things about Texas

• there is a gas station chain called "Diamond Shamrock", or possibly "Shamrock Diamond", i forget. every time i see it, i wonder what happened to the rest of the Lucky Charms(tm).
  
• drivers here are amazingly polite. and today, while sitting in rush hour traffic, i looked around and realized no one in any of the cars i could see was talking on their cellphone. so i made a point of watching for it all the way home, and i didn't see even one person using their phone while driving. bquinlan says this is an anomaly, but i'm still officially impressed. (keep in mind, i'm coming from California, where all drivers are phone-talking assholes at all times.)
  
• the peanut butter Nutella swirl gelato from the cafe attached to the grocery store down the street is absolutely mind-bendingly fantastic.
  
• said grocery store actually sells whole fresh jackfruit, but only has basil in tiny, overpriced plastic packages.
  
• for the first time in my life, i'm having to decline an offer to join a gaming campaign because i'm already in too many games. (um... four, if you must know, but who's counting? one of those will be going on hiatus soon, though, because the GM is about to be a father.)
  
• people here think right exits are weird.
  
• i've already gained at least a couple of pounds. i'll need to watch that, since i threw away all my big pants after Daddy-O anointed them.
  
• Texas has a much better flag than California.
  
• laugh all you want... but i really did miss hot summer nights. and now i'm enjoying them.