Suburbia

Another Mrs. Austin photo gracing the home page of the Round Rock Leader newspaper site.

Some of you may recall the 4th of July picture that ended up on the front page of the paper. I'm very proud of her for doing this work that sees print. Freelance or not, freelance pay or not, it's good seeing someone do work that they love doing.

She may be getting on with the Pflugerville paper as well. Pflugerville, for those who don't know, is a suburb of Austin. It's actually one of the fastest growing of Austin suburbs. It's a great little town, something like 35,000 people live here. The schools are some of the best in central Texas and it's got a lot of parks and paths and pools for the kids. Pecan Street is a neat little road that cuts through the heart of an old fashion downtown.

We live on the edge of Pflugerville, somewhere between the lost reaches of north Austin and the actual city line. In fact, when you come out of our subdivision, you have to drive past the "Welcome to Pflugerville" sign if you go east. If you go west you hit the highway and are technically in Austin. Utility companies love the area because most of them say they don't service it even though the city gives out their numbers. SuddenLink doesn't have our zip code in it's system. Three waste removal companies have trash cans on our street, but when you call them it takes them a while to find the street.

Plus, so far we've had nothing but good experiences from the people hear. The people who (accidentally) hit our dog were the nicest folks. When Mrs. A's car had its problem last week, no less than 10 people tried to help. The Mexican food restaurant in downtown had the nicest wait staff I've seen in a long time. I guess that goes for Austin in general as well. In between NPR bits, the local station, KUT, has interviews with locals about their Austin experience. One man talked about going to Central Market where a be-dreded and be-inked young woman asked him how his weekend was going. Being from Boston his thoughts were, "It'd be a lot better if you gave me my change and let me go." After a year here he goes back to Boston to visit and realized that no one was making eye contact or exchanging pleasantries and if he saw that girl again now he'd ask her how her weekend was going.

I have some people I know online moving out to Austin soon and it makes me think of how they view our city. Nationally, globally, I think there's a southern - and more than that, Texan - stereotype but people seem to know that Austin is somehow a bit different. I heard somewhere that Austinites are some of the only people in the country who talk about how great it is to be in Austin. More people should have that. More people should either be proud of their city and happy to be there or they should get out and find some place they like. There's no reason to live where you are unhappy as it may be the place that's making you feel that way. I spent about two years in Houston and they were abysmal. There were good and bad times and it wasn't the people or the jobs, it was the town. Leaving Houston felt like tearing off a soot stained, mildew smelling blanket of glue and cheese and taking a hot shower.

So yeah, Austin is great. Yee haw. Pflugerville is a good place to be that's not technically in Austin. I'm glad Mrs. A is able to show others through her photos how nice the place is.

Carry on.