Fabously Southern!

It is absoultely fabulous to be Southern! As you know, I travel regularly with my job and I will have been gone to SOMEWHERE almost every week in September and October (which is why the blog has been badly neglected as of late). I spent the past two weeks on the East Coast, in Ocean City, Maryland and in Newport, Rhode Island (currently blogging from San Diego, CA). During my travels, I have come into contact with many Northerners, aka Yankees, and I am here to tell you that I have had nothing but a pleasant experience with them and have found all of the people I have encountered to be so incredibly friendly and welcoming. Yankees certainly get a bad rap for being rude, unfriendly, and downright UN-southern. However, I am taking up for them today, because I had such a nice time at both of those conferences.

Newport was gorgeous and my hotel, OceanCliff Hotel, sat up on a cliff that overlooked the harbor. My exhibit booth was on a porch and it felt like I was outside all day. During the lulls, I would just stand and watch the sailboats drift past. I ate amazing food while there. There is a well renound culinary school in Newport and there is much competition in the restaraunt business. I had a scallop clam chowder that had won some big award at The Mooring and delicious baked stuffed shrimp at The Red Parrot. Newport had a cozy feel to it, and an old world character that is impossible to replicate. I felt very Jackie O just being there! It made you want to take a morning bike ride (think Wedding Crashers), drink a Bloody Mary on your porch, and then go on a sailboat ride. It was indeed a ritzy little town and the houses there were huge. My cab driver, whom I made friends with on the hour drive to the airport, gave me the life story of the Campbell soup heirs, the Van Burens, who live on the island, and then proceeded to tell me that Nicholas Cage just bougt a $17 million dollar property there. HM...must be nice! At any rate, it is hard to picture a beach that is not on the Panhandle with sugar white sand beaches as being appealing, but Newport stole my heart and I really would like to go back for a vacation during the summer some day.

I could probably say that perhaps my southern drawl has helped me in some regards as I venture to these "foreign" lands up north. It is certainly a conversation piece, because all anyone wants to ask me is "Where in the world are you from?" It is quite humorous, and I am almost as used to it now as I am to people mispronouncing my last name. I think that being southern gives you an edge that you do not realize you have until you get out out the South and see it in action. It makes you memorable, and strenghtens your sales pitch, or it seems to in my case. I have found that people just want to hang around my booth to hear me talk. They do not necessarily care what you are talking about! Maybe it makes me a bit of a freak show, like at a circus or something, but that is just fine with me, as long as I can get them to take one of my marketing packets!

I have not been anywhere to date, however, that I have loved more than Alabama. I have not been anywhere else I could even picture myself living, because nothing compares to home. You do not appreciate how cool of a place you are from until you visit other places. It is important to venture out, and experience things for yourself, and it is perfectly acceptable if you feel the same way as I do. After a few hard days work, nothing is more satisfying that when the plane dips low and I can see the lights of Birmingham. I love to go and do, but I love coming home even more!