LESSON NUMBER ONE: FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT

(also known as "Put some shades on, girl!")

I have been told a time or two that after ten years in New York, you can officially consider yourself a New Yorker.  Well, I have been living in the Big Potato {Golden Girls reference...get with the program!} for almost twelve years now, and I can only confirm a couple of things for you:

#1: I am officially old now, and #2: I am still a Southerner.

Yeehaw.  Apparently, all southerners say that at the end of their sentences or so I've been informed by much of the Tri-State area over the course of the last decade... 

But back to living in the Big Potato...I learned early on that the best way to live in New York was to look the part.  The easiest way to look the part? Stop making eye contact on the sidewalk before someone beat me up. Now, after being born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, where manners are up there with church and football, intentionally ignoring everyone every single time I went outside was like going against nature. Fiddle dee dee! Every sorority girl knows that eye contact and a friendly smile are the cornerstones of a successful rush week! What's a girl to do???

Put your shades on girl!

{and don't ever take them off} 

The bigger and blacker the better! Not only will you look fabulous--and very New Yorky, I might add--but now you can look at whomever you like and they will never know...just keep that smile under control.

Or don't...this big ol' city could use a few more smiles. 

Xo... 

ki

p.s...can you guess which ones are mine???