I was born and raised in West Texas.
No, not Midland or Odessa, which is what people think of as west Texas. Basically, take I-10 as far west as you can go without leaving the state, to that little pointy part that looks like it’s flipping off Arizona and California, which in hindsight, it probably is.
As far west as you can go without being in New or Old Mexico.
That’s where you’ll find El Paso. It’s a fairly large city, but it’s pretty isolated. When people ask where it is, I tell them it’s about 100 miles west of nowhere in particular.
I grew up with my Mom and Dad, older brother, a menagerie of pets, and a housekeeper/nanny who was a lot like Alice on the Brady Bunch except her wisecracks were in Spanish and she didn’t have a beehive hairdo.
My school years were pretty unremarkable. I spent most of my time in high school writing trashy romance novels, thinking I was going to be the next Jackie Collins.
I did win one award my senior year for an essay that my Creative Writing teacher entered in a city-wide contest. Well, not an award, really. A certificate for Honorable Mention. The essays that actually won were “deep thought” type essays full of the depressing drivel that only an adolescent who has never actually experienced the shit of life yet can write.
What did I write about?
“You Are What You Eat”.
Like, I’m sorry that my parents love each other and I wasn’t dumped right before prom so I wrote something quirky and clever. Here, take the First Place trophy. Because you’re sad.
I’m not bitter or anything.
After high school, I headed to south-central Texas (not to be confused with south-central Los Angeles…most of us were straight outta the burbs or straight outta the farm) and attended Texas A&M University, where I majored in Spanish and minored in English.
I know. I left a Spanish speaking kind of city to major in Spanish at a school that is primarily known for its Agricultural and Engineering studies. Don’t ask.
Me hating Satan’s Butthole.
My resumé includes bookstore clerk, bilingual elementary school teacher, bookstore assistant manager, elementary school teacher (again), Fire Claims Adjuster, Auto Claims Adjuster, Independent Adjuster and now blogger/writer.
I live in Northeast Oklahoma, where The Husband Dude brought me to live in January 2000.
Together we have two sons, a daughter, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, five granddaughters, a grandson, a dog, a cat, miscellaneous outside critters that are well fed by us, and a wacky cast of characters that I’m sure will make it into this blog somewhere.
You can read a bit more about them here.