I pick up a hint of a Southern accent when talking to my dad's family or a couple of very country friends, and one time found myself adopting elements of a Boston accent when talking to a group of strangers from there at a tailgate party in North Carolina. But I seem to be immune to picking up Texas, West Coast, and Chicago accents as well as those from other countries.

When I was in middle school a friend who'd moved here from New York said I was the only person in our class he could understand at first—somehow I grew up speaking like a newscaster from the Midwest rather than either of my parents or pretty much anyone I was exposed to as a young child.

After years on the phones, I'm finally able to tell some of the Southern accents apart. I really love a true Georgian/South Carolina drawl. Texas just sounds harsh. I don't hear many Cajun, and Kentucky/Tennessee doesn't quite ping me. Maybe it's because of the Southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia I grew up with.

I got a lot of "Are you English?" when I went to college, but I've lost a lot of it from 30 years in Utah. When I'm tired or in a really good mood, though, the old accent comes back.

This is me! And the same holds when speaking to my friends and relatives on the phone. If I am looking at them I can grasp what they are saying, but on the phone it is hopeless.

This is me too! I hate talking on the phone to anyone but people I know well. I can't parse half of what they're saying, especially if they have a strong accent. And of course the majority of my authors who want to call me instead of email have accents I can't penetrate. *sob* Why don't they just use email?

But my ears do snap to attention when I hear rural NC on my teevee.

It's soothing to my ears to hear a Tennessee accent.

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

I did. I probably could have made more of an effort, but I'm not going up for promotion, so I decided to conserve my energy. Congrats on finishing yours!

I was feeling better on Tuesday, that clearly was a 'one step forward, two steps back' situation. I was out sick yesterday and I'm working from home today.

You don't actually have pneumonia, right?

You don't actually have pneumonia, right?

I don't have the symptoms, mostly just exhausted/congested. I'll go to the doctor if I don't feel better this weekend.

I don't have the symptoms, mostly just exhausted/congested. I'll go to the doctor if I don't feel better this weekend.

Gah, it sounds like Matilda's walking pneumonia which went on for so many weeks this winter.

This is me too! I hate talking on the phone to anyone but people I know well. I can't parse half of what they're saying, especially if they have a strong accent. And of course the majority of my authors who want to call me instead of email have accents I can't penetrate. *sob* Why don't they just use email?

I've been known to spend way too much time tracking down a non-phone contact method on a support site to try to avoid having a phone conversation only to have a support person call me back instead of just responding to me via email. Grr, I intentionally went out of my way to avoid the telephone for a reason. I understand some people prefer the "personal touch" of a phone call, but I'm not one of those people.

Steph, I had ringworm in my teens. Got it from our cat ... you might want to check your own pets for patches of it. (And, yes, ringworm sounds a lot nastier than it is ... it's kind of like the circle of life for athlete's foot.)

Now you're going to make me paranoid about petting new animal friends. Life is too short, and also that is what hand-washing is for.