3.9.11

Location, Location... (you know how it ends)

Continuing with the CA/WI differences, another little topic I thought of was cities. Apparently, I am not the only one to notice there are a lot of cities in Wisconsin named after Native American words that you can only pronounce properly if you were raised in Wisconsin. (Or, I guess, if you are Native American yourself.) In California, there are a lot of cities with names in Spanish (easy example: Los Angeles). So while I'm stuck here trying to pronounce things like Oconomowoc (exactly how many o's is one word allowed to have?), when we go out to California for Christmas, my husband has to attempt to say things like Aliso Viejo (which is not pronounced vie-joe, in case my non-Spanish speaking readers were wondering). There are also a bunch of other things here named after Native American tribes - Blackhawk being a prime example. There's a Blackhawk credit union and bank, a technical college, a golf course, and a curling club, and that's just in the Janesville area! Whereas in Southern California, we have little mom-and-pop Mexican food restaurants in every strip mall and the missions founded by the Spanish (most of with start with "San," which means "Saint.") Interesting to note the cultural influences in each state...

And on the Mexican food note, the other day my boss got lunch for us at the Mexican restaurant across the street. Having grown up with said Mexican culture all around in California, I tend to know more about Mexican food than my friends and family in Wisconsin. So, as the "Mexican food resource" at work, I made a recommendation to one of my coworkers to try the flautas (basically taquitos). She decided she would give them a try. Then another coworker decided to get them. Then another... and all of a sudden I was getting nervous, thinking, "What if everyone hates what I recommended? I'd feel so responsible!" But, thankfully, everyone loved it! One coworker said she wanted to give me a hug because it was so good, and she's going to ask me for more recommendations, and another said that the flautas are now her new favorite Mexican entree. So, I ended up pretty pleased that everyone liked their food.

That about does it for today. Go eat a tostada or enchilada for me :)

2.9.11

As I nodded, nearly napping...

So my husband hurt his foot. It’s not really serious, but it’s taking a while to get better. In the meantime, he is pretty restless when he sleeps, and tries to take up the whole bed. After two nights of sleeping up against the wall (no, I don’t mean my shoulder was next to the wall – I mean I was sleeping on my side with my whole body up against the wall, taking up maybe 1/16 of our queen bed), I decided we couldn’t sleep in the same bed while he’s recovering. This presented a problem: we do have a guest bed upstairs, but I am expecting a visitor soon, and I didn’t want to wash the sheets again after having slept in them. I could sleep on the floor or I could sleep on the couch… except that we don’t have a couch. Which leads me to another sub-topic: my husband and I are kind of hippies. We bathe regularly, do not smoke anything, and are faithful to each other, but in other aspects we are hippies. We eat hemp seeds for the health benefits they provide, I rarely shave my legs (I do shave them, just rarely), and we do not have a couch: we have a huge bean-bag like chair called a LoveSac. It’s really amazing, the most comfortable thing ever, but it’s a little non-traditional, to say the least. All that being said, it seemed to be my best non-bed option. I gave it my best shot, and while I definitely got some sleep, I’d say it would have been about the same as if I had stayed in bed with Adam (although I definitely had more room on the LoveSac!). My final opinion is that the LoveSac is great for naps (especially when you really meant to sit and read for a half hour and you end up dozing for more like an hour and a half), but not so great for a whole night’s sleep.

And last night? Well, I got a full night's sleep, but I'll have to wash those sheets upstairs after all.

1.9.11

Wisconsin's SLO

So I usually notice what’s different between California and Wisconsin. Here’s something that I noticed is similar: Madison reminds me a lot of San Luis Obispo. Now, people who have spent more time in both places may not necessarily agree, but from my experience of both, they are alike in many ways. First of all, they are both college towns. Second of all, there are a lot of “hippies” in both cities. These may not be real hippie-hippies, but the sentiment is there – dreadlocks, a lot of biking, and a focus on what is natural. San Luis Obispo goes one step further in not allowing any drive-thrus (they can have a McDonald’s, it just can’t have a drive-thru). So ok I guess that’s really only two things, but maybe that’s because the hippie aspect covers so much. If you like Madison, I would suggest visiting San Luis Obispo (or, as those in the know call it, SLO). I think you would enjoy it.

I think I'll keep this short for today. More observances of life to come.

31.8.11

Grocery Store Adventures

Hello, my name’s Megan, and I am a grocery-store singer.

Let me clarify. I don’t schedule performances at grocery stores. I don’t set up a small stage in produce to belt my show tunes. But… I do tend to sing along when there’s a particularly catchy tune (and not always at the half-voice level you sing at sometimes so no one really hears you). The other day, I was cruising the aisles, and the Turtle’s “Happy Together” came on. What a great song! And I hadn’t heard it in a while, so I was really excited! I launched into grocery-store singer mode, not really self-consciously singing, per se, but just aware that people may notice my singing. I was walking and this tall guy who was probably a few years younger than me was coming towards me. When we got closer, I thought, “He’s going to hear me singing now.” As our carts began to cross paths, I realized that he was singing, too!!! That was so awesome. I’m not alone! A minute later, while the same song was on, during the “ba ba-ba-ba ba’s,” a young father with his daughter was singing, too! Aside from the Tiki Room, this is as close as my life has gotten to being a musical, where everyone spontaneously sings the same song and knows all the choreography.

On a completely unrelated note, I tried the whole wheat linguini at Olive Garden and I liked it! I would have to say I still probably prefer the normal pasta, but I was a little afraid I wouldn’t even like the whole wheat option. This is a good thing, I think. I’ve been holding out on switching over to whole wheat options (the Japanese eat white rice and have one of the lowest national levels of obesity!), but… I’m considering it more and more. I’ve been having oatmeal for breakfast every day for the past couple of weeks and I have noticed that I feel fuller when lunch comes around. It sticks with me more than my normal breakfast of garlic sourdough toast, that’s for sure!

Well I think I’ll wrap up there for today… and happy reading! (my blog or whatever else it is you’re reading)

29.8.11

Let's give this a shot

I've been thinking... I kind of want to start a real blog. What am I going to write about? I'm not really sure yet. For now, I'm going to leave this connected to a blog I started back in high school... approximately 2003. This blog is almost as old as my little sister. I'm hoping I'll be able to revitalize it with current events in my life, as well as humorous (in my opinion!) reminiscences.

Today's topic: Wisconsin translation of California-ese.
As of next week, I will have lived in Wisconsin for two-and-a-half years. Prior to that, I lived in California for 23 years and a couple months. Needless to say, my natural dialect is Californian. I list below the main words/phrases that have a different meaning in Wisconsin that I was not expecting:

1. Pop. In California, this is what happens when you blow a balloon bigger than it should be, or when a normal-sized balloon touches something hot/sharp. In Wisconsin, this means "soda." One local restaurant even advertises that their special includes "two cans of pop." This never ceases to make me smile, mostly to myself, because yes, I realize that I am the odd woman out in this situation!

2. Garden. In California, this refers to the flowers in your yard. In Wisconsin, when they say "garden," they mean "vegetable garden" (which is what we'd call it in California). Why not just say vegetable garden? I like to think that Californians are more specific.

3. Barbecue. In California, a barbecue is either the grilling instrument itself (e.g. "We just got a barbecue!") or the event that revolves around said instrument (e.g. "We're going to have a barbecue this weekend"). In Wisconsin, "barbecue" is talking about barbecued food of some type or other (pork or beef is what I have encountered most often). Hence, when you are in Wisconsin, you would say "We are having barbecue for dinner." Also, the actual instrument is just called a "grill." Instead of saying "I'm going to have a barbecue this weekend," in Wisconsin, you would say "I'm going to grill out this weekend."

4. Ski. In California, you go skiing at Mammoth. In Wisconsin, the same activity is referred to as "downhill skiing." This is to differentiate it from another type of skiing that Wisconsin offers, which is "cross-country skiing." In many conversations I've had with WI residents, I would say "my husband is going to go skiing," after which my conversation partner would invariably ask "Downhill?"

5. Drinking Fountain/Water Fountain. In California, when you come to a park or large building/business, and you're thirsty, you would ask someone if there is a drinking fountain. When I had been working at my first Wisconsin job for a few months, a customer came in and asked me if we had a bubbler. I thought to myself, what the heck is a bubbler! I stammered for a minute, trying to figure out how I could tell this crazy customer that no, we do not have one of those imaginary things you are asking about, when thankfully, another employee chimed in and said "It's right around the corner." She then explained to me that in Wisconsin, specifically in the greater-Madison area, they call this a bubbler. It's actually a cultural term they have embraced to the point of printing t-shirts that say "It's called a bubbler!" on it.

I have accepted these words into my new vocabulary, so that I understand them, but I typically refrain from using them myself. People still know what I'm talking about if I say I'd like a soda... right?