Mona is the dream child of Better in Bulk, Mama's Losing It, Scary Mommy, Seven Clown Circus and Mayhem and Moxie. She's touring the blogosphere this week, and stopped to visit North Carolina! I agonized over what to show her, and finally had an epiphany: While there are certainly wonderful places to see in my home state, it's the people of North Carolina and their southern hospitality that make it so beautiful. And what better way for Mona to meet people than to take her to a barbecue?!
It goes without saying that Mona had a blast, but she's definitely a West Coast kinda girl. I think she was unfamiliar with some southern-isms. So, without further ado, I present to you:
The Top 5 Things Mona Learned in North Carolina
2. When the friendly neighbor asks you to "give him some sugar," he is not looking to sweeten his tea, if you catch my drift. Tread lightly.
3. The person speaking to you is not French if they look at you inquiringly and say, "D'jeet?" North Carolinians are truly some of the most hospitable people on Earth. They also take some short cuts with standard English. The person is simply being kind and asking, "Did you eat?"
4. When someone says, "Bless your heart, that's the most unusual headband!" It is NOT a compliment. There is a code in the south... whenever a sentence starts with "bless your heart," you're about to be insulted. If it comes at the end of the sentence (She's been sick as a dog, bless her heart) it's a legitimate show of concern.
5. The food in North Carolina is delicious. Grits, greens, barbecue, and butter beans are all wonderful things, but they are surprisingly high in calories.
I had such a good time with Mona. I wasn't ready for her to go, but she has lots of other blogs to visit. If you see her jogging along the side of the road do not offer her a ride. She needs to do a lot of running to work off all that southern hospitality.
Want to see where else Mona is today? Of course you do! Go see Angie at Seven Clown Circus to find out...
60 comments:
Bless your heart, I loved this post! Just kidding! ;D
Actually, you do crack me up! My daughter and I had a good laugh over this! I loved learning the lingo especially D'jeet!
I think that Bless Your Heart means the same thing everywhere. Love her Hammer pants!
Kathy, your humor kills me...seriously, it causes me to double over laughing so hard that I think my heart may just give out!
I'd be the lame one to bring hotdog buns to a BBQ and I'd also be the one who answered "D'jeet?" with a "yes" simply b/c I was too embarrassed to ask "what the heck are you saying?". Then I'd starve the entire time and wonder why on earth I visited the South in the first place!!
LOVED this post!! VERY valuable information. In parts of Pennsylvania, the exchange goes like this:
"Djeet yet?"
"No, joo?"
Thanks for the comments - I'm looking forward to Friday's post!
Now I must tear myself away from blogger. We are in the same time zone and you'll know how late I stayed up.
North Carolina sounds a lot like Australia. We definitely take shortcuts with our English, and instead of "Bless your heart" we have been known to "Bless your cotton socks"
This had me giggling! Love Mona's visit.. all I can say is at least she was wearing pants instead of just her underwear...
This has me cracking up!!! It took me months of living in Tennessee to get what ""D'jeet?" meant!! Months!!
Dear Mona,
I thought "D'jeet" meant something along the lines of bug spray with Deet. You'd be wise to invest in some if your travels take you further south.
CK
Bless her little pea-pickin' heart, I've been seeing a lot of Miss Mona this week. Sorry her trip to the south resulted in the inability to zip her groovy pants (which I have NOT seen before!)
Mona gets around doesn't she. Thick hipped hussy! Wait till you see what she got into in Maryland tomorrow:)
LOL! Oh, I'm so grateful when you share "southernisms" with us, especially being Canadian and all. I really do need a crash course in what ya'll are talking about down there. This was a helpful and informative post. I particularly appreciate knowing when I'm being insulted - thanks for clearing that one up! ;)
I laughed when I started reading the post because "mona" is actually how me and several close friends refer to our "monthly visitor", as in "Mona's visiting this week...ugh!" So I had a chuckle when I read the first line of your post. And it's true - this mona is superwoman, too!
Apparently I've been cause for concern when I use the phrase 'Bless your heart!' since it's never uttered as anything less than part of a compliment... ;)
Glad you fattened her up before she headed North, because I put her through her paces when she got here... ;)
lmao, you totally put Pants on Mona!!
I love your post!
You don't hear that phrase around here much.. we don't bless hearts- we put stints in them!
I am adopting the "bless your heart" for the midwest.
Prepare yourselves.
What a great way to expose Mona to the south!! The Bless Your Heart bit is dead on...I think it's encroaching the midwest...
I think Mona should make a trip up here to New Jersey - what do you think?
Southern food. Bleah. I can't handle that heavy fare any more. Thank goodness for Japanese food.
VERY creative. I loved learning about NC in such a fun way!!!!!!!!
Awww... bless your heart Mona! LOL! Seriously though... I'm born and bred here in NC and totally catch your drift!
I can't stop laughing. D-jeet? And MOna got fat. I'm going to be laughing to myself all day long today.
Hammer pants? HAHAHAHA..
Give me some sugar isn't really about sugar? Uh oh.
hahaha... d'jeet? Too funny! Though now I'm trying to remember if anyone has ever started a sentence directed at me with, "Bless your heart..." Eeks!!!
Her pants are killing me! Poor Mona...she's so naive. ;)
Hilarious! I love that she can't zip her pants after visiting y'all!
haha! "jeet?" is totally used here in philly, too. however, sadly, "bless your heart" is not used here. it makes me so sad. i could totally use that. maybe i'll start anyway and it will be even more effective because no one will know that they are being insulted! perfect!
I love being able to insult someone and use bless your heart. It seems to take the sting off.
You should have just taken Mona to walmart to see North Carolinians big and small...
LOL!!! Fabulous job Kathy!!!
This whole Mona thing is so cool!
This was awesome. I learned so many things. I have had people start sentences with 'bless your heart' before. Now I know they are not being nice. ;)
Hey, we say D'jeet too!LOL! This is the second Mona post today. I never heard of her before. Too funny.
I lived in North Carolina for 1 month along time ago. They do have great food!
Finally all this eating and drinking is catching up! I was getting a little jealous of Mona's metabolism!
Wow! I really learned some helpful things....for southern living at least. :) I love the pants that Mona donned during her stay at your house. She looks so much more respectable with her skin covered.
Well hush my mouth, I love this post, bless your heart.
(did I do that in the correct order and sound all southern and stuff?)
So nice to see that Mona has enough MOXIE to wear the pants even if they are bustin at the seams!
We just had a Memphis BBQ place open up here, I did a story on it for work. Luckily, no one asked me to give them some sugar.
Looks like she had a GREAT time with you:-)
Oh, Kathy, as a blog-follower, and as a native Kansas Citian who grew up in Memphis and returned to Kansas City, I will have to embark on BBQ education classes for you. Clearly, your perception of BBQ has been skewed by whatever it is that native North Carolinians classify as BBQ. (YEEEESSSSHHHH!) I won't even begin to address their idea of BBQ sauce. (My second....YEEEEESSSSSHHHH!) We need to set up a time to have a crash course. I'll bring my Kansas City BBQ Society cookbook as an instructional manual. Our other alternative is a Memphis to KC road trip! Sincerely, your friend, the Southern Midwestern BBQ Snob. ;-)
Very funny! Love how regional slang works. Always fun to visit the South.
Oh bless your heart, what a great post! lol I'm teasing! That was hilarious! D'jeet? Pork at a BBQ? Guess I'll have to bring my own hot dogs!
Looks like she came to her senses and finally put on some pants!
Oh man, I just read the first commenter's comment. I am SO unoriginal!
(Bless my heart)
I love this!
I love Southern food. But yes, it is quite fattening...
I think I've been well confused by the bless your heart thing...good to clear that one up!
Grand Pooba, if you're in Kansas City, we will BBQ just about anything, anywhere, anytime. Hotdogs might not be tops on our menu, but if you want it, we'll throw it on the grill! :-)
That Moxie Mona, she sure gets around! I dare even call her a little hussy!
And since my cousins live in NC, I linking over to you so they can get a giggle from your description of the people. Bless their hearts!
Oh, Mona should have had that lesson before her trip! Hope she didn't give away too much sugar - those southern gents have such a way with women.
That's so funny - I love your Southern-to-English lessons! :)
My favorite one yet!
So hysterical and clever.
Her clueless comments were the best.
"D'jeet"..that is hysterical!
In Minnesota we "sit a spell" and "fix a plate". :)
Mona looks great in slacks! What size does she wear, -8?
Hilarious pics!!! Looks like Mona should hit the Jenny Craig blog next...
went to Tulane in New Orleans for college, D'jeet! and Bless her heart, oh yeah, I remember those
This is so funny KathyB!!
Her fat pants remind of mine.
CLEARLY I am going to have to get Moxie back in shape. LA is all about image. I gotta say. I was expecting Moxie to wrangle some snakes or sumthin',
Freaking hilarious. I had no idea all that you had learned in North Carolina, my friend. Thank you, thank you for passing along this knowledge to Mona...and to me.
I so thoroughly enjoyed this. You really must start a series of Things that You Should Know Before Traveling to the South. It would be brilliant. :)
I love that you made Mona put on a decent pair of pants while visiting you!!
LOL! Well done and that is coming from a west coast gal who ended up staying in North Carolina :)
My biggest shock was when ordered any vegetable side dish, they were all breaded and deep fat fried!
I learned quickly to ask, stick to coleslaw or asked for the meat to be broiled!
Lots n lots of running for Mona that is for sure!!
And yeah, the biggest comment is our Bar-B-Q's are not red with Bar-B-Q sauce lol!
Awesome post! You're so creative!
In Texas "Bless your heart" at the beginning of a sentence means " you meant well and your hearts in the right place but your stupid and you just didn't know any better" A lot to say with only 3 little words, huh!
Ooh, those pants! Together with the dress she got at my house she'll have a wardrobe in no time.
I'm sure Mona would have given that guy some sugar were it not for those blue boots he's wearing. Surely those are frowned upon in NC, no?
~Keri
This is just the cutest post, ya'll. We love to share down here in the south. Florida is kinda the south, even if we are a mixture of all cultures. I find myself using all kinds of these phrases and love it. Then there will be people from NYC who don't have a clue what I've said, but I'm originally from New England, so I can translate to that type of "American speech" also.... Because god knows NONE of use truly speak ENGLISH!!
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