all my exes live in texas

I've always felt a little bit like I am supposed to hate Texas, because I am from California. The more I think about it though, the more I realize that it was BYU made me feel that way and not some deep desire to honor my homeland—there were a bunch of super vocal Texans and super vocal Californians (specifically those who hail from the OC) in my freshman dorm and they were always trying to out-state each other. I don't really get it. But I guess it doesn't matter because one of the biggest offenders in the fake competition was from Texas and ended up marrying a girl from California and it doesn't really seem to matter anymore.

Anyway, point is, Texas isn't that bad! Granted, I've only been to El Paso and Austin, which are decidedly very unlike the rest of Texas, but Austin was pretty much the best pre-spring break a girl could ask for. The weather was amazing, we stayed downtown in a pretty nice hotel, and the food in Austin is pretty much to die for. I went to bed every night with a bad case of indigestion because I couldn't say no to anything. "Yes, I'll have one more taco. And also some more brisket. How about we top all that off with some queso?" We also got to meet up with friends and family who live nearby—my cousin Jake and his family live just outside the city, our old college buddy Meredith introduced us to the giant pancakes at Magnolia Cafe, and we even got to meet up with our friends Binni and Kristine who we met in Iceland two years ago. Austin brings everyone together!

Of course I only took like five pictures and all of them are from the State Capitol, which was just up the street from our hotel, and is also taller than the US Capitol (of course). It's a really pretty building though and you can pretty much stroll in there with no problem, which is still so weird to me since you can't go in any government building in DC without being strip-searched (only partly exaggerating). Texas forever, y'all.