North Maple Rag

My favorite people from home (and possibly my favorite people full stop) are the ones who's affection for South Dakota is matched only by their fascination with the rest of the world. I've been lucky; not only do virtually all of my college friends fit into this category, I've also been able to find quite a few mildly homesick but adventurous South Dakotans out in the "world."

Last night, I went out for sushi with just such a group. As with any gathering of SD ex-patriots, there were several layers of connections between us. One of the women I'd met in high school, become friends with in college, and often run into at political and legal gatherings. One of her high school friends, who was a college classmate of mine, is in New York for the semester as part of her graduate program. The last dinner companion also went to high school with them and while I'd never met her before, she worked in my old office shortly before I did.

The meal was fun and we laughed uproariously when the table of undergrads behind us started discussing all the states they'd never been into. SD was high on each of their lists (natch) and they exclaimed things like, "South Dakota! Is there even anything there?"

Anyway, it was a good night all around. And, as I'm trying to make my final law firm decision (a decision that will, at this point, inevitably take me even farther from SD) it was a nice reminder that you while can take the girls out of SD, but you really, really, really can't take the SD out of the girls.