The Rodeo

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Howdy! I'm back from Texas, and I had a great time with Amanda. She lives in this little town called Plano, and it turned out to be a really fancy pants place. Everyone drives either a huge truck or a sports car. The weather was unfortunately a little chilly, but it was still warmer than Cincinnati!

Amanda's apartment was great, but the best part was her kitten, Gray, pictured with me below.

He was so sweet and cuddly! And whenever I took a shower, he liked to sit up on the counter next to me and poke his head in and lick the water from my nose. He also liked waking me up in the middle of the night to sleep on my face.

Amanda is as big a Harry Potter fan as I am, so we decided to make butterbeer one night! And it was fantastically delicious.
It's made up of brown sugar, butter, cream and cream soda. and it is mmm mmm good.

AND the most exciting thing of all! I went to my first--and last--rodeo!

We drove about 45 minutes away to this town that reminded me of Gatlinburg. It was filled with fun restaurants and souvenir shops. And by the way, I am such a sucker for touristy spots. I could spend hours and hours there, I just eat it up. So while we were waiting for the rodeo to begin, we did a little shopping and I tried on a cowboy hat. I did not, however, purchase it, because it was $5o, and I am frugal.

We didn't really like the rodeo. I'm not sure what I was expecting--I just figured if I'm going to be in Texas, it'd be a crime not to go to a rodeo. But none of us was too pleased with the way the animals were treated. Whenever a cowboy would lasso an innocent calf, he'd just yank the rope and strangle it so it slammed into the ground. It was actually kind of horrible to watch.

This is our "Yeesh!" face.

And bull riding? They tie these ropes around the backs of the animals so they're really uncomfortable and they buck around. So they hold on with one hand and wave their hats in the air and everyone cheers like "YAY! That is one angry innocent creature! That cowboy sure is pissing it off! Hang in there, buddy, YEEHAW!"

That is not sportsmanlike.

And it got worse! Halfway through the rodeo, they asked all kids ages 12 and under to come down and chase around this innocent calf. Whoever got the ribbon off the tail first won. WTF? First of all, who would let their child down there? We saw a few kids get trampled, no lie. Secondly, that poor little guy! He's being bombarded by hundreds of kids in front of all these people. That must have been terrifying.



By the way, if you listen closely enough, you can hear me say, "What the hell kind of place is this?!"

So aside from two hours of animal cruelty, we had a great time. :)