Southern

Over these past few weeks, there have been several instances where my Southern status has been increasingly apparent.

First, a background story. My parents and I were traveling to Virginia when our car, a minivan, broke down. We ended up having to rent a car, and due to the amount of stuff we had, we got a Dodge Ram. While on the highway in these nearly-monster truck, we got caught up in a bunch of other trucks traveling the same way ... pulling race-car trailers. I'm usually not one to make a fuss about what car I'm in as long as it goes, but riding down the highway next to a similar truck pulling a race-car trailer, I felt extremely southern.

Moving on. For the past few weeks, we've been having very cultural foods. We've had Chinese, Mexican, Greek, etc dishes. A few nights ago, my mom came in the door saying she had dinner. When we asked what she bought, she said she'd had a craving for fried chicken, and also picked up macaroni and cheese to go with it. A few years back, my dad had told me, "Fried chicken and macaroni and cheese are the foods of the South." This time I wasn't complaining, but I did feel my southern-ness showing through.

The last bit of southernness comes from a story I read online. The story was a humorous one, actually based on Japanese culture. But at one point in the story, a character was talking to an overweight priest who had gone bad, and said, "Man you need some Jesus Christ and Jenny Craig!" That alone is extraordinarily funny to me, but the sad part? I was thinking, this would fit right in here in North Carolina. Ah, the amusing things you find on the internet.

Well, those are my Southern stories of the day (the last one's more just plain funny than Southern, though).