another state of mind

at a friend's wedding this weekend, i learned a few factoids about minnesota.

1) it's known as the 'land of 10,000 lakes'
2) very catholic
3) really nice inhabitants
4) tornado country

since i didn't garner a whole lot of useful intelligence about facts 1, 2, and 4 (except interestingly enough, duck and cover is a tornado drill), let's focus on #3. namely that the stereotype 'minnesota nice' is true (which btw i never heard of until wikipedia informed me of it). everyone i met was truly well-behaved. i didn't know a single soul with the exception of the bride and groom, but by the end of the night, a room full of strangers had morphed into a crowd of familiar, friendly faces (observation #5: putting the state of minnesota aside, it's amazing how quickly free flowing alcohol can bring people together).

a note about minnesota boys.

as far as i can tell, they're nice, polite, and cute (although this is somewhat debatable depending on your definition of 'cute'). while i'm sure it's in overdrive in the midwest, that rare combination of easy charm and boy next door is surely lacking on both sides of the country (not having journeyed down to the old South yet, we'll have to compare notes on the merits of midwest v. southern charm another time). i wonder how/why it is that i have to travel over 1,000 miles to meet someone who provokes the thought: 'i could date him'. in any case, a nice midwestern boy not only gave me a ride back to my hotel at 2:30 in the morning, but he also offered me a ride to the airport (fully cognizant of the fact that i had to be on my way there a mere 2 hours later). i didn't take him up on the offer (in case you were wondering).

why does he have to be from minnesota.