I'm Comin' to Alabama with a Banjo on my Knee

So, after a short weekend at home in MD with the family and a night of watching My Cousin Vinny and To Kill a Mockingbird, I'm off to a summer of adventures in Alabama this summer. Who knew that the excitement would start as early as my plane ride down south?? From Atlanta, I got rerouted through Columbus (in Georgia...I didn't know Georgia had a Columbus either) and then got driven down to Montgomery by a friendly, but clueless, Delta employee. Still waiting for my luggage to arrive, but all in all I'm happy to be here and am already starting to get settled in.

Though I don't plan on returning to the Big Apple with a southern twang in my voice, I have some aspirations to meet while I spend the summer shvitzing down here (listed in no particular order):

-come home with scientific evidence that, in fact, all country music really does sound the same

-sing Hallelujah and shout Amens at a Southern Baptist karaoke night

-put myself in the shoes of a red-state, card-carrying NRA member, god-fearing, socially conservative Christian American

-see how far our country has come and how much farther we have to go since the day Martin Luther King walked from Selma to Montgomery

-comprehend how and why the death penalty experiment in our country has failed

-learn how to play slide guitar

-eat enough grits to advertise myself as the first human alternative to fuel because I'll be...um, farting so much ethanol

-Be able to strum Sweet Home Alabama and mean it

I'm looking forward to a summer in the Deep South!