Oh, hey again.

It has been SO long since I last posted anything!  I recently started working (a big shout-out to the job-gods for hookin' it up!) and have been house hunting (yeah, that's right, I may actually own a house here in Alabama soon, which would make me an official Alabamian!), and my parents came to visit so I've had to put the blog on the backburner for a little while but I'm back!

Let me say this.  My job requires me to drive ALL around Mobile County every day, so I am experiencing many new things that I never would have been able too.  SO many new Southern adventures and interesting sightings!  Get excited!

Big News....

There is big blog news to be announced soon! Yippee!

The Nectar of the Southern Gods

Growing up, I never liked iced tea.  It was never really around like the oh-so-familiar sodas and juices. 

Then, I moved to The South and BAM!  Iced tea is EVERYWHERE! But I was quickly corrected by a waitress – “You mean sweet tea?”

Right.

I still never really ordered it, but the boyfriend did.  I occasionally would take a sip here and there of his tea, and before I knew it I was hooked!   That stuff is awesome!  And I can’t get enough!

Then something very serious happened.  I witnessed a waitress making a batch of sweet tea.  It went a little something like this.  Water + sugar + sugar + more and more BAGS of SUGAR!  I knew there had to be sugar in it to be sweet, but I never knew there was THAT much sugar!  It was a sad, sad day in Sweet Tooth Town.

 Mmmmmm 

Then, I was let in on a little secret. Half sweet/Half unsweet.   Just as delish…but is this considered a sin in the South?  Just don't tell Paula Deen....

 "Oh no you di'nt, y'all!"

I can now move on with my life…one half and half Nectar of the Southern Gods at a time.

White-Out

Since I work in the medical field, white-out is a no-no.  I needed to make a correction to a printed document before I made a billion copies, so I was on the hunt.  Word on the street was that one of the managers upstairs had some.  So I went into her office and the conversation went a little like this:

ME:    Hi, do you have any white-out?

HER:  What?

ME:    Do you have any white-out?

HER:  Do I have any what?

ME:    White-out?  Like the white stuff you put over mistakes on paper?

HER:  Ooooh, White-out!

ME:    Yeah!

HER:  Honey, where are you from?!

I’m pretty sure she thought I was speaking Chinese.
She says, "whyyyyt-at".  Next time I will ask for, "liquid paper" or maybe "correction fluid"?

Hello Abroad!

So, I just found out this little bloggy-blog has readers in Italy, Russia, Sweden (Hi Anna Banana!), and quite a few readers from Iran!! So hello, ciao, привет, hej, and سلام to all those abroad!  I'm not sure why you are so interested in Alabama, or what you googled to get here, but come back as often as you please!

PS- I hope those translations are correct!  If not, blame Google Translate.

Homage to a Country Star?

I had to drive north of Mobile for work this week and when asking for directions, a coworker said, “It’s the first exit past the Dolly Parton Bridge”.  I giggled to myself and thought that was so cute; someone here in the South named a bridge after a country icon.

Little did I know, the bridge is not named after Dolly for her acting/singing skills, but for her…well…see for yourself….

Upon researching, it turns out this bridge is really called the General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge.  Poor W.K....He will never get his credit because the bridge just so happens to resemble boobies.  Sorry, bud. 

Azalea Extravaganza!

In Mobile this time of year, the azaleas bloom.  Its not just like, “Oh look, I think I see some azaleas”.  Its like, BAM-in-your-face-hot-pink-light-pink-humungous-everywhere azaleas. 

The weather got warmer and then all of a sudden these pink explosions started happening all over the place.  Mobile is very proud of its azaleas.  This could explain why there is Azalea Road, Azalea Dental Group, Azalea City Plastic Surgery…You get the idea.

We even ran the 34^th Annual Azalea Trail Run 10k.  I couldn’t believe how HUGE this race was.  But it was a lot of fun.

As soon as the azaleas come out, so do these:

The first time I saw these ladies, I tried really hard not to stare.  I couldn’t figure them out. (I should mention that the first time I saw them was at a The Shed so you can imagine my confusion.)  Someone finally explained to me that these are fine, upstanding young women who entered a grueling selection process and endured multiple rounds of interviews to become an Azalea Trail Maid.  They are all good students, good citizens, and all around great young women. 

According to Wikipedia, fifty high school seniors are chosen to be the Maids, and they serve as the “Official Abassadors” for the city of Mobile. They are to wear these antebellum-style dresses and use mannerisms from the era.  They greet foreigners and dignitaries as they enter the city, they are to know all about the city, landmarks and history.  The Azalea Trail Maids are to be a living example of “Southern Hospitality”.  They even attended the inauguration of president Obama.

These lovely ladies show up at events, festivals, etc. just like Miss America would.  I had the pleasure of running past these ladies at the Azalea Trail Run.  They had them set up at one of our turns as though they were traffic cones.  All dolled up, donning their bonnets and umbrellas, they were waving to all of us sweaty, smelly folks and cheering us on as we ran around them.  One man just ahead of me cut right through the line of Maids to cut the corner we were supposed to run around.  The pink Azalea Trail Maid said, “Hey! You’re supposed to run AROUND us!” then a little more quietly to her blue maid friend she said, “Oh no, he didn’t”.

Don’t mess with the pink Maid.