Yakety Yak -- The Coasters

We are at a New Year's Party in Baltimore and notice how loud one person is. Okay, yeah, I'm sensitive to noise, but this guy is WAY louder than everyone else, forcing lean-ins anywhere near him. He doesn't appear to be inebriated, just loud in that "Look how important I am" way. I wonder if he has some sort of modulation problem or if he's just a jerk.

Eventually, Mr. Loud makes his way to me and introduces himself. I introduce myself. We chat about how we know the hosts.

Mr. Loud: So, you live around here?

Me: Not really. We're in Alexandria, Virginia. You?

Mr. Loud: We live in this area... OH! AlexANDria!

Me: Yes.

Mr. Loud: Near King Street?

Me: No, not in Old Town. South of the Beltway.

Mr. Loud: That's not Alexandria.

Me: Yes, it is.

Mr. Loud: You said you lived in Alexandria. That's not Alexandria.

Me: We have an Alexandria address.

Mr. Loud: That's not Alexandria.

Jerk. Definitely.

Isn't it amazing how people will argue with you about something they know nothing about and you know everything about? You want to argue politics? Okay. Restaurants? Sure. But where I live? I think, if you'll pardon the expression, I'm on pretty solid ground here.

I get that most people upon hearing "Alexandria" automatically think of Old Town. And if buying a 200 year old, very small townhouse, with a basement that floods, that you can only paint in Wilmington Tan and Colonial Black, for the totally reasonable sum of $1.5M is your idea of fun, more power to you. We don't choose to live in Old Town but we love the area's shops, galleries, restaurants and bars.

And I'm not a fan of perimeter creep for the sake of having a more fallutin' address (Olney is Olney, not Upper Rockville.) But Alexandria in Fairfax County is an actual place. The IRS says so. It's not like I have a choice of the "real" area I live in or the bigger/tangential Alexandria title. It's only Alexandria.

But why argue with a jerk? And a loud one, at that.


PS to Sassy: I appreciate the tag--sweet of you to think of me-- but there's no way I'm doing a meme that's that long. A) I chose non-thesis masters programs for a reason. B) If the CIA couldn't dig it up, there's no way I'm admitting on a blog what happened 10 years ago. I've said too much.

PPS: New poll up on the right. And when I say My blog, I mean, of course, YOUR blog. It's all about you, Kitten!