Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Questions from the Audience #1

Before I start--Let's have a warm welcome for this week's renter,Mama Come Here! She's another one that I always vote for over at blog explosion. I LOVE her template! Plus, us Minnesota girls have got to stick together! So make sure you pop over there and leave her a comment. And don't forget to tell her that I sent ya!

Wrigley asked:

so, i'm interested to see/read about what certain things (culture, customs) were new to you when you started living in Minnesota that you have never been accustomed to in CA.


Which is a really good question. And it was a HUGE problem for me when I moved here. But I was only 15, so the things that were HUGE problems, I now find beneficial as a mom.

For instance, everybody knows everybody here. When I lived in California, we made contact with two of our neighbors on a regular basis, and knew there were other people living in the house next door, but never met them. Here, everyone knew where our new house was before I had even said that we had moved. But I'm OK with this now, because I don't have to worry about my kids going to play at a friend's house, because I know their parents. We don't have to go through the awkward "You can't go until I meet their parents" BS that I had to go through EVERY. DAMN. TIME. I had a new friend invite me over.

The biggest thing that still bothers me (and kind of goes hand in hand with the first one) is the fact that everybody knows everybody's business. Prime example: My dad has recently started dating again. Last weekend he had a date over at his house for a while. It was quite late when she left. I had someone ask me about my dad's "girlfriend" and if she had stayed overnight at his house. I'm sorry, but that's not any of your business! Unless he was doing the wild monkey dance on the front porch for all to see, there is really nothing that you need to be concerned with.

Another thing that bothers me is that you are associated with your family for life. When someone introduces you to someone else, it's never, "Hi, Snootypants, this is Carrie." But it's "Hi, Snootypants, this is Carrie, you know Karen's granddaughter." Luckily my grandma was a FANTASTIC lady, so I don't mind being associated with her. My hubs, however, isn't so lucky back where he was born. He's got two cuh-razy aunts that live in his grandparents' house. So when he's associated to his family, people give him that "oh, poor you" look.

A few other strange customs around here that I still am not used to:
-People refer to soda as pop. I cringe everytime I hear this. There were many discussions with my friends as well. OK, they were debates. But this is the only area where they call it "pop". If you go to Minneapolis, they call it "soda". Drives me bonkers!

-Lunch is not the meal in between breakfast and dinner. Lunch is a snack.

-Dinner is not dinner. It is supper.

-Which means that the farmers' meal schedule is as follows: Breakfast (between 6:30 and 7:00 am), Morning lunch (9:00), Dinner (noon), Afternoon lunch (2:00-3:00), Supper (5:30-6:00), Bedtime lunch (8:00). This is all very confusing for the outsider, but it makes perfect sense to everyone around here. They all look at me cross-eyed when I say I'm having dinner at 6:00.

So there you have it. The short list of oddities in Podunk. Got more questions for me? Post them in the "Life is Dull" post below.

This is actually a busy week for us. Today Diva has a birthday party, tomorrow I'm off to see Wicked, Thursday is Bible study (which in itself is only an hour, but the social time afterwards takes up the rest of the night), Friday Diva has another birthday party, then (I think) the weekend is free! So stay tuned, I may actually have interesting posts this week!

5 comments:

Kel said...

Hmmm. Maybe it depends on what part of Minneapolis you go to. I've only heard it referred to as Pop.

It's pretty funny just how different things are from one part of MN to another. Here Lunch is lunch...and Dinner is supper.

I suppose it's all how you grew up too.

Yah you betcha! ^_~

Liberal Banana said...

OMG, I hate it when people call soda "pop". "POP" is a noise. It is not a beverage.

And that meal thing is crazy. I'm with you - although I do have snacks in between breakfast and lunch and again between lunch and dinner because I am ALWAYS freakin' hungry.

Anonymous said...

that's a nice post, carrie!

i'm also bothered when people nose around on other people's business. and people have to asociate you with relatives all the time. it's like reciting your genealogy.

hey, maybe i can write about this, too. will check back for your posts this week!

Elleoz said...

I now live in SC, but am originally from Ohio. They call it Pop there too. So do my in-laws from NY. Here, everything is "Coke". I had the hardest time weaning myself from that term, and was picked on mercilessly for a while.

Here, lunch is called dinner, and dinner is called supper. Go figure?

Anonymous said...

I'm in Indiana and have battled my husband over the whole dinner/supper thing.

To me, dinner is on Sunday. Supper is the everyday evening meal.

It's Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Supper and Bedtime Snack.

As for the beverages, it's pop to me.

Soda has ice cream in it.