Texas

I finally have internet...sortof. It's this stupid ethernet thing that I'm cancelling today. It works, it doesn't work, whatever it feels like doing or not doing it does or doesn't do. We've been putting Isaac in his own room for the first time. The night before last he woke up crying and crying around 11 p.m.. We put him in our bed & he fell asleep with us until Mike went to work, then we put him back in his bed. Last night he woke up screaming uncontrollably around the same time. It was like he was asleep still, but he was screaming at the top of his lungs as if he were in pain. There was no consoling him. Mike made him a bottle & as soon as he laid next to me with it in his mouth he went to sleep. This is the first time he's ever slept in our bed all night with us before. I get worried about him being in his own room right now because there are so many SPIDERS here. I had Orkin come out & spray yesterday, but there are still creepy crawlies everywhere. Mike's first night in the house he saw a black widow AND a brown recluse!!! I have never been so afraid of spiders in my life. Oh & there's this one that's called a "child of the night" that looks like a mix of a spider & a scorpion. Scary. The Orkin guy says it has little man syndrome & just tried to LOOK scary, but he's harmless. Well, it worked on me, I smashed him with a shoe!

There are a lot of differences here than anywhere I've ever lived. The worst is the WIND. It's horrible. I went outside to check the mail yesterday & my hat blew off my head & I had to chase after it. Once I got the mail, the wind ripped a piece out of my hand & it literally disappeared! It looked like junk mail for the second that I saw it though. The dust storms are horrible, it's like we are living in the Middle East. I'm going to have to get one of those scarves or something to keep the sand off! Oh, & the FIRES. I have seen two major fires in the short amount of time I've been here. It is no doubt the desert. When you walk in my yard all you here is "crunch" "crunch". I saw my first tumbleweed yesterday in the backyard.

The neighborhood I live in has every street named after an Indian tribe. My street is Hopi. I read up on them & there's an interesting belief system in things like UFOs etc. http://www.crystalinks.com/hopi1.html

I've noticed that there are a lot of Hispanic people here. I'd say half of the people I've encountered speak Spanish. It seems like people here are happier in general than back home. Either that or they are just SO MUCH nicer!

It's interesting to see how different cities/states deal with things like mail and garbage. Here, every neighborhood has back alley-ways with small dumpsters. There's a dumpster for every four houses. Most neighborhoods have mailbox groupings like apartment complexes (which is kind of a pain). The absolute BEST thing EVER though, that Midland, TX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland,_Texas) has over Baton Rouge is their WONDERFUL Loop 250. You can go across town & back again 5 times in the time it would take you to get from Perkins to the interstate down College Drive. I can't wait until they get their loop there! Too bad it'll still be a couple of years.

I've also seen some other interesting wildlife. One was in my driveway (I think I ran over it). It's a horned lizard. There was also this itty bitty furry thing that darted across the road in my neighborhood. It looked kind of like a squirrel, but smaller, almost like a chipmunk. I wanted to call it a Prairie Dog, but I really have no idea. The birds are different too. I wish I hadn't put my bird book in storage. I love seeing new species & learning their names, guess I'll need to get another one.

Mainly we are surrounded by oilfields. Even in my neighborhood thereare pumpjacks (those oil drill looking thingies). When you first get here there is the slight odor of oil, but then it goes away once you get used to it.