Midwest Represent

How sweet the weekend is, how sweet it is.

So yesterday, I attended a backyard BBQ/gay wedding reception-type thing. It was there that, in combination w/ a couple of other incidents, that I noticed an increasingly common phenomenon. Now that I'm living out here on the east coast, I have been finding these little pockets of Midwestern peeps who are all about high-fiving each other when they discover their Midwestern compatriots. Literally, I have been high-fived (physically and verbally) by like ten people from Indiana or Michigan or Minnesota or thereabouts. Granted, I'm like "woo, Midwest represent!" back to them and all, but it's been quite funny. I work with two people from Indiana (one of which high-fived me over a conference call about the old bars and hangouts that used to be at Purdue) and all these displaced Midwesterners keep coming out of the woodwork, happy to find a fellow farmer in this city. (Ms. Snarker, I am one person away from having a euchre group, I kid you not).

I guess this probably happens in other big not-Midwestern cities. And like in Canada or Sri Lanka. We're like magnets to each other; I can pick out a Chicago or St. Louis accent on a crowded street. I will not make grand generalizations about why we find and seek each other out. And how we immediately have fond feelings for these strangers from Illinois or Wisconsin. I'm sure that native New Yorkers, when they move to Ames, Iowa or something and run across each other, are like, thank fucking god, these people are fucking crazy here, save me. We're all just looking for a little piece of home, aren't we?

Go Buckeyes! Missouri rules! High-five! Midwest represent!