You Know You're From Louisiana When...

(OK, I don't often do this, but I had to laugh at some of these. As weird as this may sound, it made me miss home. ;) See y'all in a few weeks!)

-Your sunglasses fog up when you step outside, even in
December.
-You reinforce your attic to store Mardi Gras beads (not so true for me, but I did have my fair share of Mardi Gras beads which I ended up using as math manipulatives with my students.)
-You don't look twice when you see pink flamingos in
yards of nice subdivisions during Mardi Gras.
-You save newspapers, not for recycling but for
tablecloths at crawfish boils. (There better be one when we come in town!)
-Your ancestors are buried above the ground. (This is true of South Louisiana. Mine are buried in North LA, but the "above-the-ground" graves freaked me out when we first moved to Baton Rouge. Now, it's nothing to see coffins above the ground!)
-You drink Community Coffee, have tried Starbucks, but
don't see what all the fuss is about. (I was craving a Mochassippi the other day! Starbucks just doesn't quite have the bite to it!)
-You take a bite of five-alarm chili and reach for the
Tabasco.
-Every once in a while, you have waterfront property.
-You sit down to eat boiled crawfish and your host says,
"Don't eat the dead ones," and you know what
he means.
-You don't learn until high school that Mardi Gras is
not a national holiday.
-You believe that purple, green , and gold look good
together.
-Your last name isn't pronounced the way it's
spelled.
-You know what a nutria is but you still pick it to
represent your baseball team.
-Your town is low on the education chart, high on the
obesity chart and you don't care because you're No.
1 on the party chart. (This doesn't really apply to me...lol)
-Your house payment is less than your utility bill.
-You know that Tchoupitoulas is a street and not a
disease.
-Your grandparents are called "Maw-Maw" and
"Paw-Paw." (Is this not everywhere?)
-Your Santa Claus rides an alligator and your favorite
Saint is a football player. (Have never been a Saints fan and didn't jump on the Bandwagon but now follow them just for Brittany! Love you BB.)
-You cringe every time you hear an actor with a Southern
or Cajun accent in a "New Orleans-based" movie or
TV show.
-You have to reset your clocks after every thunderstorm. (My power goes out WAY more here!)
-You're walking in the French Quarter with a plastic
cup of beer. (Haha...def. doesn't apply to me.)
-When it starts to rain, you cover your beer instead of
your head. (Not so much!)
-You've eaten at one or more of these restaurants, AND
know how to pronounce them: Prejeans', TuJaques',
Gallatoire's, Ralph & Kacoo's, Brunet's, or
Mulatte's. (Have eaten at half of those...none are my favorite LA restaurants, but they are good.)
-You eat dinner out and spend the entire meal talking
about all the other good places you've eaten. (Haha!)
-You call home just to find out what your momma'nem
are having for supper tonight.
-You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other
friends from Louisiana . . . and those who wish they were!