Observation

[owlectomy]

I've known for a long time that when I'm anxious, I get very formal. There is a reason behind this; when I'm anxious, it seems like the one thing I can control is being able to say (a) exactly what I mean, with no room for misinterpretation (b) in a way that doesn't make anyone mad at me. Even when I swear, I do so very, very, deliberately, unless I have locked myself out of my apartment with no money in the middle of a snowstorm.

What I didn't know until just now is that you can tell the parts of my writing where I'm really nervous because the voice suddenly goes all latinate. I can tell where I'm trying to distance myself from the writing.