Southern Style Thanksgiving

Yesterday we had the honor of sharing an early Thanksgiving dinner with our neighbors. They will be traveling over the holiday and so decided to celebrate early. We got to experience, for the first time, a real down-home, Southern Thanksgiving. I did not realize how much customs of such an "all-American" holiday differed regionally. It was really interesting, and I took a picture of my plate, just to show you guys. Or should I say, "y'all." :)


Ok, from the ham moving clockwise we have: ham, of course (standard, good, though I'm not really eating pork these days), two kinds of turkey (smoked, which was delicious, and baked, I think, which was also very good), a deviled egg (yum!), black eyed peas and green beans (meh, I've never really been a fan), macaroni and cheese (I was like, "really?" but it was tasty), butter beans and okra (aka lima beans), sweet potato souffle (AMAZING!), potato salad (how can you go wrong with potato salad?), and finally, (in the middle) cornbread dressing.

The only real familiar dishes were the turkey (duh) and maybe the deviled egg?? There were no mashed potatoes, and no stuffing (the cornbread dressing took its place) and gravy was there, but as an afterthought. There was no cranberry of any kind, which (along with mashed potatoes) are a staple Thanksgiving food for me. The mac and chees also surprised me. I checked around at work, and its very common, I got weird looks for asking. Like, "ya, OF COURSE we have mac and cheese." O ya, and there was pear salad, which Brady swallowed pretty much whole after I told him what it was. I don't think I could ever get used to can pears with mayo and shredded cheese. Ew. It was all served very casually (as you can see from the paper plate), and I have a feeling that is pretty typical. The beans were not "Thanksgiving-y" to me either, but according to the coowrkers, is very common.

This was served with sweet tea, water, or soda. I picked water, though I have been starting to order 1/2 and 1/2 tea when we are out (1/2 sweet and 1/2 unsweetened tea). Overall, it was very good, though it did nor feel like Thanksgiving to me. But then again, it's never really Thanksgiving unless you're home with family.

Back to work!

We had a nice 3 day weekend where I almost forgot about work (yay), but reality came crashing back today :-(.

But here are some pics from our weekend:



First, Savannah:

If I look a little wilty, I had just stepped in a huge puddle of horse poo water and I was sweating like a 9 yr old boy at a strip club. But, notice the spanish moss in the trees. Very cool/creepy. They do a Ghost tour at night, definitely got to try that next time. Dang I need a tan...





Then the aquarium:


It was pretty cool, a little spendy, but definitely interesting. It was EXTREMELY crowded though and it made it very difficult to see all of the exhibits. They have the largest indoor tank in the world though, and it was incredible to see. You can even scuba dive or swim in it! (for a fee of course).





And finally, Little Five Points:

This is the hippie/counter-cultural area of Atlanta. I thought it was awesome, but Brady was a little weirded out. I tried to explain that pot-heads are chill, they will never hurt you, maybe steal your food, but never actually inflict any pain. Peace and love, dude, peace and love. And I did find Boba there! I was so excited, it was my first boba in 8 months, not as good as what I got at home, but still delicious.


Well, that was our weekend in a nutshell, a lot of fun and 500 miles of driving. I need another day off just to recover...

You're in the South now, honey!

Ok, so I hear this a lot. A LOT!!! Katie is the one who pointed it out. I think I just started to tune it out, but, when she mentioned it, I thought that it may be the new title of my blog. Thoughts??

However, it is also a great title for this post. At work yesterday, I was going through some of the files the previously mentioned coworker was working on (lets just call him Bob from now on) and I found something, umm interesting? I was supposed to be looking through his work as I am training him right now, so don't think I was just snooping (though that sounds like something I would do). Our system logs all communication with our clients, and I was trying to figure out what was going on with a particular client. So, I open an email "Bob" sent. Up pops this hugh picture of a HANDGUN on my screen!! I shrieked a little in surprise and investigated a little as to why the hell he would be sending pictures of guns to clients. Turns out, they discussed them in their first conversation (odd choice of smalltalk, but "I'm in the South now...") and "Bob" thought it would be a good idea to send this client a picure of one that he owned (which is a scary thought in itself). I thought this was completely inapproriate, so I showed my boss, whose only comment was, "hey, could you bring that back up? It looks like a nice gun." Seriously!?! I was in a state of shock. The girls at my office and I often wonder if we are in some kinda of prank movie, like the Truman Show or something, with all the craziness that goes on.. What are your thoughts, reader?

The Office Pot-luck

So we had an office party for my boss's birthday yesterday. It was like they were just handing me crazy things to write about!!!

Here's the menu:

1. BBQ, OF COURSE!! Served in a crock pot. To me it was sloppy joes...pulled pork in sauce served on a bun.

2. Meatballs. The co-worker mentioned in my last post brought these, in celebration of my recent decision to become a vegetarian (ok, pollo-pescatarian). But anyway, to me, meatballs aren't their own dish, they should be served on top of pasta, like a garnish, but whataevs...

3. Corn Salad: made by the same co-worker....the recipe included fritos, need I say more?

4. Hashbrown casserole. One of the 5,000 casseroles they make out here including potatoes, cheese, sour cream, etc. Surprisingly delicious, but I'm sure I gained 6 pounds from just looking at it.

5. Pear salad. I had to include a picture for this one. Very strange. You take a canned pear (off to a great start already), put a dollop of mayonaise on it (yep, that's right kiddos, good ole fashioned mayo), and top it off with a marachino cherry and some grated cheddar cheese. I tried it, and it tastes as strange as it looks...

6. Sweet tea. I'm actually starting to like it (gasp!). It cracks me up that they all buy it at the store in jugs, no one actually makes it...

8. Birthday cake!!! Katie, our resident pastry chef made a very cool (and very delicious!) golf themed cake.

9. Congealed salad. We didn't have this at yesterday's pot-luck, but I had to mention it. This conjures up terrible slaughterhouse-like images in my head, but really it's just a jello salad. Every time I hear it, a shudder goes down my spine, and I'm sure my face has some aweful expression on it, I just can't think of anything but blood. I told Katie that in California, the only thing that congeals is blood and that gross meat by-product goo, and we definitely don't make that into salads....

I kissed a girl...

Here is a second batch of laugh-worthy southern-isms and short stories of my experiences...

Pine straw-NOT pine needles, I constantly get corrected on this one. They use it in landscaping everywhere and they always talk about "fixing the pine straw" and "adding more pine straw." Straw is for horse bedding sillies!

Along the landscaping theme, no one ever "mows the lawn," but because of the constant rain and sun combo, they "cut the grass" a lot. They look at you a little funny if you talk about mowing, must be one of those damn Yankees!

Georgia Law (and order?)

Most ridiculous law ever!!!! You cannot buy alcohol on Sunday! Poor Brady had to listen to me rant for days on end on the blatant disregard for separation of Church and State. That is the only explanation I can come up with, anyway. Brady says me complaining about it makes me sound like a drunk, and perhaps that's why no one wants to dispute it. It's just ridiculous! UGH! Don't even get me started on the concealed weapons laws!

Moving on...

It is legal to talk on your cell and drive, though I am still conditioned to drop my phone in a panic when cops drive by. I can't imagine what they must think. I no longer have CA plates to explain my strange behavior (though I still have not conceded my CA license, my picture is actually cute!). O and here they aren't "plates," they are tags, and you have to go to the "tag office" to get them. They actually hand them to you right there!! Kind of amazing, though it took me 5 trips with numerous document requests, a yelling match, and an all out tearful meltdown for us to get all of ours, but that's another story entirely.

Police only have blue lights, which is weird to me, and school buses have flashing lights on top of them, for some inexplicable reason. Someone told me it was so helicopters could find them in the fog. Ummm ok?

On the topic of roads, you do not take the "freeway," but rather, the "interstate," it's called I-75 for goodness sake! They are always correcting me on this one too. Also, no one tells you the name of the exit you should take from the "interstate," but only the exit number. I'm always like "ya, but what road is it?" Confused looks always follow.

On a completely different note, one of my extremely conservative, very sheltered (but 30-something year old) coworkers asked me if that Kelly Perry girl really is a lesbian. The laughter that ensued was slightly rude on my part, but I just could not contain myself. I mean, seriously!?!?

This is my new habitat, and I am definitely a bit out of place, but it has really helped me to identify who I really am, and that is a valuable (yet often strange and uncomfortable) experience. I will keep you all updated on my craziness, and hopefully it will be entertaining as well as enlightening for both myself and you, dear reader.

Here we go again!

I haven't blogged in so long, and I've been saying for months that I would start again, so here goes. Living in the South should provide a host of entertaining stories to entertain ya'll (see, I'm learning so fast, haha). I'll start with a list of funny words that I've noticed since we moved here.

young'uns: people actually say this, even people my age!!! Still can't believe it..
reckon: again, actually used!!! By "normal" people, not just crazy old guys with the corncob pipes
buggy: instead of grocery cart: makes me giggle every time
fixin:"I'm gonna" still makes me laugh
plug up: instead of plug-in (like for a cord)
mash: the buttons: instead of "press"
bbq: means cook meat, shred it, and mix with sauce. They use "grilled" for what we think of as bbq'd

Here's a list of food products with changed names:

Hardee's: instead of Carl's Jr.
Helman's: instead of Best Foods (mayo)
Chesters: instead of Cheetos

and NO (seriously they look at you like you're smokin something if you ask about...):

Jack-in-the-box
Fro Yo of any kind
In-n-Out (of course)
Dim Sum (dim WHAT?)
Thai Food (we have found a few places in Atlanta)
Bubble Tea (I soooo miss them!!)
Sourdough bread :(
Jamba :( :( :(

And it's easier to find a fried chicken place than a Starbucks (and they prefer sweet tea to coffee any day).

I will tell you more about food experiences on my next post. I could write this whole blog on food here, it's insane!!!!

On a side note, we did see our first lightning bugs up close yesterday at Katie (my coworker)'s apartment. They are pretty amazing, though somewhat creepy when buzzing around in your face.