Texas Anyone

I have put some serious thought into grad school in either Texas or Cali. After today I'm pulling for the not-so-dirty south.

Texas is its own country. I grew up hearing that, especially when we study states and capitols, but I always thought the saying referred to the size of the state. Clearly I was wrong.

I've only been once and it was an ok trip, nothing to write about. I do remember walking around feeling like a city girl among rodeo queens. I felt the full impact of the separation this morning as I made repeated calls to residents of the great nation-state. Asking only one simple closed question, I found myself restating it three or four times as my words blared unintelligibly to the Texans.

Odd. I grew up an hour from the Texas border. I speak the regional dialect. Or part of it, ridiculously massive land. My country slang is slow and twangy. I drop my g's and slur my vowels. Yet the Texans sought clarification.

Solution? I crossed the barrier and thickened my accent to A fu-ull blow-en catt-el callin' back-wirds hick pro-non-ci-a-shun. An y'all know what? That did the trick. We started talking just like old friends, or kids who grew up together, you know, and it went so much faster after that. But the truth is, I wouldn't have minded talking to them girls for a bit longer.