Just in my lifetime we've made MLK Day a National holiday. Not too long before that Veteran's Day and Columbus Day were recognized as Federal holidays. Where will it end? Don't get me wrong...I don't disagree that these days are important, I guess it's just what side of the fence you're standing on. As a self-employeed individual I really don't look forward to holidays: after all it there is a chance I could lose out on opportunities to assist others with buying or selling a home.
What’s your favorite holiday? Up until 1993 my favorite holiday was Bonfire!
Yes the Fightin' Texas Aggie Bonfire - which really doesn't exist anymore (at least the University recognized version). At least that is what I told people my favorite was, up until that point, but actually now it is Groundhog’s Day. Groundhog’s day? Why you may ask… 
It is because on that day 13 years ago I went on a date with the most beautiful woman I ever met. What happened? Well, I went on a date with the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen and…let’s just say things didn’t quite work out like I hoped. I eventually married Lisa and we’ve been pretty happy ever since. Seriously, it was on this date in 1994 that Lisa and I went on our first date to the Olive Garden (in it’s old location at the intersection of Texas Ave. and Holleman) on Groundhog’s Day in 1994. I remind her every year! Yeah, I’m the sappy romantic.
It was love at first sight, at least for me (read Lisa’s version on her own blog)…www.lifeoflisasmith.blogspot.com .
We were both 13 years younger, thus the 13 year anniversary. Duh! No, seriously, we were both much trimmer, younger and smarter (at least we thought so).
Almost 30 years ago, my dad had a choice. My father was a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (more commonly referred to as the FBI). He served more than 30 years in Chicago and Houston. In 1978 we were living in Chicago, Illinois home of the 2007 Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears! You bet’cha life! He had a choice, he requested a move and because of his seniority and could select just about anywhere he wanted. I still remember the family talking about it when I was just 7 or 8 years old.
It’s those kinds of decisions that live with you your whole life. It was between San Diego and Houston, Texas (home of the cows, armadillos and from what I learned on television …the place where kids rode horses to school and tried their best to avoid the tumbleweed
and cacti on the dirt roads on the way to school). Gun slinging and train robbery were classes you could take at the local community college and showers were something that that happened in April and May (not what one would do on a daily basis). My vote was for Cali – no question about it. Ever since I was born, I’ve felt called toward the beach. Sun, surf, boats, fishing, etc. Hey, I’m a Parrothead, wha’d you expect?
Unfortunately for me, my vote didn’t count. My dad wanted San Diego, I wanted California
, my two younger siblings were too young to vote! We wound up in Texas. Yes, Texas? How did that happen? Two to one…I thought?! It really doesn’t work that way in the real world! Fair is NOT fair. My mother trumped both of our votes and I remember being very disappointed.
OK to be fair, my past experiences in Texas were nothing to write home about. Wait! Scratch that! It was exactly the things you would write home about. I remember being nearly “eaten alive” with my first encounter of FIRE ANTS! Still to this day one of the worst nightmares I ever had was when I was in high school dreaming I had fallen asleep in a pile of fire ants to awake and find half my face was missing!
I had been to both southern California as well as Texas and for the life of me couldn’t understand why in the HE(double hockey sticks) anyone, and I mean anyone would choose the farm over the beach!? Every year, my grandmother reminds me of the time when I was 2 or 3 when I went to her house (in Corrigan, Texas) and refused to go to the farm with her neighbors. She said she awoke in the middle of the night to me singing “Didn’t go to the farm with Dorothy and Dick, E. I., E. I. O” Spoken like a true Californian.
Had we stayed in Chi-town, I would have been able to witness not 1, 2 or 3 Chicago Bull Championships…not even 4 or 5, but 6 (Yes SIX) Michael Jordan led Chicago Bulls Championships! But I would have missed the countless Texans jokes! “How do you keep a Texan out of your front yard?” Paint it like the end zone!…LOL! Ha Ha! That’s why I’m a Bears Fan! Or even worse the stupid Dixie Girl jokes – we’ll leave it at that. At that point, I thought my life was going to turn out like their career.
I could have been a World Championship surfer, I could have played Power Forward alongside “Magic” Johnson and won 5 NBA Championship rings… don’t laugh Kurt Rambis did… so for that matter me, you, or even Eva Longoria could have played with Magic, Kareem & Worthy and at least won a couple of rings.
But, I wouldn’t change the way it ended. The Man upstairs knows far more than me and as the great Ronnie Milsap sings “I Wouldn’t Have Missed it For the World”.
I would have missed out on Houston’s first two World Championships
(the ’94-’95 Rockets) which not even MJ could have stopped! I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to become an Aggie, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to complain Every Single Day between March and October that I hate the heat and humidity in this “God forsaken state”. But, most of all, 
I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to marry the woman of my dreams in Lisa and to have been instrumental in the conception of Julia, Alyssa, Hunter and Palmer.Cheers to Groundhog’s Day 1994! Cheers to the woman I admire most – Lisa!
Thanks Mom! We may disagree on many issues, but you proved right on one of the most important!
No comments:
Post a Comment