I grew up in Alaska. (Pissing on Texas since 1959) A beautiful state of lovely long summer days, wonderful white winters, out door activities and lots of family and friends. Then moved down to northern California to go to school. I loved Alaska but I also really enjoyed California. Moving from mountains on one side, ocean on the other, to a small college town with rolling hills didn't seem like much of a change. The people who lived there even tried to convince me the hills were mountains. If there is no tree line, then to me, its not a mountain, but it will do.
I never really felt out of place in California, I enjoyed the culture and the health conscious feel. There were health food stores and cute sandwich cafes everywhere. Californian cuisine makes sense, and I really enjoyed it! The weather was beautiful, summers were not overly hot. People spent time out side staying active. This isn't to say that I am the most active person. In fact I cant run for more than a few blocks. But I like having the option. And the healthy eating options.
That also isn't saying that I eat health all of the time. I love sugar and desserts. I love them so much in fact, that after my I obtained my Sculpture Degree, with a Minor in Business, I went on to complete the 30 week Baking and Pastry program provided by the Culinary Institute of America, Greystone. A place where quality and full fat ingredients, with some added refined sugar in many forms, rule the kitchen. We asked about low sugar and low fat options and they pretty much said, "just eat smaller portions." Ok, I'll agree with that. 10 pounds and 30 weeks later I obtained another degree that I'm not really using. But man, was it tasty.
So how did we get to Texas you ask? And why if we had to leave the beautiful state of California would we move to Texas and not up to Alaska? Well, I ask myself that sometimes too. Here's the relatively short version.
The summer after my freshman year of college, I was back in Alaska. Staying on campus wasn't an option and I missed family and Alaska so I returned for the summer. I spent the days working for dad at the construction company as a receptionist/courier. And the evenings and weekends hanging out with friends usually at parks around town. Only if they had swing sets though, what was the point of a park if they had no swings? Yes it was Alaska, there wasn't much to do... Thanks to my best friend Emily, Brian was a part of our crowd. He claimed he like hanging out at the parks too. Maybe he just thought I was pretty. Whatever the case, we started dating. Five years later and after I had graduated, twice, we were married. (He wouldn't let me plan the wedding until I had graduated. Silly me went straight from one school program to another delaying the wedding planning.) So by July of 2008 we were both graduated, were still living in California, and had a beautiful wedding in Alaska. He had a job offer for tax auditing that started in August in a tiny town in California about an hour away from our current location. The town was small, cute, kinda expensive but he could walk to work from our new apartment. Life was beautiful.
Did I mention that was in 2008. Yeah remember how the economy was, well, crappy. Yup. By December, the company Brian was working for decided to downsize. There went his job. Brian spent Christmas with his family in Texas. When I came back from Alaska after Christmas and Grandad's funeral, I found out that the owners of the little bakery I was working at part time, had decided to "retire". There went my job. Merry Christmas to us.
So there we were, just married. I didnt get my honeymoon because he was starting his awesome job which they took from him a few months later. We had a super cute apartment that we couldn't pay for. We had to move. Well that's not too bad, we could experience any part of the country we wanted. I loved that idea. So I thought hey, why not Texas? NO. I grew up in Alaska. Do you know how to piss off a Texan? Tell them that if you split Alaska in half, then Texas is the third largest state in the country.
As it turned out, the simple facts were this. Texas was/is cheap. The job economy was/is good. And Brian's parents were willing to let us rent a house from them. We packed up. Hired a moving company, And drove half way across the country. Welcome to Texas.
And the culture shock? Well, that's a whole other story...
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