southern special

Spring has sprung!

Well, not exactly. Alas, my dearest wish may be for warmth and sunshine, but right now, the weather is being quite uncooperative. There are fat flakes of snow falling down and past my window, dribbling from the sky like some sort of seasonal baby drool. The sky is overcast, and there's certainly no sunshine to be seen for miles. Perhaps the saddest thing are the flowers -- any plants that decided to bloom are probably regretting any hastily made decisions.

However, I can keep telling myself spring has sprung for the very reason that it has ... in other parts of the country, anyway. While I may be geographically deprived and forced to reside in the land of snow, at least I can cheer myself up with the glowing fact that it is very warm and very sunny in some part of the USA right now.


For almost the entire first week of April I was in one of the more balmy regions of the country. I spent five days in warm and lovely North Carolina, a state very dear to me and a place I was very happy to pass some time in.


I was there to present a lecture at an academic conference being held at one of the University of North Carolina schools. It was a very big opportunity for me to showcase my research and start making a name for myself in the scholarly community. Luckily, everything went smoothly and my presentation was well received.


I was very nervous about presenting in front of an audience who were largely more educated and better known than me; I was the only person to present without a PhD or a fat stack of dissertation notes. Some of the lecturers were from institutions such as Harvard, while others were affiliated with other top name schools, like UNC Chapel Hill. (By the way: YEAH TARHEELS!!!!!!!!!!) So the credentials of the various conference speakers were intimidating enough, without bringing up the question of how in the hell did I get picked to speak when I'm not even in a graduate program yet? But then again, my research is solid, I speak well, and I'm not going to question fate when it has been kind to me.

While I was very thrilled with the reception of my lecture, and happy to have met so many interesting and educated people, the conference was only a part of my high spirits. Just being home, in a state I know well and love, was a good enough feeling to literally put some pep in my step. (I can't believe I just used the world's most cliched phrase. But it works. So go with it.) The weather was bright, sunny and almost 80 degrees on a daily basis. I actually got a tan just walking outside.

Knowing the particular corner of the state I was in quite well, I had some must-dos to cross off on my While-In-NC list. One was eating at a childhood favorite of mine, Smithfield BBQ. You have not tasted heaven until you have eaten the bbq here, tasted their sweet tea, and indulged in enough hush puppies to sink a freighter. I literally demanded that my friend drive there, even though it was out of our way. Luckily, my friend gamely followed my sort-of-lame directions, and ended up loving the fried shrimp at Smithfield BBQ. I ate the regular bbq platter and it was truly fried, dripping, steaming perfection.

And let me just tell you this: it was every bit as good as I remembered. Maybe even better. How rarely that happens, and how nice when it does.

I also had to eat some other southern staples in NC that are hard to find up north. So, I managed to gobble up some required foods that I love and never get to eat:
fried okra, collard greens and pork + hot sauce, green beans and salted pork, fried chicken and gallons upon gallons of sweet tea.

I did have one grand disappointment. I wanted to stop off at a Chick-Fil-A before I left for the frozen tundra of the north. However, I forgot that the chain is always closed on Sundays -- and had designated Sunday as my day to go eatat Chik-Fil-A. So, major bummer, I did not get the tasty fried golden nuggets of goodness and waffle fries that I so dearly love. I survived the depression that followed, but my stomach and taste buds were angry with me for the entire rest of the day. A golden opportunity missed, simply because I forgot southern fast food chains do things like close on Sundays. Oops.
All this discussion of food has made me hungry. I just peeked outside of my bedroom window in order to distract myself from my growling stomach. It looks like the snow has stopped. I'm sure it's still bitter cold outside, and the sun hasn't shown itself today, but still ... I keep thinking that Spring has sprung.

Here's hoping that it actually has ... and that PA will get a nice place to eat Carolina style BBQ. And a Chick-Fil-A.