The Lone Star State

Sorry fellow bookworms today is a keeping up with Selena blog.

As some of you may know my husband and I moved to Mckinney, Texas in June of this year it has been about 3 months and I wanted to share my thoughts with you so far. We haven't had the chance to go and try many things yet, but we are definitely making that our goal for the next few months.

I had the pleasure of visiting Corpus Christi and Galveston with ,y best friend Anna which was an absolute blast and I am so grateful she came down to visit us here in Texas. I can't wait to take Dion down to the beaches they are actually very nice in retrospect of what people were saying about them. Also this is my opinion so to each their own...

Texas is very cheap in regards to cost of living, taxes, expenses and insurance. There are no taxes on food at the grocery stores, we don't have state tax and our car insurance went down $200 from Colorado. The only things that are expensive are property tax and car registration, because that is how the state makes their money to make repairs on the streets and towns. These are all great pros and reasons why we like living here.

The weather is amazing we definitely love the hot weather and being able to go to the pool pretty much everyday, or driving down to the beach since it is only a 2 1/2 hour drive for us.

The humidity is a complete other beast we adjusted well to it but moving in the summer I would not recommend to anyone. We had to go up three flights of stairs in the hallway of death is what we called it. The stairs don't have fans like the hallway outside our apartment door.

The people, this is seriously give and take. There are some amazing people here who do still give you that southern hospitality and there are some real assholes I am not going to lie. I sometimes feel like I am in beverly hills with all of these people in their sports cars and plastic surgery. Again this is my opinion and everyone has the right to their own opinions. There is also a wide variety of different cultures out here which we have thoroughly enjoyed, we were a little culture shock to be honest. We always thought that Colorado had a wide variety of people but compared to the DFW area we really didn't. This was a nice change and that's another pro for us.

In terms of jobs in Texas, DIon and I both are able to work part time jobs and pay for the bills. As most of you know we work way more than part time hours because we are on a debt free journey. I was able to begin working my dream job as a professional organizer at a company called GO (Get Organized). I love my job and am so grateful for this move just for this reason, this job wouldn't have been possible or quite as successful back home.

Here are some hard truths; AGAIN EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO THEIR OWN OPINION, this is just what I have experienced myself. Being a woman in Texas is the hardest thing I have ever experienced, as if being a woman isn't hard enough. It is the equivalent to Afghanistan; many people have argued on this subject, but I can agree. I not only have been discriminated against because of my tattoos, but for my age, the fact that I don't have children, I do not attend church regularly and the fact that I wasn't married in a church. We also can't forget that my husband doesn't make "enough" money for me to be a stay at home wife. Which let me tell you I am not one of those women. Sure staying home would be nice for about a week or so; but I like to keep busy and I would get very bored at home by myself day in and day out, even if I was able to read. These are all from OTHER WOMEN not men I have not had this issue with men at all but women here basically eat their own young. This is a fighting area for all women and I don't feel comfortable raising a daughter here to be completely honest. I can't say this is all of texas because when I went and visited Galveston I did not feel this way at all. Our plan is to go visit other cities in Texas and see which city is best for us. We really want a farm town feel and some freedom for me specifically to not be around people who feel the need to status battle their neighbors. I have only felt this way in the Dallas area forsure.

To expand on my comment above it is so busy here there is traffic all day, literally. If you want to drive with no traffic or only a few cars on the road the best time to travel would be at 3 in the morning on a weekday. This is another reason we are going to trial other towns/ cities in Texas before we decide that Texas truly isn't the state for us.

To end on a positive note the Texas stereotype for food is completely true. The food out here is incredible, we make it a point to try a new restaurant every week. Dion and I aren't sure that we are even going to get to try every restaurant out here by the time were 50 there are seriously so many different places to eat!

Some advice I can give to everyone, make sure when moving states you really visit the city you want to move to. Make sure you like the feel of the town. I am so happy we made the move because we needed to and we tried something new; but we now know the Dallas area is not the place we want to be. We are eager to find our dream town and home. We are halfway there moving was the first step!

Thank you for reading and looking through this new chapter in our life. I was excited to share it with you!

If you have any feedback, places to visit when in Texas or want to chat more about our move send me a message!

Thank you so much for reading my blog. I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday! Until next week, stay reading and trying new things.

Selena Torres