A challenging day today. Started out writing what I thought would be kind of a lighthearted piece, and man, that sucker turned dark on me! If you want to read it, I posted it under the heading "Snowballing."
Went and read it to tdoc. My day-to-day accent is the "educated upper middle-class white American" one that broadcasters use, but when stressed, I drop back into the Southern/Appalachian that I had when I learned to talk. I could sense that as I got to the end of the piece I had shifted into full-on Southern.
What surprised me was tdoc complimenting me on how well my femme voice is coming along. Now, you have to understand that I have a beautiful, rich baritone voice. It's like Johnny Cash over honey. People love it, and I've been encouraged more than once to become a voice actor. So when out of the blue, tdoc says that I'm making great progress, the first words out of my mouth are, "What femme voice?"
Apparently, during these stressful moments, I had not only shifted accents but also shifted registers and resonances. I'm writing this note six hours afterwards, and I can feel the muscles in my throat sore from being worked differently than they're used to.
This transition stuff is getting too bizarre.
