The South

With all the SEC chatter the last few months, there has been much discussion about whether Missouri fits in the South. Feelings appear to be mixed in Missouri, but when I had this conversation in Tennessee, the answer was a resounding no.

When I stepped off the plane in Nashville, a recording of Phil Vassar welcoming people to Nashville was playing over the loudspeakers. That followed by a party of my parents' friends and the wedding party, where the accents were much stronger than I remember, had already convinced me. Missouri is not the South.

As the weekend went on, I continued to be reminded that I was in the South:

The rehearsal dinner was in a barn (a nice one designed for these events but still a barn), and barbecue was served.

There was not a toast where someone didn't say y'all at least three times.

Krystals were served at the end of the wedding.

Our favorite family member on one side of the family is not actually related to us, but is invited to the family weddings and shows up. (I was very glad to see her!)

The specialty at a breakfast place is the ingredients of a veggie omelet in a bowl of grits.

The wedding planner brings Chick-fil-a for the bridesmaids to eat for lunch.

And I'm not sure if this is really a Southern thing, but it cracked me up nonetheless. They passed out pilgrim hats and Indian headbands:

I talked to my best friend as she was driving and I was sitting in an airport, and she told me that my accent has leveled out just right. I don't sound like a Midwesterner to her, but people in Missouri say I don't have a Southern accent. At the end of the day, I will always be from the South and maybe I'll return, but I'm enjoying the culture of all the other places I get to live and visit.

And completely unrelated, a picture of the cutest baby at the wedding:

I'm alive

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but it has been a pretty busy few weeks.

I went home to Tennessee for my brother's wedding over the weekend. If you've talked to me recently, you know I might not have had the best attitude about it. But I have to say, I really did have a lot of fun. I got to see lots of family I rarely see and catch up with friends of my parents that care so much about us. It really is cool to stand up with your brother at his wedding and recognize everyone sitting on the groom's side.

I've said it before, but we were lucky to grow up in the same town our whole lives. The people that came to the wedding have known the four of us for either all of our lives or most of them. That's a pretty special thing.

So it was a lot of fun to catch up with people, dance with my cousins, watch my brother enjoy himself and welcome a new sister to the family.

Finally

I'm so glad to know that other people enjoyed My Boys. Thank you for sharing :)

Well, I felt an earthquake on Saturday night and then Mizzou joined the SEC Sunday morning. Made my restful weekend a little more eventful.

While I'm glad the SEC announcement finally happened, I could have picked a better time for it, such as this morning. I didn't go into work, but I did do a few things at home before church.

Of course, whether I'm at work or not, this type of thing brings out the news junkie in me. I was watching the press conference on TV, and had about seven tabs open in Firefox watching various Twitter feeds and a live chat for one of the local TV stations. And I proceeded to follow all of this for an hour and a half on my living room couch.

I grew up in the SEC in a family of Alabama fans. And I have to admit part of the appeal of Mizzou was that it wasn't in the SEC. I considered myself to be leaving the South. So it does seem weird to be here as all this is happening. The good news is that if I end up moving back to the East Coast, I might be able to see Mizzou play in future seasons. But I have trouble seeing Mizzou really compete in football against the SEC teams.

But at the end of the day, I didn't really care either way. I was just tired of waiting on the announcement and having to constantly have a contingency plan. Of course, it happened when we don't have a print edition the next day after weeks of days when we were desperate for some kind of news to put on the front page. But it has happened, and this week will stay pretty busy.

One other random thing: I love central time, and I love gaining an extra hour in the fall. But the end of daylight saving time and central time means it is pitch black at 5:30 p.m. I'm not a fan of that.

Some stuff

I tried hard to be a good sport for Halloween. And I will say I went to a Halloween party and had fun. However, I was all geared up for trick-or-treaters since I actually live in a house, but I didn't have any trick-or-treaters. And I have to say I was disappointed, I thought that would be a redeeming part of my bitterness against Halloween. The students loved the candy on Tuesday though.

The red cups and peppermint mochas are back at Starbucks. My office is a block and a half from Starbucks. This is dangerous.

When I was starting school at Mizzou, I didn't want to be the redneck from Tennessee. It took me a semester or two to lose the accent, but I was more concerned about other things that screamed I'm from out of state. I remember being excited that my dad and I flew to freshman orientation because it meant that we rented a car with Missouri license plates. Clearly, an important thing... But I was reminded of this when I put Missouri plates on my car. I have to admit I wasn't as excited as I might have been as a freshman or sophomore in college. I think part of it was I had to take off the Virginia plates, which took a lot of effort to get two years ago. I'm not sure the Missouri process had any fewer obstacles; I just wasn't trying to get it done in the first week I moved. Anyway, I'm really a Missouri resident now.

There was a whole season and a half of My Boys before I started watching. I realize I'm probably the only one that watched this show or has even heard of it, but it used to be on TBS at midnight when I would get off work at the newspaper. The good news is I get to watch it on instant Netflix.