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?