Of course, the previous post doesn't explain how I ended up in South Carolina either. I'll explain that at length some other time, but here I am. I moved down here in 2006. In that short time, I have learned to mash buttons, refer to a shopping cart as a buggy, converted from a cat person to a dog person (okay, that part isn't required to assimilate in the south), eat grits and watch NASCAR. There may be some other things going on, but I choose to ignore them. Or I claim that's how we did things in Indiana, so it doesn't apply towards my assimilation.
But I've come out of this with some sort Southern Borg name - I think I'm 4 out of 8 or something like that. Mostly because I don't drink Sweet Tea, I never remember when is the correct time to say "Bless your heart", the idea of matching my shoes to my pocketbook leaves me confused and bewildered, and while I know how to use "Y'all" properly (we use that in Indiana too), the rest of my accent stands out like a flat screechy note in the middle of Dixie. 23 years in Chicago and 23 years in Indianapolis will do terrible things to your speech patterns.
Luckily for me, the people down here are very kind, they bless my heart on occasion, but I believe they've gotten used to me. Of course it helps that Mom, Daddy and Kristi have been down here for over 20 years, so they've paved the way for me.
But in some ways, as subsequent posts will show...I'll never assimilate completely I guess...
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