Things I Like About Texas

1. The sky. Friday here was beautiful, with a high about 75 and little while clouds strung across a light blue sky. The sky is big here, it lets you know you are in THE WEST. As the beautiful Friday faded, the sky turned a light yellow that gave way to a soft orange, almost a peach color, before the sun set. We witnessed this sunset on the way to dinner, which brings me to. . .

2. The food, specifically places like Babe's Chicken. Babe's is a family style restaurant, where they bring you big plates and bowls and you pass it around. The menu was simple -- fried chicken, roast chicken, chicken fingers, chicken fried steak, and fried catfish. They had three sides -- corn, green beans, and mashed potatoes -- that all got brought to the table. For $10 you got half a chicken and all the side dishes you can eat. There were biscuits, of course, which were incredible, and white gravy that I just wanted to eat by itself. The wait staff had attitude and stopped whatever they were doing to dance to the hokey pokey whenever it came on the jukebox. Oh, and it's BYOB, so Sarah's dad walked in with a brown paper bag stuffed with a few bottles of Shiner Bock and no one batted an eye.

3. The radio. I like radio, but most radio is really bad, especially the radio we have in Rock Hill. Dallas radio has lots of interesting options. The option we've been availing ourselves of the most is Lone Star. Their web site says they play "classic rock and roll, outlaw country, and alternative county." I've heard Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Charlie Robinson, Pat Green, the Allman Brothers, The Eagles, David Allen Coe (we were all singing along to the Perfect Country Song on the way home from church) and lots of others. They lean a bit to heavy on the Lynyrd Skynyrd for my tastes (I've heard "That Smell", "What's Your Name," "Gimme Three Steps," and, of course, "Sweet Home Alabama" since I've been here), but generally it's good stuff.

There is plenty of other stuff, like the fact that some movie theater here in Dallas is showing Labyrinth this weekend at it's midnight show. You can beat young Jennifer Connelly, muppets, and David Bowie in tights on the big screen.