You know what? We Midwest folks have some stand-out qualities or something...

I just feel like I really connect with Midwest folks, no matter where I am. Like today - Medtronic came in to do a device demonstration, and I was the first one in the room that just started small-talkin' with them. And it went from the weather to Wimbledon (I was the only one of our FDA people to look up the scores before the meeting) to other random stuff. The minute the surgeon opened his mouth, I knew he was from Michigan (the accent was all there!). It was like, I'm back with muh people! Power to da people! Woo!

It's kinda like when my dad came back to the States for the first time after he started work in China - Mom asked him what he thought as he was in the Detroit airport, seeing white people again. Dad said, "It was like, wow, one of my own kind! I'm one of them!"

Ok, so we're not exactly white... but the "kinship" feeling is still there. I think my dad is a country boy at heart (he listens to John Denver and Johnny Horton music - you city folks probably don't even have a clue who I'm talking about). I think Dad and I would have been hicks if we were white and had grown up in Midland. Yup, bring the deer in the back of the truck to school...

We tried our best to fit in. We had a tractor from our days in Indiana, we have gone deerhunting before, and I used to go horse-back riding until I broke out in hives (allergies - the story of my life). I own flannel shirts and overalls and I do wear them. Dad used to shoot squirrels. Go away, you animal rights activists - you'd shoot them too if they tore up your roof and attic. If you want to save them, I'll gladly send them over to your house. (Along with the raccoons that managed to squeeze into our attic too.)

Any way you put it, I loved the country way of life - and there are times I look around me in the city and I just miss that small town feeling and looking up at the sky, being able to see the stars.

No matter where I physically dwell, that will always be home to me...