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Mar. 17th, 2003 12:53 amHouston Rodeo and Livestock show. Biggest indoor rodeo around, and an educational charity to boot.
This is where I've been today. Wandering the huge new Reliant stadium in Houston, contemplating cowboy hats, leather sofas, animal skins, rabbits, turquoise jewelry and all such things. We had fantastic seats, smack in the middle, three rows up on the club level where we could see everything. Anything you might miss was played out on the jumbotron, which is where we saw the close up of the rider who lost a thumb when he came down off his horse during the bronco riding. It was amazing to see men leap off their horses and wrestle 600 pound animals to the ground, not to mention riding insane horses and bulls. Talk about a physically demanding sport. One guy was slammed into the metal bars by the gates three times and knocked unconscious by a bull, and we saw another guy get kicked in the face. Ouch.
Alabama, great country rock band, played on of their final shows ever to close it out. It was very cool. You have no idea the sound a stadium with 69000 people makes for a band so well liked. The fiddle player had a bright lime green electric fiddle, and it really was a great performance. They did my favorite song, "She Ain't No Ordinary Girl."
Being that such events here are by nature very prideful and patriotic, George Bush senior was there, and came out to wave at the crowd. The one patriotic song that moves me is "America the Beautiful." Because I do love my country. It is my home. I want to be proud of it, of the ideals it began with, of the things we have done that were and are so good. It saddens me that there are so many things I am not proud of, and things I fear. Because I truly, truly want to believe in America. I do. Which may seem odd if you know me, and know how much I fret about the current state of so many things here.
There are a lot of things to love about Western/Southern culture, just as there are negative things. But tonight, for the first time in a very long, I just looked at the brighter parts of it in my mind, and smiled at the ridiculous clothes and the sea of cowboy hats, and the awfully good looking 19 year old cowboy who won the bareback bronco riding, and I had an amazing afternoon. It reminded me so much that I am happy with who and what I am, regardless of the external difficulties in my life, my family, etc. When we drove to Houston on Saturday, the sky was a dark slate blue and grey, and the grass was green, the bluebonnets and mexican sunhats are blooming, and it was beautiful.
I am happy.
And I'm coming back next year.
And one day, I'll make Reive come see this. Just cause.
This is where I've been today. Wandering the huge new Reliant stadium in Houston, contemplating cowboy hats, leather sofas, animal skins, rabbits, turquoise jewelry and all such things. We had fantastic seats, smack in the middle, three rows up on the club level where we could see everything. Anything you might miss was played out on the jumbotron, which is where we saw the close up of the rider who lost a thumb when he came down off his horse during the bronco riding. It was amazing to see men leap off their horses and wrestle 600 pound animals to the ground, not to mention riding insane horses and bulls. Talk about a physically demanding sport. One guy was slammed into the metal bars by the gates three times and knocked unconscious by a bull, and we saw another guy get kicked in the face. Ouch.
Alabama, great country rock band, played on of their final shows ever to close it out. It was very cool. You have no idea the sound a stadium with 69000 people makes for a band so well liked. The fiddle player had a bright lime green electric fiddle, and it really was a great performance. They did my favorite song, "She Ain't No Ordinary Girl."
Being that such events here are by nature very prideful and patriotic, George Bush senior was there, and came out to wave at the crowd. The one patriotic song that moves me is "America the Beautiful." Because I do love my country. It is my home. I want to be proud of it, of the ideals it began with, of the things we have done that were and are so good. It saddens me that there are so many things I am not proud of, and things I fear. Because I truly, truly want to believe in America. I do. Which may seem odd if you know me, and know how much I fret about the current state of so many things here.
There are a lot of things to love about Western/Southern culture, just as there are negative things. But tonight, for the first time in a very long, I just looked at the brighter parts of it in my mind, and smiled at the ridiculous clothes and the sea of cowboy hats, and the awfully good looking 19 year old cowboy who won the bareback bronco riding, and I had an amazing afternoon. It reminded me so much that I am happy with who and what I am, regardless of the external difficulties in my life, my family, etc. When we drove to Houston on Saturday, the sky was a dark slate blue and grey, and the grass was green, the bluebonnets and mexican sunhats are blooming, and it was beautiful.
I am happy.
And I'm coming back next year.
And one day, I'll make Reive come see this. Just cause.