Obviously this is something I’ve become acutely aware of recently, but it’s something I’ve wondered about for a while. Whenever I mention “Washington” around here, the first question I get is “State or DC?” Of course, seeing as it’s been a topic of conversation lately, it’s begun to irk the shit outta me, if only because I can’t really figure out why they ask it.

I have to think that this is a Northeast-ism. It’s gotta be. After all, we’re much closer to the District of Columbia than we are to Washington, but that’s not really an excuse. In fact, it’s because we’re aware of D.C. that people shouldn’t have to ask. Around here, Washington, D.C. is either called “Washington, D.C.” or just “D.C.”. For people that live in Virginia or Maryland, I would assume they call it just “Washington” but they live right next door to it; we’re at least four to six hours away via car and/or train… that’s why it got the name of “D.C.” much like New York City is NYC – or better yet just “The City” – for a lot of us.

So when it comes up in conversation, I simply say “Washington” because a) that’s the name of the state and b) it’s not D.C., which implies, c) that if I was going to Washington, D.C. I would have responded with either “D.C.” or “Washington, D.C.”. Yet nearly 99% of the time that I say this, especially to a non-tech person, I get back “State or D.C.?” And what’s worse is when they automatically assume it’s D.C. Then that happens people usually go on to tell me how nice D.C. is and that it rains a lot in Washington. Of course, once I re-set their compass and tell them that it’s not D.C., I then hear that they’ve never been to WA and, in most cases, haven’t been to D.C. in decades.

Call me crazy, but shouldn’t someone have been to a place before giving relocation advice to someone else? People have asked me about Hong Kong and Italy – I tell them what my experiences were there, but I can’t speak to what it’s like to live there. Actually, in the case of HK, I send them to Randall’s site because he’s actually someone that’s migrated there, originally being a Canuck, but I don’t think that I’m qualified to offer that kid of advice.

I just don’t get it, but I’m going to assume it’s a Northeast particular thing, seeing as most New Englanders forget that there’s a whole half of our country west of the Mississippi River.