I know its been a while since i have posted anything, but this post is going to fall into the category of "whatever is on Aidan's mom's mind."   Tonight the Saints' winning streak ended with a loss to the Cowboys.  I' sure that there are a lot of purely football reasons that this was bad.  But, as we all know, sometimes sports are a metaphor for life.   For those of you who live outside of the greater New Orleans area, the Saints' heretofore, un defeated season, may have just been a curiosity.  But, I can tell you that for us, it has been so much more.  It has, I think on some level,  been a validation that we are worthy of existence, that we are part of America because we have a winning football team.  True or not, this is not really the pont of this entry, so moving on. . .  

I will start by saying that I generally dislike all things Texas. 

I went to TCU for college, and I wish them all the best in the Fiesta Bowl, but I have to say that in general, and in retrospect (nearly 20 years since I graduated) there is not a whole lot that I can say that is positive about my experience there (there being at TCU).

The myriad reasons that I disliked TCU notwithstanding, the main reason was that I just was not of the correct socio-economic class/geographical class, to be accepted  into the "in crowd" at TCU.  I am not going to go into great detail on this subject. However, I will note that I grew up in what would probably be classified as an upper middle class community, where as a child, the parents' of my friends were doctors, lawyers and business men.   Yet, when I arrived at TCU, and throughout my matriculation there, I felt as though I was a red haired step child from the wrong side of the tracks.

So I generally disliked college. Too bad for me.  However, there are a few specific incidents that stand out in my mind whenever I think about my general dislike for Texas. 

The first happened when I was a student at TCU.  So many things happened there that upset me and made me feel terrible about my self, it suprises me that I even remember this particular incident.  What I remember about it is this:  I was taking and astronomy class to fulfill my science requirement.  I am admitting that I am a terrible math student and took this class to avoid any math.  I cannot exactly remember how or why the comment was made, but I think I was joking about the possibility of not passing the class, and a girl, who was very blond and very from Texas, and knew where I was from, looked at me and said something to the effect of, "well what are you going to do from here? Just go back to the swamp?"  I know its is hard to tell from the description here, but I can promise you that the comment was intended to mean that being from Louisiana, I must be stupid and have no options other than to go home and make a living in the swamps. Ok, so no big deal. . . college times. . . . get over it.

So now, its 2005.  I'm 37 years old and at least 8 months pregnant with my first child.  I have evacuated from my home and the reports that I have heard indicate that not only my home, but my parents' home and basically everything that I have ever known in my entire life has been destroyed by flood water.  I am sitting in a base baseball stadium in Houston.  My husband has decided that we should take advantage of the discount that has been offered to "Katrina Victims" to attend a baseball game. He gets up to go get a beer or some food or whatever, and I hear the three or four-thirty something men sitting next to me discussing how terrible it is going to be for their kids' football team, if some refugees from New Orleans wind up in the schools there, and playing  against their kids in football.  This all happens days after Katrina, and I can promise you, that had I not  been very pregnant, I most likely would have had several drinks in me by then and would have  told them off.  But I didn't.  I just sat there crying, thinking how insensitive their comments were.

These two incidents are merely illustrative.  There are many more reasons, especially from college times, that I dislike Texas, and save  for a few good friends, that I made at TCU,  who just happened to be born in the Lone Star State, I generally despise our closest neighbor. 

Unfortunately, just when the Saints were somehow validating New Orleanians in general,  we had to lose to the Cowboys.  I know its just football, but let's be honest, its really more than that.  

Nevertheless, the Saints' record notwithstanding, people in Louisiana were found to be the most happy of all US citizens in a poll released this week.  My opinion on the reason for this finding is the subject of another post.  I read a few comments on this finding, the gist of which was we are too stupid to know any better and that's why we're happy.   

  But that's OK.  We know better, even if you don't. . . but I still hate the Cowboys.