This entire post is one big digression

We're fixing to go on a trip.

Yes. I said "fixing to." So sue me. I'm from Alabama.

I like the phrase "fixing to." It means "about to" with the connotation of "making preparations to." I think it's a pretty good word.

Actually there are a lot of southernisms that I like. For example, the word "tump."

If you're not from Alabama, "tump" is a combination of the words "tip" and "dump," and therefore encompasses the meanings of both.

So when I say, "The raccoons tumped over the trash cans," I'm saying that the cans were pushed over and their contents were spilled, but I'm saying all that in just ONE WORD!

And so we move on to the most obvious Southernism, the one that everyone knows: "y'all."

Every Yankee out there will make fun of us Southerners for saying "y'all," and every bad actor doing a fake Southern accent thinks he can make it sound authentic by simply changing all his "yous" to "y'alls."

Not so, my friend. The word "y'all" is PLURAL, people! The quickest way to give yourself away as a Southern faker is to refer to one person as "y'all."

Example: I once saw a greeting card that showed two mice, with one saying to the other, "Let's go out to dinner, y'all." The caption read, "The Night The Mice Went out in Georgia."

Now that's cute. Except it was obviously written by a Yankee who does not understand the use of the word "y'all."

In order for the word usage to be correct, THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN AT LEAST THREE MICE!

But I digress.

The point I was trying to make here, is that my husband and I are making preparations for an imminent departure abroad.

Did that sound smarter that way? Maybe.

But I still think my first sentence was better.