The future?

He will not be a douchebag. I promise

The Auburn Football Family

Today we're gonna see Auburn (hopefully) kick some LSU Tiger butt. Because the wife is new faculty and was hired in the spring, we weren't able to get on the faculty ticket list. And, because of other commitments (notably Kentucky Colonel Day at Churchill Downs), this is the last game we'll be able to attend this season. (And yes, both the wife and I are colonels. Don't ask how.)

Because we don't know our situation for next year, this could actually be the last game we see for awhile. And I have to say, while I didn't enjoy football in high school or college, I am surprised by how much of a college football convert I have become.

I didn't get it before. I didn't understand that in places like the rural South, your college team is all you have. You don't have professional sports teams readily nearby (name a top tier professional sports team in Mississippi or Alabama. Go ahead. I'll wait.), so there is nothing of that sort to identify with. In Connecticut, you were either a Yankee fan or a Red Sox fan. College football? I don't think so. Patriots, Jets, or Giants. Or if you lived in upstate NY, the Bills (shudder).

But down here, all you have is your school. The school you may have gone to, or not (from what I understand, the vast majority of 'bama fans never went there. Infer what you will about the level of class)And it's the place you stay loyal to because, despite the vast sums of $ that are available to teams in the BCS system, they, unlike professional sports teams, aren't going to leave your town. They are a part of the community. They are loyal to the alumni, faculty, students, and fans who flock to the campus every Saturday (regardless of where the team is playing. Auburn travels well. Nebraska and Clemson as well), and stake out there spots, and welcome other fans (who support their team or not) in an open, friendly, gregarious nature. The college isn't the Yankees or the Red Sox, able to shell out over $200 million a year in salaries in an openly disgusting manner in the middle of the recession while raping working families for $50/tix to seat in the nosebleeds. (An aside, sometimes the Yankees make it really hard to root for them.) And yes, while some of the tickets aren't cheap, there really isn't anything like being in a stadium with 85,000 other people.

Here at Auburn, the senior level staff and those associated with the school talk about the Auburn family, how everyone is welcome and how we all look out for one another. And despite being the Yankee I am, I have felt welcome from the very moment we crossed the state line 3.5 months ago. In a strange way, those 85,000 people have become my family. And regardless of how long we stay, (or don't) I will always be an Auburn Tiger.

War Eagle

Reactions & Stereotypes

I'd written previously that I wanted to write about a post about how people up here in the Northeast are reacting to us telling them we're moving to Auburn. This is that post.

There are essentially 3 steps to the reaction. And it usually goes like this.

1. Somehow I mention we are moving to Alabama. Their reaction? Surprise, bewilderment. Their eyes open wide. They are confused. I can tell they are thinking, "What on earth would you do that for?!", but they are too polite to actually say it.
2. This is followed by them saying something along the lines of "Wow. Talk about a culture shock!" or "That's going to be different!"
3. Followed by "Better get a pickup truck and a gun rack!"

Without fail, that is how the conversation opens.

It's followed by the person realizing I am not joking, that we are indeed moving, and the question: "Where is that?"

"It's 1.5 hrs southwest of Atlanta, right over the Georgia border. About 3.5 hrs from the coast."

"Oh, well....huh.....But, hey, at least its a college town, right? Won't be too bad!"

And they're right. It is a college town, and it won't be too bad. But that's not the point I want to make in this post. The point I want to make regards stereotypes, and how we all employ them, for good or ill.

I realize there are going to be class and race issues we will encounter when we move to Alabama. The wife and I are highly educated (she more so than I, considering she has a PhD, and I have my Masters), white (in the land of the civil rights era), and by relative standards, rich (we will make well above the median family income (look it up, yourself)). So, two out of the three of the above make us targets. Add these to the fact we're from Connecticut, and we really are "Damn Yankees" among the locals. Given we probably will not be there long term (I have no idea about this, by the way. I am just guessing), we've given no one in the community any reason to make a long term investment in us (relationship-wise, friendship-wise, etc.). Outside of the academic community, no one has any real reason to be friendly with us (although I suspect they will be, because the stereotype of people down south is that they're very friendly.)

We are outsiders from the start. We will be the subjects of the stereotypes Southerners hold for northerners.

Liberal, Lefty, Unpatriotic, Obama voting, America-hating, Socialists in waiting. Or, Wall-St. working, money-loving, god hating, consumerists devoted to all things fast (women, cocaine, take your pick, whatever). Or a combination of all of these things to form a conglomerate of New Englander, or New Yorker.

Yet, at the same time, when I have mentioned we are moving to Alabama, I can see the stereotypes we northerners hold for southerners pop up into the minds of the people I am speaking to. It's almost pavlovian in its instantaneous appearance. And I freely admit I did the same exact thing when the wife mentioned moving there as a possibility. The image of the slack-jawed yokel proudly waving his confederate flag from his big pick-up truck with the gun rack. Rednecks. White trash. Baby mommas smoking cigarettes acting out welfare queen fantasies.

But you know what? We have those here in Connecticut, too. So what makes us think we're so much better? What makes us feel the need to be so different? To elevate ourselves above others? I am not a sociologist, or a psychologist, for that matter. But this is the world we live in, so I suppose I must accept it, or at the very least make amends.

So, how to end this?

I realize we are all the same. We all employ stereotypes to help our brains deal with this world. The welfare queen is making fun of me right now as I speak. So I guess I will do my best to have an open mind when I arrive there, realizing that not everyone will like who we are, become friends with those who have an open mind like me, and make the best of our time there. It's an adventure, right?

Let's go.

Countdown: 16 days

It's starting to get scary!

Not really scary, but I think you know what I mean. 3 months ago when the wife got the job, it was something that was going to happen, but one that I didn't have to deal with immediately. Now, it's right around the corner.

Friends and coworkers are starting to ask if I am nervous or excited. Neighbors are saying things like, "Hope you like this weather, 'cause its gonna be a lot hotter down there!" (Jeez, thanks. Sheesh) And we are having going-away parties thrown for us. We had our first one Sunday, and as a pre-moving father-son bonding time / moment, I joined my father for a round of golf on Friday, followed by a "here's where everything is in case I die while you're in Alabama" talk. That was fun.

16 days of getting through work and worrying about packing. I just wish it here already so that we could be done with it, because I don't feel settled. And as a Leo, I need to feel "settled".

I'll just hang in there.

Cell phone picture and texts test successful!

So, I've figured out how to post to the blog direct from the cell-phone.

The possibilities are endless. And scary.

For now, though, I gotta get back to work, but the following are a few of my ideas for future blog posts.

1. The initial reactions of people when told we are moving to Alabama
2. Things I'll miss about the NE
3. More things I am looking forward to when we move

That's it for now.

The Truck Packers

After receiving the estimates from the moving companies (see this link), it's official. We're doing the deed by ourselves.

So I wasted little time in booking the moving companies which will load the boxes and furniture into the truck here in CT, and then unload the truck down in Auburn.

For about $500, I save the wife and I a lot of heavy lifting.

$500 = totally worth it.

Next steps? Mapping the driving route, booking a pet-friendly hotel (the drive will take 2 days), collecting additional packing boxes, packing, forwarding mail, setting up utilities, canceling utilities here...etc.

We still have lots to do.