To wish it was easy to move to the USA

[Highway65]

I've been watching The Pioneer Woman on Sky the past few evenings. It's utter drivel but I LOVE it!! It's this blog writer/cook living in Oklahoma and it just looks ace! All cowboys, horses and massive ranches. I want to live there.

Infact, there are loads of places in America that I would like to live. Europe has plenty of highlights too of course. Not where I live, it's just grey!! But I reckon I should have been born American.

I have family living in California. They both married Americans to get their green cards. I would be up for that if I wasn't happily married

Think of the murder rate misanthroplogist. The Bodleian would appear to be as dangerous as South Central LA.

Larf. I really did, I laughed out loud and startled the poor dog right off the couch. And I'm sure the house prices are shriekingly high. But still...THE BUILDINGS. I only ever half catch the plotline because I'm distracted by the setting.

Isn't nearly everything privatised over there?

I don't think it'd be nice to live there unless you had money.

I could imagine that Scone with the aquarium and everything. But it just sounds so brilliantly OTT that I want to go. Sort of like Vegas.

Our piano tuner (a native Okie) told me a story about why Oklahoma City was founded on the spot that it was; apparently the local Native Americans tipped the settlers off when the land run started and told them that if they built their city in that precise location they would never be hit by a tornado.
I have no idea if there's any truth to the tale (or why the natives would have any inclination to help the settlers) but sure enough downtown OKC has avoided tornados so far in its 125 year history. It's the sprawl; the suburbs that are 15-20 miles out that get torn up.

The city of Moore (part of the OKC metropolitan area, about 20 from downtown OKC) seems to gets hit almost every time. We drove past a few weeks after the big tornado last spring and you could see the damage from the interstate. It was so eerie; there was a swathe about a mile wide where everything was totally flattened, yet the buildings either side were virtually untouched. They started rebuilding almost straight away and now, 16 months later you wouldn't even know it had happened if you were visiting the place for the first time.

Anyways, DH and I have decided to stay safe and close to downtown!

I wish it was then I could cheerfully pack ds to live with his fiancé and massive extended family
However, as she lives in Sth central LA, in reality I'm not that happy about it. Guns, drugs, heat, drought and oh, earthquakes.

Username I don't. Have money, I mean. I mean, we're certainly not poor but the four (five in the spring, eeek) of us live on the equivalent of about £40k. It's all in where you live.

Your household sounds brilliant Cheerful I love the silent husband, I imagine him communicating through raised eyebrows and looks

Just don't ask him about the enormous machines they build at the company he works for, or the work and philosophies of GK Chesterton. Doesn't shut up then. The rest of the time, silent as the grave. :o

So are you a Vikings fan CheerfulYank?

My mum became a US citizen last year in order to sponsor me. I grew up in the US, did all schooling there, then moved to Asia.

7 year wait for a GC now...

A MN USA road trip - woo hoo.

Come on over!

I like the Vikings but am not really too much of a football fan. The Wild on the other hand... :)

Have to admit, I enjoyed some football in the states (not fanatic, but enjoyed Vikings games). But... rugby is like "man" football - you know, American football without the girly padding. Quite a world apart IMO.

I went to an ice hockey match once. Let's say I was quite surprised by how excitable some of the crowd got.

I think college football looks fun, all that tailgating.

Alice when some NFL players were in London last year for the game at Wembley they had a training session with a London based rugby team. The big defensive players from the NFL were shaking their heads at how hard the rugby players were

And I love how Americans say D-fence not defence. But not D-troit confusingly.

Legion I can imagine. Rugby looks MUCH tougher. and more interesting...

It's only pronounced that way in sports for some strange reason; for example the government Department of Defense is pronounced as it is in the UK (spelled differently of course.)

Scone That makes perfect sense. It must be so you can have a sign like this.

The NFL is under a lot of scrutiny right now because of several domestic violence cases and a case of alleged physical child abuse.

Legion that's funny. I have to show that to my DB. He played dee-fense for the University of Georgia (go dawgs!). He did not go pro, though.

Yes, it's awful, I hope something positive can come from it with raised awareness and less tolerance of such things. Do you think that might happen?

Fox News making a joke about the moral of the Ray Rice case was to take the stairs doesn't fill me with hope but that is Fox news.

This might be on the cards for us in future through DH's work, east coast. We need to think about the pros and cons, mainly relating to employment for me as I don't want to entirely give up work.

we're going to the London NFL game in November... Dallas Cowboys!!!

Scone first time I saw I sign like that I asked what D-gate was