Southern Hospitality??

I am a southern girl.

I like a good ol' North Carolina pig pickin', I love going to the State Fair in the fall, and I think it's super fun to cheer on the Wolfpack while wearing my Meredith College sweatshirt.

I will have to admit, I am not the most country of all Carolina girls (sorry dad!) but I do pride myself in being from the south. Here are a couple of other little facts that give me some "southern girl cred":

#1. My dad owns a farm.

www.countryfunpark.com
[The farm also has a driving range, paintball course, and horse trails]

www.lilblackcreekfarm.com

#2. My brother has a tattoo of North Carolina on his arm. For real.

#3. I've been to a few Demolition Derbies.

NC State Fair 2008

#4. I am super proud of Southern Hospitality and was a little nervous about moving to the North where everyone has an attitude.

I couldn't have been more wrong...

Everyone here is incredibly nice.

And I don't mean nice because they have to be. I mean genuinely warm, friendly, and interested.

I just got off the phone with Rite Aid. I hate calling Rite Aid. You have to push a zillion buttons just to talk to an operator and if you want to speak with a real person, they seem annoyed at you for not pushing enough buttons to get your answer taken care of without have to talk to them.

So I called the Rite Aid here in Massachusetts in order to transfer a prescription from Virginia. I went through several prompts in order to talk to a live person and had my speech all prepared in order to make the call as quick and smooth as possible. As I started to explain that I just moved here from Virginia, she quickly interrupted me to welcome me to the area. She continued to be very friendly as I gave her additional information which led to us talking about me being a teacher, having a baby, and Josh taking a new job in the area.

What the heck?!!?!? The Pharmacist? Why was she being so nice?

And she is not the only person here that has gone out of their way to be nice to me - that actually has turned out to be the norm. I was in the gas station the other day and the lady went out of her way to help me get the best price on the drinks I was purchasing in order to take advantage of the sales.

I will have to admit, never in the South have I had so many people be so consistently nice, talkative, and friendly to me. So much for my illusions of Southern Hospitality. I am going to have to think about that one for a while.