"So, you're a southern boy with a southern belle W"
Actually I am a military brat, which I'm sure has something to do with my impatience and difficulty making long-term relationships work (I basically had none outside my immediate family growing up).

My education is definitely an anomaly in my family. I was the first to get a B.S. (only my older brother has duplicated that, and neither of my parent had much post-HS education), I am the only one so far to get an M.S. or a Ph.D.

I can best explain how my dad was by example. In my junior high, high school years, he intentionally moved us out to live 1 hour away from school, and refused to let me get a drivers license, thus effectively shutting me off from any real friendship. He refused to let me go to prom, saying it was "a bunch of drunk teenagers getting drunker." Oddly enough he used to get drunk on occasion. He used to beat the absolute crap out of me for such things as laughing out loud at night (when he wanted quiet in the house). He thought TV, radio, etc. were the root of evil in the world. I grew up only on "classical" music. I remember him once beating the crap out of me when I came home one day with the top button of my polo shirt unbuttoned. He said doing that meant I was looking for sex. My mom usually tried to help some, by sneaking us out of the house sometimes to see friends. But she could turn on us in an instant and lay the blame on us if would save her own skin. I remember getting beaten till I was black and blue all up and down my leg when I came home one time with 6 A's and 1 B (the B stood for beating I guess). Childhood really sucked.

Church is for the most part pretty much BS in my opinion, but there are somereally good people that you can learn a lot from there. I tend to focus on those people and just ignore all the rest of the crap. I would rather go to a much more "charismatic" church than we go to. Seems more real to me than just sitting around the in pews for an hour then quietly going home.

Well like Ludacris says, men want a "lady on the street but a freak in the bed." They teach 'em how to be a lady in the South but mostly neglect the bedroom stuff. The ones that explore on their own usually get pregnant at an early age and have to deal with the "slut" label the rest of their life. It is amazing to see a bunch of old church ladies sitting around basically calling a young girl a slut if she is pregnant out of wedlock. So much for "love your neighbor", eh?

My family is elsewhere, scattered all over the place really. The ILs in general like me, but it is clear I am an outsider due to my level of education and my interests. You might say they like to talk more about "events" (who won the last football game and what movies are good) while I like to talk about ideas (creatonism versus evolution (that one goes over well in the deep south ), etc.) They do NOT know about the EA and if I can help it they won't. I am not kidding about the severity of the retribution I would face. Basically, pretty much everyone in the county would hate me. I can think of no quicker way to break up my marriage, because I could not live in a place where everyone hated me, and I don't think the W wants to move.

Still Mr. Cool, but I think mine are still more on the Play-do side rather than being brass.

"Recollect me darlin, raise me to your lips, two undernourished egos, four rotating hips"

Inertia Creeps by Massive Attack