Oh, I Wish I Were in the Land of Cotton...

Or tobacco, as it were.

In the early morning, my mom, 15 year-old brother, Roma, Olive and I will be driving five hours (hopefully; beach traffic this time of year, particularly on Saturdays, can be ferocious, rivaling the Los Angeles Expressway) to Graham, North Carolina to see my grandmother, Honey, while Roma attends basketball camp at nearby Elon College.  I'll be without wireless internet for the week, so my blog will probably be on hiatus.  I'm excited to see, and for Buggy to meet, Honey, my great-aunt, Jean, and aunt, Weegie.  Some other things to which I'm looking forward: The games.  Oh, the games that are played while we're there!  Lots of card games, that I've finally discovered that I like (thanks to Rob), and Scrabble.  I'll bring with me our deck of Quiddler cards - a sort of hybrid of Scrabble and Rummy.  Very fun.  

Also, the air conditioning.  Here at my folks' house, unless I'm coming in from the swampy air of the outdoors, 77-80 degrees is a tad warm for me.  I've found that my southern relatives like to keep their homes a little on the warm side in the winter, and, conversely, a little chilly in the summer, which is fine by me.  

And then there's the matter of the local dialect... How I adore the sweet, southern accent of North Carolinians!  I always have, but there's nothing like living in the far reaches of New England, with those elongated vowel sounds and worse - the "ah" in lieu of a terminal "r" (i.e. cah and lobstah - which is how a lot of businesses actually spell it).  I'm sure plenty of folks find this charming, and to each their own; it wasn't for me.  I think my ears bled a little every time I heard it, as I'm sure there are those out there who harbor a distaste for speech patterns of the south.  In fact, I know that a southern twang is often associated with the ignorant and uneducated, which is an unfortunate and equally ignorant and uneducated assumption.  Probably just jealousy.  

Ar any rate, we're in for a fun week where I'll not only get to see my family, but also two of my dear friends: Mary, who moved to NC two years ago for massage therapy school and lives in Durham, and Krysta from Nashville, who I'll see in Asheville, one of my favorite places in the world.  I hope to live there one day.

Pictures from Tar Heel Vacation to follow...