Lubbock or Leave It

You know what I'm tired of hearing? People's negative attitudes. In the past month, I've probably met close to 50 people, between Big Guy's family and friends, people at work and the random guy behind the counter at the post office. And about half of them look at me and say, "Austin to Lubbock? Wow, that's backwards, you know. Most people are trying to get out of Lubbock. How are you handling the transition?" They go on to explain to me (as if I didn't already know) how cool Austin is and how much Lubbock sucks. Most of these people were born and raised in Lubbock. I smile brightly and say, "It's not so bad!" while thinking, "If you hate this city so much, why don't YOU leave?" Seriously. I can't stand it when people complain about a situation but do nothing to fix it. (I'm looking at you, Gloomy Dark Cloud Guys.)

Sure, Austin is beautiful. The trees and rolling hills are gorgeous. There's Sixth Street. There's live music. (If you ask me, most of the bands suck, but that's just my opinion. Oh wait—this is my web site so I'll say it. Most of the bands suck.) There's Lake Travis and Maudie's queso and the emerging film industry. Living in Austin was on my top 25 list of reasons to be happy on my birthday. (Next year I'll do 26 and see what I can come up with.)

But here's the thing™^DIVA: I never took my dog to Pease Park to enjoy the scenery. I don't have a dog. I lived in a tiny efficiency, because it was what I could afford and still live somewhere near the city. (Mad props here to the Purple Palace. I loved that apartment. But it was tiny.) I stopped going to Lake Travis when I was in high school. Suddenly it wasn't cool to go to the lake anymore if you didn't have a boat. I didn't. And Sixth Street is great…but I've outgrown it. Jimmy's Irish Lair, Club deVille…now those are the places to go. And Lubbock—should we dare to compare? It's missing the rolling hills. (If you stand on a beer can, you can see clear across town.) It's missing the cool factor. It's missing Jimmy's Irish Lair and Club deVille. (Where the bartender is probably happy I'm not crying in front of him at 2 a.m. each Saturday morning.) It's also missing the sky-high rents and the snarled traffic on I-35. But what it's missing that really counts? GDawg. Diva. Lady Butterfly. Madame V. Gigi. El Dilector. MackTate. The peeps.

A town is what you make of it. Austin is my home. It always will be. And I fully intend to come back home. So in the meantime, I'm trying to make what I can out of Lubbock. So you people with opinions on where I should live? Get your negative energy away from me. Because I. Ain't. Havin'. It.