Green Bay or bust!

So as most of our blog readers know, Scott accepted a new job with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as a Forest Products Service Specialist in Green Bay.  His region includes the southeastern part of the state in between the cities of Madison, Milwaukee, and Green Bay, so he will often be traveling within a couple of hours of home. Since he had to be out in Wisconsin on June 30 to start working and we had some challenges finding a place to live online, I stayed behind in Virginia to manage the packing and transportation of belongings.  I would be heading to WI by myself later, so we decided that shipping freight would be a better option than driving a truck myself while towing my car (not fun!).  Here's how it works- the company delivers a half-size tractor trailer (28 ft) to your driveway, you load it, they come and pick it up, hook it up to a second trailer at the distribution center, and then transport your stuff to your destination for you to unload.  Despite the significant distance (shortest route to GB is 854 mi to be exact), the cost came in at about the same as a large rental truck plus gas. 

Thankfully, my mom and dad came down to help and I planned a packing party (complete with beer and pizza) to entice friends to come over and help load the trailer (Thanks, guys!).  I sold our washer and dryer on Craigslist since our apartment would already have them, as well as 3 other pieces of furniture that we were not really using.  We had about a day and half to get everything else loaded up, and it just barely fit in the trailer thanks to my dad's excellent packing and stacking abilities! Thunderstorms threatened and it was pretty hot, but we got everything packed and loaded just prior to the 4th Holiday and sent the truck on its way.  Then it was time for cleaning, remaining business in town, and goodbyes.


Around the time when the idea for this blog came to fruition, I had several conversations about regional dialects and accents. This topic often comes up in areas where you have people from widely different backgrounds coming together in one place, such as a university. I was recently told that my background isn't immediately clear from speech because of my "hybrid" accent meshing South Jersey/Philadelphia-Central Pennsylvania-southwest Virginia pronunciations and phrases. That discussion led me to our blog title- we were raised as Yankees (although we didn't know as much until we moved to VA...), spent most of our 20s as wannabe Southerners, and now we find ourselves learning how to be Midwesterners in our 30s ("doncha know?).

Here goes nothing, ya'll.