Oh, Me

You know what's funny? "Being" a southerner in a midwesterner's body, ha. I'm used to weather being 10º one day and 70 the next, I like toasted ravioli and I put up with the drudgery of paying personal property taxes.

I was at work yesterday with 3 layers on burning up while it was in the 50s outside my window. I do miss the availability of toasted ravioli though, but the faces people make are funny when I ask about it. And soon enough my car will be registered here so I don't have to pay ridiculous property taxes on stuff I already paid for, whatever is the reason for that?? Honestly I'd rather have our higher consumer taxes, because then at least I choose how much I have to pay out for it.

I used to think the south was all about overly buttery and greasy foods and toothless people sitting on their front porch with a shotgun waiting for some Yank stranger to drive up in a shiny SUV for him to blow a hole in it just because. Not really, ha. I didn't used to think that, but the imagery is funny. Jonathan calls me a Yankee sometimes, hehe, when he's doing his southerner impersonation.

What I have found is that most southern peoples, in my experience, really are just lovely folks. They make you feel welcomed. Just about every stranger I have encountered will say hi or tell me some short story. Rarely do people in Missouri act that way, unless you know them. Even then they still might ignore you. Yes, the food here tends to be greasier.. where a lot of St. Louis' "home cooking" is heavy pastas and Italian foods, the south's home cooking is a lot of buttery biscuits and fried type foods, which I avoid.. except for my to-be mother-in-law's cooking. Her biscuits are delicious (I know you read this, could you please send me that recipe?), and I've watched her make home made fried chicken, and it is pretty good, as Jonathan will attest. That's pretty impressive, from someone who avoids fried food! Oh yeah, and blueberry cobbler ( ! ) (I'll also have you all know that I have not gained any weight since living here).

Aside from southern foods, I've learned a few isms that I associate with the south, only because I'd never heard them before my residency here (well some I have heard before, but I just wanted to list them) :

"Oh me" = Oh my
"As the crow flies" = the most direct route when traveling
"Shootin' the shizz" = having conversation (I think this is just a Jonathanism)
"Rooster tailing" = spinning car wheels in the dirt so it flies up in arcs at the back
"YALL COM" = (license plate on the rusty truck I was behind once)
"Ya'll" = (somehow can also mean one singular person, personally this one drives me nuts)
"Have your picture made" = (no one takes pictures, they only make them)
"Duddn't" = doesn't (yes I have heard you say this, Jonathan)
"Sweet Tea" = water (I was the only one drinking water during Christmas dinner with Jonathan's extended family)
"Sammich" = sandwich

There are more I'm sure, but now I'm thinking too hard to remember them.