You see this small gray dome with a flat dot on top of the roof? This is the best pic I could get of it but ironically enough this is about it's true size as you are driving down the highway at full speeds scanning the horizon and it pops up in the distance.
This is the Bell County Expo Center, otherwise known as the TITTY. The Titty competition started way back when in 1998, on our first trip up to Dallas from Austin. Ryan and I had just met that summer and we were heading up to Dallas so I could meet his family for the first time. And as you come upon the Belton horizon you see it, and if you are really lucky you see it FIRST. Ryan introduced me to this competition as we were driving and he yells out TITTY and starts pointing all crazy like in the direction of something. And then I see it, and then I know why it is called the Titty.
So car rides with us to and fro Dallas are pretty normal and light until you reach the unmarked "zone". We each have our own well memorized markers, and probably they are in very close proximity to each other, cause as soon as we come in range, the car gets very quiet as we are each scanning the horizon. First to see it must yell TITTY.
Basically, I am the winner. I've been winning since the beginning. I see it more often than Ryan and REALLY I have the most points.
Ryan would say otherwise. He thinks he has the most points. But I know the truth and that's all that matters.
So last weekend on our quick trip down to Austin to check on our rent house, Ryan had been complaining about his contacts drying out so he took them out and kept driving without them. The sun was setting and SUPPOSEDLY he was having trouble seeing the cars in front of him. His glasses were in his briefcase in the way back of the car....we were going to get in to Austin pretty late and had decided to try to push thru as fast was we could with as little stops as possible, so the glasses had to wait. But the cars were getting blurrier and blurrier, so we had to pull over as quickly as possible to the side of the road to retrieve them. Need I mention that we just happened to be pulling over IN RANGE of the ZONE......hummm. Within 1 minute of the pull over, guess what comes up on the horizon?
You see, this competition is steep. One must go to all extremes to win, even if it puts you in to Austin really late at night.
We tied, in case you were wondering.
After yelling Titty at the top of our lungs, the peanut gallery in the back questions WHAT DID YOU SAY? WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?
"Daddy said PITY, Chance. If you see that building over there you have to yell out PITY. And if you see it first, then you will win."
Chance: Why do you call it Pity?
Ryan: "Cause that building is just such a pity"
And so it was in that moment that the PITY was born, and the competition gets passed down from one generation to another.
But I'll always be the winner.
