Slow changes

I find sometimes that I am still stuck mentally in California and I cant get out:

* I heard something interesting on the news a day ago and picked up my phone to call a friend when I realized it was only 8 am here and that I am not in California. If I called it would be 5 AM.
* I persist in believing that all my friends are a quick drive up the freeway and I can see them at any point.
* I still calculate food totals without food tax and am always disappointed (and angry) when the price is 2% higher.
* On hot days I still look toward the west hoping to see fog breaking on the horizon.
* Whenever it rains, I assume it must be cold out, and winter.
* It's weird to see green in summer and brown in winter. I am used to the other way around.
* My area code is 919, but I always start out 925 and I sometimes slip up and start zip codes with a 945---.
* I dissent in true California fashion- unleashing my disappointment at the demise of the Farmers Market warehouse on it's manager, who in my mind didn't have the interest of the people in mind and set out to be a community organizer to overcome this obstacle to quality food at low prices.
*I sometimes think that some people in NC are too conservative. But that's silly because we are the most liberal state in the South East.

But I am getting there, perhaps becoming more and more southern (or maybe just less Californian) every day:

* I say ya'll becuase its easier and only one syllable.
* I refer small children to miss or mr. so and so.
* I smile and greet strangers....
* I dont think of Florida as a southern state.
* I think of Raleigh as a "Big city".
* WHile in Washington DC last week, I was shocked by how unfriendly the locals were.... totally forgetting I was once an unfriendly local.
* I heard someone on the radio from California and finally understood that there really is such a thing as a west coast accent.... and that I still have mine (I'll hang onto it forever!).
* I cringe when people refer to North Carolina as a land of hicks and sticks.

But I'll never give up being a true Californian.