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It�s Floriday #2. Apparently, if you�re a native you pronounce it �Flarda� with two syllables. The rest of us pronounce it with three syllables as in �Flo ri da�. Which I can relate to. I'm from �Missour-a� NOT �Mizzooree�.
This is not a first trip to the Panhandle State. As a result, it is easy to become accustomed to things only a native can appreciate. For instance, Florida drivers: Two hands gripping wheel, blue hair barely visible above window level, driving 35 on the interstate in the left lane with the left blinker on.
And language interpretation:
* "D'jalleet" means "Did y'all eat?"
* "Fixin' to" is said as one word, as in, "I'm fixinto go to the store."
Florida weather is always interesting. On the way home from the airport � it went from bright hot sun, to severe thunderstorms, to bright hot sun � all in less than an hour. Bobbi says it is not uncommon to:
* Switch from heating to air conditioning in the same day.
* Break out the scarves and space heaters when it�s 60 degrees Fahrenheit
* Describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as "good chili weather."
* Wear shorts and use the air conditioner on Christmas.
Bobbi is a very neat housekeeper, but even after two years she knows that:
* You can find more than five different species of bugs in your home every day, even if you use pest control.
* There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Florida, plus a couple never identified before.
* Leaving the dog outside unattended can attract the neighborhood alligator.
Eating out is easier than cooking, so you have to learn the correct way to order.
* All carbonated soft drinks are a Coke, regardless of brand or flavor. For example: "What kinda Coke you want?"
* Grouper sandwiches are the other white meat.
* Sweet tea can be served at any meal. (Which would be asked for by saying: "Ah ont sum sweetee.)
* Crackers are persons proudly "born and bred" here.
* A Denny�s �Grand Slam� breakfast is grits, biscuits n' gravy, country fried steak, fried mullet and red eye gravy and the aforementioned sweet tea.
* People actually grow and eat okra.
And the recipe for swamp cabbage begins with these words: "Chop down a cabbage palm tree.�
Even after a short time here, Bobbi found it doesn�t take long to begin acting like a native.
* You own at least five pairs of flip-flops, but only tourists wear socks with flip-flops.
* You have a drawer full of bathing suits.
* You host hurricane parties.
* You watch the space shuttle launch from your backyard.
* You learn to say no to anyone wanting you to deliver a suitcase of powdered sugar to their grandmother in Miami.
Florida: Ask Us About Our Grandkids
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