So bear with me, I know all three of you are waiting with baited breath for more of my long-winded observations of Monday's happenings. I'll try to get to it tonight or tomorrow. But like I said, I'm feeling pretty slothy right now.
A quick story from today though. I went down to pick up my paycheck from the temp agency I've been working for. While waiting for the sole elevator in the very old building they are in I started chatting with the other guy standing there.
Another sign that I'm not living in Boston anymore. You know, people actually talking to each other and being friendly.
Anyway, turns out this guy works at the agency I use, but I had not met him before. We were chatting about what places I've been working and other things (this elevator is incredibly slow), and at some point he asked me where I was from.
And this is always the tough question in my experience. Asking me where I'm from is to invite me to recite the "Friends, Romans, countrymen..." speech from Julius Caesar, it's so damned complicated. I never have a easy quick answer to that question if I want to be honest.
I have, like a lot of people in my generation, lived in quite a few places. Counting my place of birth (where I only lived until I was six) I have lived in the states of Iowa, Georgia, Illinois, Washington, Massachusetts, and now New York.
So what do I say? I grew up in Georgia, but when I use that as my answer I always then have to go in to an explanation of why I don't have a southern accent (Midwest parents, didn't move there until I was six, explain that I used to, etc.), which just adds to the confusion. I used to say Seattle a lot, but I didn't move there until I was 23. It's probably the best answer since it is the first place I lived as a post-college adult and, let's face it, it is really cool to be able to tell people you lived in Seattle in the 90s when you were a twentysomething. How very Gen-X of me. But the whole "from" Seattle thing always falls apart when it turns out that the person you are talking to is from there and they ask you where you went to high school. Or it comes out during the conversation that I moved there in my twenties, and the person will say "No, I mean where are you 'from' from?"
This is what happens when your parents move you to a different school for your senior year. You end up graduating from a different school then where you went the rest of your childhood. I can't tell people I'm from suburban Chicago, because I lived there for only two years (senior year and the year after when I couldn't go to college for reasons I don't like to talk about, so thanks for bringing up bad memories you ass hole). And I really can't say I'm from Chicago proper because I didn't live there until after Seattle and for less time.
I know what you might be thinking. When in a new city the answer to that question is easily accomplished by just telling people the name of the last place you lived.
But I would rather jam an ice pick in my eye than tell people I'm from Boston.
And if I say I'm from "nowhere" or "everywhere" people will just think I'm weird.
Am I over-thinking this?
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Quote of the day, from Sarah Vowell's The Partly Cloudy Patriot:
A person keen on all things French is called a Francophile. One who has a thing for England is called an Anglophile. An admirer of Germany in the 1930s and '40s is called Pat Buchanan .
That's the line that got me strange looks when I burst out laughing on the subway today.
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2 comments:
Am I over-thinking this?
Uh...
When looking for a short answer I always go with "I grew up in Atlanta." I don't think my Southern accent is any stronger than yours (although not counting Germany, I've always lived in the "South"). From there, if the person asks me why I don't have a Southern accent it gives me the opportunity to expand a little bit and mention my northern parents and/or Army brat beginnings.
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