I had noticed it a few weeks back, grumbled, and continued on with my day. It was the chipper and hyperactive student was stopped in her tracks as she blew through the break room. I leaned against the counter, watching her as she observed the magnets on the fridge and asked, “Who stole the Southwest?”
Earlier in the year I had inherited the bag full of magnets my Mom had collected around the country. Each state had their state saying or state flower. Texas and Delaware were mysteriously the same size. New Mexico was very similarly sized to Rhode Island. To my knowledge, this is not true, but a sliver of a magnet probably wasn’t the best at bolstering state pride up in the East Coast.
As my home fridge is covered with postcards that I goad my friends into sending me, I decided to take the bag o’ magnetic state pride to work.
“California, New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona… are gone?” She peered up and down and to the sides of the fridge much like I had.
“So is Nevada,” I said, munching my crackers.
“Who steals states?” she proclaimed.
“This is why we can’t have nice things,” I mumbled.
“Perhaps they ceded back to Mexico,” she said contemplatively and I laughed. Later, as we were working on a project together she leaned over and mischievously said, “I should put a sign up on the fridge.” She told me what she would write and I howled in laughter. “Please, please do. I totally condone it.”
Happy Fourth of July!
Posted by firewings 
