I Went to the South and All I Got Was This Stupid Post

Last week, I, Jeremy, was in Mississippi.

Yes, that is right. MISSISSIPPI. M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. Mississippi.

Work sent me there to help cover our other call center. I had known about it for about a month before I went, and it only became official a few weeks before. In this post, I will talk about this trip, and some of my observations about what it was like in a place I was never eager to go to: The Deep South.

I left on Sunday, June 5th. My flight out of Portland was at 6:26am. Continental Airlines flight from Portland to Houston. I left work early the night before, since I normally would not get home until 11:30pm, and to get to Portland on time, I would have to leave at around 3am. I ended up leaving at 3:20. Yes, I made it on time.

When I got my boarding pass and checked my suitcase, they never asked me for my id. I found that weird. Also, they had these monitors setup where they printed out my pass. Some woman walked over to the front desk to print out the tag for my suitcase. I then walked my suitcase over to this guy who was loading them all up and scanning them. Southwest or Alaska never did anything like this. United didn't either, but the last time I flew with them was back in 1997.

I went through security, which as always was a pain. I had to take off my shoes and belt in order to get through.

Then, I waited an hour to get on the plane. My PSP came in handy.

The flight to Houston was uneventful. There was an inflight movie, some piece of crap called The Wedding Date. It had that redhead that plays Grace in Will and Grace. I forget her name and do not feel like looking it up. The only reason I watched it was to see how it ended, and the ending was very predictable. I used my PSP headphones to listen. There was no way I was going to pay them $5 for their headphones. After 4 hours, we had a really rough descent and landed in Houston.

First of all, the airport there is called George Bush International. They have this statue of Bush(pappy Bush, not junior), and it of course was hideous. It is him standing there with a smile on his face, arm back, jacket thrown over his shoulder and blowing in the wind. The man seems to get a lot of praise for a 1 term president.

The airport itself was hot, crowded, and a pain in the ass to get through. I saw my first real Texas Cowboy rednecks too. I think one of them may have been a woman. I never really stepped outside, but was in areas where the outside air was close, and it was hot. My stay was only an hour though. I then flew on a Continental ExpressJet to Jackson, MS. The plane was tiny, and we flew threw thunderstorms. But this time I had a window seat and could look outside, getting my first glimpses of The Deep South.

When we got off the plane, we did not walk through any of those walkways. We actually went outside. I thought I was running into a brick wall. I can deal with heat. Heat is no problem for someone that grew up in California. What I could not take was the humidity. The air was heavy, and it made the heat worse. It felt like a sauna.

While standing and waiting for my suitcase, I got to listen to the people. Just over 6 hours after I left Portland, and I felt like I was in a different world. The peoples voices slowed down, and developed this twang. Some of them were rather difficult to understand. Republicans and Rednecks!!! At this point, I really wanted to go home, but instead of going to the ticket counters to get a flight home(I would have been soooo fired), I went to get my rental car.

The car was nice, and they had the air-conditioner going before I got there. God damn was it hot. The car was a 2005 Toyota Corolla. A nice smooth ride, comfortable seats, and quiet. It had a cd player, but I didn't bring any with me.

I thought the roads there sucked. The scenery was surprisingly nice though. There were a lot of trees, all very tall and very green. I was surprised, since my impression was that I was going to see nothing but endless empty fields. I didn't bring a camera though, so no pictures.

It took me 40 minutes to get to Vicksburg, and I settled into my room and took a nap. Afterwards, I called where I would be working to get directions, and went out for food.

Sonic is a very good place to eat fast food, and their desserts kick ass. I just wanted to make that clear.

I will not talk about work at all, of course. I don't even think I have ever mentioned exactly what I do. It is not that it is a deep dark secret, it is just that I would rather not say. What I will say is I am a contractor working for the U.S. Government. I will not say which part though. Really, it is nothing glamorous or intriguing. It is just a job.

The people down there are friendly. Racism is still alive and well down there, and I only really saw it when talking to people. Not that anyone was unfriendly towards me(whitey who does not advertise the fact that he is Jewish), but some of the people I talked with at work said how things were down there. Sad that people are still like that. It was hot, even at night. I had to fight condensation on my windshield when driving at night too. That was a pain. There were also a lot of bugs that I have never seen before, and they were large.

I did not do a whole lot while I was there. My work hours were different and given the time change, my sleep schedule was fucked. I did not have a lot of plans, and the few I did have were left unfinished(there was a military park on an old Civil War battlefield I wanted to see). A little sad about it, but if I work here for awhile still, I am sure I will go again. Hopefully not in the Summer.

If I go again, I will make sure I plan the trip out better and actually do stuff. Hopefully it will give me a better impression of the South so that I could say more about it. My feelings on it are rather neutral, but I can still say that I would never want to live there. The only thing I can really say about it is it was pretty, the people were nice, the food I did try was good, and the weather blows.

The flight home was awful. There were storms all over the country and I think we flew through all of them. I was in the last row in an isle seat, and the seats themselves were small and cramped. That was 4 hours of bumpy hell, and the food they served was absolute crap. No movie this time either. I may look towards a different airline next time.

Am I glad to be home? You bet. It was 55 degrees and raining here. It felt great. Portland never looked so good to me before. I think after 10 years of being up here, I am really beginning to feel like this is home.