Cruz has a lot of solemn stuff about 2nd Amendment rights and patriotism that makes me turn down the radio.

I'm impressed that Cruz is actually kinda to the right of the NRA on 2nd Amendment issues.

My accent is generally upper Midwestern. As in, those Internet tests peg me as Madison, Wisconsin/Rockford, Illinois/Milwaukee. Which makes sense because I grew up between Madison and Rockford. But my accent has become a little less Midwestern over the years. And I've picked up a little Southern here and there.

We basically woke up got dressed and took a car to the airport this morning. We both slept some on the first flight and I am falling asleep waiting for the second one. How I am tired I do not know. Maybe traveling without anticipation of anything on the other end just exhausts me.

Traveling is tiring. And when you've been Going and Doing on vacation, coming to rest at all is probably a giant signal to your body to sleep while it can.

The whole accent conversation reminds me of when I was in college and some of my friends tried to tease me about my southernisms but I couldn't even hear the mockery, it just seemed like they were repeating me for no reason whatsoever. Sometimes my obliviousness is a real blessing. Probably a lot more often than I even know.

I need to finish my self-eval today. shrift, you finished yours, right? I'll take that as inspiration.

The whole accent conversation reminds me of when I was in college and some of my friends tried to tease me about my southernisms but I couldn't even hear the mockery,

This seems to be the case with DH too. The kids and I hear him adopting the accent of the person he is speaking with (and giggle), but they don't seem to notice and I know he doesn't notice that he does it. He does have an amazing ability to understand people with differing accents. Whenever we have someone on the phone that no one else can understand he gets the call, and has no problem understanding them. Amazes me.

He does have an amazing ability to understand people with differing accents. Whenever we have someone on the phone that no one else can understand he gets the call, and has no problem understanding them. Amazes me.

He is the opposite of me.

Maybe someday I'll get my pilot's license. My biggest fear of trying to become a pilot is that I wouldn't be able to understand air traffic control on the radio.

The whole accent conversation reminds me of when I was in college and some of my friends tried to tease me about my southernisms but I couldn't even hear the mockery, it just seemed like they were repeating me for no reason whatsoever. Sometimes my obliviousness is a real blessing. Probably a lot more often than I even know.

Kind of like when I first got to North Carolina. I told somebody that I was from Wisconsin, and the answer was, "So that's why you sound funny."

I'm sure I've told this here before, but when my mother's family moved from Rhode Island to suburban Philadelphia, my uncle got put in special ed. Because of his accent!!

I pick up accents like a sponge and have to be really careful about it. (When I was in London, the friend I was visiting said "People will think you're mocking them if you don't go back to talking like a corn-fed Midwesterner." I asked her how she [also an American] could live and work there without picking up the accent. She was baffled as to how I picked it up so easily.)

My senior year of college, I won a scholarship from a national organization that also included a trip to Washington, DC, with the other scholarship winners, who were from all over the country. When I called home after 2 days, my mom said "You're talking with an accent, but I can't figure out which one." Because (among others) there were girls from Texas, a guy from Maine, a girl from Wisconsin, and a guy from Alabama who tried really hard to tone down his accent but it didn't work, and all of them started bleeding into my speech patterns.