I don't know anything

I kind of grew up a suburban girl. My family went camping and stuff, but it was always car camping, or in the later years, pop-up tent trailer camping. When I was first moving out to Oregon, a guy told me about "all the great hiking" and I thought "ew. Hiking? I barely even know what that is. It's certainly not something I've ever done or would ever want to do." I never knew anyone who owned a pickup truck, I didn't know anything about farms or gardens or animals, and I just didn't know anything.

Oregon is not like Chicago. Even though I still live in a suburb, it's just DIFFERENT. People here go hiking and like to be outside. On a sunny day, the streets are packed with runners and walkers and bicyclists. People drive trucks. I LIKE trucks. I know people that own trucks. I wouldn't even mind owning one myself. People own goats and horses. It's just a very different life.

To be fair, part of this is attributable to the fact that I'm now an adult and want to know about things like growing vegetables in my backyard (my parents did have a garden at one point). But I still think that the majority of the difference is the Oregon vs. Chicago thing.

Case in point today: Geoff and I are going up to his grandparent's house this weekend and are going to be running in this race. I am QUITE excited about this race because I've been working on speedwork for the past month. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that Momlie sent an email and said "have fun, but don't bring back any smelt!!!"

And then I had this conversation with Geoff:

Kelly:
Oh.
smelt is a fish.
I didn't know smelt WAS anything
I thought it was just a word.
Geoff:
hashahahhahahah
Kelly: Don't laugh.
It's not nice!
Geoff:
sorry, that is kinda funny
Kelly:
Nooooooot funny!
Geoff:
a little funny
Kelly: Maybe a little.
Kelso Washington is apparently the Smelt Capital of the World.
Geoff:
really?
we aren't runnning there
Kelly:
wiki says so!
I know.
Geoff:
WIKI FTW!
Kelly:
ftw?
Geoff:
For the Win

See. I didn't even know smelt was a fish. I just don't know such things. If it involves nature, I'm pretty much an idiot... unless I learned it in Oregon. :-)