degrees. By Monday I was wearing sweaters and wishing all of my cold weather clothes weren't at the dry cleaners. Bonnie, Jen, and I were SO mad! We spent all week talking about how warm it was at home and as soon as we get in, it is winter here again. The only good thing about the cold is that yesterday I got to wear the new jacket I bought in Vienna! I'm just hoping that Mother Nature has made up her mind and the weather will stay warm, at least for a little while.