Deep in the Heart of Texas

Today while interviewing the woman who will be hired to take my job starting August 15th, she mentioned that she's been to about 30 states. It immediately made me competitive (in my head only) as I wanted to say, "I've been to all 50." Which is true. Some long road trips during college breaks )with a good friend when I was not invited home) led me through most of the states. I was fortunate to fly to Hawaii and Alaska in my mid-20s, and rounded it out with my very last state at the age of 27 - Texas. Yes, with such a large country, the last state is huge and south central, but somehow I'd avoided it until I had a conference for a weekend in Austin. Now, 13 years later, it will be my home for a long while, hopefully no more than 319 days.

I will be in Fort Worth. Friends keep asking me exactly where that is located compared to Houston, Austin, or Dallas. I suppose providing our loved ones with maps of local areas would be a good idea. Prisons don't tend to be in the middle of towns (like jails).

I thought I would share some interesting facts about The Lone Star State. Texas comes from the Hasinai Native American word tejas meaning friends or allies. For some reason, I find that ironic. They killed off the entire Hasinai tribe. 

Texas includes 267,339 square miles, or 7.4% of the U.S.' total area.

This does not surprise me, "it is still a hanging offense in Texas to steal cattle or to put graffiti on someone else’s cow. It is also illegal to indecently expose or swear in front of a corpse in Texas. In Galveston, Texas, it is illegal to have a camel run loose on the beach."

The city of Slaughter, Texas, has never had a homicide. 

Texas experiences the most tornadoes in the United States, with an average of 139 per year. Tornadoes occur most often in North Texas and the Panhandle.

State BirdMockingbird

State TreePecan

State Motto“Friendship”

State FlowerBluebonnet

State DishChili

State GrassSideoats Grama

State GemTopaz

State StonePalmwood

State Mammal (large)Texas Longhorn

State Flying MammalFree-tailed Bat

State InsectMonarch Butterfly 

State FishGuadalupe Bass

State VegetableOnion

State FiberCotton 

State FruitRed Grapefruit

State StonePetrified Palmwood

State PepperJalapeno

State SportRodeo

State ShrubCrape Myrtle

State DanceSquare Dance

Something tells me, they will not be practicing the state dance where I'm going.

I figured I write an awful lot about going inside Carswell, I just figured it would be appropriate to set the context of the state in which it sits.