Music and CatsTuesday, December 14, 2004
Lone Star bling-bling
Yesterday I received a package in the mail from my friend Cowtown Pattie. Pattie and I are both native Texans; unlike me, she is still a resident of the Lone Star State. However, Pattie maintains that, while you can take the girl out of Texas, you can't take Texas out of the girl.
(I'd have to say that I agree with her. Although I have not lived in Texas for almost nine years, I still think of myself as a Texan. While I may well be a life-long expatriate, I doubt that I will ever think of myself as, say, a Washingtonian. I can more easily see myself as a Seattleite, but I think that's because I have less attachment to being a Houstonian than to being a Texan. Now here's an odd idea: might I eventually think of myself as a Seattleite and a Texan?)
The package contained this fun, sparkly Lone Star State bling-bling. (The other charms are bluebonnets, Texas' state flower, which carpet the roadsides and fields of central Texas each spring.) While I have owned many things bearing the distinctive outline of Texas, I've never had Texas jewelry. When I see that craggy silhouette, the words that come to mind are home, family, heat and sun... things of which I was happy to be reminded on this cold, dark, rainy Seattle day. And today, when I caught a glimpse of the bracelet, or felt an earring against my neck, the other word that came to mind was friendship. Thanks, Pattie.
Besides knowing how to be a friend, Pattie also knows how to tell a story. Her writing is funny, earthy and straightforward, her voice is decidedly Texan, and she leans in the same direction as Molly Ivins and Ann Richards... and me. So to any of y'all who haven't yet done so, get on over to see Pattie, who, as she says, meets life and takes it by the horns.
(I'd have to say that I agree with her. Although I have not lived in Texas for almost nine years, I still think of myself as a Texan. While I may well be a life-long expatriate, I doubt that I will ever think of myself as, say, a Washingtonian. I can more easily see myself as a Seattleite, but I think that's because I have less attachment to being a Houstonian than to being a Texan. Now here's an odd idea: might I eventually think of myself as a Seattleite and a Texan?)
The package contained this fun, sparkly Lone Star State bling-bling. (The other charms are bluebonnets, Texas' state flower, which carpet the roadsides and fields of central Texas each spring.) While I have owned many things bearing the distinctive outline of Texas, I've never had Texas jewelry. When I see that craggy silhouette, the words that come to mind are home, family, heat and sun... things of which I was happy to be reminded on this cold, dark, rainy Seattle day. And today, when I caught a glimpse of the bracelet, or felt an earring against my neck, the other word that came to mind was friendship. Thanks, Pattie.
Besides knowing how to be a friend, Pattie also knows how to tell a story. Her writing is funny, earthy and straightforward, her voice is decidedly Texan, and she leans in the same direction as Molly Ivins and Ann Richards... and me. So to any of y'all who haven't yet done so, get on over to see Pattie, who, as she says, meets life and takes it by the horns.
