Blue What?

So today I'm thinking, "Hey, I'll go to Lowe's or Menards to find those team building things for work that I couldn't find yesterday. And then I realize I can't. Why is this? Because of a little thing in South Carolina called Blue Laws. I had never really heard of them until I moved here, although I was apparently dealing with them and not knowing it in Minnesota.

What is she talking about, you're thinking, right? Well, in Minnesota, it just means there are no car or liquor sales on Sundays. That always seemed pretty harmless to me, but I never really thought about why. And then I moved here.

In general a blue law is one that is observed mostly for religious reasons. We want people to get to church on Sunday and not be fooling around shopping or drinking right? Well take a look at that link I posted. Not all states are listed there, but quite a few. If a person were so inclined, they may scroll down to see what all these states are about. And if they did, they would take note of the fact that South Carolina has the LONGEST entry concerning blue laws, second only to New Jersey. Coincidentally, I meet at least one person a week from the New York/New Jersey area here.

Where most states have two lines describing what is ok and what is not, South Carolina has an entire history textbook that one could quite literally teach an entire class on. I was once under the impression that there were certainly other states with higher religious standards in the bible belt, especially since this state contains the spring break destination of Myrtle Beach. I can only imagine the groggy shock of the college freshman on that one.

Picture this--you roll out of bed on a Sunday morning, and realize you need deoderant. You're an avid Walmart shopper because they have both groceries and goods there. You make a side trip to the grocery section for that milk you've been meaning to buy, head to the beauty aisle and are stopped abruptly by ropes and employees blocking the way to even thinking of going further in the store. And then it hits you. It's not 1:30 yet. Guess you're going to smell for at least half the day.

Did this really happen to me? I'll leave that up to a personal guess. Either way, these are the things that roll through my head on a Sunday morning when living in a new state that I can't say I've quite figured out yet.

People always ask me, how do I like it here? The hairdresser yesterday, a prime example. I'm not sure if they genuinely want to know, or if they are just being polite, so I politely say that it's nice. Not that I don't think so, it is. It's got palm trees, it never really gets cold, there's way more forest and green stuff in general than I was expecting and other than the venemous snakes/spiders and the cockroaches (or palmetto bugs, as they are called here), the wildlife isn't too drastically different. It's more that I'm still just taking it all in and getting used to the culture shock that is a constant part of my everyday life.

My current goal is to not have to ask people to repeat themselves any more than one time. I think that'll be enough to take on for now. Particularly with the word "pen". Here, it's more like "pin". When I can get to the point where I don't have to blantantly say, "oh, you mean pen", (quite possibly offending this poor person with a blank look on their face in the aftermath) then I'll consider it a success. Until then I'll just have to work on my facial expressions so people can't see the gears turning in my head.

Another goal--remember, no need to roll out of bed even moderately early on a Sunday. One thing at a time.