Confessions

I have a confession to make...I fear that all my years in the south may have contributed to me becoming a lover of turkey jerky. Yes, I fear I may be a bit of a redneck.

Now before you ask, I have not mowed the lawn and found a boat (or car) and my porch has never collapsed killing any kind of animal (for you Northerners, these are all "You might be a redneck if" jokes). I do not own any camouflaged items and I do not drive a pick-up truck. I do however LOVE my big redneck wedding whenever I can find it on T.V., but admit that the hunting and capturing of the "wedding feast" makes me change the channel.

So maybe and hopefully I am not actually a redneck. In fact, I bet if I was a redneck they would revoke my redneck card for the fact that I buy "fancy" organic jerky. Whew, that makes me feel better.

I started thinking about all of this since I hope to be relocating at some point in the near future to somewhere outside of the South. Maybe because of this move, I am slowly becoming more conscious of things that I do that are very southern. Luckily it isn't going to be like that Miley Cyrus movie that I never watched but I think was along the typical Disney movie lines of girl goes from big city to a farm, or vice versa, I can't remember. Either way I have always been much more comfortable in the city than in the country, so I am not worried about fitting in where I relocate.

That said, I am sad that there are some southern things that I am not well versed in. I would like to say that I am an avid horseback rider, after all the community horse stable is only 5 houses away, but I am not. I suppose this is due to the fact that I really don't like things where I can't be strapped in which means you won't see me riding a Harley down the road anytime soon either.

Finally, this brings me to my public service announcement of the week. I know that Florida is the southernmost state in the United States (Key West is the southernmost point for all of you that just went to google that), however we aren't exactly "southern." Whaaaa? I bet you are all scratching your heads right now, OF COURSE YOU'RE SOUTHERN! While I will agree that on a purely geographical note we are southern, that cannot be refuted, but when it comes to social graces, we are not southern.

I honestly don't know what "we" are outside of the weird melting pot that is Florida. I have wondered if maybe it has something to do with all the Northern transplants? Maybe Georgia refused to share the pecans earlier in American history? Whatever it is, when people think of the "south" they rarely think of Florida. Why? Who knows? I am not a social expert so I guarantee you that I don't know the answer, but I figured you could all think about it a bit. Maybe the entire United States is just trying to not get too attached to Florida as a southern state since we will break off or be flooded at some point in the future.

Gasparilla Invasion Photos

Come to think of it, I think we are a pirate state, and I mean that as in "Arrrrrggg" pirate. After all, Jose Gaspar is a huge part of Tampa lore, and we have the "pirate invasion" every year (this past weekend, the photo at the top) to honor that. Yep, I think that's it, Floridians are really pirates. That's awesome. :-)

Aren't you glad I remembered to start up my random ramblings again?

The Disney Vault

"Get them now, before they go back in the vault!"

The Disney Vault, it gets me every year. It's so nice that they conveniently advertise right around the holidays, so my mother always gets a frantic call "Mom, please get me Sleeping Beauty! They are going to put it in the vault!! You should get it for Kelly too." Why do I keep falling for it? If you look in my movie drawers you will find all of the past vault movies still in their packaging untouched, so what is it that makes me like a drug addict looking for the next hit?

I think it's a combination of things. This year, as mentioned above, the movie was Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty is hands down my most favorite Disney movie ever! Although I cannot remember the last time I watched it, I know that five year old Katie was pushing for this year's vault choice. I also think that five year old Katie is one of the main reasons why I get suckered into the vault movies every year. She keeps telling me that if I let them go back in the vault who knows when I will have the opportunity to buy them again? Especially when every time I go to Disney they have the walls and walls of movies, who knows if Sleeping Beauty will be there... No really, who knows? Do they REALLY put the movies back in the vault, or do they just scare us (me)?

Another excuse I always offer when it comes to falling for the vault gimmick is that I appreciate good marketing. This is like saying chocolate is a vegetable because it comes from the cacao plant. It's me rationalizing a choice that I was going to make anyways, so I just want to feel better.

Well, I am confident I will fall for it again next year so you can be sure to find whatever the vault choice is added to my movie drawers by next Christmas. (btw... I also got Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which we also assume will be going in the vault soon and as it is my second favorite movie I had to have it!)

I wonder what else they are storing in the Disney vault? ;-)