One Thing I love about Nevada

It's no secret that I am not the biggest fan for the State of Nevada. Ahem.... From the time I was a young teen I would tell people, "Ya know technically, I'm not a native Nevadian because I was born in South Lake Tahoe on the California side." Being on the California side of the Lake was a big deal to me. A VERY BIG DEAL! I know, I know it's so silly, but it meant something to me that my birth certificate says California and NOT Nevada! Maybe it had something to do with that song the Beach Boys sang, "I wish they all could be California girls..."  Oh heck... that's so lame I can't even believe I just typed that out loud!! Moving on...   Since moving away and then moving back I have realized there are a lot of things about this state that I may have been a little hard on it about. I'm sorry Nevada, it's not all your fault that the lawmakers allowed for gambling and prostitution. Or that there is so much brown in this state that I call it Brown Town! Or that your state flower is Sagebrush. Really Nevada?  You're gonna go ahead and call a brush a flower? Can I go on record saying  that a BRUSH does not equate to a FLOWER!! And that your State brush makes me sneeze!! Whew... I feel much better now. As you can see, I don't think I will ever be happy about those aspects of this state, but if I don't focus on that I'm good. People keep asking me if I'm happy to back, and I feel so strange when I go to answer them, because for the most part I am happy to be back with my family and beloved friends. I love my family, and being away from them these past 4 years was not my favorite, but I was finding a way to make it work. I'm also happy to be back with friends that may as well be family. The group of friends we have here are an incredible, amazing bunch.  Still, my feelings are in a quandary.  I'm bewildered, perplexed, and down right confused about how I actually feel about being back. On the one hand my heart is overflowing with joy to be with my nieces, my sisters and brothers, my mom and dad, and my beloved friends. Seriously, all the events that have already taken place in just the few short months of being back have been OFF THE HOOK amazing! It's the kinda of thing that makes me sad for all the 4 years I missed out on this stuff.  On the other hand, when I look down at my feet and they are cracking to the point of pain because of this dry desert place, and I drive down the street and see billboards that are down right offensive and totally inappropriate from my 9 year old boy to have to see, I get down right angry!!
I'm talking down, and right here!
I mean who can blame me? Cracked feet and butt crack on billboards... not GOOD! But, ya know feelings are funny that way. Have you ever had this kind of quandary with your feelings? It's quite confusing if you ask me.  To feel happy and sad all at the same time is a bit of a predicament.  I guess that's why they say,  "It's not really that feelings are bad it's what we do with them that can have serious ramifications" WHO ARE THEY anyway? Well, I'm going to tell you what I'll do with these feelings, I'm going to share them with you and move on to the Sunny side of the Street.  This post is an attempt to stay on the positive side of Nevada. I don't know if you know this about me but I like to say positive if at all possible. So let me tell you what I love about Nevada.
THE FALL . Period 

The Autumn season here is seriously my favorite, and I realized something this year, one of the reason I might love Fall here so much is because this is when all the fun events that I love in Nevada take place.  There are the Balloon Races, Italian Festival, Candy Dance, and of course who can forget the Nevada day parade.  Yes, I LOVE the Nevada day parade!  Don't judge me!!

Would you look at all those crunchy leaves just waiting to be piled up and jumped upon. Washington I love you, but you don't produce crunch in your leaves during the Fall season.  I still love you though. Don't get butt hurt Washington, I'll be back in the summer when it's a hundred degrees here and smoke fills the air.  There ya have it folks. What I love about Nevada is the Fall, and of course more than all the Pumpkin Spice Lattes the world could ever make, I love the people you have here Nevada.  But then you turn icy cold outside and because I'm not a skier Lake Tahoe has no appeal to me in the Winter months so I go back   to loathing this dry desert place.   Just in case you wanted to know ;)