It's Rodeo Time....

The annual Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo has arrived....

Houstonites everywhere have donned their boots and western wear and made their migration to the Reliant Center stadium for fair food (yummy!), entertainment (the Jonas brothers? at a Rodeo?) and of course, the livestock and the rodeo.

Now, I think the rodeo is a great event and I can't wait to bring Caris there in her little boots and tiny pink wranglers (thanks Aunt Alli!). I have always enjoyed my trips to the rodeo in years past (but I haven't actually been since we have lived in Houston? is that a bit strange?). I look forward to rodeo season. I'm a country girl at heart :)

However, the rodeo currently impacts my life in a not-so-positive manner. Primarily due to the location of this heralded event and the nature of my job.

You see, the Reliant Center stadium right in between my home and the hospital I work at. This presents problems.

One: The visitors and participants who have made the trek to Houston want to stay close by; understandable and expected. This creates complications for all the medical patients who would also like to stay close their respective hospital....this includes MD Anderson. There are no rooms in the entire area available. And for some reason, everyone in the hospital feels as if the social workers have magic rooms in their pockets and can fix this problem. And we don't. Although I wish we did. And that leaves frustrated patients and frustrated medical teams. All that to say, increased stress at work.

Two: My daily commute from home to work (and vice versa) leads me directly in the path of the reliant stadium. What is typically a 20 minute drive has become a 40 minute drive. This morning I was blocked by a LONG line of vehicles turning into the stadium - and these were no ordinary vehicles - every last one was a large 4x4 truck pulling a trailer. Not the typical traffic fare. Increased stress to and from work.

So I guess that means I need to take some time to de-stress. Maybe an evening out to the rodeo will do the trick? Irony is always a good solution....

On the plus side, I DID get to wear jeans to work one day last week for Go Texan Day, so really, I can't complain.

Let's Rodeo!