I miss it so much. I went to UT and spent a significant number of my weekend at the downtown and south Lamar locations.

They're building them everywhere now. It's amazing! I grew up near Corpus Christi and always have to go back to visit my folks, and I almost fell over because I found out they're building an Alamo there now. So I know where I'm spending all my time during the holidays.

For reals. Pop culture is constantly recycling style. Doesn't make it inherently good or bad.

I know. :( We've been taking care of the SWEETEST little cat who was obviously someone's pet at some time. She showed up at my backdoor a few months ago spayed, chubby and healthy, and totally freaked out by the other stray cats but obsessed with people. We've been trying to find her owners but the vet told us she was…

Not gonna lie, on the rare occasion I've mulled over breaking up with my long-time boyfriend because he was being a butthole, the idea of who would get the cats definitely swayed my decision. We each "adopted" one of our cats and the one he got is a great snuggler and I'd miss her too much if he tried to take her.…

I went to college with a guy named Mike Litt. He started a campus organization called I Love Mike Litt because of course. It has apparently evolved into a hipster social club.

I am not embarrassed but it is funny to muse about the way my tastes have changed. I lost my virginity at 18 to a 22-year-old Canadian dude who paved parking lots for a living. I hated EVERYONE at my tiny high school so finding an older dude who thought I was the bees knees was all it took for me to fall in crazy,…

I love this movie. I especially love that all the talking heads in the movie are real people from the town. It expertly captures the weird Texan small town vibe so well. Even my parents loved this movie, and they're reluctant Texans from the north who relocated here for a job in the 1980s. (Also, Texas Monthly is a…

If I recall this was the after-after party after the reception wrapped up and they all went to hang out at someone's house. But also: Cajuns.

People are weird about kid names. My sister is named Danielle. When our next door neighbors had a kid they told my mom that they really liked my sister's name and wanted to know if it would be okay with her if they named their daughter "Danielle" too. My mom was like, Uh, I don't own the name but thanks for asking.

I was working at a newspaper in Houma, Louisiana when this gem happened a few years ago. The paper is behind a paywall so I can't share the article but you really only need this video:

OMG YOU'RE LIVING THE DREAM FOR ALL OF US.

Ahhh! Me too. I had a phase when I was in college where I kept getting asked out on dates by dudes and then finding out they were super conservative libertarians. They were always mad when I was like, "Nooooooope."

It's true. My parents also avoided taking me to see the Harlem Globetrotters when I was a kid, despite my insistent begging. I bought tickets for them when they came to town a few years after getting my first real job. It was weirdly fulfilling.

I wanted one of these so bad as a kid, and my parents wouldn't get it for me because they thought it was a stupid fad toy. Well, JOKE'S ON YOU MOM AND DAD. Puppy surprise is back and now I'm a 30-year-old with a salary and an unknown number of baby puppy-sized holes in my heart.

Yeah dude. I went to stay with my parents and they'd redone my old room with seemingly the same bed but when I slept in it it was AMAZING. I asked them about the mattress and it turned out it was my same old crappy childhood bed but they'd gone and bought 5" memory foam toppers for all the beds in the house. We have…

Yeah. We had a class ferret (named Scrumptious!) when I was in the sixth grade. My main memory of it was that it smelled like piss 90 percent of the time.

My boyfriend's grandpa had a bad case of C. Diff and was in and out of the hospital a couple years ago, and we'd been texting on and off throughout the day about his condition. I was working as a reporter at the time and was also texting with the local police chief trying to get some information on a homicide. At the…

I actually came down here just to post BLUE PLATE. Wasn't even really that into mayo until I moved to south Louisiana and every sandwich in the world came "dressed" with Blue Plate.

Aww. When my sister had to have the vet put her cat down, they gave her a little sympathy card with his paw print and a small clipping of his fur. It was a sweet gesture but I dunno if it went over well at the time. The cat (named Squeaky, RIP, for his tiny high pitched meows) was 18 and we'd had him since elementary…