I’m not going to bother with the usual disclaimer on this one because this is a rant. It’s also not directly related to the RV park, which has a whole host of weirdness all its own, but is instead a rant about my general experience with the nearby towns. There will be cuss words.

If you are new to this blog, you should probably skip this post for a better one. Any other one. This post isn’t my best first impression. Just saying. I don’t know when I began caring about first impressions. Humh, that’s new. Carry on.

<rant on>

Say NO to haters.

I am ready to leave Deerville, Soberville, and Touristburg. I’m over it, for a couple reasons.

I’ve been teaching a free meditation class in one of the neighboring towns. I’ve done this before. I don’t get paid for it, it’s something I like to do to better my little corner of the world. It’s also fun for me, gives me a chance to meditate with a group, and best of all to hopefully encourage people to meditate daily. I teach different approaches to meditation, ways to easily increase your practice, and share what it’s done for me.

Daily meditation has change my life in ways that were previously unimaginable to me: a sense of inner peace, mental clarity, better health, and the ability to monitor my thoughts – and to choose better ones, etc. Of course I want to share this with people, so I started teaching meditation to others. I have done this for a several years, and it has always been a fun experience.

But then some haters came. Now I don’t want to share it with them anymore.

Several older folks with hearing loss came to the first meditation class. I understand hearing loss – I have about 40% hearing in one ear after an ear infection about fifteen years ago. I have trouble hearing in places that have background noise, such as noisy restaurants. So I get it. But I also consider this my problem, and do what I can to change what I can, such as sitting closer to the person with whom I’m talking, and putting them on the side with my better-hearing ear.

What I don’t do is bitch about it. Over and over. And over. During a meditation class. A class in which the instructor has accommodatingly changed out three MICROPHONES on which she is using to speak. A class in which the folks in the fourth row back can hear her just fine – without a mic. A class in which the hard hearing students refuse to sit in the front row, near the teacher – and the audio speakers. WTF?

It wasn’t just one, there were about five vocal, hard-of-hearing, but I-wont-sit-in-the-front elderly students, all from the church in which the meditation was held. The rest of the folks who came from other places were all very nice, polite, and didn’t have a problem. Those who came from places other than the church and don’t hear well, sat in the front, for fuck’s sake. 

Holy Haters Batman!

I have never met a more unhappy, unfriendly concentration of people since Los Angeles. But even the folks in L.A. like to meditate without bitching. In all my years of doing this, I have never encountered such a large proportion of self-centered malcontents.

One of my neighbors watched me interact with someone the other day. When I came back over to him he said, ‘You never meet any strangers, do you?’

At first I was caught off guard by his observation, but then I realized it’s true, for the most part. It is usually fairly easy for me to make friends. However, if someone start outs being rude or a hater, I shut off to getting to know anything more about them, can’t wait to get out of there.

Just say No to the negativity.

In Deerville, Soberville, and Touristburg people tend to be “cliquish.” They stick extremely tightly to their socioeconomic group. Heavily tattooed twenty-somethings are never seen talking to people with expensive jewelry. Even the new RV park, a place where I usually make close friends, is very cliquish, with no social interaction or chatty people. No neighbors who meet and hang out by the campfire/BBQ pit/lodge/walking trail. I miss the parks in Pizzaville and Cow-Chicken-Oil Town. People talked to each other, they hung out, they made meals together.

Sadly, the meditation class is a slice of the negativity I’ve encountered in the local towns over the last few weeks. In testing out a potential sales job, I had the opportunity to meet many of the local business owners. Did I mention I have never ever met more rude concentration of people! especially in Texas. Several were shockingly rude – in the Texas country, of all places. Generally speaking, Texans are some of the nicest folks I’ve ever met. But Fuck Me Freddy, too many of the people around here are unhappy, standoffish, and rude.

Now I can’t wait to get out of here.

Closing disclaimer – not all of the people around here are like that. There are many nice, Texas-style folks. But the concentration of haters is way too high for this planet, let alone Texas.

</rant off>

Over the last few weeks I found the negativity and lack of friendliness was sucking me in, and affecting my mood. To get out of that head space, this past weekend I took off to see friends in Bastrop, the town that proudly displays the smiley face water towers, and giant painted boots. Where else would one go to find happy, nice people but a town with smiley face water towers, of course.

I love Bastrop. It has some of the nicest, happiest folks – as would any place that puts smiley faces on its water towers. Remember that next time you choose a spot in which to camp. Smiley face water towers are a good sign. (hahaha- pun not intended, but totally cool!)

I leave you with that. Thank you for listening to my rant. A real post will follow shortly.