Today was not my best day for bad language. There are metaphors about swearing like sailors, etc., and while my father's side has the sailors, they don't have the language problems. I love my Mom and Grandma tremendously, and in this case they were more often than not under severe stress when it happened. However, language is becoming an unfortunate crux for me. Not just in the use of bad language, which is unfortunately on the "up" but I'm noticing that I need to not just get rid of that but also get rid of my rather severe slang tendencies. I don't think of professionals and graduate students as using slang. Even less common for just people of good breeding to do so. I am the kind of person that wants to be at home nearly anywhere, but I think that might take more acting skills than I have. I see Sweet Home Alabama and I want a down-home feel to my life, but mix it with the posh, New Yorker. Or for pity's sake, get me in the middle of the suburbs and I'm fine, too. I'm just not a hipster and don't want to be. I can shop at Walmart, and big box retailers at the same time that I'm trying to save and resuscitate downtown commercial spaces and Mom and Pop stores that have been around forever.
None of this needs unfortunate language. I'm open about it because I want to change it, and maybe someone else wants to change their thinking patterns, too. I wonder where we get some of what we use in normal speech. When I was a kid, I used baby talk, and it made people happy. Then I was supposed to get rid of it, and my Mom would fight for me to enunciate clearly. I was always afraid that my teeth weren't pretty enough to do that, and so I didn't. I've heard that native Japanese people are the same way in that respect, but I'm not sure. I don't smile that much for similar reasons.
My voice automatically plunges to a quiet 12" or less when I don't think to speak up. My mother always said, "Slow down, speak up." Well, the mantra is in my head, but it doesn't get me to where I actually do those things that well. It's really hard. Part of me wishes that I'd had speech training when I was a kid. I was in choir forever and now I have a really decent voice, but speaking, Heaven help me! Part of why I don't like phones even though I'm good at them. Another reason to excel as much as possible at writing. Remove anything fake, keep the conversation flowing, and just be. Write because you want to read it? That would be exquisite, but I'm not sure whether I want to read my own story. Lots of mistakes, near misses, and shaves close enough to burn.
I need to stop writing right now before I get that thing where your arms can't handle it since you type a lot. Can't remember the condition's name, but, good night!
The Genealogy Doctor
None of this needs unfortunate language. I'm open about it because I want to change it, and maybe someone else wants to change their thinking patterns, too. I wonder where we get some of what we use in normal speech. When I was a kid, I used baby talk, and it made people happy. Then I was supposed to get rid of it, and my Mom would fight for me to enunciate clearly. I was always afraid that my teeth weren't pretty enough to do that, and so I didn't. I've heard that native Japanese people are the same way in that respect, but I'm not sure. I don't smile that much for similar reasons.
My voice automatically plunges to a quiet 12" or less when I don't think to speak up. My mother always said, "Slow down, speak up." Well, the mantra is in my head, but it doesn't get me to where I actually do those things that well. It's really hard. Part of me wishes that I'd had speech training when I was a kid. I was in choir forever and now I have a really decent voice, but speaking, Heaven help me! Part of why I don't like phones even though I'm good at them. Another reason to excel as much as possible at writing. Remove anything fake, keep the conversation flowing, and just be. Write because you want to read it? That would be exquisite, but I'm not sure whether I want to read my own story. Lots of mistakes, near misses, and shaves close enough to burn.
I need to stop writing right now before I get that thing where your arms can't handle it since you type a lot. Can't remember the condition's name, but, good night!
The Genealogy Doctor
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